I researched several CRMs on web2review.com for a client and narrowed my choices down to four for testing. At the end of testing my recommendation was for the client to go with Highrise and after some testing of each CRM, they also chose Highrise.
The main reason I picked Highrise was because of the intuitive user interface/ease of use. I was able to import hundreds of contacts quickly and figure out where to go from there within minutes. I especially liked the tagging, cases and deals (though I have some suggestions* for cases/deals which I hope to share).
Overall, I found Highrise to be the most intuitive of the four CRMs I tested, with the lowest barriers to entry for someone coming from no CRM.
Context: The company I reviewed CRMs for is very small (2 people), but manages a big work load and a lot of client proposals. Our goal was to transition them from using Email, Word and Excel as their primary tracking tools to centralizing as much as possible into a CRM tool.
Here are some brief excerpts from the presentation I put together for the client in case they help you:
Top 3 Needs:
- Client/Project Details (Currently in Word): Project Notes, Product Links & Details, Cost, Markup
- Client List (Currently in Excel): Track Leads, Clients and Referrals for Commission
- Product List (Currently in Multiple Locations): Pricing for Quoted Projects Including: Wholesale Price, Markup and Commission
Testing: Imported contacts and vendors into each tool & tested basic activities.
Conclusions:
- SalesForce: Powerhouse, but may be too much of a leap from current system. Pricey.
- Relenta: Good for integrating email and tracking events w/clients, but not pricing or project details.
- Solve 360: Strange interface. Project blogs are a neat feature.
- Highrise: Liked best for ease of use, price and capabilities. Basic, but a good start. Cases can be repurposed to track product bundles and standardized pricing within deals*
*Suggestion for Highrise: Allow multiple cases to be attached to one deal.
