When new clients come to us at ZBrains, we often hear one of two things – either they have faced significant challenges with a previous CRM software they have used and they’re ready to move on, or they have just signed with Zoho and are unsure where to start. With these two challenges, you could say that we’ve heard it all – from A to Z; so, you can be sure that we have answers to your common CRM issues.
After thousands of conversations with various clients, we’ve wrangled our experts at ZBrains to tell us their top 3 most common CRM issues from new clients. If you’re brand new to CRM management or perhaps you have questions about your current CRM, we’re sure you’ll identify with one (or more) of the challenges below.
Here are the top 3 common CRM issues (and their solutions).
Challenge: I can’t access my CRM on-the-go.
Imagine you want to access a client contact history while en route to a meeting, or away from your desk – but you can’t access your CRM through your phone. Ugh.
Solution: Discover a CRM that works on-the-go.
Challenge: My team does not know how to use my CRM properly.
Whether it’s because of lack of process or lack of training, your team just doesn’t understand or know how to use the major features of your CRM, it can be difficult to get your employees on-board entirely with your CRM.
Solution: Educate, Track, Customize.
Save time by tracking everything- from emails to phone calls, and meeting logs in between. Zoho has it all – enabling your team to make the most of your CRM. Have a program that educates your team on the benefits and use-cases before diving in head first. In our experience, this has truly made a difference in overall adoption and usage. Develop a solid process for your team and have customizable solutions for your business processes. Get started on the right foot by signing up for one of our Zoho implementation plans.
Challenge: My CRM doesn’t integrate with the software I use every day.
Are you always flipping through tabs, browsers, applications and spending far too much time logging-in, or recovering lost passwords?Is it just another application that you need to manage?
Solution: Find an all-in-one solution.
This is especially true for sales and marketing teams, who certainly use many, many applications on a daily basis. From CRM to email, social media posting applications and more, it can be a challenge to keep track of it all. Zoho One has 35+ integrated applications that encompass everything from CRM, email newsletters, documents, inventory, and more. Here at ZBrains, we offer additional add-ons and custom integrations for your favorite business products, such as QuickBooks, Magento, and more.
It’s important to find a CRM that can integrate with a variety of solutions to optimize the potential of your business. It will keep you on-track and ready to close more, win more, and earn more.
From employees using your CRM (properly) to finding software that works for all teams in your company, these are our top 4 common CRM issues and their solutions. They’ve been compiled by our Zoho certified consultants here at ZBrains who are here to help you with your burning questions. Feel free to drop us a line!
Information technology and developed software are growing and innovating at remarkable rates. IT jobs, in particular, are expected to grow by 20% through the year 2020; it’s no surprise that this is faster than average. So, as we look at software in particular, the question to ask ourselves is – do we consider it to be a utility, or a commodity?
What is software as a utility?
The definition of a utility is the state of being useful, profitable or beneficial. In relation to technology, software can be positioned as something that holds immense value. It is technology that provides revenue and shows a true source of ROI for businesses and brands. It is a software that can manage a plethora of business applications under one system.
What is software as a commodity?
Traditionally, software has been considered to be a commodity. As a refresher, the term “commodity” refers to a basic good used in commerce that is interchangeable with other commodities of the same type. Consider the way in which many software vendors have approached you, a decision maker. You receive hundreds of pitches per year – perhaps even per month – mostly landing in your inbox. The sales person on the other end is treating their product as a commodity, as an economic exchange.
Which would you rather – the software you select to be used as a utility, or as a commodity?
When it comes to Zoho One, we know that it is shifting away from the traditional perception of software as a commodity. Zoho One is a true example of a utility – a useful, profitable and beneficial product that provides unmatched ROI for your business. Here’s why…
Zoho One is affordable.
Unlike the commodity of economic exchange – those darn cold emails that are floating in your inbox right now – Zoho One is truly affordable per user. Software is traditionally expensive, which is why the thought of it as a commodity has often been true. Instead, Zoho One starts at $45 per employee, per month.* The price point positions this software as one that lends itself remarkably well to profitability. *Pricing updated June 2021
It increases efficiency – and efficiency means additional revenue.
The beauty of Zoho One is that you can manage a multitude of business applications under one system. This means no more flipping through tabs, browsers, applications and spending far too much time logging-in, or recovering lost passwords. Saved time means increased efficiency – and increased efficiency means additional revenue. It means that your team can spend more time doing their job instead of performing administrative tasks each and every day.
It can run your entire business in one suite.
If you haven’t checked out Zoho One, now is the time – because we’re sure you’re going to love that this software can run your entire business through one suite. Seriously.
With one administrative log-in, you can work through over 35 applications, including your CRM, email newsletters, documents, inventory checks and more. Your team can send emails to your prospects, engage with your clients, and check to see which of your prospects are checking out your website. This is all through one software with a variety of applications.
It was once thought that software was a commodity exclusively, mostly because of the steep price tag that many companies have set. Instead, with the introduction of Zoho to the market, the mindset has truly shifted to that of software as a utility; a solution that generates revenue through increased efficiency, and truly proved profit and benefit.
We know you’ll love Zoho One, and we’re confident you’ll realize just how much of an impact it will have on your business. We here at ZBrains are Zoho Certified Consultants, as well as a Zoho developers with a handful of powerful Zoho integration tools. To learn more about how Zoho One can work for you, connect with us!
If you could manage a plethora of business applications under one software system, you would, wouldn’t you? (The answer is yes – of course you would). Instead of flipping through various tabs, opening multiple browsers, and downloading too many applications that you’ve now lost count of, the solution is to find just that – a solution. A solution that can increase your efficiency in all facets of your business practices. That solution is Zoho One.
What is Zoho One?
With an ever-expanding array of software tools available, finding the right solutions to streamline your operations can prove daunting. That’s where Zoho One comes in—a comprehensive suite of applications designed to empower businesses of all sizes. In this Zoho One review, we’ll delve deep into the world of integrated software and explore how this all-in-one solution can transform your business.
