CRM Software Hacks – Pipeline

The new list view feature hindsight

Yuriy Golovko — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 21:10:45 +0000

Track Deals Past and Present with Hindsight

This week we’re phasing a major update into the Deals list views of Grow accounts. You can now use Hindsight to compare today’s pipeline to previous dates right in the list view with a couple of clicks. With this launch, you’ll be able to quickly track sales progress and save time spent manually pulling and reporting comparative data. With a timeframe selected, Hindsight will show you a summary of total changes while providing you visibility into the specific movement contributing to your top line.

Looking for a lost deal? Check the Recycle Bin!

Now that you can see changes in your pipeline, you may find yourself wanting to know exactly why certain metrics changed or what the details were of deals that moved out of your pipeline. With Grow, you can now find and restore deleted deals in the Recycle Bin.

The recycle bin is accessible through the Hindsight comparative view and through your user icon dropdown menu available in the global navigation.

As always, you can reach out to customercare@pipelinecrm.com for more information. You can also find the knowledge base article here.

Close CRM Alternatives for Marketing Agencies

Pipeline CRM — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 21:30:18 +0000

Close CRM is a popular solution for marketing agencies, but it might not fit your particular needs. If you’re searching for a CRM with features similar to Close CRM but more focused on financial and sales productivity, this CRM alternative blog can help.

From streamlined workflows to advanced analytics, these five Close CRM alternatives offer features to help boost sales and foster better team collaboration in your marketing agency. Let’s explore the options and find the ideal CRM software match for your agency’s unique needs.

TL;DR of 5 Top Marketing Agency CRMs Similar to Close CRM

Here are Close CRM comparisons for your marketing agency business.

	Best for	Key Features	Pricing
Pipeline CRM	Sales Automation and Team Collaboration	● Advanced sales automation ● Robust call integrations (e.g., Aircall, RingCentral, and CallRail) ● Built-in email marketing ● Daily morning coffee report ● Rich customization	Starts at $25 per user per month (annual subscription)
Hubspot	Modular CRM Solution	● Lead and prospect management ● AI-powered sales prospecting ● Email templates and tracking ● Built-in quote solution ● Meeting scheduler	Starts at $15 per user per month (annual subscription), with a free plan option
Keap	Marketing-Focused Agencies	● Landing pages and forms ● Multi-channel marketing ● Appointment scheduling ● Quotes, invoices, and payments ● Lead segmentation	Starts at $249 for 2 users per month (annual subscription)
Insightly	Customer Service Solution CRM	● Email A/B testing ● Lead tracking ● Customizable user permissions ● Workflow automation ● Built-in quoting solution	Starts at $29 per user per month
HighLevel	White-Labeled CRM Solution	● Funnel builder ● Marketing automation ● Multi-channel campaigns ● Customizable dashboards ● Client account management	Starts at $97 per user per month (monthly subscription)

1. Pipeline CRM: Best for Sales Automation and Team Collaboration

The first CRM alternative to Close CRM is Pipeline CRM—a top CRM software for agencies.

Marketing agencies often struggle with siloed workflows, leading to project delays and missed opportunities. With Pipeline CRM’s automatic notifications, stakeholders can stay informed about deals or project progress without constant check-ins. Plus, the seamless integration with project management tools like Asana or Trello streamlines project delegation and tracking.

Furthermore, Pipeline CRM empowers your sales and creative teams with dedicated pipelines (multiple sales pipelines), ensuring they can work independently without disrupting each other’s workflows. At the same time, everyone has visibility into all the sales pipelines, providing a comprehensive overview of your agency’s sales progress. This helps to eliminate the risk of lead shortages and maintain a consistent flow of business.

Related: check out our in-depth analysis that highlights the key differences and similarities between Pipeline CRM and Close CRM.

Key Features

Advanced sales automation: automate repetitive tasks like suggesting ‘next steps’ and generating new deals.
Robust call integrations: connect Pipeline CRM with AirCall, Kixie, RingCentral, and other phone call integrations to streamline your sales outreach process.
Advanced email marketing: leverage built-in drip campaigns and AI-powered email assistance for effective sales outreach.
Daily morning coffee report: stay informed with a concise overview of sales statuses and daily tasks, directly sent to your inbox.
Rich customization: tailor deals, data fields, user permissions, and more to fit your marketing agency’s specific needs.

Pricing

Pipeline CRM offers four pricing options and a 14-day free trial. These prices are for annual billing.

Start: $25 per user per month: 1 sales pipeline and 250 active deals per account.
Develop: $33 per user per month: 2 sales pipelines and 2500 active deals per account.
Grow: $49 per user per month: 5 sales pipelines and unlimited active deals per account.
Enterprise: custom pricing for unlimited sales pipelines and deals.

Visit the Pipeline CRM pricing page to find the feature details of each plan.

2. Hubspot: Best Modular CRM Solution

HubSpot is a popular CRM choice for marketing agencies due to its modular structure, allowing you to select only the necessary tools. Whether your focus is on marketing, sales, content management, or other areas, HubSpot offers a flexible solution to support your agency’s growth.

