Method Community

Hhello!

We are looking for a CRM that will automate our sales process and provide better management infomation.

There are some basic things that we're trying to track, essentially marketing campaign ROI and sales rep performance to monitor and improve both pre-sale and post-sale process.

For now, our marketing is largely electronic, primarily in the form of emails that come back to us in a standardized format.

Basically, we're looking for a pretty "boilerplate" sales system that will interface with Quickbooks.

Use Case / Functions:

• Import and parse leads from various email campaigns we conduct electronically via trade partners.
• Manually enter leads from conventional referrals (print, radio, trade or customer referrals).
• Identify source of the lead, lead type, and any cost (some leads have a 'bonus' for referral) to track ROI.
• Delegate/Assign leads to field sales rep(s).
• Ability to reassign leads if a rep leaves or goes on vacation, etc.
• Capture customer demographic data as needed (family income, household size, and so on).
• Standard sales cycle functions - track sales cycle (calls, appointments, estimates, deposits, jobs), calendar function to contact customers who aren't ready to commit yet, etc. for customer follow-up.
• Light "project management" functions (% completion).
• Integration with Quickbooks online.
• Offline capability so that if we don't have a data connection, the system is still functional.
• Import/Export of data into standard formats (CSV, XLS, etc.).

We're looking at Salesforce.com right now, but the cost of implementation may be more than we're capable of sustaining at this time, so we're considering other options.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi Werxgroup,

I am a Method Partner and most of the items you mention can be done with Method out of the box.   Some items, like adding customer demographics, would need some customization.  Method is pure online play, so there is no offline capacity... Method syncs almost real time with QBO and allows you to extend your functionality.  So - implementation costs will depend on what you want for startup..if you you have leads that are not in QBO you will need to import into Method.  Your cost will depend on how good your data lists are.  Method gives you a month free trial, so go for it.  See if it works for you. And if you need customization or just plain help then Method or one of Method's partners can help you out. 

Fran, thanks for your reply.

I'm aware that Method has a trial, as does Insightly, and most other CRMs.  The problem is that the investment of time can be 20 hours or more by the point you figure out that any given platform can't fulfill a certain function.  And if you test three... four... five or more platforms concurrently, it's an enormous time sink.

Method looks pretty good, but there are two areas that are missing for us.  Specifically, converson of e-mail lead to contact record.

We receive leads from various advertising sources.  Those leads are delivered via email in up to three different standard formats, depending on the marketing vendor.  We need the ability for our sales inbox to be parsed for that information, and have it transferred to our CRM automatically.  Or, if we use a 3rd party mail parser and have the data extracted to CSV or SQL, the CRM needs to be able to import those records, preferably automatically.

As to the other reporting, the basic process and 'pipeline' data for rep tracking is pretty boilerplate... lead to call, call to appointment, appointment to estimate, estimate to deposit.  We all know that there's a ratio of success tied directly to whether or not a rep is following up with the customer, and that's typically where sales staff tends to slack off.

The other thing we need is simply a way to track ROI based on simple math - lead cost for a given month against orders written, - so we can determine if the ads we're getting are garbage and need to find another vendor.

I have experience with Joomla, WordPress and other such formats, so if it's a matter of using the platform GUI, it should be pretty simple.

Thanks again - hope you can help clarify the above.

Werxgroup,

I get the time invested in looking for a new system.  And you will probably find that none totally meet your wants exactly.  But with Method , you have the opportunity to do deep or light customization. Most other systems don't allow.

Method has  Google Gadget which allows you to add a new opportunity, lead or activity right from Google apps mail.  It is a huge time saver and awesome tool.