It is a truly revolutionary suite that can run your entire business – seriously. It has 40+ integrated applications that encompass everything like CRM, email newsletters, documents, inventory, and more. You simply need a username and password, integrate your applications, and you’re set; one dashboard to rule all.
A Multifaceted Solution
Zoho One boasts an impressive range of applications, catering to virtually every facet of business management. Here are some key highlights:
Zoho One includes apps like:
Zoho CRM: Efficiently manage customer relationships, from lead generation to conversion and beyond.
Zoho Books: Simplify your accounting processes, encompassing invoicing, expense tracking, and financial reporting.
Zoho Projects: Keep your team on track through collaborative project management tools, ensuring deadlines are met and objectives are achieved.
Zoho Marketing Hub: Streamline your marketing efforts with automation and analytics, enabling data-driven decisions.
Zoho Analytics: Harness data’s power by transforming it into actionable insights with potent reporting and analytics tools.
Zoho Desk: Deliver exceptional customer support with a unified helpdesk and multi-channel support.
Zoho Creator: Customize applications to meet your unique business needs without extensive coding knowledge.
This exceptional software suite can be used across all areas of your business, from sales and marketing to customer support and accounting. This means that everyone can log in, and everyone can use various applications that suit business needs to go about daily tasks.
The Power of Integration
Zoho One’s standout feature lies in its seamless integration of applications. By using Zoho One, you will no longer need to toggle between multiple software platforms or fret about data inconsistency. You can instantly utilize customer data captured in your CRM for your marketing campaigns, project management tasks, and financial reporting, creating a holistic view of your business.
Cost-Effective Scalability
Zoho One’s pricing model emerges as one of its most attractive features. Rather than paying for individual applications separately, you pay a fixed monthly fee per user. This model proves cost-effective, especially for growing businesses, as it allows you to access the entire suite of applications without breaking the bank.
User-Friendly Interface
Another aspect of Zoho One that stands out is its user-friendly interface. With a clean, intuitive design, even those with minimal technical expertise can swiftly learn to navigate the various applications. Zoho’s commitment to user experience ensures you can start using the software effectively from day one.
Customer Support and Training
Zoho Corporation places strong emphasis on customer support and training. You gain access to a wealth of resources, including webinars, documentation, and a responsive customer support team, all aimed at helping you make the most of Zoho One.
Here’s why we love Zoho One – and why you will, too.
It provides unmatched security across your business.
Zoho One gives account administrators one secure account for applications and overall control. This means that you’ll have one account to access all of your programs – such as the CRM, email, and more. Gone are the days of different login credentials for each program – which increases the potential of lost or stolen passwords.
In addition, this Zoho suite gives owners and managers complete control over business data. Only these individuals can access programs containing sensitive data, ensuring the information stays in the right hands.
Zoho won’t stop here.
45+ applications in the suite already sounds impressive – and it is. Yet, Zoho is always focused on innovation and improvement, which means that it won’t stop at 45.
The developer ecosystem ensures this application suite is enhanced regularly. This means that technology partners can truly customize applications to meet their needs. So, if an application that is customized to your business needs to be included within a certain means of framework, it also provides developers with the ability to make this happen. That goes for everything from workflow rules in the CRM, custom functions in Zoho Books, or even an entirely new Zoho ERP app developed on Zoho Creator.
Zoho One pricing
Pricing starts at $45 per employee, per month (or $37 per employee, per month*, when paid on an annual basis). This includes all integrated business apps (everything you need), mobile and native apps, centralized administrative control, and more. *Prices updated June 2021
Consider the ROI for this solution. How much time would it take one employee to move between tabs, including logging in and waiting for each application or associated software to start? 10 minutes? 20 minutes? Now, consider your billed or internally set hourly rate. How much time can be saved by consolidating your business applications? Is this worth $45 per month? (We’ll say yes).
Zoho One Implementation
Now that you know the key features of the one Zoho suite, you’re probably asking: What does it mean to implement an entire suite of business software? Do all the apps turn on at once? What about permissions? What do I do to prepare?
Taking the first steps
First of all, as soon as you know your organization is going to implement the suite of apps, I would do a quick poll and see who, if anyone, has implemented a Zoho app on their own. This is not because you want them to spearhead the deployment process for your company! Rather, it’s to make sure you don’t have any issues when adding all of your employees to your organization. It can be a bit of a chore to add people who are already recognized as Zoho app administrators to your org.
Has anyone gone rogue and deployed their app, be it CRM, Campaigns, or People? If so, kindly have them switch their email from their company email to a personal email address. (Conversely, if your employee is using their Zoho app to conduct actual company business, that can make things a little more complicated. Contact us for some help!)
Getting Apps Configured
Second of all, don’t fear! Turning on Zoho One does not mean your employees can suddenly run amok and access all the different apps in Zoho; in fact, they give you great control over what your staff can and cannot do once you begin implementing the suite. Here’s what we can tell you:
Firstly, the apps you’ve already activated in your existing Zoho organization will come pre-selected when you arrive at the main implementation screen
You can configure exactly which additional apps your employees can access
However, even if you don’t activate certain Zoho apps during the initial configuration, you can always come back and turn the other apps on when needed
Finally, your company’s settings, records, and other work stored in the a la carte Zoho apps will not be disturbed when you switch from the a la carte apps to the bundled option
Selecting the Right Licensing
Lastly – and this is more of a caveat – remember that all of your W-2 employees need to be members of your organization, per the licensing agreement. (They say you can buy “flexible user pricing” if you don’t want to have all your employees as org members, but this is $105/user/mo.)
Having Zoho One Licensing Issues?
We’ve heard from quite a few company reps who love the idea of a software suite like this, but don’t want to have to buy licenses for all their W-2 employees – because maybe half or more of their employees don’t ever touch computers for their jobs! This is especially common with people who use Zoho for manufacturing, or Zoho for field services and construction.
Now, we know what you’re thinking.
You may be tempted to… have employees share logins, or…
Just do not buy licenses for all your employees.
Well, please take this word of advice: Don’t go that route.
