Tag: small business

Pipedrive vs Salesforce

Pipedrive and Salesforce are popular CRM software that have been adopted by businesses; small and medium to large enterprises. If you are in the market for a CRM solution to strengthen your sales process, this post will help you take an informed decision by highlighting some of the key factors based on which, CRM software (for small business) should be selected.

Salesforce

Ease of use

Ease of use is important for any modern app. Traditionally Saleforce has been lagging in this area, However their latest lightening UI provides a viable solution in terms of UI. When you log in, the dashboard presents wide range of report widgets that provides a bird’s-eye view of how the revenue. Sales reps can also view real-time summaries of their performance and customer data. The dashboard can also be customized to show you data related to wide range of key metrics — from sales quota and pipelines to key opportunities, leaderboards and more.

There is a simple navigation at the left hand side. Each tab is separated into the categories, such as Home, Contacts, Accounts, Leads, Campaigns, Opportunities, Forecasts Files and more. As part of the dashboard’s customizability, you can also reconfigure each tab or add your own as per your preference.

Some of the areas such as pipeline management and deal settings demand higher learning curve as there are multiple steps involved in the process.

Features

Salesforce has plethora of features and integrates with many third party apps. If something is not available, then the Salesforce marketplace allows to purchase the add-on to fit your business process flow. However, this very fact makes it cumbersome and costly for small businesses. Key features:

  • Contact management
  • Lead tracking — from campaigns and marketing acquisition channels to the sales pipeline
  • Deal evaluation and quotation tools
  • Sales forecasting
  • Reporting tools
  • Team collaboration with access to associated files, reports, data sources, leads and more
  • Workflow automation
  • Mobile App

Limitations: A big concern for small business owners is that there are additional costs associated with using Salesforce beyond its core capabilities. For instance, third-party apps that require additional licenses or accounts, such as Data.com, aren’t part of Salesforce’s pricing plan. You’ll end up paying for those services on top of the already expensive Salesforce subscription.

For small businesses, Salesforce’s biggest strength is also its weakness. Because of the robustness of the CRM app, it can be a good choice for larger businesses and at the same time it can be overwhelming for small companies that don’t need such an exhaustive software solution.

Pricing

Given below is the pricing of Salesforce which limits usage of feature and differentiates in terms of customer support apart from locking the customer for a year.

Lightning Essentials

(up to 5 users)

 Lightning Professional

 

(unlimited team size)

 Lightning Enterprise

 

(Additional customization options)

 Lightning Unlimited

 

(Power users with priority support)
25 USD/user/month (billed annually) $75 per user (billed annually) $150 per user (billed annually) $300 per user (billed annually)

Pipedrive

Ease of use

Pipedrive is known for its simplicity and usability. The on-boarding comes with a guided tour where the app prompts you to perform various basic activities like deal and contact creation. Although it can be considered as a good sales pipeline management tool, it lacks holistic approach towards the needs of a small business.

Features

Pipedrive was built with the philosophy that majority of the features are not used by sales personnel. Hence, this it came up with basic functionalities; however, over time the features have grown to accommodate the needs of bigger companies as well. Given below are the key features

  • Pipedrive is based on sales pipeline and the activities are closely tied with deals to ensure that the deals move from one stage to another. You can manage sales pipeline and contacts as well as use the data import/export functionality.
  • Integrations: There are 80+ third party apps integrated with Pipedrive which portrays the extent of dependency on other apps in order to set up the business process.
  • Email tracking: Email tracking is quite important for salesperson — it allows your team to keep track of the conversation for quick reference while carrying out sales activities to close the deals.
  • Pre-built reporting and sales forecasting
  • Mobile apps
  • Customization options

Pricing

Here is the pricing of Pipedrive that restricts you from using certain features based on the plan:

Silver 

(Smart BCC email)

 Gold

 

(Full email sync – send and receive email)

 Platinum

 

(Phone support and private storage)
10 USD/user/month (billed annually) $24 (billed annually) $63 per user (billed annually)

Why TeamWave is a better alternative for small businesses

TeamWave is built by a small business for small businesses worldwide. Our mission is to provide a unified platform for collaboration, sales & marketing to small businesses at an affordable price. TeamWave offers a complete software suite of essential apps required to run a small company, i.e., CRM, project management, people management & more.

