If you are part of a small or startup business, you need to manage your contacts -- the prospects, clients, partners, member of the media, and vendors that you interact with. Besides just keeping track of organizational (Web site, main phone number, billing address, etc.) and individual (email address, cell phone number, etc.) information, you should track who you have talked to and when, to dos, and other aspects of your interactions. The more data you capture the better (although, as always, the key is find a balance between information capture and the time spent entering the data).
So with the need for a contact management, sales force automation (SFA), or customer relationship management (CRM) system established, here's what you should look for:
- Online access. Most personal contact managers are based off individual PCs, with the data residing on one hard drive. Online solutions work for most businesses that have online, reasonably fast, access -- which is almost everyone these days. The benefits of an online system (access from any PC, data secure in remote and backed up servers, and instant functionality updates) outweigh the cons (inability to access data when not connected to the Net).
Offline access is not much of an issue these days, as many businesses have guest WiFi, and it's relatively easy to find free WiFI at retail establishments, such as Panera Bread restaurants. - Shared data. In any organization with two or more people, it is critical to have current, accurate information available to everyone (with access controls on private data). Sharing data ensure that everyone knows what is going on with an account, as well as ensures continuity to interactions. For example, if someone is on vacation and a contact's information is only on their hard drive, other users can't get access to the information.
- Low management overhead. Any server-based system enables easy sharing of data, but it also involves managing a sever. For most companies, adding information technology (IT) staff overhead doesn't make economic sense, particularly when hosted solutions take care of all server hardware and software provisioning and maintenance. The combination of a Web interface with a manager server backend let companies focus on generating or doing business, not technology management.
- Ease of use. If users can't understand how to use a system, it won't be used. Cryptic fields and non-intuitive, multi-step processes ensure that data is never entered. For example, what's the difference between a lead, a contact, an opportunity, and an account? For many salesforce.com users, they will ignore these distinctions and choose the method they find most reasonable -- unfortunately, it may be different from the one chosen by colleagues, resulting in data in multiple places.
- Reasonable cost. "Reasonable" is a relative term, but an online service that makes sense for small organizations should offer both a low entry-level cost (less than $25 per user per month) and be billable on a per month basis (versus having to sign up for a year of the offering). Obviously a restricted, free, but limited capability offering is a great way to test the real world applicability of the service.
Most options don't fit small or startup business needs
That said, what are your options? For those coming form the corporate world, signing up for salesforce.com immediately comes to mind. The problem is that that solution costs more than most small businesses want to spend and delivers more than they need (and delivering more means a hard to user interface). Other online sales force automation (SFA) or customer relationship management (CRM) system are free. For example, SugarCRM is essentially an open source salesforce.com knock off. However, it's only free in terms of license costs. Small organizations will have to spend time to install and manage the software or sign up for a hosted solution -- choices that make it look very similar to salesforce.com.
Popular inexpensive solutions all come at a cost. For example, relying on the built-in contact management and calendaring in Microsoft Windows of Apple's Mac OS X is one option, but it really only works for an individual -- there's little to do it terms of sharing information. Some rely on spreadsheets, but they don't handle data well and, again, the problem of sharing arises. A third path involves investing in a pre-packaged SFA client application, such as ACT! or Goldmine. But the license costs and the increased time needed to manage shared database limit the appeal of these solutions, too.
Highrise: A strong solution for those with basic needs
By far the best solution we have seen so far for a small business is from 37signals. The Highrise offering is essentially salesforce.com extra light, with a dash of Apple look and feel -- all in an inexpensive, hosted package (in fact, it is only available on the Web -- there are no options to install it yourself). For experimentation or piloting, the price can't be beat -- there is no cost for an unlimited, two-person account (some of the "higher end" features are not available or are limited).
For those with heavy-duty sales support needs (tracking the pipeline, extensive reports, etc.), Highrise is not the tool. But its ease-of-use and no to low cost make it an exceptional product. As always, your mileage may vary, but it is certainly worth looking at if you are in the need of a contact management system.
Marketing lessons from 37signals
Highrise is useful to look at from a marketing perspective, not just a tool/service provider. Its success -- in many ways, grass roots -- comes from the quality of the offering, as well as the supporting collateral. For example:
- It is free to use, not just for a demo period. It has a zero-cost option that will work form most small, two-person shops. It will take a while for a few people to reach the point they will need to pay for the service. When that does happen, there is unfortunately no a la carte selection of upgrades, so the for-pay tiers may not be aligned with the needs of those graduating from the free product.
Lesson: Make it easy to try your offering. Allow a long-term, marginally limited offering to keep people involved. Its better they use your free product and help you scale and understand features than abandon your service. - It has an intuitive interface. Highrise is jarring for many users because it is easier to use than most software -- whether PC- or Web-based. And while there is no doubt there could be additional features added to Highrise, we wouldn't argue for many if the product began to look as complicated as salesforce.com or SugarCRM.
Lesson: Take a page from the Apple design philosophy: Make a product or service easy to use, visually appealing, and limit its options to the necessary (if you add non-essential capabilities, hide them from most users). For more on Apple and marketing, see this previous post. - The site offer lots of demos on using the product. For the technically inclined, it doesn't take much of an effort to learn how to use Highrise. For those who typically avoid or minimize their technical exposure, even this product can be somewhat confusing. 37signals provides a wide range of demos and a FAQ (frequently asked questions) to help users over the initial hump. And even when a client signs up, the default for each section includes tips or a demo.
Lesson: No matter how well designed your software, users need to learn how to use it. Every system has quirks and process paths that have to be learned. Some may even be better implementations of accepted practices, but just by being different, they will require guidance. Adding online demos and clear FAQs make it easier for customers to see what you offer, even before they sign up. It also reduces support calls -- always a positive step.
Leave a comment