Zoho reserves the right to audit your books if you use Zoho One, and they have the right to impose penalties on you (likely monetary ones) if you don’t comply with their licensing agreement. Instead, just contact ZBrains and we may be able to help you out.
Thank you for stopping by, as always. If you have any questions or comments, connect with us any time, and explore some of our expert consulting options.
When it comes to optimizing your CRM, having a clean set of data is extremely important. You should ask yourself a few questions: Are your customers receiving duplicate emails? Have multiple sales reps reached out to the same lead? If these sound familiar to you, then you know these situations can cause you to lose both existing and potential customers.
What is the leading cause for mistakes like this? Duplicate or bad data – records with the same email or phone numbers, stored under different names.
Ways Duplicate or Bad Data Affects Your Business Operations Solutions
Lower Sales Productivity, Higher Consumption of Resources. Bad data affects everyone from sales to IT. Often, are not made on the spot but instead overlooked in order to complete the task on hand. Once left uncorrected, it can cause a lead to be contacted multiple times, issues to be overlooked, and upset customers. Bad or uncorrected data can create a ripple effect within your business – a “Hidden Data Factory”- where knowledge workers waste 50% of their time identifying and trying to correct errors in data. This bad data costs the US economy about $3.1 Trillion Dollars a year. Don’t lose money or allow a hidden data factory to grow within your business.
Duplicate Data means Duplicate Emails, Higher Unsubscribe Rates. Bad data can also have a damaging impact on your email marketing campaigns and your reputation. With bad or duplicate data affecting your system, your customers may be receiving duplicate or incorrect emails leading to higher unsubscribe rates. While you want to stay at the top of your customers’ minds, you don’t want to bombard them. 48.3% of people who unsubscribe from emails list cite receiving too many emails as the reason. When you customers unsubscribe, you fall off their radar.
A business spends on average about $14 million on data quality. Zoho CRM is able to improve data quality by eliminating duplicate data, because businesses should not spend large amounts of money on maintaining data quality.
Zoho CRM solves your data problems 2 ways
Zoho CRM Unique Fields. Through the layout setting option, you can choose to mark certain fields as unique (name, phone number, etc.). Any time a new record with the same variable in any of those fields is being added to the CRM, a prompt will appear saying that a duplicate is about to be created and the action will not be allowed. This ensures that no duplicates are created in Zoho CRM.
De-Duplication option for existing data. If you already have duplicates in your data, Zoho CRM has a solution for that as well! The de-duplicate option is present under the “more options” ( the button with three dots) in the Leads, Contacts, Vendors, and Accounts module. You decide upon the fields you wish to check, then an automated de-duplication process will run in the background. It will merge records with completely identical variables in the selected fields. If there is a conflict between the duplicates, you can resolve it and manually merge the records.
Using Zoho CRM’s built-in tools can drastically reduce the number of duplicate records you have in your system – and, using the tools on a schedule is a surefire way to eliminate duplicates entirely. Maintaining good data quality can improve your efficiency, and have a direct impact on your revenue.
If you would like to learn more about how Zoho CRM can optimize your business, reach out to us! At ZBrains, we are proud to be a leader in experience and industry knowledge with Zoho, CRM management, business processes, and integrated solutions. You never have to feel like you’re alone in the Zoho universe with Zoho-certified consultants around – we’re here with you every step of the way. Contact us today!
When hiring a new vendor or signing a contract with a software company, there can be feelings of both excitement and fear – excitement at the opportunity to have such a solution make your life easier, and fear at the concern that launching such a service or platform might take hours upon hours to get off the ground. Well, we’re here to tell you that when it comes to Zoho, you can launch Zoho CRM in as little as two days. Yes, you read that right. Two days.
How can we make this happen? Because here at ZBrains, we have the magic formula to launch your CRM quickly and efficiently – simply because we’ve done it hundreds and hundreds of times for our clients.
Zoho CRM Tutorial: Four Easy Steps to Launch Zoho CRM in Two Days
1. Plan.
During the planning stage, it is important to define your sales and overall business process, with both the data and actions at each stage of your sales process. Your sales manager and lead sales people should know this process like the back of their hand – they just need to put it on paper.
For example, consider the following:
What happens when a lead comes through your website?
Who should be on the initial introduction call?
What are the steps you need to take when a prospect turns into an opportunity or proposal?
Who signs off on a won deal?
You certainly have all of this information in your head – your team simply needs to integrate such plans into documents.
2. Specification.
Once you have documented your sales process, you should convert your process into a specification document, which lists each field by module, action, trigger, and user. Start with all the standard fields in Zoho CRM, then add your own custom fields, as well as remove the fields you’re not going to use from your specification document. Go through this process a few times as you’re specifying just to ensure that you haven’t missed a step. It always helps to document in the initial planning and specification stage as much as possible.
3. Build.
Now is the time to build and customize your CRM from your specification document. Granted, if your process involves custom programming, or if you don’t have any of the content, it might take a longer than 2 days to build, but just to get started, 90% of companies do not need custom programming for their sales process.
But that’s just an aside. Building the process and framework typically takes two days alone – and remember, you can always customize as your team learns and adapts the Zoho CRM platform.
Which brings us to…
4. Train.
After the system is actually built, you should conduct a Zoho training session with your users, as well as help them get acquainted with the new system. We always recommend recording training sessions as much as possible, so that your team can go back and re-watch after your official training sessions are held.
If your team is wondering how long an implementation process takes, you can rest knowing that the response is two days. To launch Zoho CRM within this timeframe takes into account that your team has come to the initial planning meeting with an idea of the sales process and other marketing content that is available. All information is good information! We can turn this into actionable strategy and tactics for your team while using Zoho CRM.
This matchup of SugarCRM vs Zoho is interesting because, although SugarCRM is more expensive than Zoho CRM (seemingly) as a rule, SugarCRM Professional Edition (PE), a mid-level business program, costs roughly the same per user as Zoho CRM Enterprise Edition (EE), a higher-level business program. We won’t rush to conclusions yet, because words like professional, standard, and enterprise are all quite subjective terms. We’ll take a look at actual product specs to see how these two really match up.