TeamWave’s CRM offers the following features while ensuring great usability:

  • Visual sales pipeline which offers pre-built sales stages along with option to configure as per your company’s business process. Robust contact management functionality along with import/export tool.
  • Activities tied to the deals that comes with reminders
  • Email integration
  • Goal set up to help your team achieve their sales targets.
  • Third party app integration including Google apps and Zapier
  • Free API access for additional customization and integration
  • Sales forecasting
  • Sales automation (creating deals and contacts via emails)
  • Pre-built reports to track deal closure, performance of the salesperson and sales activities
  • Mobile app
TeamWave’s visual sales pipeline

Apart from the above-mentioned features, because of TeamWave’s software suite, the native project and people management apps provide additional benefits. Here are the key advantages:

  • Important files can be copied from deals to projects (example: requirement document) with a few clicks. This comes handy when you commence project delivery after winning a deal.
  • In the HR app, if you add someone as the reporting manager of a sales rep, then the reporting manager will be automatically added as a deal follower whenever the sales rep adds a new deal. This fosters collaboration and helps in progress tracking.

Finally, all these apps are not differentiated based any tiered plan. The pricing is simple and straightforward — all the users get to use all the features and apps (pricing is only based on the number of users). 

Comparative view of the pricing for 10 users in case of annual subscription plan:

teamwave salesforce pipedrive

Takeaway

TeamWave delivers essential software suite required for any small business while ensuring robust set of features and superior user experience. And all this comes at a fraction of the cost you’d pay for the other alternatives.

teamwave-projects-crm-hrms

 

Top 7 Gmail Add-Ons for Business

Last year, Google launched third-party add-ons for Gmail.

Sitting on the sidebar on the right side of your inbox, these third-party add-ons can be used directly with Gmail to improve your productivity. The biggest advantage of “add-ons” (over chrome extensions, etc) is that they work seamlessly with all browsers and mobile devices. You can install multiple add-ons from different vendors without compromising performance or experience.
When launching add-ons, Google itself described email as “mission control” for your working life, and the best add-ons make Gmail feel more like centralized command center!

Here is a selection of Gmail add-ons for business that are popular, ones that we rely on to get things done, have great reviews, and make Gmail more powerful than it already is:

Dropbox – The add-on lets you save and share all files, big or small—including photos, videos, presentations, docs, and project work—without leaving Gmail. And now you can attach files from Dropbox when you compose an email.

RingCentral – Users can access the cloud-based phone system from within their email. RingCentral’s contacts, messages, call history are displayed in your Gmail message threads. Users can also see the on/offline status of their connections, send SMS messages and make outbound calls.

TeamWave – Integrated Software to Run Your Entire Business – CRM, Project Management, HR & More. TeamWave’s Add-on for Gmail currently offers only CRM. Ideal for small & mid-sized businesses.

Hire – Simplify your recruiting process. Users can review candidate applications, respond to job applicants and schedule interviews from their inbox without going back and forth through applications. It also allows users to view and track team member interactions so you never have to wonder if someone followed up.

Zoom – Users can set up calls or video chat directly through Gmail, using contact info in an email or saved to Google. It also allows you schedule meetings for later and check for any scheduled calls you have coming up without opening Zoom or a calendar.

Docusign – Securely use a digital signature on legally binding documents, the add-on lets you send an attached document in an email over to DocuSign with only two clicks. It then opens the document in DocuSign, too, so you can take care of business right away. And just like that, a convenient service gets more convenient.

Insightly – Build better customer relationships right in your inbox with the Insightly Add-On for Gmail. Save emails to your CRM and link them to the relevant people, deals, or projects. You can also create new leads and opportunities without leaving your inbox, and insert prebuilt email templates to save time and stay on message.

Got a favorite Gmail add-on not on this list? Share it with us in the comments.

Best Productivity Tools for Small Businesses in 2019

Small business owners are finding it increasingly difficult to manage multiple moving parts and run a thriving company. It’s a constant struggle to get everything done.
Small business success depends on how efficiently and productively the business owner can use tools to handle virtually every single business process an organisation can have.

