Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hey all, thanks for the discusion. I now know what a CRM is and how it would benefit me.

For a small, young company - I would probably use Act as its only about $200 from Staples etc.  Salesforce is an option but starts getting expensive as you grow.  Oracle may still have a free version for a small (5) number of users which can run on a regular computer.  But for the startups out there...I would use Act.  Its also possible that some of the Peachtree accounting type softwares have embedded this customer relationship functionality into their software...that way you get accounting software too. Not bad.

Andrew
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com
http://AdvisorGarage.wordpress.com

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Andrew PS - Here's a free report on creating your startup success. Free report

I think the previous point about how CRM differs in the enterprise, relative to the microbusiness, is valid. It`s why I dislike the casual tossing around of corporate acronyms, particularly on a small- and microbusiness site. It ends up causing misunderstanding, where clarity of meaning ought to be a high value.

In the enterprise, "customers" often are the divisions outside the one providing a service. So for the IT division, "the business," meaning anyone outside of IT represents their "customers." To manage inter-divisional relationships, large enterprises use things like SAP and other vertical-market solutions.

No microbusiness is ever going to install SAP. Period.

On the other hand, no enterprise would seriously consider using Act! or Contact Plus as a primary "customer" relations application.

So I guess what bugged me about this post is a) the lack of definition of "customer," and b) the intent of the post. To a microbusiness, calling a customer on the phone to tell them their order was shipped is easily feasible. Tracking an order is often as simple as looking at the shelf in the basement to see if the box went to the post office.

Does a microbusiness need to know when the customer`s daughter`s birthday is coming up? What other "relationships" does this CRM software track, and how would that help a business with 3 employees, one of whom is part time?

As a *free* web-based CRM solution, you may want to try Zoho CRM.  I use it in my technology consulting business and it really offers a lot of bang for something that is free.  The only caveat, really, is that you can have up to 3 logins for this free version.  But 3 is sufficient unless you have many tiers of sales and operations folks. 

Once you`re in, you`ll find that it is highly customizable - even to how the tabs are labeled.  You can also create custom fields and import into them. 

I was really pleasantly surprised by their features!

this whole topic has my ears burning - anyone listening in on my conversations this past 2 weeks? I now have invitations from 3 different vendors (insidesales.com, salesnexus.com and salesforce.com) to test drive their online customer tracking platform for 30 days.

I particularly appreciate the post from you beibeijt - I`ll give this one a whirl. As a small business consultant (currently on assignment with a franchise to implement a Business Direct sales system and therefore acting as Business Direct Manager for the time being) I`m crazy about tracking not only "customers" [defined as people doing business with our store] but also "prospects" [people who could be doing business with our store]. I want to track them by category, by date, by how they found us, by how much they buy, and a number of other things. I want to keep in touch with them weekly by email (via an e-bulletin) that goes out in various versions for different kinds of customers.... I want to know when they haven`t purchased in 30 days or more..... I want to know when they`ve referred a friend..... I want to know when its their birthday..... etc. etc. This is "CRM" to me.

Any suggestions beyond ACT? I`m dealing with about 1000 customer base right now, in the 4th month of business.

Another great CRM is SugarCRM - it`s actually really functional - and it`s free!

http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/

You might need a techie to get it up and running for you, but it`s great web based software that can help you manage your correspondance w/ customers.


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Dan Pickett
Principal
Enlight Solutions, Inc.

www.enlightsolutions.com
www.twitter.com/dpickett

Thanks, enlightDan.

Does anyone specialize in microbusiness to small business sales management systems - in the way of getting a system in place, and optimizing it for a specific business?

I see a great need for this in the small business community. Its hard to make the time to research the options, test them out, get the data in place, and find the optimal process for leveraging the available applications. In one sense, I`m spending way too much time on this, and it would be so valuable to just be able to sprint forward right now. In another sense, its great experience that will benefit my clients and networking groups.

To add to the list of free CRM apps is vTiger. It`s similar to SugarCRM but doesn`t limit you to the extensibility of it. If I recall, to get the good features of Sugar, you need to pay. Actually ZOHO CRM mentioned above is based on vTiger.

The downside of Open Source software is the amount of time required to customize it to meet your needs. I`m 2 weeks into customizing vTiger for my consulting business and it`s not fun.


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Solution A - "Your answer to home office and small business IT support." http://www.solution-a.com

Hello Everyone.  I`m new to all this CRM related software stuff.  The venture I am starting up is a "business referral service", which would entail coordinating the connection/tracking of customers to service providers across the whole spectrum of business.  (Most services focus primarily on home improvement contractors--I`ve set my sights much higher.)  I need to be able to coordinate three separate databases.  1)  My service providers;  2)  My customers;  3)  The specific jobs that result from connecting them together.  I don`t want to OVERburden the process by obtaining software that has features way beyond what I need.  I have looked at Help Desk software/Service Desk software examples and I cannot determine if they would be adequate for the task.  Most of the CRM demos I have viewed seem to be overkill for what I need.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks

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Only believe!