SugarCRM vs Zoho Round One: The Costs*
As aforementioned, we’ll be comparing two different-tiered programs similar in pricing: Zoho CRM EE comes in at $50 per user per month and SugarCRM PE at $52 per user per month.
It costs roughly $6000 to board 10 users of either Zoho CRM EE or SugarCRM PE for a year.
For the sake of comparison, it costs $10,200 ($85/user/mo) to board ten users on SugarCRM EE, the supposed equivalent to Zoho CRM EE. That won’t be factored into our decision at the end of this bout, but, keep it in mind.
Another thing to keep in mind: Zoho CRM offers a monthly pricing plan (truly $50 per month) whereas the price per user for SugarCRM is still $52 per month, but, it can only be paid in one sum annually. Thus, you have slightly less flexibility with SugarCRM’s payment plan. However, this won’t affect every business owner.
As the price is dead even between SugarCRM vs Zoho CRM in this round, we’re calling it a tie.
*Pricing updated June 2021
Round Two: Tracking the Sales
Sales is the bread and butter of most businesses, so, having a robust system for tracking sales is of utmost importance. Both SugarCRM and Zoho recognize this; SugarCRM packs the ability to track Leads, Contacts, and Opportunities, plus the ability to generate Sales Forecasts and Quotas. While this is a sizable list of features in itself, Zoho CRM packs all these and the ability to track competitors, sell as a team, create macros, and keep track of certain activities using a feature called feeds.
Feeds is a feature that turns Zoho CRM into a sort of social network, giving users the ability to track (or “follow”) certain users, tasks, or records, and lets users communicate about those items by adding comments to them. This is an especially useful communication method for larger or disconnected offices; comments left this way are searchable inside Zoho and linked to specific activities, making looking up past conversations a bit easier than searching through multiple email threads about the same subject.
Because of Zoho CRM’s added features for the same price, this round goes to Zoho.
Round Three: How Social do you wanna get?
In today’s business climate, having a presence on social networks is absolutely key to engaging prospective customers and keeping current clients in the loop about your goings-on. That said, in the battle of SugarCRM vs Zoho CRM, both programs have a share of social interaction options.
SugarCRM PE lets its users interact with followers via Facebook and Twitter with integrations to both programs. By itself, this is a fine starter pack of sorts for social networking, but, that’s all SugarCRM offers in that regard. Zoho CRM EE offers the ability to monitor social mentions, making it easier to track customer interactions (or places where you’ll want to engage a customer who calls on you publicly), as well as a built-in tab for both Facebook and Twitter.
Overall, Zoho CRM gives users more social networking capability. Being able to track social mentions would seem worth paying an additional price by itself, but, as Zoho CRM is still the same price as Sugar CRM, this round also goes to Zoho.
Round Four: Wanna Automate that Marketing?
Marketing automation is key for businesses that want to reach a wide audience quickly while also managing email and marketing campaigns. Marketing automation as a concept seems to have evolved at a perfect time, as social media and other electronic marketing channels are more important than ever to the health of – at the very least – any tech-minded business, and many other kinds as well.
That said, hopefully your answer to that question above is a resounding yes.
Both Zoho CRM EE and SugarCRM PE come out of the box with a host of marketing automation tools, from web-to-lead capturing ability to mass emailing, email templates, and tracking campaigns themselves. Zoho CRM comes with one extra tool: autoresponders, which send messages to mailing lists based on time or click-through statistics. Some businesses may find this tool extremely useful, but, I don’t think its inclusion alone is enough to push Zoho over the top; thus, this round is a tie.
SugarCRM vs Zoho CRM Bonus Round: What About Workflow Management?
For those not in the know, workflow management is simply a term for when your CRM reminds you or prepares you to do certain tasks in order. The tasks you can program a CRM with workflow management capability to carry out are limitless, from simple email reminders upon moving records from one stage to another, to making certain information appear inside custom modules upon modifying a record, to programming a particular action to occur a certain time after another event has occurred. (It’s kind of like having your own personal assistant.)
Zoho CRM EE comes with all those abilities, including automatic lead assignment, case escalation (which prioritizes certain activities above others in certain circumstances, which you may set), and completely customized functions. This round is a bit of a mismatch, as SugarCRM PE doesn’t contain any of the marketing automation abilities listed (and none others, either). This makes Zoho the unequivocal winner of the round.
Who’s the champ in SugarCRM vs Zoho CRM?
Determining the victor between SugarCRM vs Zoho CRM was simple. For the price, Zoho CRM EE offers more features than SugarCRM PE, plain and simple. Based on this alone, we dub Zoho CRM the winner of this bout. As always, this review doesn’t take into account things like ease of use, general Zoho consulting services, or Zoho support plans, which can be very subjective topics. Be sure to schedule a walkthrough of the CRM that interests you most before you make any big decisions.
Bonus Round: There’s even more to Zoho than meets the eye
Just when you think the bout is over and you’ve decided the victor in this Sugar CRM review with Zoho, hang tight! There’s still one more thing to consider. We’re admittedly a bit biased over here, as we’re Zoho consultants, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that by choosing Zoho over Sugar, you’re not only gaining access to all of Zoho’s apps aside from the CRM, but you can also tap into Zoho’s extensive network of partners – including us. You can use your Zoho partner’s expertise to figure out the best way to solve your business problems using Zoho now, and also put together a sort of road map for the years to come, that way there’s no reworking of your system and no abandoning ship after a small handful of years.
Aside from the CRM, Zoho offers a help desk app (Zoho Desk), as well as a finance app (Zoho Books). Zoho’s platform as a service (Zoho Creator) can be used to improve the functionality of existing Zoho apps, or create entirely new ones to suit your business needs. If you were considering something like Sugar CRM to begin with, chances are its malleability caught your eye. Zoho offers that same sort of feature in Creator, and Zoho’s partners can help with this, too. All of these apps are available as part of Zoho One, a suite of 40+ apps available for $35/user/mo.
With so many different CRMs available today, all with different specs, you’re bound to be a little bogged down if you try to absorb too much at once. With that in mind, we’re going to pit just two against each other today: Salesforce vs Zoho.
