Alternative to Method CRM for QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a wonderful, easy-to-use accounting system that’s perfect for many small and medium-sized businesses.  As such, it makes sense for businesses to want to integrate their QuickBooks systems into other aspects of their businesses as much as possible in order to save time and reduce overhead for menial tasks like data entry.  There are a few integration options for QuickBooks – most notably Method CRM – but, Method CRM’s dearth of features makes many business owners look for an alternative to Method CRM for a QuickBooks Desktop integration.

The solution to this problem seems to be to implement Zoho CRM instead, as an alternative to Method CRM.

Well, why not go with Method CRM?

It’s a good question to ask.  Method Integrations is one of Intuit’s partners, which means the two companies share revenue on Method CRM licenses purchased.  Intuit also provides an integration to Method CRM that is seamless and completely free of charge.  Given that Method CRM’s price per user is only $5 more than Zoho CRM’s per month, it seems like Method CRM users are getting a great deal with the addition of that free integration.  (See the full breakdown in the Method CRM vs Zoho CRM Review.)

But, appearances can be deceiving. This is why you may need to look into an alternative to Method CRM.

What do you get with Method CRM over Zoho CRM?

Aside from the aforementioned QuickBooks syncing mechanism, Method CRM users can automatically track all interactions with customers, including calls, services performed, and appointments.  These are fairly standard sales tracking features; Zoho CRM provides all these as well.  Method CRM also uses “unlimited contacts per account” as a selling point – and, while Zoho limits its number of custom fields to 300, it’s doubtful that most companies would exhaust that number of custom fields in their entire CRM, let alone in contact names.

Method CRM integrates with Gmail and Microsoft Outlook, giving its users a variety of email clients to use in conjunction with their CRM service, and also boasts an integration to SmartVault.  Zoho CRM, in turn, also integrates with all these services except SmartVault – but, integrates with DropBox instead, a comparable secure data storage solution.

In short, with Zoho CRM as an alternative to Method CRM, you can get essentially the same services you’d get from Method CRM.

What does Zoho CRM provide that Method CRM doesn’t?

The chief difference between Zoho CRM and Method CRM is Method CRM is primarily a traditional customer outreach tool with a few extra bells and whistles, while Zoho CRM provides a great deal of extra functionality.  In essence, this extra functionality – in the form of marketing and social networking tools – is what makes Zoho CRM just as expensive as Method CRM despite its lack of an out-of-the-box integration with QuickBooks.

Why do you need Marketing and Social Networking tools?

Obviously, being able to reach out to your customers and keep track of all your past interactions and sales is absolutely key – in fact, it’s the chief reason you’re using a CRM instead of a spreadsheet.

But, that’s certainly not all there is to a CRM, and unfortunately this is where Method CRM seems to fall short, and the chief reason why you’ll want to consider an alternative to Method CRM when you plug in to QuickBooks.

Why use Social Networking?

Social networking tools connect your CRM directly to platforms; Zoho CRM can connect directly to Facebook and Twitter via built in tabs (and, through Zoho Social, a social post-blasting mechanism, you can connect to LinkedIn and Google+ as well) and monitor social mentions for you, ensuring you stay on top of what your customers (or prospective customers) are saying about you.  This takes you from simply engaging people inside your CRM to engaging them outside your CRM in the social networking world at large – a much bigger universe than your CRM entails by itself.

How about Marketing?

Marketing tools allow for emailing clients and prospects alike directly from your CRM (or from a Zoho add-on called Zoho Campaigns).  This sort of functionality allows you to keep in touch with current clients with special announcements and newsletters, and also allows you to engage prospective clients with fresh content in the form of mass emails or timed auto-responders.  These functions mean increased business for you in the form of:

• Current customers who can potentially take advantage of special or seasonal promotions you offer, who would have had no way of knowing about those offers without a marketing engine
• Prospective customers who read your newly generated content and are compelled to do business with you whereas before, when they viewed your site for the first time, they were only curious about you and your services.

Both marketing and social media engines are powerful tools offered by Zoho CRM that simply do not exist inside Method CRM.

But, can you customize Zoho CRM like Method CRM?

One great feature about Method CRM is its easy drag-and-drop customization feature for default and custom fields alike.  Bear in mind, however, that you have the same ability to customize your modules with the fields of your choice with Zoho CRM when you consider an alternative to Method CRM – right down to the drag-and-drop.

Are you ready for your business to grow?

Truth be told, social media tools and marketing strategies might not be everyone’s cup of tea.  If you don’t plan to grow your business (e.g., you’re planning to close your business, or your business model is such that growing your client base simply isn’t possible for other reasons) and still want a QuickBooks integration, you may want to look elsewhere.

