Day 52 —A 1st Time Founder’s Guide to Adopting a CRM
By: Bob Weishar
Tags: Startup Lessons, Founder Stories

Last week, I shared how I removed all of our contact information from Hubspot. Well, I’m back…

As it turns out, Hubspot is pretty bad for storing end-user health information (since they won’t sign a Business Associates Agreement for HIPAA). BUT! They’re also really great at managing a sales process — especially a B2B sales process.

Today I completed my outreach to another 5 users for this week’s experiment, but since that’s not very interesting to you, instead I thought I’d share what I’ve learned using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and share a few things to think about in case you’re thinking about using a CRM for your own company.

What is a CRM?

A CRM is a tool that helps you manage your outbound contacts and marketing / sales process. It solves lots of challenges but creates others, as I’ll share later.

Do you need a CRM?

For me, I’ve had multiple stops and starts with using a CRM since starting Invincible.

My first few months, my “CRM” was whatever was saved in Gmail: as I fired off emails, I would often go back to find contact information and old conversations. Needless to say, a lot of things fell through the cracks.

Realizing I couldn’t sustain this, I migrated to a big ole spreadsheet to manage all my outreach and contacts. This worked reasonably well, but it became a 2nd thing to update after sending emails, and it quickly got stale.

So then I started tracking leads in a Trello Board, creating columns to represent statuses and moving them as a lead changed to a prospect. This worked pretty well, but again, it was disconnected from my actual outbound communication and only worked if I was actively updating it.

Then I moved everything to Copper CRM. It’s a beautiful UX and I got the benefit of gmail history + Trello swimlanes. The problem was that’s about all it could do, and I was paying $50/month to do it.

When I started Techstars, I felt cool for using the Hubspot “perk” and migrated everything over (not-so-secret tip: you should almost never pay full price for SAAS software as an early stage startup). It gave me everything that I liked about Trello plus a ton of features for managing a sales process. I’ve stuck with it for the past year on and off, with the exception of last week where I realized we can’t store end user data in it.

What I’ve learned

Throughout this journey, I’ve gone through phases where I get a ton of value from managing contacts and my pipeline in a CRM and others where I get almost no value. I figured it was just laziness, but this week I realized it’s something else.

When I get value from a CRM , it’s when I’m managing a pipeline of outbound leads and tracking them through a process. For example, when I was doing outbound research to schools, I was trying to juggle scheduling interviews with about 50 school districts. Managing this in a spreadsheet was borderline impossible.

, it’s when I’m managing a pipeline of outbound leads and tracking them through a process. For example, when I was doing outbound research to schools, I was trying to juggle scheduling interviews with about 50 school districts. Managing this in a spreadsheet was borderline impossible. When I’m not getting value from a CRM, I’m focused on product development or other more internal processes. I don’t really care about tracking one-off emails since this is already done well through Gmail.

But now that I’ve picked up outbound outreach again, managing the process is a total must, and the CRM shines.

Questions to Ask

When thinking through whether a CRM makes sense for you, I would think about the following:

Do you do a lot of outbound outreach to potential sales leads? Are you as bad as me at remembering to follow-up? Do you want a single source of truth for connections?

Brass Tax

1 — What are your OPTIONS?

There are lots of options for a CRM, but I’ve used these (worst to first for early stage startups):

Streak: Really basic Gmail-driven plugin — it’s not a bad place to start if you want a simple add-on to your email workflow and plan to use Gmail for most outbound communication.

Really basic Gmail-driven plugin — it’s not a bad place to start if you want a simple add-on to your email workflow and plan to use Gmail for most outbound communication. Copper: I was drawn to it by its great UX and simple, intuitive features. But I quickly outgrew it and needed more features.

I was drawn to it by its great UX and simple, intuitive features. But I quickly outgrew it and needed more features. Salesforce: The best in class if you’re a massive company. But the UX sucks and it’s prohibitively expensive.

The best in class if you’re a massive company. But the UX sucks and it’s prohibitively expensive. Hubspot: A really robust CRM that offers steep discount pricing to startups. I was drawn to the discounts and UX initially, but beware the intro pricing adds up quickly and you’ll be paying heavily before you know it.

2 — What are the COSTS?

CRMs ain’t cheap. I would think about the following:

SAAS Fees: I’m currently on a 90% off plan on Hubspot, and I’m still paying $50/month/user (i.e., $500/mo/user on a fully-paid plan).

I’m currently on a 90% off plan on Hubspot, and I’m still paying $50/month/user (i.e., $500/mo/user on a fully-paid plan). Setup Costs (i.e., time): They will also take you several days to setup (or weeks if you’re looking to importa and clean lots of data).

They will also take you several days to setup (or weeks if you’re looking to importa and clean lots of data). Ongoing Costs (i.e., time): The value of a CRM goes up as you use it and spend time in it. But if you never login it will likely be a mess and of little value to you.

3 — What VALUE do they provide?

Despite the costs, CRMs provide a ton of value, especially for outbound sales management. Here are my favorite features (thinking specifically of Hubspot):

Centralized contact lists: Most tools automatically collect contact information as you email, so there’s no need to manually take note of every contact you have. They also scrape data from the web so you’ll have a robust contact before you know it. Task management: One really cool feature I’ve liked with Hubspot is setting up tasks with respect to contacts (for example, email x contacts today). I then setup a queue and fly through my outbound to-do list. Templates: These are available in a limited way in Gmail, but having a set of template emails is a huge time saver. Sales Pipeline Tracking: This is also a must-have feature. It allows me to track many contacts and deals through a pipeline and manage the process as I do. Analytics: Another final feature I’ve used and enjoyed is analytics on my outbound communication. This helps me understand where I can improve my game.

Need Help?

If you’re a founder and looking to use a CRM, let me know if you’d like to chat. I’m far from an expert, but I’ve learned a few things along the way and would be happy to talk you through it.