What CRM would you suggest for my business(es)...??

6 replies
Long time reader, first time poster...

A bit about myself; I am a true offline warrior!!

In 2010, broke as a joke, I made an arrangement with a few local professional/legal services companies. I was a 1099 independent contractor, mining and buying lists, and HAMMERING the phone setting appointments, and making sure they closed so that I could get paid...

I quickly realized that the phone was key to acquiring (and closing) customers/clients/deals for local businesses, so I got a few phone sales guys and have now become a consultant in the industries that I am now very, very well seasoned. I've been introduced to other businesses that I hold equity in and have now made over $1.3M since I started this whole thing on a whim 5 years ago, and have helped others become much more wealthy...

The reason that I'm able to do all of this using old-school phone appointment setting and selling is because the industries that I consult for are big-ticket item/services...Real Estate, construction, law, business/commercial services...A lot of it is relationship based, you know...the who knows who, walks the walk, talks the talk, blah blah...This is great, because being behind a headset with google at your fingertips makes you a guru [or at least sound fairly knowledgable] about your sales topic...

Aaaaanyways....I FINALLY decided to convert my disastrous system of tracking 5 years of business into a new CRM, and I know that once I do this, my business is going to multiply, so I'd like your take(s) on what you might think is the best solution...

I'd like something with deep gmail integration. Some of the ones I've looked at, like Insightly and RelateIQ, claim to magically know who needs to be involved on what deals, and somehow pulls info from my gmail account to know about my business and how to organize it?? Does anyone have any experience with these two?

Then there are some CRM's that look to actually be plug-ins/templates for Gmail itself that turn your inbox into a CRM -- Anyone? I think Streak does this? It's very, very interesting as far as cultivating deals goes and getting to closing tables..

Real Estate deals (transactional) are a chunk of my business, and a lot of CRMs seem to have templates for them that are geared towards that business..Like Podio...Podio seems solid, does anyone have an experience here?

I'd like a CRM that can manage multiple businesses/endeavors...mostly the ability to set up a small business, and grant access to that business's CRM to certain people, while I am able to oversee all of the endeavors in one account...In essence, I want to have a master CRM that allows me to 'white label' sub-accounts (sub-crm?) and tailor each one to be it's own CRM...Is this a crazy request?

Easy webform creation...I want the ability to make custom landing pages for separate businesses and run their respective campaigns for them. So, the CRM will be taking in leads for completely different types of businesses, and handling them in completely different ways...(hence the sub-crm thing)..

DocuSign, DotLoop, or other e-signature integration would be nice...I eventually want to switch over to RingCentral or some service like that opposed to my landlines and cell phones too, so that'd also be nice..

I just came across HubSpot before posting this, and I'm very intrigued...Looks like its geared more towards online lead gen, which I'd like to get more heavily into myself...but seems pricey, no?!?!
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Capterra contacted me and was going to get back to me with solutions that would fit the bill...That was a bust as they suggested some ACT based CRM...I want some modern AND user friendly...Salesforce and Infusionsoft are too rough around the edges for my taste...

So, any entrepreneurs out there have any input? Am I being crazy and asking too much?

I realize that it will take weeks to customize the solution, so I want to make the decision right on the first take!!
#businesses #crm #real estate #suggest
  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    The G-mail integration is throwing me off a bit, but I might suggest looking at HR solutions vs "CRM" solutions. To name a few for you to get an idea SilkRoads and BambooHR are 2 that I have looked at recently.

    I think I may be walking down the same path as you and needing a CRM to do more than track "Online" funnels. I started looking at HR solutions and quickly identified the parallels in Employee onboarding vs Client onboarding.. and I find they are very similar. Right down to the need of having to pass documents etc.

    Just a thought.
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    • Profile picture of the author eccj
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      The G-mail integration is throwing me off a bit, but I might suggest looking at HR solutions vs "CRM" solutions. To name a few for you to get an idea SilkRoads and BambooHR are 2 that I have looked at recently.

      I think I may be walking down the same path as you and needing a CRM to do more than track "Online" funnels. I started looking at HR solutions and quickly identified the parallels in Employee onboarding vs Client onboarding.. and I find they are very similar. Right down to the need of having to pass documents etc.

      Just a thought.
      That is interesting. Are you up and working on one now?
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Finalizing our step by step process in HR and specifically our 5 services we offer. At this time we have chosen SilkRoads to make the whole thing work.
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  • Profile picture of the author iamchrisgreen
    I've been using PipeDrive. It's a really simple, but very powerful tool.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    If you didn't like InfusionSoft or SalesForce then I don't see how you would think RelateIQ or Insightly would be a good option.

    I like Nutshell a lot but not sure it would really work with multiple businesses unless you created separate users or just added certain tags and manage it that way. VTiger could also be a decent option but that's pretty rough around the edges as well.

    I'm not really sure if I agree with Savidge about the HR solutions being the better option vs. a CRM based on what you listed, but I love silkroads, specifically for their LMS. Awesome platform.
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      If you didn't like InfusionSoft or SalesForce then I don't see how you would think RelateIQ or Insightly would be a good option.

      I like Nutshell a lot but not sure it would really work with multiple businesses unless you created separate users or just added certain tags and manage it that way. VTiger could also be a decent option but that's pretty rough around the edges as well.

      I'm not really sure if I agree with Savidge about the HR solutions being the better option vs. a CRM based on what you listed, but I love silkroads, specifically for their LMS. Awesome platform.
      Wouldn't have even thought to ask you about SilkRoads... the LMS is without question one of the reasons I am going in this direction. Stand alone learning solutions are freakin expensive - when you need to track the results.

      Its when you need to start passing around documents to sign and all of that good stuff that Infusionsoft or 1Automation or Zoho or Base or SalesForce and the myriad list of others falls short fast.

      When a conversion is a check and a bunch of signed documents there is simply not a product out there - that I can find to fit the bill. The HR route HAS the ability, its just using it outside the box.
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