However, if you do want to engage your customers and prospects in a meaningful way and take advantage of a Zoho CRM QuickBooks integration as an alternative to Method CRM, Zoho CRM is the right choice for you.

The rest of the Zoho family are no slouches, either

In addition to Zoho CRM, using Zoho gives you access to even more software, potentially.  Depending on your use case and the size of your company, it can be even less expensive to get an entire suite of Zoho apps (like Zoho One) than it is to get just the CRM by itself.  The Zoho One suite includes the CRM, of course, but it also sports the aforementioned Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Motivator (a sales motivator tool for competitive sales teams), Zoho Desk (for managing support cases)…and even Zoho Books, an alternative to QuickBooks.  If you ever get to that stage, that is.

Get Started with Zoho CRM as an alternative to Method CRM

Schedule a call with ZBrains by contacting us!  Use the button near the upper right part of this page, or just give us a call at (888) 207-4111.

Effortlessly Connect with Your Audience using Zoho Campaigns

Leave the Zoho email campaign tutorial to us!

Our team of Zoho Certified Consultants now offers fully integrated Zoho Campaigns management and development, including expert execution and affordable pricing options for a successful email marketing strategy.

Social campaigns are often the first point of contact with potential customers. What is your strategy for educating them on your product and getting them in the funnel? Allowing ZBrains to show you how to manage Zoho Campaigns is the answer to these questions. Having developed, implemented, and managed thousands of social campaigns, our Zoho experts can take your social media channel development to the next level.

While not exhaustive, here is a brief Zoho Campaigns tutorial.  This will go over the purpose of the app; the differences between Campaigns and other, similar Zoho apps; as well as Zoho Campaigns pricing.

What are Zoho Campaigns good for?

You can use Zoho Campaigns for a variety of email marketing efforts, including:

• Mass emailing – particular lists of clients using lists straight from your Zoho CRM – perfect for company newsletters, promotions, or other important bulk mail memos.  Zoho Campaign templates are particularly useful for this.  Just select any of the library of prefabricated email templates, or create your own in just a few minutes.
• Creating autoresponders (Zoho drip campaigns) – perfect for a marketing campaign designed to increase engagement steadily and move prospects down your funnel.
• A/B testing – for when you aren’t sure how a particular marketing effort will perform when put against another.  With Zoho Campaigns A/B testing, you can do just that and see who the true victor is.  Then, you can tailor your next marketing strategies around the result of the more successful campaign.
• Tracking open and click-through rates, which lets you know exactly how effective your campaigns are – no guesswork!
• Workflow automation – want to get some Zoho Campaigns automation, so you don’t have to transfer info between Campaigns and CRM?  This is a standard feature, included specifically so certain email actions will update contact records directly inside Zoho CRM.
• Social campaigns for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+, letting you automatically post to different social networks – even personal pages – automatically with just a click.  As with email campaigns, the system provides detailed analytics to let you know how your marketing strategy is working at all times.

We understand the pain points of a growing business–the need for more resources, and time, and always feeling understaffed. To boot, Zoho Campaigns can be confusing, tedious, and time-consuming – but, they can be automated AND effective if set up strategically. ZBrains can help create and manage social and email marketing campaigns to educate your customers about new products, company updates, and promotions. Create a big presence with smart email campaign automation to better your current relationships and create more business opportunities. Leave the Zoho email campaign tutorial to us! That way, you can focus on running your business without compromising your marketing efforts.

Should you use Zoho Campaigns or Zoho Social?

There is some overlap between Zoho Campaigns and Zoho Social in the social media campaigns aspect.  If you’re looking for pure social media marketing, Zoho Social is a fine app.  However, if you’re at all interested in email marketing, it is very possible to run social media campaigns directly through Campaigns.  Let us know if you have any questions about the feature overlaps between these two apps.

What about Marketing Automation?

The Zoho marketing stack is designed to encompass every marketing tool they’ve built. Zoho Marketing Automation combines those tools with elements of Zoho Analytics, added a very attractive, and updated the UI. This is Zoho’s answer to HubSpot, Adobe, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

While there is still some overlap with Campaigns, Marketing Automation focuses on the entire marketing funnel. First, begin with when people arrive on your website.  It also contains email, customer journey automation, and social media marketing elements.

Zoho Campaigns Pricing

Are you ready to take your email marketing strategy to the next level with Zoho Campaigns? Before diving into the world of this robust email marketing platform, let’s explore the intricacies of Zoho Campaigns pricing. We believe in transparency, so you can make an informed decision about which pricing model suits your business needs best.

Zoho Campaign pricing differs from that of most other Zoho apps in that it’s based on the number of contacts in your system, or emails you send – and not the number of users of the app.  Note too Zoho calls these contacts subscribers, as in subscribers to your mailing list, to be perfectly above the board.