Moreover, HubSpot’s robust analytics and reporting capabilities enable you to track key sales metrics and visualize data in easy-to-understand dashboards. The ‘team conversation’ feature also helps streamline communication and reduce miscommunication within your team.

Key Features

The following are some of the top features of the Sales Hub solution from Hubspot.

Lead and prospect management: centralize lead and prospect information. Easily monitor them with personalized summaries and progress tracking.
AI-powered sales prospecting: identify and prioritize high-potential prospects using AI-driven insights.
Email templates and tracking: monitor email performance and recipient activity to follow up at the right time.
Built-in quote solution: create and send professional quotes directly from HubSpot, eliminating the need for external tools.
Meeting scheduler: allow prospects to easily book meetings with you online, saving time and effort.

Pricing

Hubspot has several packages for its Sales Hub tool:

Free: up to 2 users, with limited functionality and customization.
Starter: €15 per user per month, only available to the US customers only.
Professional: €90 per user per month.
Enterprise: €150 per user per month.

Please note that the pricing mentioned above applies to HubSpot Sales Hub only. If your marketing agency requires additional features (like marketing or content management), you’ll need to subscribe to those solutions separately. For example, HubSpot’s Marketing Hub is available at the following annual costs: €15, €792, and €3,300.

3. Keap: Best for Marketing-Focused Agencies

Keap is a centralized platform designed to streamline operations for small agencies. It offers a comprehensive suite of features, including sales management, marketing tools, appointment scheduling, performance tracking, and reliable customer support (email, chat, and call). Keap also automates key sales processes, with a focus on lead capturing and follow-ups.

Key Features

Landing pages and forms: create customized landing pages to capture leads and test marketing strategies.
Multi-channel marketing: reach out to prospects through email, text, and phone, with a dedicated toll-free number.
Appointment scheduling: allow leads to book appointments directly, syncing with your Google or Outlook calendar.
Quotes, invoices, and payments: generate professional quotes, proposals, and invoices within Keap, and save templates for future use.
Lead segmentation: tag and segment contacts to personalize automation and target specific audiences.

Pricing

Keap has three paid pricing plans with a 14-day free trial option. The prices below are for an annual subscription.

Pro: $249 per month: 2 users and 1500 contacts.
Max: $329 per month: 3 users and 2500 contacts.
Ultimate: $499 per month: 3 users and 2500 contacts.

4. Insightly: Best Customer Service Solution CRM

Insightly differentiates itself from Close CRM by offering comprehensive customer service solutions. These include ticket management, support portals, and service level agreement (SLA) tracking. This complements its existing sales CRM and marketing platforms, providing a more holistic solution for your marketing agency.

Key Features

Email A/B testing: optimize your email strategies by testing different versions before sending them out to maximize impact.
Lead tracking: effectively monitor, manage, and nurture deals. Gain insights into your business’s progress and identify potential risks.
Customizable user permissions: protect sensitive data by granting access only to authorized personnel.
Workflow automation: streamline processes with automated reminders, managerial approvals, and updates to marketing lists.
Built-in quoting solution: generate price quotes directly from opportunity records and track their status using quote pipelines.

Pricing

Insightly offers three pricing packages for its CRM solution, billed annually:

Plus: $29 per user per month.
Professional: $49 per user per month.
Enterprise: $99 per user per month.

If your agency requires marketing, customer service, and custom integration capabilities, you’ll need to invest in Insightly’s Marketing, Service, and Connect platforms. The combined all-in-one packages are priced as follows: $349, $899, and $2,599.

5. HighLevel: Best White-Labeled CRM Solution

HighLevel (also known as GoHighLevel) is a CRM tailored for agencies. It streamlines agency workflows by capturing high-quality leads through engaging landing pages and surveys. Leads are then nurtured effectively using targeted calls, SMS campaigns, and personalized email sequences. HighLevel also provides integrated tools for payment collection and quote management, facilitating a smooth deal-closing process.

Key Features

Funnel builder: create customized sales funnels using a simple drag-and-drop interface.
Marketing automation: automate drip campaigns using pre-built templates and custom workflows.
Multi-channel campaigns: integrate SMS, phone, email marketing, and Facebook Messenger into a single platform.
Customizable dashboards: rebrand HighLevel CRM to offer it as a service to your clients.
Client account management: seamlessly switch between different campaigns and client activities for efficient management.

Pricing

HighLevel offers three paid pricing plans with a 14-day free trial. The following prices are based on monthly subscriptions:

Starter: $97 per user per month: 3 sub-accounts.
Unlimited: $297 per user per month: unlimited sub-accounts.
SaaS Pro: $497 per user per month, with auto sub-account creation features.

What’s the Best CRM Alternative to Close CRM?

If you’re seeking a top-tier alternative to Close CRM, Pipeline CRM is an ideal choice. Our user-friendly and customizable CRM for agencies is easy to implement and is good value for money. Similar to Close CRM, we provide a comprehensive set of sales and marketing CRM features, including phone calls for outreach.

