How to stay focused on sales as a small business
This post is part of an ongoing series about how small businesses can use the latest cloud services to get up and running quickly, and how to be more efficient in their operations afterwards.
Having just decided to “go legit” as a small business, we wanted to make sure that with all of the minutiae of day-to-day operations clouding our minds during these first few months, that we still maintained a strong focus on sales and increasing cashflow. In particular, managing all the different contacts and businesses we’ve talked to, and deals we’re pursuing. Also – we didn’t want to have to remember who to call when, or what the status on a deal was.
So the basic requirements were:
- Incredibly easy to use
- Decent feature list
- Inexpensive but scalable
- Email reminders
- Web based
I’d seen Salesforce before, and although the testimonials seemed convincing and I’ve heard nothing but good things, you have to fill out a complete information sheet just to view a demo of their software. That one’s out.
I’d also heard about SugarCRM…which ended up being quite pricey and a little too robust for the needs of a small business.
Having already been a (kind of obsessive) user of Basecamp, we gave Highrise a look. We ended up not looking much further.
Here’s where Highrise started out right: “Start a Highrise Account: 30-day free trial, 60-second signup, web-based, nothing to install.”
I’m listening.
Next, they have a one-minute guided video tour to give you an overview.
Not only does it satisfy the aforementioned requirements, but you can actually forward correspondence (emails to/from your clients) to Highrise and it automatically files the conversation under the correct Contact. Can you say time saver?
We started out with the free account which lets us manage up to 250 contacts, and one “Deal”. Should be sufficient until things really start moving.
I have to say I’ve been quite pleased with how accountable it’s kept us. Plus, we have our own custom login page:
Here’s the TechCrunch post on the Highrise launch.
Update: Just discovered this page detailing how Google Apps and Salesforce have mashed up their product line.
