Chapter 10Customer Relationship Management Software

The customer relationship management (CRM) space is crowded, and rightfully so. Jason Lemkin of SaaStr has stated that there can be multiple initial public offerings (IPOs) in this space, even for companies that fight for the bottom of the market. With one company, Salesforce, on track to do $10 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR) soon, I believe him.

Good CRM software can be debated all day long. At the start-up level, which is the early stage to growth stage, you can use any of the ones mentioned below. They're affordable, well built, and boast an intuitive user experience.

Try to find something simple yet that is built out enough to scale with multiple deals running at the same time. If the software is too complicated and messes up your work flow, then it's not worth it.

Close.io

Close.io has a few core features as part of its CRM technology that differentiates it from other CRMs. Close.io offers voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calling out of the box and two-way e-mail syncing, and it automatically logs all calls and e-mails to avoid any manual data entry.

Close.io also has built a search engine that enables everyone on the team to answer any questions on the fly. For example, Close.io can give you answers to the question, “Show me all leads with active opportunities that I've e-mailed longer than a week ago, that haven't responded, and for which the last call was at least seven days ago and ten minutes long.” ...

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