CRM: Can You Use A Wrench As A Hammer?

CRM Primer

What exactly is a CRM? Well, ummmm, you know the letters mean Customer Relationship Management.

But TBH, that’s a terrible name for it because it isn’t just for customers - it’s for prospecting, marketing automation, email blasts, sales process management, landing page development, invoicing and billing, customer service, ticket management, project management, activity reporting, capacity reporting, and probably a thousand other things. Basically any business function that revolves around an object in a database can likely be powered by a CRM.

You probably know about the big-name tools, like Salesforce & Hubspot. Those platforms are incredibly extensible and basically work at the business operating system. They also connect to a wide range of other platforms…so they can be configured a million different ways.

But there are other tools that started life as other things entirely, but can be transformed into a CRM - like Notion, ClickUp or Monday. (I haven’t delved deeply into ClickUp as a CRM, but the other two are solid.)

There are the marketing automation focused platforms like Active Campaign and Go High Level, and primarily sales focused platforms like Apollo, PipeDrive and Folk. And there are some newer platforms that are basically modular that all you to build exactly what you want and need, like Attio, Creatio and I’d put Monday in that category, too.

A CRM is all in how you use it.

Can You Use a Wrench As A Hammer?

Back a long time ago, I worked in sales and spent at least 78% of my time inputting data manually into Salesforce. I freakin’ hated it, so I would avoid it like the plague. That meant I spent many Friday afternoons updating Salesforce and hating my life.

As the tools have changed and grown and added more and more blades like some sort of digital Swiss Army knife, the work that they do has changed. Most CRMs offer some terrific automations, and AI is jumping in everywhere that you can imagine, so the capacity and effectiveness of the tools have exploded.

But like all tools, they have primary uses, and secondary uses. For instance, my coaching business uses Active Campaign for email campaigns and marketing automations and I think it is absolutely terrific. It does have a sales module, where you can track deals, etc. but I’m not a fan of that part. So, AC’s primary focus is marketing automation, and it pretends to do sales management and reporting. PipeDrive, on the other hand, excels at sales and deal management and makes no pretense to being a terrific marketing automation platform.

So, to answer the question, can a wrench be used as a hammer? Absolutely, and quite often, it can get the job done. But if you have a job that requires a hammer most of the time, get the hammer.

What CRM is the Best For My Agency?

TBH, I can’t answer that. Take a long look before you jump into a platform and really map out your primary use cases. An agency that I work with uses a legal pad to keep track of their deal flow. A smaller agency I work with has tweaked PipeDrive so that is seems ready for an agency 100x their size.

The best CRM for your agency is the one that you use efficiently and effectively to power your business growth. If you are a high-referral, low-prospecting agency, a legal pad or the sales pipeline features of High Level or Active Campaign might be amazing. If you are a multiple touch, lead-magnet-driven marketer who needs 12,000 different email sequences, maybe a HubSpot is right for you.

But start with the job you have for the CRM now, today. Buying a platform that overkill isn’t worth it. The drain of a large HubSpot subscription might actually slow your growth rather than $149 to ActiveCampaign. And if you are the DIY type and you want something extensible, maybe try one of the modular platforms that are cost effective but can scale.

Noteworthy

A good friend of The Agency Inner Circle, Marcel Petitpas from Parakeeto has a new book out and it is a category best seller! Check out Software As A Science on Amazon.

Thanks To Our Sponsor - Soona

Product photography can be a huge expense (and a huge P.I.T.A) for ecommerce sellers. Today, the bar is higher than ever, and the pressure to deliver an AMAZING PDP is high.

Soona makes it easy. Help your ecommerce clients make incredible ads, product pages and more by telling them about the AI-powered product picture platform (I just made that up, cool, huh?) Soona.