As in most Zoho apps, Zoho offers a free plan for Campaigns, which accommodates sending up to 12,000 emails per month, and up to 2000 subscribers.  Its features, however, are limited, leaving out a variety of tracking abilities, sending attachments, polls, as well as any email workflow automation.  It is also the only version of Campaigns with a user number restriction (only 5).

Zoho Campaigns pricing* methods are as follows:

1. Email-based pricing
   
   • 500 emails (250 Contacts) per month: $3.00/mo
   • 1000 emails (500 Contacts) per month: $5.00/mo
   • …and so on.  You can find a price calculator here.
2. Subscriber-based pricing.
   
   • 500 subscribers: $4.50/mo
   • 1000 subscribers: $9.00/mo
   • 5000: $39/mo
   • 10,000: $60.75/mo
   • 50,000: $172.50/mo
   • …and so on.
3. Email Credit-based pricing
   
   • 250 credits: $7/mo
   • 500 credits: $14/mo
   • 1000 credits: $25/mo
   • 10,000 credits: $173/mo
   • 50,000 credits: $450/mo
   • …and so on.

*Pricing updated June 2021

A note about email credit-based Zoho Campaigns pricing:

Buying email credits in advance rather than simply paying as you go with the email-based pricing is a more expensive option, as the credits you buy this way can roll over into the next month.  Using email credit-based pricing is good for situations when:

• you aren’t sure how many emails you’ll be sending in a month
• you want to stock up on credits for times when you know you’ll have a very heavy marketing month, followed by a period of very light marketing

On the other hand, email-based pricing is good when:

• your monthly email count is fairly consistent
• you don’t have heavy or light marketing months; it’s all pretty steady so there’s no need to change plans

Why Choose Zoho Campaigns for Your Email Marketing?

Now that you’re well-versed in the pricing options, let’s revisit why Zoho Campaigns is the go-to choice for your email marketing efforts:

1. Zoho Campaigns is an all-in-one solution that simplifies the entire process of creating, sending, and tracking email campaigns, streamlining your workflow for maximum efficiency.
2. With its intuitive email editor, crafting stunning email campaigns becomes effortless. Regardless of your design experience, you can create visually appealing emails that resonate with your audience.
3. Zoho Campaigns offers advanced personalization and segmentation tools, enabling you to tailor your emails to individual preferences and needs. This boosts engagement and customer satisfaction.
4. You can save time with automation and autoresponders, which cover everything from welcome emails to drip campaigns and cart abandonment reminders.
5. Comprehensive email tracking and analytics tools allow you to measure the success of your campaigns by providing insights into open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and subscriber behavior.

What do you get through ZBrains?

We understand you have a large variety of options when it comes to picking out a Zoho consultant to help you with Campaigns, CRM, Zoho Desk, or any other apps in the Zoho One platform – and, with that in mind, we’ve gone to great lengths to put ourselves a cut above the rest.

As a Zoho Premium Partner, we offer not only a Zoho Campaigns tutorial and deployment but the very same for Zoho CRM itself and Zoho Creator.  That way, your company has the option of creating its programs and apps through Zoho.  We also offer custom integrations to programs like QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, Google Apps, and many others.

In short, with ZBrains, you get not only premium CRM consulting but customized plugins that aren’t available anywhere else, which gives you an advantage you simply can’t get anywhere else.

Get started with Zoho Campaigns today

Especially today, keeping your business customer-centric is key.  And, there’s no better way to do that than through good marketing efforts, beginning with email and social.  See how an infusion of good marketing can help your business thrive!

Use this link to schedule a Zoho Campaigns tutorial.  Alternatively, let us know what your whole business looks like and we’ll tell you the best way to make Zoho Campaigns work for you.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Is this a typical sales meeting for you?

Change that with dedicated sales coaching.

Some of us are naturally charismatic – great with people, charming, maybe a little irreverent –  natural leaders, able to get others to hop onto their bandwagon.  Selling is no problem for them.  But they’re not the ones who benefit from sales coaching.

Some folks wish they could sell, but really don’t know how. Others attract decent business, but strive to rocket their skills into the stratosphere. They want to make the transition from middle-of-the-road competitor to top-of-class.

It isn’t impossible.  Zoho tools, alined with your sales coaching is the way to go.

Power Sales with Zoho

Why Does Zoho from ZBrains Compliment  Your Sales Coaching?