When comparing features of Salesforce vs Zoho, it’s important to keep in mind the different versions of the two products. Tags like “Professional Edition” and “Enterprise Edition” can be misleading, as standards obviously vary between companies. In this case, the closest thing to Salesforce’s Professional Edition isn’t Zoho’s own Professional Edition, but their Enterprise Edition.
Anyhow, without further ado, let’s dive right in and figure out who wins in Salesforce vs Zoho…
The Salesforce vs Zoho CRM Review
Round One: The Cost
This is a chief concern for many business owners when picking out any software programs. Let’s take a look by making the simplest calculation possible: price per user.
It costs $50 per month* to board a single user on Zoho CRM EE. *Pricing updated June 2021
It costs $100 per month to board a single user on Salesforce CRM PE*.
For companies only boarding a few users, this sort of cost won’t be a big deal, understandably. But, when considering boarding ten users – or twenty of them – the cost per user becomes a much more important factor.
Cost per year to board ten Zoho CRM EE users: $5000
Cost per year to board twenty Zoho CRM EE users: $10,000
Cost per year to board ten Salesforce CRM PE users: $10,000
Cost per year to board twenty Salesforce CRM PE users: $20,000
In this case, the trend is clear: it costs twice as much to board the equivalent number of Zoho CRM EE users on Salesforce CRM PE, making Zoho the winner of this round of Salesforce vs Zoho.
Logically, the next thing you’ll want to do after comparing prices is see exactly what features you’ll get for the prices. That process is a little more involved than just looking at a couple of numbers, so we’ll divide it into a few rounds by category.
Round Two: The Sales Automation
One of the big reasons you’re looking into buying a CRM in general is so the program will keep track of certain things for you. Like, for example, your different leads, contacts, opportunities, and the like. Both Salesforce CRM PE and Zoho CRM EE pack a similar list of features, including competitor tracking, catalogs, and sales forecasts.
One notable feature Zoho packs that Salesforce does not, however, is feeds.
Feeds allows users to keep track of updates to certain leads, opportunities, or other activities; users can even leave comments on those activities, much like one would on a social network. This aspect alone gives Zoho an edge, although the rest of the sales automation features in Zoho are quite similar to the ones in Salesforce.
By just a nudge, Zoho wins this round as well.
Round Three: The Social Aspect
Being able to interact with customers on social media is very important, especially in today’s business environment. Both Salesforce PE and Zoho EE come into this round prepared for social battle, sporting Twitter and Facebook integrations, and Salesforce adding a LinkedIn plugin. Zoho makes up for its lack of LinkedIn with a social tab (to more easily monitor Facebook and Twitter entries) and a way to monitor social mentions, but, with LinkedIn as a big a player as it is in the business space, this round belongs to Salesforce.
Round 3A: Integrated chat options
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that both Salesforce and Zoho have integrated website chat options. In both Live Agent (Salesforce’s platform) and SalesIQ (Zoho’s), users can wait for visitor questions to roll in, or engage visitors directly via chat box. (This feature works particularly well for members of a Sales team or a Customer Support team.) Since Live Agent and SalesIQ are very similar, however, their inclusion doesn’t factor into the final decision.
Round Four: The Inventory Management
Another great quality of many CRMs is their ability to track inventory. That said, not all inventory management systems are created equally… Inventory management is where Zoho CRM EE really shines against Salesforce CRM PE; while Salesforce can track Sales Quotes, Products, and Price Books, Zoho can track those three categories of items plus Sales Orders, Invoices, Vendors, and Purchase Orders. In addition, Zoho has an integrated order procurement and fulfillment option. In this case, the unquestionable winner is Zoho.
Salesforce vs Zoho CRM BONUS ROUND: Integration
The ability to integrate is another absolutely vital part of modern businesses, as integrated systems can save time and money. Even if an integrated program doesn’t end up lowering costs, the potential for time savings can make up for that.
This round is no contest, though. Zoho was built with integration in mind; users of the program can also access MS Office, MS Outlook, Gmail, Google Apps, QuickBooks Desktop – and, they can access Zoho CRM and modify records entirely from mobile devices. Salesforce packs a few of those options – notably, integrations for QuickBooks, Gmail, Google Apps, and MS Office; however, some of the integrations are only offered for a higher cost.
On the subject of integrations, it bears mentioning that, like Salesforce, Zoho comes with a whole suite of apps and add-ons that can integrate with the CRM. Zoho’s offering, called Zoho One, is a suite of over 40 programs – and the number grows nearly every month. The entire suite, which includes CRM, Zoho Books, Zoho Desk, and a project management app, is just $45/user/mo, a far cry from similar offerings from Salesforce. With Zoho already coming up with a lower total cost without the extra charges for certain integrations, Zohowins this round as well, far and away.
Zoho CRM vs. Salesforce: Similarities & Differences
Zoho CRM and Salesforce are two well-known customer relationship management (CRM) software packages that provide a variety of capabilities to assist organizations in managing their customer connections, sales processes, and marketing initiatives. They have certain similarities but also significant differences. To better understand the similarities and differences between Zoho CRM and Salesforce, let us compare and contrast them:
1.Editions and pricing:
Zoho CRM: Zoho CRM offers a variety of editions, including a free edition for up to three users, as well as paid editions with additional features and functionality, such as Zoho CRM Plus. The pricing is generally more affordable, making it suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
Salesforce is well-known for its extensive customizability. It offers a strong foundation for developing custom apps, processes, and integrations using Apex, its own programming language, and declarative tools such as Process Builder and Lightning App Builder. Salesforce is thus highly scalable and well-suited to organizations with complicated business processes.
2.Specifications and functionality:
Zoho CRM: Contact management, lead tracking, email integration, sales forecasting, social media integration, and analytics are just a few of the capabilities available with Zoho CRM. It also includes modules for email marketing and customer assistance, such as Zoho Campaigns.
