How do I decide on a CRM?

[david3r1]

@gracccy At the time of this writing, the top answer says "don't use a CRM yet" and the second answer says "definitely use a CRM right now". I think they're both right, it just depends on your business.

Do you have a sense of whether a CRM is important for your business? Like, are you going to be doing high-touch sales, automated outreach, biz dev, etc.? It's hard to say what you should use without knowing what problem it needs to solve.

I run a CRM SaaS myself, so I have a good amount of experience working with very early stage companies that are picking their first CRM. The most common mistake I see if people who are thinking way too far ahead. They think "one day I'll need $X, $Y, and $Z) and so they try to find a CRM that can do that all that stuff. This is a huge waste of time and money, and honestly, it's a big red flag about that person's ability as an entrepreneur because entrepreneurship is all about understanding the nine problems you should ignore so you can focus on the one that matters.

The second most common mistake is people picking a CRM that was right for someone they know, but it's not right for them. For example, a friend runs a business that does a ton of email automation. That friend recommends Klaviyo, so that's what you use. But it turns out you're doing high-touch sales, and Klaviyo is a terrible tool for that job. Or vice versa

If tracking relationships won't be important (at least not yet), go with Trello, Notion, etc. If it will be important from day 1, I'd use a real CRM, but optimize for something super simple instead of trying to find the set of features you think you'll need later. If you go that route, I'd figure out whether you're going to be primarily doing more of a manual process (tracking your first 20 customers) or a more automated process (cold emailing 50,000 people in order to find the first 20 customers), and keep that in mind when picking a CRM.

 

[sandhillsanglican]

@gracccy Hubspot free version will get the job done. Easy to use plus the chrome extension allows you to track email opens. I use it currently for my 9-5 and my startup. Best of luck!

 

[holyone]

@gracccy As a business co-founder handling initial sales yourself for a SaaS MVP with fewer than 20 heavily vetted customers, choosing a CRM might seem daunting. While it's important, especially for growth tracking and customer relationship management, keep it simple. Look for a user-friendly CRM that can scale with your business and offers essential features like contact management, pipeline tracking, and reporting. Considering Hypestudio's suite of customizable solutions might be beneficial. With your limited customer base and hands-on approach, prioritize ease of use and scalability over complexity. Trust your instincts and focus on finding a solution that meets your immediate needs while allowing room for growth.

 

[phoenix77]

@gracccy I haven't used it personally, but I know a lot of small companies do when they're starting up, is zoho. Zoho Crm.

Airtable is a decent option, too.

 

[natsumilam32]

@gracccy It depends on what you’re using the CRM for. If you’re only using it to track clients and info, then a spreadsheet or a free notion account should do the trick.

The value of a CRM comes into play when you need to do SOMETHING with the data, or need to source it from a high volume contact generator (like a marketing campaign or a website) or integrate with your email for deal and opportunity tracking.

In which case there’s still free options like hubspot or salesflare. But it depends on your needs. In your case, think about what your sales process is going to be like for those initial deals (or near term future ones) - if it’s longer and complex, then the organization a system can provide might be valuable so you don’t drop any balls in those key opportunities.

Here’s a basic starting point for SaaS: https://www.rehash.tech/saas

 

[gracccy]

@natsumilam32

It depends on what you’re using the CRM for.

This is the kind of probing I was hoping for!

My impression is that a full blown CRM would be better if I want analysis, reporting, or automatic like drip emails.

My initial sales will be very manual with a lot of hand holding, so it's mostly just updating the status and tracking "touches".

 

[natsumilam32]

@gracccy Very true. Keep in mind there’s lots of flavors and tiers of CRMs.

But what the other CEO said was salient - the foundation you build now impacts how quickly you can scale. Buy the solution you’ll need for at least a year, maybe 2 out. It’ll be worth it - the pain of transferring manual data into a new system is PAINFUL (I know cuz I get paid to do it for some clients).

Unless this startup is a complete crapshoot or PoC for you and it’s less than a 50% chance you’ll be doing it a year out, then it’s definitely worth at least building the basics in a free or basic tier of a major CRM. You won’t get (or need) advanced functionality until you need it.

I’m a solopreneur and I use and pay for Hubspot because the automation it does across my entire revenue process is equivalent to 2-3 of me.

Ultimately it’s a question of how much do you value YOUR own time vs what you’d spend on a CRM.

 

[kates]

@gracccy I use AirTable for incoming leads and Trello for vetted/pipeline/closed leads.

 

[jannday]

@gracccy I liked hubspot as a first time founder and was able to teach myself how to do everything. Free and their startup program is very generous for your first few years of business

 

[prettypeacock1]

@gracccy Yes, I think it's always good to start using CRM at early stage. it is one of those system you would appreciate couple of months/years down the lane. You don't need a fancy, overpriced CRM like salesforce, look for something thats simple to use and doesn't have a huge learning curve. I have seen many start with Attio or hubspot.

 

[deepak]

@gracccy It's good to see other people are thinking about this. In my case, I decided to choose the tool that would serve me rather than learning something new.

So, I started with Trello and kind of a Kanban board. Still, instead of statuses like “to do” or “in progress” I set it up to show the temperature of the lead, starting with very cold (contact initiated) to very hot (almost acquired a customer).

I would say choose whatever you know well, and you’ll come to the point someday to decide whether it’s not enough.

 

[praisehim13820]

@gracccy Use a spreadsheet?

 

[chrishill88]

@gracccy I am very happy with pipedrive (just a client of theirs)

 

[tlmonty]

@gracccy You are over thinking. Just like accounting, cloud, communication and security you need customer management software. Hubspot, notion, and many other companies have solutions that are free or low cost. Commit to one until you hire a leader that will help migrate to whatever they want.

 

[tlmonty]

Btw. I suggest you use notion. It’s very simple to get up to speed with.

 

[syneryder]

@gracccy Consider a spreadsheet. Add columns as you need them. Tie it to a GPTs and ask whatever you need to know.

 

[rhettryder]

@gracccy I believe for an up to 20 persons (not customers) company — Notion or ClickUp work well for everything. Like the latter cause it's plug and play, while Notion is more like IKEA and it's free. But there are lots of templates. Nevertheless I'm ready to have a call and assist with any of them.

While google sheets won't work. It's more than IKEA and it tends to break when you try to change structure. No tree structures to increase complexity or auto cross link between things.

My team in one of the projects actually tried to use Kammo - but I don't see any benefits when you have like 20 big clients requiring direct communication etc.