To enhance your team’s productivity and maintain data integrity, Pipeline CRM also offers automated sales workflows and data validation. And the best part? You can enjoy all of Pipeline CRM’s features at a fraction of the cost compared to Close CRM. Pipeline CRM’s pricing starts at $25 per user per month, while Close CRM starts at $49.

Here’s a quick comparison of Close CRM and Pipeline CRM:

	Close CRM	Pipeline CRM
Multiple pipelines	Up to 10 pipelines	Up to 5 pipelines
Custom fields	Yes	Yes
Data validation	Not clear	Yes, required and conditional fields, conditional formatting, and de-duplication prevention
Bulk emails and email scheduling	Yes	Yes
AI email writing assistance	No	Yes, a built-in solution
Calling and SMS	Yes, a built-in solution	Yes, through third-party apps
Sales automation	Yes, for sales outreach	Yes, for task assignments, suggesting ‘next steps’ on deals, daily agenda, and more
Price (per user per month, billed annually)	$49, $99, and $139	$25, $33, $49, and custom pricing for Enterprise package

Pipeline CRM: An Excellent Close CRM Alternative for Marketing Agencies

While Close CRM offers robust features, its high price point can be a barrier for marketing agencies with limited budgets.

Consider switching to Pipeline CRM for a more affordable sales CRM without sacrificing the essential features you need. With Pipeline CRM, you can foster strong team collaboration, automate many sales activities, and help turn one-time clients into loyal customers.

Experience the benefits of Pipeline CRM firsthand with a free 14-day trial. Sign up today!

Using Kanban in Sales: History, Tips, and Examples

Pipeline CRM — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 21:30:08 +0000

The use of Kanban in business has grown over time. Originally used for manufacturing processes, businesses continue to adopt it for various operational aspects, including streamlining sales workflows.

This blog will delve into the evolution of Kanban, explore how Kanban-based sales systems can boost team efficiency, and provide a practical example of implementing Kanban within a sales pipeline.

What is Kanban?

Kanban is a versatile method for organizing and managing work, particularly tasks that involve multiple stages or phases. It employs a visual approach using cards and boards to represent work items.

As tasks progress, cards are moved from one column to the next, typically from left to right, signifying their advancement through the workflow. Once a task is completed, its card is moved back to the initial column to start a new cycle or a fresh card is added to begin a new task. This visual representation offers a clear overview of the workflow, progress, and bottlenecks, enabling efficient project management and optimization.

The History of Kanban

The use of Kanban has evolved for different business areas, but the concept stays the same. For what started as a shop signboard, Kanban has transformed into an inventory system, project management system, and more.

Kanban as Shop Signages

In the 1600s, Kanban originated from the Japanese words “Kan” (sign) and “Ban” (board). It was initially used to describe the distinctive signboards that shops in bustling Japanese markets displayed to attract customers. These Kanbans were visually appealing and clearly communicated the shop’s offerings.

Toyota’s Lean Manufacturing Kanban

Toyota, a renowned Japanese automaker, played a pivotal role in extending the application of Kanban beyond its traditional commercial use.

In the 1940s, Toyota faced significant challenges, including poor sales and inefficient manufacturing processes. Taiichi Ohno, an engineer at Toyota, recognized a critical flaw: excessive waste in producing car parts, negatively impacting performance and system throughput.

After visiting an American supermarket, where he observed an efficient card-based system for optimizing inventory, Ohno was inspired to develop a similar approach for Toyota’s manufacturing process. This system, later named Kanban, utilized cards to signal the need for specific products, or the right time to re-manufacture specific car types.

By implementing Kanban, Toyota achieved several benefits: reduced stockpiles, improved workflow efficiency, and enhanced visibility into the production process. The success of Kanban within Toyota paved the way for its integration into the Toyota Production System, a manufacturing philosophy that has become a benchmark for lean practices worldwide.

Kanban in Today’s Business

Kanban has found widespread application in various business and industrial sectors. One prominent example is its influence on Scrum, a popular agile development framework. Another significant application of Kanban is in project management systems, where each task to complete the project is assigned to a card, and as the tasks are completed, they’re moved to the finished stage.

Leveraging Kanban Sales System for Effective Sales Workflows

Recognizing Kanban’s versatility and benefits, many sales teams have successfully adopted this methodology to manage their sales pipelines. The core concept remains consistent: each lead or opportunity is represented by a card that moves through various stages of the sales pipeline, from initial prospect to final outcome (such as deal won, lost, or reengage).

This visual representation of Kanban provides a clear overview of the sales process, offering many sales teams the following benefits:

Clear visibility of sales pipeline: a Kanban board provides a clear visual representation of the sales pipeline, allowing sales reps to track deals at different stages.
Improved prioritization: by limiting the number of deals in each stage, sales reps can focus on the most important opportunities and avoid getting overwhelmed.
Enhanced focus: Kanban helps sales reps prioritize tasks and avoid multitasking, leading to increased focus and productivity.
Faster deal closure: by identifying bottlenecks and streamlining the sales process, Kanban can help sales teams close deals more quickly.
Better collaboration: Kanban boards can be used to foster collaboration among sales team members, ensuring that everyone is aligned and working towards a common goal.
Data-driven insights: by tracking key metrics like cycle time and conversion rates, sales teams can gain valuable insights into their performance and identify areas for improvement.