Salesforce: Salesforce provides a variety of capabilities that span CRM, sales, marketing, and customer service. Through its care Cloud, it provides lead management, opportunity tracking, email automation, reporting and dashboards, workflow automation, marketing automation, and customer care functionality.
3.User Interface and Usability:
Zoho CRM: Zoho CRM offers an easy-to-use user interface. It provides a consolidated view of client data, allowing users to easily access contact information, activity history, and associated records.
Salesforce: Salesforce’s user interface is highly flexible and can be adjusted to meet unique user requirements. However, the interface, particularly for beginning users, can be confusing and daunting. The latest user interface, Salesforce Lightning, offers a more modern and streamlined experience.
4. Ecosystem and Integration:
Zoho CRM: Zoho CRM interfaces with a wide range of third-party apps and services, such as email marketing platforms, accounting software, and productivity tools. It also offers its own set of business applications, such as Zoho Books and Zoho Projects, that can be combined for complete business management.
Salesforce: Salesforce has a large ecosystem of third-party integrations as well as a dedicated AppExchange marketplace. It has a large developer community and may be integrated with a variety of popular programs such as marketing automation tools, collaboration platforms, and ERP systems.
Unparalleled Performance: Unveiling the Value of Zoho CRM
When evaluating the ideal CRM solution, Zoho CRM emerges as a strong contender, offering a suite of features that seamlessly align with your organizational goals. From robust lead management and streamlined workflow automation to comprehensive analytics that yield actionable insights, Zoho CRM is customized to enhance your business operations holistically.
Why Zoho CRM Prevails: A Closer Look
Tailored Solutions: Zoho CRM recognizes the diversity of business requirements, hence offering customizable interfaces and adaptable modules. This ensures that your CRM experience is a reflection of your unique needs.
Seamless User Interface: Navigating intricate functionalities becomes a breeze with Zoho CRM’s intuitive dashboard. The user-friendly design empowers teams, enhancing their efficiency and overall productivity.
Affordability, No Compromises: Zoho CRM stands out for its affordability without compromising on capabilities. Experience the full spectrum of CRM tools without stretching your budget, setting it apart in the market.
AI-Powered Insights: Gain a competitive edge with AI-driven analytics from Zoho CRM. Unearth patterns, predict trends, and make well-informed decisions propelling your business towards exponential growth.
Harmonious Ecosystem Integration: Zoho CRM seamlessly integrates with a suite of Zoho applications, establishing a unified ecosystem that streamlines operations across your organization. This synergy fosters collaboration and maximizes efficiency.
In the compelling face-off between Salesforce and Zoho CRM, the latter emerges triumphant in addressing the multifaceted needs of modern businesses. With its tailored approach, intuitive interface, budget-friendliness, AI-infused insights, and ecosystem integration, Zoho CRM emerges as the definitive choice for enterprises poised to achieve unparalleled success.
Conclusion?
Of course, this report doesn’t extract every single detail from both Zoho CRM Enterprise Edition and Salesforce CRM Professional Edition. However, the overview of the few features outlined gives prospective users an idea of what to expect.
What this report does not do is detail the exact look and feel of each UI, nor does it mention the methods of online or phone support plans or CRM consulting services offered, since those tend to be judged more subjectively.
The real object is to get you to make your own decision between Salesforce vs Zoho. While Zoho may be a cheaper option with more features, you may be looking into something more, still. You might prefer something lighter than Zoho CRM Enterprise Edition–or lighter than Salesforce Professional Edition. In any event, hopefully this post helps in your search for the CRM that’s most appropriate for your own business.
The Benefits of Switching from Spreadsheets to CRM for Your Business
There comes a time in every person’s life when he must abandon his training wheels and go forth into the night on just two of them.
As a very young person, you may have thought this was absolutely ludicrous. Why abandon the safety of the training wheels? (Maybe you saw a sibling get into an accident and it scarred you for a while.) Whatever the reason, you may have held out for a while, but, when you finally got up the nerve to go out on two wheels – or, into the pool without water wings – or, onto the street in your car without a supportive parent in the passenger seat – it probably felt much better than you thought it would. Much more freedom! Many more possibilities.
And, so it is with your business.
For years, you may have been dealing with your customers in a very simple way, just keeping track of them on a spreadsheet you periodically update. Maybe that’s just the way it’s always been. Maybe you tried learning a different way of managing your contacts before, and it didn’t take for one reason or another. But, that’s the way it is for now.
What if there was a better, more streamlined way of reaching out to and keeping track of your customers and prospects, though? The very possibility of this can be a lot to take in, especially for someone who’s used to doing the same thing day in and day out. But, the fact that you’re reading a tech blog – and, this blog post – means you’re probably open to the idea of it.
What does a spreadsheet do?
[caption id="attachment_723" align="alignleft" width="350"] (other than cramp your style, obviously)[/caption]
The thing about spreadsheets is they’re very passive. If you want a spreadsheet to tell you a piece of information, you have to pull a few strings, write a few formulas, and make it happen yourself. Your record-keeping must be very precise, and, the spreadsheet probably demands a lot of your attention, and will keep on doing so in higher quantities as your business expands.
Moving through a sales cycle is a tedious, manual process, comprised of many copy+pastes and cross-references with other documents (or programs, if you use an inventory management system or QuickBooks). Calling customers is completely manual, and, taking notes can be quite messy. When it comes time to email those customers, you’d better have a special folder set up for correspondence, too, or else say goodbye to ever finding customer records without knowing what you talked about before – so you can enter search terms into your email client.
In short, spreadsheets are great if you’re keeping track of just a little data, not needing to modify it or move it very much…
But, is your business small and simple?
If you’re reading this, I have a hunch it isn’t, or, it’s reached the point where it’s about to break out…with a little help from a customer relationship management system – a CRM.
What does a CRM do?
Essentially, a CRM is like a spreadsheet in that it can certainly list all of your contacts, leads, and other records; however, it’s equipped to help you manage all sorts of business scenarios with a little more finesse. For example, filtering certain leads or contacts (so, for example, you’re only looking at clients who have birthdays this month), which is impossible with a spreadsheet, is easy with a CRM.
