I am looking for an easy to use CRM [4-criteria selection guide]

Ever heard this?

These days, everybody is looking for a simple and easy to use CRM.

And there’re tons of vendors that supposedly provide this solution.

Yet something strange is happening. Something unprecedented, something astonishing. It’s something difficult to comprehend. If you need a software solution, you just go and choose one from the available solutions, right? WRONG. Of all these people looking for a simple CRM, most will end up either using Excel, or after trying one or two CRM solutions, go back to Excel as well. How can such a thing happen, given the vast value that CRM vendors are trying to demonstrate for their products?

Is there value in CRM products?

Given the ubiquity of Excel as a CRM, one may wonder whether there is really a value in a CRM solution. Does it really affect the bottom line? Does it help to close more deals?

The answer is not obvious

We believe that for most businesses, a CRM solution MAY help close more deals. But at what cost? And does it really help all kinds of businesses? Just like when moving from a paper to the typewriter, and from the typewriter to the word processor, it wasn’t an easy nor an overnight switch. In fact, for this change to happen, a really great product must emerge. There were many kinds of typewriters, and not all saw immense success. There were many types of word processors, with varying level of success.

It takes a great product to succeed

The answer is clear: product excellence, accompanied with excellent marketing, wins.

It takes a really good product to affect the ROI (return of investment) for small businesses

For small businesses, the verdict is not clear. Do they really need a CRM? We believe that they do. But at what cost? And by cost we don’t mean the monthly cost for the product they buy, but the organizational cost. The cost of deploying the software in their organization. Teaching everybody how to use it, tracking all the data in the system, and more.

Wouldn’t it be better just to the let the salespeople keep doing what they’re doing and live in a chaos? A chaos, yes, but a chaos with sales and happy salespeople.

The Market is Broken

Today, the market is saturated with all kinds of products. Every software category, from project management, to inventory management, to games, to recruiting software, to cybersecurity, and all the rest, is already saturated with hundreds of products. And that includes CRM software. But what is common to all of them? They’re all trying to reinvent the wheel. Make a great user experience. Make a great product. Make great buttons. Choose great colors. But all these “great” experiences come with a cost – the learning curve.

Which product will win?

We believe that the best products that will win are those that let the user keep using whatever he’s already doing – such as using Excel, Word, Gmail, etc., and gain the benefit of the software without the hassle of actually using a new software. Instead of a learning curve, let the user dictate the rules. Let him keep using his familiar tools, and let the software figure out how to provide him the benefits. If that is not possible, the best tool is that tool that at least provides the experience that is the closest to what the user already knows. And of course, provides lots of benefits on top of that.

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I am looking for an easy to use CRM [4-criteria selection guide]
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