Examples of a Kanban Sales Process in Pipeline CRM

The benefits of adopting the Kanban sales system are a no-brainer, but how can you apply that to your existing sales workflows? Let us show you by looking at Pipeline CRM’s Kanban sales board.

Deal Organization

As you can see from the screenshot above, the deals (cards) are organized across different sales stages (columns). These sales stages are sequentially arranged from left to right, mirroring the progression of a deal from initial contact to its final outcome. This visual representation facilitates the tracking of deal movement and provides a clear overview of the sales pipeline.

Deal Progression and View Customization

To advance a deal to the next stage, simply drag and drop the corresponding card to the desired stage column. The deal status on each card will be automatically updated to reflect its new position in the pipeline. You can add, edit, or delete sales stages to align with your team’s specific terminology and workflow.

A typical deal flow might include stages such as ‘No Stage > Touchbase > Request for Info > Presentation > Contract Prepared > Won > Lost > or Reengage.’

To further customize the deal cards, you can specify the key information displayed on each card. This enables you to access essential details about each deal quickly. For more advanced analysis, you can filter and sort cards based on various criteria, such as sales rep, deal value, or stage. This helps you prioritize tasks, identify opportunities, and gain valuable insights into your sales pipeline performance.

Moreover, Pipeline CRM’s sales Kanban offers a unique feature that allows you to collapse certain deal stages to maintain a concise view, especially when dealing with lengthy sales pipelines.

By simply clicking on a deal stage name, you can temporarily hide it, reducing visual clutter and focusing on the most relevant stages. To expand the collapsed stage and view its associated deals, simply click on the collapsed stage name again.

Find out more about what Pipeline CRM’s Kanban sales system can do for you and the available customization options.

Get a Clear View of Your Sales with Kanban Pipelines

If you find the traditional spreadsheet view insufficient for managing your sales pipeline, a Kanban-style approach can offer a more visual and intuitive solution. By providing a clear overview of your sales pipeline, you can easily monitor the status of each deal, track the performance of individual sales reps, and gain a comprehensive understanding of your overall sales performance.

Interested to try it out? Sign up to Pipeline CRM today for a 14-day free trial!

CRM Dashboard Customization: How to Add Multiple Sales Pipelines to Your Pipeline CRM Dashboards

Pipeline CRM — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 06:11:53 +0000

A CRM dashboard that fits your sales process can make all the difference in tracking deals and boosting your sales team’s productivity. That’s why CRM dashboard customization is crucial—especially on Pipeline CRM, where you can design a dashboard tailored to your workflow and sales priorities.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you step by step how to customize your Pipeline CRM dashboard, covering everything from adding multiple sales pipelines to setting up personalized views, so you can quickly access the sales metrics that matter most.

What Can You Customize on a CRM Dashboard?

Custom CRM dashboards offer flexibility when selecting and arranging the information displayed on your CRM home screen. The available customization options, including the data types, number of elements, and size of dashboard tiles, will vary depending on your CRM provider.

Many CRM solutions also enable you to control who can view and edit specific dashboard elements by applying user permissions. This ensures that sensitive information is only accessible to authorized individuals.

Here are some common components you can include in a custom CRM dashboard:

Sales performance overview: sales pipeline, deal lists, and sales metrics.
Leads and customer data: lead status, customer segmentation, and new contacts.
Tasks and activities: upcoming tasks and recent interactions.
Reports and analytics: daily, weekly, or monthly reports on KPIs like win rate, churn rate, and campaign performance.
Customer support: open tickets and resolved issues.

Related: are you in the logistics, real estate, or professional services industries? Learn about industry-relevant KPIs to track and accurately monitor your business growth.

Why Is a Custom CRM Dashboard Essential for Your Business?

Customizing your CRM dashboard is essential when managing multiple sales pipelines. Each pipeline often has distinct characteristics, including sales cycle length and key metrics, that require tailored monitoring.

For instance, a residential real estate brokerage might prioritize conversion rate, sales cycle length, and number of new listings on its dashboard due to residential properties’ shorter sales cycles. In contrast, a commercial property sales pipeline might benefit from metrics like deal value, average deal size, and revenue forecast, given the longer sales cycles associated with commercial buildings.

Top tip: when should you switch from a single to multiple sales pipeline? See 5 scenarios where implementing multiple sales pipelines can boost your sales productivity.

Beyond these pipeline-specific metrics, customizing your CRM dashboard offers several additional advantages, including:

Enhanced Focus and Efficiency

Display only the most important information, reducing distractions and promoting a focus on high-priority tasks.

Tailored Insights for Specific Roles

Provide sales reps, marketers, and customer service agents with the data they need. Managers can track KPIs, revenue, and team performance at a glance.