Want to move someone from one category to another in your database? It’s as easy as clicking a button, or, selecting an option from a drop-down menu.
Keeping track of past correspondence with customers, one of the best parts of having a CRM at your disposal, is suddenly second-nature, as all your notes appear on the same page as your contact, complete with dates, a sales history, and, of course, all the requisite contact info. With a CRM, taking notes is as easy as typing what you want and pressing OK.
Even the act of calling customers itself, historically a manual task, can become nearly automatic with calendar reminders and integrated calling features within a CRM, as well.
Data security is much better with CRM, as opposed to spreadsheets
Have you ever been entering information in your spreadsheet, when suddenly – poof – a column disappears? Or, it disappeared minutes ago and you aren’t sure when, and you don’t know how many CTRL+Zs it will take to get anything back? With spreadsheets, being vigilant is a constant struggle. One great thing about CRM is fields are protected, and you have to verify info before saving it. This means there’s virtually no chance of accidentally mass-deleting 1000 phone numbers. Sure, this may not be a problem if you’re a super-human, methodical worker. But, most people aren’t perfect. And, people tend to become less perfect as their workloads increase. Which is what you’re trying to do with your business, hopefully. So, why not use something that in essence catches your mistakes?
CRM improves security in another way too, however, by restricting or granting access to certain data modules (tables) or fields based on permission level. Of course, you can solve this problem in spreadsheets by simply creating multiple sheets. But, like all things related to using spreadsheets, it simply isn’t a sustainable solution in the long run. It’s better to have a system that allows for creating system users that can be added or deactivated at will, and whose permissions can be changed easily, with just a few clicks.
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You can use CRM as your hub, and connect different spokes at will
Everything else notwithstanding, one of the best parts of having a CRM is the ability to connect other apps to it, hands down. There’s only so much you can reasonably track in a CRM itself – and, there’s only so much you’ll want to give your sales staff access to. But, with other apps to track things like customer orders and invoices, project statuses, and the like, you can give yourself and your sales team a 360-degree view of any given customer, so they know just how to react whenever that person gives you a call. And, they’ll know just how to market to that person when it comes time to do so.
With great spreadsheets come great paper waste
Well, maybe not all the time. But, if you’re using a spreadsheet – something that inherently doesn’t connect to anything else in the business – you’re probably making some kind of waste. It’s likely you’re either sending loads of emails back and forth, or you’re printing out physical documents to send to accounting. Having a CRM eliminates the need for any of that. Of course, sometimes printing physical documents is harder to avoid, like in the case of warehouse pick sheets when employees don’t have access to mobile devices – but, in most cases, CRM drastically helps in this area.
Are you ready to do away with the training wheels?
The first step to eliminating a problem is at least admitting the existence of one. You may be satisfied with your way of contacting clients at the moment. But, can you imagine the difference without being encumbered by the manual labor of a spreadsheet?
Take off those extra wheels and explore the two-wheeled world – by taking a look at some CRMs! You’ll probably find it’s a lot easier to get around, you can go a lot faster, and, you get a lot more done at the end of the day.
As Zoho consultants, we’re happy to give you a training of Zoho CRM, an intuitive, simple CRM solution, as it applies to your style of business – with all the Zoho support you need, to boot. If you’d like to explore apps other than Zoho CRM, too, that’s no problem. Zoho One is packed full of apps aside from the CRM, and they are all related or integrated to each other.
Zoho SalesIQ is a fantastic way to get your customers talking and drive your sales up. It might not be obvious why that is right away, though. Here’s what’s going on:
Every day, thousands of people crawl the web searching for businesses just like yours. Maybe they even find them. …Maybe they even find you. But, then, what do you do?
Maybe some of those customers convert without you lifting a finger. Your website could look gorgeous, attract all the right traffic, and even have a logical path that potential customers can follow, one that can (and sometimes does) lead to a conversion without any intervention on your part.
But, the tacit approach isn’t going to win everyone over. Some people need a little push in the right direction. A little conversation. You’re going to need to chat them up to make them yours.
Enter Zoho SalesIQ.
Why Zoho SalesIQ?
Zoho SalesIQ is Zoho’s prospect communication module. It allows people in your company to chat directly with people viewing your website, which, when done at the correct times, can mean the difference between a few curious (but ultimately indecisive) lookie-lous and a few purchases.
But, why use Zoho SalesIQ specifically? There are tons of other chat modules available. Why choose this one?
1. Zoho SalesIQ allows for prioritizing (scoring) your leads
For businesses that attract a good deal of traffic, this is huge. For want of a better example, imagine for a moment that it’s 1998 and you’re the owner of a Furby distributorship. You’ve just opened the doors to your very first retail outlet, and, it’s causing a huge commotion in your strip mall. With all the fanfare, not only are serious buyers heading in in droves, but everyone off the street is also stopping by to witness the chaos. You’re selling quite a few Furbys, obviously, but, you’re running into a bunch of people in your store who aren’t really sure what Furbys are, don’t have the money to buy them, or, are planning to take your Furby quote to the next-nearest retailer and demand a price match.
You think to yourself, Life is pretty good today, but, it would be even better if I only ran into serious buyers and other people carrying more than $50 on them, and, none of these other people!
In effect, by using lead scoring from Zoho SalesIQ, this is exactly the type of situation you’re helping to create.
Lead scoring is a way of separating the wheat from the chaff, as it were. With Zoho SalesIQ, everyone gets to see your website, of course – but, lead scoring lets you prioritize your potential customers in a way that’s completely up to you by giving them points for each criteria of yours they meet. The more points they have, the closer they’re allowed to come to you, and, if you’re getting bombarded, you’ll know to engage the good visitors first and get to the others later, if you want.
Here’s how scoring might work:
Did you just start an email campaign? You can give people who accessed your page from one of those messages a higher score to denote their interest in your products. Want to go after people who’ve spent more than two minutes looking at your website? More than five minutes? You can also give those visitors a higher score. The more criteria your customers meet, the higher their score, and, the closer they get to you, figuratively; you can spend more time engaging those people on Zoho SalesIQ instead of engaging people who have less potential to buy from you at all.
