Sandy Bassi
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system handles your data.
A high-quality CRM system can encourage you and your building products to move away from lengthy spreadsheets and store your marketing, sales, and customer services data in one place.
This blog post aims to help make your decision easier when deciding the best CRM system to implement.
I’m going to provide the pros and cons of these 5 CRM systems: HubSpot, SalesForce, Fresh Sales, Zoho and Pipedrive.
HubSpot
HubSpot is a popular CRM system and it’s well-known for its marketing automation capabilities. There’s a good reason for its popularity as HubSpot offers abilities for marketing, sales, CRM, and customer service.
Pros
It’s easy to use. I’m new to HubSpot and immediately I know how to make CTA’s, landing pages and implement SEO. It’s easy and simple to use, however, it’s a powerful and professional tool.
HubSpot is designed to be user friendly, despite how complex marketing automation can get. All technical terms are defined, you can even learn how to use the CRM system in the HubSpot Academy
Great Customer Service. You’re by no means left alone with HubSpot – there’s always a representative to give you a helping hand.
Digital CRM systems can be complex, particularly when you're new to them. Technology can become confusing and before you know it, you're spending hours trying to figure out something that looks to be in a foreign language.
It's essential that your CRM delivers outstanding support, to help you solve your problems and clarify your understanding.
It can be free. HubSpot’s CRM can cost you a grand total of £0. Of course, there are different packages available that provide deeper insights and advanced tools.
Cons
There’s an onboarding free. Alongside the monthly fee, HubSpot already has – there’s an additional fee for onboarding. This varies with the package you’re on.
However, by choosing to work with a certified HubSpot agency partner you can save on this cost.
There’s configuration required, like many marketing automation tools, you’ll need to manually provide data so you can effectively use these tools.
Salesforce
Salesforce is a popular CRM system with I.T, it helps you with marketing, sales, commerce, and customer service.
Pros
SalesForce offers customisation. With a wide range of widgets, your buildings products company can analyse performance with different perspectives to gain in-depth data.
It’s quick to start without having to install the software so you can start your CRM system within a couple of days.
Cons
It’s complex, this is something to bear in mind if you’re a small buildings product company without dedicated sales or marketing teams. Due to this being a powerful system it can become overwhelming and complex to use.
Poor customer service, according to VentureHarbour SalesForce customer service has a poor reputation. This can become an obstacle if you’re new to adopting a CRM system.
FreshSales
FreshSales is a popular CRM tool and has powerful features including AI-based lead scoring, visual deal pipeline and automation.
Pros
It’s easy to set sequences so you can follow up with contacts that are important to you. Helpful for when you’re running a targeted campaign to generate more leads.
You can integrate with other apps, such as, with your calendar and phone so you can monitor customer data from all aspects.
Cons
Customer service is poor, according to reviews from FreshSales users. A user stated that he’d only get a helpful answer 20-30% of the time and often just receives automated replies.
It doesn’t offer as many 3rd party integrations, compared to its competitors - HubSpot. This can difficult as a CRM should work to utilise different data so you can centralise your data.
Zoho
Zoho is an on-demand CRM system software designed to manage sales, contacts, marketing, and customer services.
Pros
Easy to use, reviews from GetApp have seen a common theme regarding how straightforward the CRM is to use. Great if you’re new to a CRM system and when aligning sales and marketing.
It’s a compatible tool it’s a great tool to manage leads/customers across different Zoho apps. However, you’ll need to implement these Zoho tools initially.
Cons
Reviews suggest the support team isn’t great. A customer suggested that they didn’t feel like they were provided with the support they needed to learn how to properly use the system.
Tutorials can be improved. They’re not as often updated compared to its competitors, so it can put more pressure on you and on Zoho customer support.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is designed to be used by salespeople, their CRM tools help sales visualise their processes and pipelines.
Pros
Provides in-depth data for leads the icons that prompt you to follow up with leads is clear – you can see the stage your leads are on and what type of follow-up will be needed.
Easy to use, reviews suggest Pipedrive is easy and simple to use without specific training.
Cons
Features such as: automation are lacking due to Pipedrive being a beginner platform, advance features are lacking even in their high-tier packages. This can become difficult because automation is a powerful tool to eliminate repetitive tasks.
Limited functionality there’s only so much you can do with customisation, so this wouldn’t be suitable if you have a large construction business wanting to fully customise your marketing.
Conclusion
Many modern CRM systems are easy to use, it’s all about implementing the right CRM system for your buildings product company, so you strive for productivity and growth.
Here at Insynth, we’re HubSpot partners and have helped many building product companies successfully integrate HubSpot CRM, bringing them insights into their marketing and sales activities and boosting their growth plans.
If you need to talk about adopting or implementing a CRM system, or you want more information, get in touch with us, we are more than happy to help.
About Insynth
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major on construction marketing, we bring together construction marketing strategy, digital strategy, website design, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, sales automation, marketing automation and HubSpot CRM implementation to produce successful campaigns and great results for our clients.