Instant Access to Critical Data

Track real-time updates on sales performance, customer interactions, and marketing campaigns, enabling quick and informed decision-making.

By tailoring your CRM dashboard, you can effectively organize data, streamline processes, and enhance team collaboration. This way, your sales team will have access to essential information in a format that supports their workflow and improves overall efficiency.

How to Customize Your Pipeline CRM Dashboard for Multiple Sales Pipelines

We will show you how to tailor your Pipeline CRM dashboard. For this example, we’ll modify it to host multiple sales pipelines.

Step 1: Create a New, Customized CRM Dashboard

From the Dashboard dropdown, select ‘Add To Dashboard.’ Give the new dashboard a title and select the first type of content you want to add to it.

With Pipeline CRM, you can add as many tiles as you like, such as the sales pipeline itself, deals slipping away, and the latest email interactions. You can also add custom content, such as list views, reports, and goals.

To track multiple sales pipelines efficiently, we recommend adding different dashboard elements based on the focus of each pipeline. For example:

Short vs. long sales cycles: use monthly vs. quarterly sales reports and forecasting.
Simple vs. complex sales cycles: focus on high-level vs. granular sales workflows.
Free vs. paid sales pipeline products: highlight different sales steps, such as nurturing and qualification for free products vs. onboarding and post-sales support for paid products.

Step 2: Edit the New CRM Dashboard

Besides adding new dashboard elements, you can also resize, reposition, and filter them to further customize your Pipeline CRM dashboard.

To resize tiles, click and hold the icon in the lower right corner of the tile. While holding the icon, drag the tile to expand or decrease its size. There are no fixed size requirements for tiles, allowing you to customize their dimensions freely.

To reposition the tiles, click the icon in the upper left corner of the tile and drag and drop it into place. Dashboard filtering now exists on individual tiles, allowing you greater flexibility to curate a dashboard filtered by individual tiles.

To filter the tiles, click the users dropdown and select the users for whom you wish to see data. You can filter by users on the deals slipping away and the sales pipeline tiles.

Step 3: Save the New Tailored CRM Dashboard

After tweaking the dashboard, you must save the changes or save them as a new dashboard to keep the customization.

After saving a dashboard, you can ‘star’ it to indicate that it’s a key dashboard in your workflow. Simply click the star icon on the left of the dashboard name when the dashboard is open. All saved dashboards can be found in the dashboard dropdown.

Step 4: Share the New Customized CRM Dashboard With the Team

Once you’ve saved a dashboard, you’ll see the Share button in the upper right corner of the dashboard view. You can share the dashboard with specific individual users or globally across the entire account.

Note that when sharing a dashboard, the content will always follow the original visibility rules. For example, if you share a dashboard with a list of deals that the shared users don’t have access to, they will be able to view the dashboard but not the content on the included list.

You can also set a shared dashboard as the default dashboard for your account. This will not change the settings for any other users.

Watch this video for a complete tutorial on customizing your CRM dashboard on Pipeline CRM. You can also find detailed instructions in this written guide.

Focus on What Matters with Customized CRM Dashboards

Don’t let cluttered dashboards hinder your sales team’s productivity. By customizing your CRM dashboard to prioritize essential metrics and information, you can empower your team to close more deals, even when managing multiple sales pipelines.

We recommend adopting a customizable CRM like Pipeline CRM to streamline daily sales activities. Beyond dashboard personalization, Pipeline CRM offers features such as custom data fields, data validation, email drip workflows, and robust sales reporting.

Ready to experience the benefits of a customized CRM dashboard? Try Pipeline CRM for free for 14 days and see how it can transform your sales process.

Best Practices for CRM Implementation in Construction

Andrew McDermott — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 14:51:53 +0000

A recent study revealed that only 32% of general contractors use a customer relationship management (CRM) system for sales management, project management, or internal communication. That’s surprisingly low compared to other industries, such as real estate, with adoption rates as high as 72%.

This article will explain why CRM tools are essential and how effective CRM implementation can fix many of the daily issues your construction business faces.

The Construction Industry’s Need for CRM Implementation

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the failure rate for construction companies is incredibly high—96% fail within 10 years, and 83% are gone within 20 years. What’s the reason behind these statistics?

Prospecting: many construction companies lack a formal prospecting system, so they rely on lead services (e.g., HomeAdvisor), Google Ads, local SEO, and word of mouth. Most of these leads aren’t ready to start their projects, resulting in their inquiries being overlooked in favor of those looking to start immediately.

Cash Flow: this is a complex problem related to struggles with generating leads and sales. Other common issues include low profits due to underbidding on projects and poor cash flow management (i.e., expenses exceeding income).

Organization: some construction companies don’t have the necessary procedures in place. They can be disorganized and often lack the data they need to make good decisions (e.g., which projects to accept or reject) or train their teams. This increases the cost of every project. Forget about making profits; breaking even becomes a challenge when construction companies lack proper organization.

Leadership: leaders who know the business but struggle to lead others often make matters worse. They’re known to choose unprofitable projects, hire inexperienced employees and subcontractors, and implement incorrect systems and procedures.