Any time you can integrate one customer-oriented part of your business with your main customer hub, your CRM, you’re going to reap benefits. SalesIQ’s CRM integration ability lets you do a couple of things that aren’t possible with a standalone chat module:
Start sending emails and alerts right away
With an integration to Zoho CRM, Zoho SalesIQ can transfer customer data directly to your CRM, making it easy to add them to email campaigns, and otherwise keep track of their progress through your pipeline in a more universal sense than would be possible with a standalone chat system.
Save a great deal of time
Zoho CRM integration means you spend more time interacting with customers and less time – well, no time at all, precisely – manually entering lead information into your CRM, because Zoho SalesIQ transfers information to your Zoho CRM with the click of a button. For businesses with many qualified customers finding them every day, this feature is absolutely invaluable.
Recall and analyze the past with ease
Memory a little fuzzy on that last conversation you had with the 20th prospect of the day? Zoho SalesIQ’s chat logging feature combined with access to past data from Zoho CRM allows you to make decisions you couldn’t have made before, such as placing your customer into an “interested” email campaign list from a “lukewarm” list. Perfect for anyone who has more than a couple of conversations each day.
3. Zoho SalesIQ’s mobile compatibility means you’ll never miss a potential connection
Obviously, almost anything can be made better when you’re doing it from the comfort of your living room as opposed to the unyielding chair of your office. Engaging your customers is certainly no exception to this rule.
With Zoho SalesIQ’s mobile compatibility, you can have conversations with your customers outside of work, too – during a walk outside, a TV commercial, or even a lousy date. (Priorities!) Combine this mobile capability with aforementioned lead scoring and CRM integration, and it really is like bringing your customer base – the core of your entire business – with you, right in the palm of your hand.
Zoho SalesIQ is clearly a wise choice
Hopefully this sheds a little light on a common problem some businesses have: Even in the best of times, they might be wasting lots of valuable resources talking to the wrong people, manually entering data, or missing lots of good connections – or not talking to potential customers at all!
Zoho SalesIQ takes the mystery out of your process. Whether or not to engage your customers smartly (by prioritizing), efficiently (by integrating), or easily (by using mobile capability) shouldn’t be decisions you have to make – they shouldn’t even enter the equation. Leave those details to Zoho SalesIQ and you’ll find you’ll focus less on the things slowing you down and more on what you do best: communicating with customers who really want to buy from you.
If you are a small or medium business searching for a cost-effective but powerful solution for CRM with an accounting integration feature, some automation, data security, and Google App integration, then you should consider implementing Zoho CRM. As a relatively new player in comparison to Salesforce, you may be skeptical until you read this article.
Affordability
The most important aspect for most small businesses is the bottom line cost. If two options exist that offer relatively similar features, the one that is 50% less in cost is the natural choice. This is the exact reason why Zoho has been gaining market share for their software, which is priced aggressively and includes much of the same features if not more than Salesforce at the same price points.
What’s even more important is the fact that Zoho offers a simple ‘pay-as-you-go’ model avoiding what most businesses fear; vendor lock-in. If you want to try out a solution, generally you do not want to be locked in for a year. Zoho’s monthly option allows you to give it a trial without wasting valuable cash flow over a longer period of time. Salesforce, however, ensures a lock-in period of at least one year. The fact that Zoho is 1/5th the cost of Salesforce, does not lock you in, provides similar features and is an easy- to-implement solution makes it the clear choice for small and medium businesses.
Leading Feature Set
At a fraction of the cost of Salesforce you may question the power of features that Zoho Online CRM can offer, yet you would be surprised that it still compares well to Salesforce. The pay-as-you-go model for Zoho also refers to the fact that you can choose only which plug-ins you need, paying only for what you use. Even with most of the plug-ins, the price is still generally less than a comparable package with Salesforce. The leading features that Zoho offers includes software updates as they are rolled out, Zoho support during implementation and deployment, mobile access, an intuitive web interface that is easy to use and implement, customizable interface to match your own company’s workflow, automation of key aspects of your business processes and the ability to export your data anytime.
These are on top of the standard features you have come to expect from a CRM with such a flexible and detailed customer relationship management. Included features are prioritizing your sales activities, automating your sales force, tracking sales, engaging clients through email and social CRM, all within Zoho CRM.
Easy Implementation
Requiring a week of setup and training is just not possible in some small and medium enterprises. Instead of hiring an IT expert to help you implement your new CRM, which is often the case needed with Salesforce, you can implement Zoho CRM into your software environment and start using it usually within the first day. Of course, full customization and implementation may take a few days but this process is simple and easy with Zoho CRM’s intuitive online interface. Also, our team of Zoho Certified consultants can help you integrate your CRM with other ERP software environments such as Sage quickly and efficiently as well, and even offer specialized CRM training sessions for you and your team.
As an SME you need to weigh your options for performance and automation against the bottom line cost. The best option is generally a program that meets most of your needs as well as your budget. Outgrowing Zoho for Salesforce three or five years later is a good problem to have.
Integrations Galore
Like Salesforce, Zoho comes with a wide variety of integrations – and not just 3rd-party ones. Zoho’s family of apps includes CRM, Zoho Books (for handling finances as well as orders and invoices for customers), Zoho Campaigns (for email marketing management), and many others. Zoho even offers a whole suite of apps called Zoho One, which contains over 40 apps. Zoho One is available for just $45/user/month*, a far less expensive choice than Salesforce. Add in Zoho’s platform as a service, Zoho Creator (similar to
Force.com), and you have a myriad of integration options, including custom Zoho ERP software integrations. *Pricing updated June 2021
Still can’t decide? We’ll talk you through it honestly
Looking for someone to help you make the decision between Zoho vs Salesforce? Feel free to drop us a line at (888) 207-4111 and one of our certified CRM experts would be happy to work with you to define the best solution for your business!
Challenge: I can’t access my CRM on-the-go.
Challenge: I can’t access my CRM on-the-go.
If you haven’t checked out Zoho One, 
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Just like this![/caption]