Here is a list of the best productivity apps for small businesses in 2018:

1. G Suite Business Solutions

Google’s GSuite offers a number of productivity enhancing features for small to mid-sized businesses. GSuite is a great place to start conducting some of the most essential operations a modern small business must undertake, such as setting up a business email client, document sharing, managing calendar, launching an online ad campaign, or tracking traffic stats for websites. GSuite offers a wide range of services in one place quite conveniently.
GSuite even has an app for Google’s cloud storage platform, which will allow users to work and access files from anywhere in the world. The GSuite is also recommended for its enhanced business-grade security features. Perhaps the biggest advantage is the flexible and affordable pricing structure. Small businesses can use GSuite for as little as $10 per month, which comes with unlimited cloud storage and archiving.

Note: TeamWave offers native and seamless integration with G Suite.

2. Slack

Slack is the team communications app all businesses must have these days. Slack is a streamlined instant messaging application that is enhanced for business use. There are loads of IM apps out there that businesses can use. However, these IM apps are intended for two-person communication, not group communication as businesses require. So it’s easy to get bombarded with notifications and messages with regular apps. Slack eliminates such annoyances and offers an optimized chatting platform for teams that work together.
Slack offers perks like separating group conversations, setting some conversation modes into public or private, direct messaging, an auto archiving of all messages and other material that gets shared. Businesses can add as many users as desired without limit. Slack has expanded services from IM and is now capable of file sharing and phoning too.

3. Boomerang for Gmail

Boomerang is an add-on for Gmail, and possibly the best add-on a business can use. Boomerang allows Gmailers to schedule emails and tracking responses. For example, if your business needs to spend a particular email at midnight on Friday to the dot, you don’t have to stay up that late to do so with Boomerang. You can use the add-on to specify times and dates for certain emails to be sent. This is an absolutely essential service for companies that manage email marketing campaigns. Boomerang is also AI-enhanced and can improve the overall quality of emails as well.

4. Intercom

One of the most challenging aspects of managing and growing a business, especially a web-based company, is the lack of communication with customers. There are huge barriers when it comes to educating customers and understanding consumers. The eventually leads to flawed user interface decisions, limited of awareness of customer issues and needs and substandard user experience. Intercom offers a suite of features to provide live chat, customer on-boarding, action-based email triggers and more for your users, making it easier to interact, engage and communicate with your customers.

5. FreshBooks

Creating invoices is an important but tedious task when running a small business. FreshBooks is an innovative new app that allows small businesses to simplify the invoice creation and sending process. Instead of sending a rather boring invoice, businesses can use Freshbooks to design personalized or branded invoices. The biggest perk of the app, however, is the ability to organize invoices and track them. The app also enables users to set up automatic billing for recurring invoices, and accept credit card mobile payments. Also, users can trace profits and losses by aggregating all information in the invoices in one place. FreshBooks can be used to generate business reports that can track overall finances.

6. MailChimp

MailChimp is the email marketing app businesses need to run a successful and effective campaign. Mail Chimp facilitates many services that are considered necessary for modern digital marketing campaigns. The app is mainly known for allowing users to create and manage large mailing lists. Users can use Mail Chimp to create and send email newsletters. Mail Chimp offers templates to design customized emails and data analysis tools to assess how an emailing campaign has been. Mail Chimp is quite easy to use on a number of devices. The app notably eliminates the need to repetitively create or send email marketing material and saves a lot of time and money for communications teams.

7. TeamWave

TeamWave is a unified platform for collaboration, sales and HR management. Your team gets a single and centralized place to collaborate which means Sales, support, development & marketing departments will be on the same page. Imagine smoothly moving from a won deal to delivery of the project in the same app without re-entering any data and avoiding data loss. As all the apps share the same information, there is no scope for data redundancy and duplicacy. The truly native integrations ensure you need to worry about data flow from one app to another and maintain integrations between vital apps. Some of the most important benefits of TeamWave:

Sales and Projects: Important files can be copied from deals to projects (example: requirement document) with a few clicks. Comes handy when you commence project delivery after winning a deal.

Sales and HR: In the HR app, if you add someone as the reporting manager of a sales rep, then the reporting manager will be automatically added as a deal follower whenever the sales rep adds a new deal. This fosters collaboration and helps in progress tracking.

Projects and HR: Project admin can keep track of the performance of the employees along with appreciation received from clients and log them as private notes in the HR app. During appraisal these notes can be reviewed for better decision making.

Use the above mentioned tools to establish and streamline processes with an aim to improve business productivity.

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