Supply Chain Dysfunction: it’s common for material prices to fluctuate. In an economic downturn, those price fluctuations tend to be more extreme. That’s challenging for construction companies with thin margins and inadequate systems.

Not Following Up: what happens once the sale is finished? What upselling or cross-selling opportunities are available? Do customers need your help with other projects? Are they willing to refer your company to other interested prospects? If your construction company battles with these questions, adopting sales CRM software can help you refine your sales pipeline management.

What Do These Issues Have to Do With CRM Software?

CRM software and its proper implementation help construction companies address each one of these issues. Here’s a brief look at the benefits of sales CRM software in construction:

Better Lead and Opportunity Management: if you’re prospecting, implementing a CRM system helps you identify your best-converting lead sources and shows you which sales and marketing channels generate revenue.
Better Cash Flow Management: not generating the cash flow you need to cover your bills? With pipeline management, you can see which deals are set to close and tally the total revenue. If you’re using CRM for sales management, it should show you whether you’re on target (or not) with precise dollar amounts you can use for resource planning and forecasting revenue.
Precise communication with teams: Pipeline management is simple when you have a great CRM in place. Everyone gets real-time updates and consistent communication. Turf wars and information silos fade away—all company information is kept in a single platform, and everyone has (appropriate) access to the same data.
Use company resources efficiently: With a CRM system in place and used properly, you’ll know how to spend your resources intelligently. Top performers, money pits, and unprofitable projects will all rise to the top. Have a salesperson who’s closing 2x more deals? Now, you can assign them more resources. Lost money on the last six government projects you bid on? You’ll know why you need to reject their RFP.
If leadership struggles with organization, your team will struggle as well. If you’re using your CRM for construction projects, you should have a bird’s eye view of the work being done on each project, showing you who’s doing what, when, and where.
Your CRM should integrate with your supply chain database, giving your team the critical pricing information they need to build better estimates and eliminate supply chain dysfunction. This enables you to communicate clearly with each team member—estimators, sales reps, project managers, etc.
Consistent Follow-Up Via Automation in Your CRM. Your sales CRM tools should give sales reps critical next steps, sales collateral and the documentation (e.g., proposals, estimates, contracts) needed to close more deals. If you’re using your CRM properly, everything should be at your sales rep’s fingertips.

Now that we’ve highlighted the benefits of having a CRM system in the construction industry, you might be ready to implement a CRM for your construction business. Let’s discuss the best practices you need to follow to ensure your team succeeds.

The 7 Best Practices for Implementing Sales CRM Tools in Construction

Preparation is essential when it comes to CRM implementation. The more upfront preparation you do, the better. Let’s look at some important best practices you can follow during your CRM implementation.

1. Setting Goals and Defining Your Objectives:

Good goals are clear, precise, and objective. Great goals provoke a strong emotional response. They pick fights, stimulate intense debate, and shake things up.

Good: increasing sales revenue by 56%.
Great: we’ll increase sales revenue by 56% in Q1 – Q3 to regain our #1 spot in the market; Smith Contractors poached 17% of our customers, and we want to surpass them.

You’ll want to choose the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics that are important to you at the start so you know what success looks like internally and externally.

2. Verify That the CRM you Want Matches Your Goals:

Are you looking to increase sales revenue? Manage projects more efficiently? Do you want to improve internal communication with your team? You’ll want to define your goals and objectives in clear, measurable language.

As a general rule:

Operational CRMs are focused on increasing revenue.
Analytical CRMs are used to inspect and analyze key areas of your construction business.
Collaborative CRMs are primarily focused on internal and external communication.
Strategic CRMs offer leadership a 10,000 ft view of the business, focusing on overall performance.

3. Clean and Prep Your Data:

You’ll want to make sure that the data you transfer from your current system to your CRM is clean, accurate, and free from duplicates. Create a plan to safely and completely transfer all your data to the new CRM safely and completely.

4. Get Your Team’s Buy-In Ahead of Time:

If you don’t give your team a chance to weigh in, you won’t be able to earn their buy-in. When you ask for your team’s opinion, you provide them with an opportunity to share their thoughts, feelings, and objections. It does not mean you’re seeking their approval or agreement. You’re not looking for consensus; you’re allowing everyone to clear the air.

5. Rally Your Team Behind The Objectives:

If you’re clear on your goals and objectives and have earned their buy-in, you’ll find getting your team to commit to them much easier.

If you’ve done this right, you should see:

More engaged employees
Team members who are more willing to use your CRM tools
Follow construction CRM best practices.

You can also consider using incentives on the backend to motivate and reward your team for using the CRM as intended.

6. Measure CRM Performance:

Use your KPIs to measure your sales statistics before and after the CRM software implementation.

Are you seeing consistent growth and improvements in the areas that matter most to your construction company? Do you have an administrator responsible for the maintenance, troubleshooting, and updates needed to keep things running smoothly?

7. Follow CRM Best Practices Consistently:

These CRM best practices are simple.

