We’re a small consulting team of five, and it’s been a challenge keeping everything organized as we’ve grown. We used spreadsheets to track leads and follow-ups, which was fine when things were slower. But once we started getting more inquiries, it quickly got out of hand. We have notes in too many places, and it’s a mess. Some emails slipped through the cracks because no one saw them in time. A few solid leads went cold just because we didn’t follow up when we should have.
Now we are looking for a CRM that is simple to use, affordable, and a good fit for a small team. What we really want is something that lets us keep an eye on every lead. It would be great to be able to see which leads are slowing down, tag and filter them, and quickly figure out who on the team has time to reach out. It should also show enough detail on each contact so we can make a thoughtful offer, and work with tools we already use like Google apps and Asana. So far, Pipeline CRM looks like it could work well for us. Has anyone here used it? I would love to hear your experience or other suggestions outside the big names.
Checkout ODOO. It’s open-source and easy to implement.
Its getting more closed source https://www.odoo.com/page/editions
Upgrades in the paid tier? Nope
I have spent years working with business systems and CRMs and I have some questions if you feel like answering. I may not know what product you should pick, but it should help you narrow down the tools. What kind of consulting do you do eg. What industry? What business processes do you need to manage in this tool? Is this purely about contacts and opportunities? Presumably you want to generate a quote from the CRM? Does the CRM need to have a list of products/services or rates that you can add to a quote? What do you use for Accounting? (Eg Invoicing, pays, etc) do you expect integration? For your actual service delivery, do you have a work management tool? Eg Jira, TRELLO, something else…? Do you need email integration with CRM? What about clients expressing interest via your website to create leads? Cost per seat budget?
Im not trying to add complexity - reality is it’s a total crapshoot for anyone not in your company to recommend a tool that’s fit for purpose without this kind of info - and I can think of dozens more questions to add. I don’t mind giving you a hand scoping it out if you’re interested. Some basic BA stuff now will see you implementing a tool sooner, more cost-effectively, efficiently and smoothly with the least disturbance to your team compared with starting to search without a clear scope.
I need to check, but I think OnlyOffice is a Russian company. Some people might care about the latter part.
The connection between OnlyOffice and Russia has caused some controversy. The company has moved headquarters and attempted to hide its Russian ties through shell companies. The company develops its product in Russia and presents itself in the Russian market as a Russian company. For this reason some Ukrainian businesses have moved away from OnlyOffice.
Wikipedia has more info (with references) for the curious.
Some time ago I tried InvoiceNinja as an invoicing and expense management tool and kind of liked it. It also has some CRM functionalities which I never used myself but maybe it could be a fit for you. It’s available as paid SaaS or free self-hosted.
Thank you all so much, noting these down to check and compare to the one we’re eyeing
Not specifically a CRM, but can be used as such (and many other things): AirTable.