The essential parts of being a good seller – communicating confidence and value, speaking concisely, being personable and conveying your personality – won’t just help you sell; they also carry over into your non-business life, making it easier to build trust with other people and making it more natural for others to follow you. Natural sales people can:

• Develop and convey confidence in person or over the telephone
• Lead people in your organization in a way they can appreciate and even like
• Manage stress effectively

Put the focus on developing your team, and let ZBrains help with the tools you need to cultivate successful sales professionals. Focus on the big picture – your goals – instead of scattering yourself unreasonably in many different areas.

Sales Coaching on Zoho Tools

While you may want to focus on theory, as above, you may also want to focus on specific practices you can apply to your business to increase sales efficiency.  For this, we offer techniques for:

• Engage customers in a chat room for remote meeting and selling using Zoho SalesIQ
• Send timely emails from CRM to engage your customers when they need it most
• Cold-call prospects or garner additional business from current clients with Zoho phone integration
• Make the best impression for in-person meetings with accurate proposals and solid customer data

Align Your Sales & Zoho With ZBrains

Understand Your Clients Better

Complement your sales team’s skills with an understanding of what goes through the mind of your clients. With Zoho apps, your team will be prepared to address customer fears about doing business, even subconscious ones. You’ll have more time to focus on customers, and spend less making your systems work.  This will earn you respect that few ever do, and put you in a prime position to earn more business!

Lessons You Can Apply to Zoho CRM

We can show you ways to apply what you may already be doing – or are working to improve –  to operating your Zoho CRM and its suite of apps.  Zoho comes with an array of tools that can help with sales, not the least of which is the pipeline itself.  Couple that with SalesIQ, Zoho’s customer engagement portal, and you’ll have ways to engage your customers in new, refreshing ways. The bonus? It’s a wonderful way to motivate your entire sales team while bolstered with your newfound knowledge.  Training packages are available here.

Get Started With Sales Coaching for Zoho Today

Your potential customers are waiting for someone with your business and message to engage them – they just haven’t heard it yet.  Use this link to contact us about specialized sales training, or, just give us a call at (888) 207-4111 to schedule a sales coaching session.

Start with a Business Process Analysis

In a Zoho Bind?  Zoho Consultants Can Help

Zoho CRM is certainly renowned for its great customization options – but, with all that power comes a good bit of responsibility too, and, sometimes it’s enough to make you want to hang up your hat.  Almost makes you wish you knew a few Zoho consultants…

We completely get it!  That’s one of the reasons we’re here.

We founded ZBrains because we know trying to get Zoho and all its apps to behave exactly how you want them to can sometimes be difficult – and, we love showing Zoho users ways to use the programs to do not only your bidding, but, eventually, to do things you wouldn’t have even thought possible before.

What can Zoho Consultants do to help?zo

Chatting with Zoho consulting experts isn’t just about following commands (unless you like being back in high school).  We’d rather sit down with you and talk about the nature of your business.  That way, we’ll know exactly what you can expect out of Zoho, and, you’ll know what’s possible for your unique business model.

As Zoho consultants, we can then train you in as many aspects of Zoho as you want, including Zoho CRM, uncovering all the little tips and tricks you might need to make your life easier, but none of the ones that won’t serve you.  Then, we can introduce you to special Zoho apps like SalesIQ, Campaigns, MarketingHub, and Social, designed to give your customers a more interactive experience with your brand.

Think you’ll need even more?  Let us know and we can even implement Zoho for you with one of our special plans.  We’ll go through your whole business process to ensure Zoho fits in.  And, we can even show you where Zoho can improve your processes themselves.  Rest assured we’ll do all the heavy lifting for you.

Do you need Zoho to do something a little more specialized?

We’re called ZBrains not only because of our Zoho product knowledge, but because we create plugins for Zoho that you won’t find anywhere else.  For example:

• QuickBooks Desktop integration to Zoho, which eliminates a great deal of double entry
• Commission Calculators for Zoho, which makes tracking and calculating payouts easier than ever before
• Job Costing for Zoho, which provides up-to-the-minute reports on your company’s profits, so you can accurately forecast future earnings, and more

Are these Zoho Consultants the same as Zoho Support?

They aren’t!  Zoho is a large company, and, while they would love to be able to serve everyone with lightning speed, it isn’t always possible. With ZBrains, you get local support from a leaner, meaner company.

That said, getting your whole team on the same page (and even in the same room) for a support or training session can be troublesome – so, we coordinate training sessions you and your whole team can see via shared screen, making sure not to leave any stones unturned.  As well, Zoho support plans are available for spur-of-the-moment requests, bugs, and other issues that sometimes arise.

Zoho Consultants are ready to help!  Get started today

You shouldn’t have to sit on the bench while your team toils with a new system; you can empower them by investing time in the right training.  Simply contact us or call 888-207-4111, and we’ll be in touch with you shortly to have a discussion about your business and how Zoho can work for you to make it all run smoothly.