First, choose the right CRM and customize it for your needs.
Second, onboard and train your team appropriately.
Third, identify any bottlenecks in your processes that prevent you from using your CRM as intended.
Finally, take the time to integrate your CRM with the tools you’re already using and automate repetitive tasks.

Now that we know what the best practices for implementing CRM software for sales management are, we can move on to why it’s so important for construction companies to follow these best practices.

Why Your Business Should Follow Best Practices for CRM Implementation

Many companies that attempt to adopt a CRM system fail.

According to CIO magazine, analysts estimated that 18% to 69% of company projects fail. This happens for various reasons—low user adoption, cost overruns, data integrity issues, technology limitations, etc.

However, Scott Edinger from Harvard Business Review states that the confirmed failure rate is closer to 90%.

He outlines why most CRM projects fail to help the companies using them:

“The primary reason they miss the mark in helping companies increase revenue is that CRM systems are too often used for inspection — to report on progress, improve the accuracy of forecasts, provide visibility, predict project delivery dates, and provide a range of other business intelligence—rather than creating improvement in the sales process.”

Improving the sales process and helping your sales team succeed should be your primary goal when implementing CRM for construction companies. This goal is also why following best practices in your CRM implementation is so important.

There is another issue when it comes to implementing sales CRM software in the construction industry. Many employees and subcontractors in this environment aren’t naturally tech-savvy.

CRM Implementation With a Tech-challenged Team

If you want your CRM implementation to be successful, you’ll need your team’s buy-in. But if your team is tech-challenged, they’re much more likely to fight you.

How can you earn their cooperation?

First thing first: address all of the elephants in the room. Be kind, helpful, and respectful by acknowledging the facts: You’re asking them to do something they don’t know how or don’t want to do, and it’s necessary to get the results you need.

Here’s how you can make this transition as smooth as possible for them.

Choose a User-friendly CRM:

Choose a CRM that’s tailored to the construction industry, making it simple, easy to use, and intuitive. Most people aren’t as tech-challenged as they believe. They have smartphones, tablets, and computers, so they have a lot of unconscious knowledge.

Begin With the Basics:

Don’t flood your team with a laundry list of tasks and to-dos. Instead, start with a list of critical tasks—adding contacts, sending an email, how to follow-up, etc. Focus your attention on building habits around your CRM first.

Give Guidance and Support:

Provide your team with the onboarding, education, guidance, and support they need. Make requesting help a simple, easy, and reliable process. The easier it is to get help, the faster they’ll adapt to the changes you’re asking them to make.

Accept Automation:

Great CRMs provide you with a level of automation—they learn from you, telling you what to do next. They automate repetitive tasks, taking busy work off your hands and keeping you focused on high-profit activities. As always, keep it simple. Start with one or two automation, and then work up from there.

Rely on Relevance:

Many CRMs allow you to customize your dashboards and reports. Give your team simple, need-to-know information. Avoid flooding them with unnecessary data, charts, and reports. Simplifying their message makes it easier for them to focus on the details that matter most.

Reward Your Rainmakers:

Use the carrot-and-stick approach to incentivize performance. If you’re working with employees who are outperforming their peers, reward them publicly. If you’re dealing with poor performers, work with them privately.

Add as many benefits and rewards as possible to those who have bought in and are entirely on board.

Pipeline CRM: a Leading CRM for Construction Companies

As we’ve seen, implementing a high-quality CRM can fix many of the issues your construction company struggles with daily. With the right approach, a robust implementation plan, and the right sales CRM software, you can give your business a fighting chance and the framework it needs to win.

Consider trying Pipeline CRM, the leading construction CRM designed for builders and contractors. This user-friendly system is highly customizable and can be easily adopted by your sales team thanks to its intuitive interface and our exceptional customer support. We’re dedicated to assisting your team with software implementation every step of the way.

5 Route Planning and Optimization Software for Sales Teams to Close More Deals

Pipeline CRM — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 13:46:26 +0000

While some customer relationships can be cultivated online, many salespeople still rely on in-person meetings to close deals. This face-to-face interaction demands careful planning, involving not only crafting persuasive sales pitches and proposals but also optimizing sales routes to maximize productivity.

A robust CRM tool with a built-in sales route planning feature can empower sales teams to streamline their tasks and optimize their days. In this CRM comparison, we’ll explore some of the best sales CRM solutions offering mobile CRM apps with advanced route planning capabilities. We’ll assess their strengths and weaknesses, pricing plans, and user ratings to help you select the ideal route-optimization CRM software for your business.

Why Is Route Planning and Optimization Important for Outside Sales Teams?

Sales and lead management involve many repetitive, menial activities that are a huge drain on time. This time could be better spent furthering client relations and closing deals.

With easily accessible and intuitive sales planning on mobile features, your sales teams stand to benefit in the many ways listed below.

Productivity: a good CRM with route optimization software features lets you streamline your productivity by easily finding and mapping out nearby contacts and the most efficient ways to reach them during your on-field work days.
Minimized expenses: the CRM will handle the sales route planning, thus reducing travel time and fuel expenses and increasing your cost savings.
Client experience: efficient scheduling and timely arrivals enhance the sales experience for clients and help you foster business credibility and trust.
Data insights: good sales tracking software provides valuable data and analytics on sale performances, travel time, and other details, enabling sales reps to review and make data-driven decisions to optimize sales and close deals.
Reduced stress and anxiety: having the best route mapped out and planned can reduce the jitter some might experience with each sales meeting, helping sales reps put their best foot forward.

Leading companies rely on CRM and sales tracking software to help them automate sales, easily collaborate and communicate across teams, ace lead management, and streamline sales activities, including travel logistics.

Here are five leading route planning and optimization CRMs to help your sales teams achieve peak results.

1. Pipeline CRM: A Sales-Focused CRM with a Robust Mobile CRM App

Pipeline CRM is an enterprise-grade sales CRM system known for its simplicity. It is designed after Excel, enabling businesses to easily manage, track, and close deals even when on the go. The platform offers a comprehensive sales team management suite to help eliminate redundancies and boost collaborative efforts.

Additionally, Pipeline CRM’s mobile app, powered by Google Maps, offers advanced route planning features to help outside sales teams optimize their time and maximize the effectiveness of client visits. Furthermore, the app’s talk-to-text recording and mobile business card scanning capabilities streamline time-consuming tasks, allowing sales reps to focus on building relationships with leads. Pipeline’s mobile CRM app is compatible with both iOS and Android devices.

Features

Customizable email campaigns and deal stages: including targeted email campaigns and highly customizable deal stages, all of which are accessible on the mobile version.
Optimized route planning: while planning the route, the system considers different client locations, appointment timings, and real-time traffic details, enabling it to map an efficient route.
Advanced navigation: the mobile app has an interactive visual map and turn-by-turn navigation to make driving easier and avoid on-road delays.
One-click activity notes: save time by adding your most frequent notes as “one-click” activities, instead of manually typing.

Learn more about Pipeline CRM’s features and solutions.

Pros

One-app solution: from lead management to calendar organization and team collaboration, do it all from Pipeline CRM.
User-friendly interface: Pipeline CRM’s user-friendly interface allows easy navigation and exploration without a steep learning curve.
Affordable pricing: diverse price packages are available for businesses of different sizes and needs.

Ratings

Pricing plans

Start: $25 per user per month
Develop: $33 per user per month
Grow: $49 per user per month
Enterprise: custom pricing based on your needs

See how XpressConnect leverages Pipeline CRM’s mobile app to increase its sales reps’ productivity in this case study.

2. ActiveCampaign: Route Add-Ons for Delivery and Sales Teams

ActiveCampaign is an email and marketing automation tool designed to automate customer relationship building. This tool may not be a CRM solution, but it offers comprehensive sales and marketing features that can be sufficient to tackle simple sales workflows. Its key features include analytics and reporting, email marketing, and automated workflows.

While ActiveCampaign doesn’t have built-in route planning features, it can be integrated with external tools like Arrivy and Mapsly to optimize sales routes and locate clients. However, ActiveCampaign’s premium pricing, particularly for larger sales teams, maybe a significant factor to consider.

Features

Targeted connections: the platform enables users to connect with specific audiences and potential clients across various channels.
Content creation: ActiveCampaign dynamic content creation tools and guidance for crafting effective messaging.
Mobile app: the software provides a mobile version for convenient contact management and outreach.

Pros

Easy lead management: simplifies lead management with features like marketing lead databases, segmentation, and lead nurturing.
Efficient marketing: streamlines client communication through personalized email and multi-channel marketing.

Cons

Steep learning curve: ActiveCampaign has a slightly more complicated interface, and it takes a while to get comfortable with the tool.
Relies on third-party integrations: considering it requires integrations like Mapsly to help with route optimization, the add-ons can get clunky to manage.

Reviews

Pricing plans

Starter: $15 per user per month
Plus: $49 per user per month
Pro: Starts at $79 for three users per month
Enterprise: Starts at $145 for 5 users per month

3. Zoho CRM: A CRM with Sales Team Optimization Tools

The next sales CRM on our list is Zoho, a well-established CRM solution widely used by businesses to build and nurture their sales pipelines.

Known for its high degree of customization, Zoho brings together various sales functions into a single platform. It provides sales tracking software and a mobile CRM app for on-the-go access. Additionally, RouteIQ for Zoho offers location intelligence to optimize sales routes, enhancing efficiency and productivity.

Features

Lead management: you can view, track, and act on all leads from one place.
Streamlined communication: Zoho gives you access to easy-to-implement email campaigns and features like social, email, and phone communication.
Data insights and reports: the platform offers advanced marketing reports and analytics.
Mobile CRM: Zoho has a sturdy mobile version for sales management on the go, including features like route planning.

Pros

Smooth integration: Zoho easily integrates with third-party applications and existing software.
Affordable: Zoho has different packages and price points to suit diverse business needs that start at budget-friendly prices.

Cons

Limited features: while the platform has a full suite, some features are not as well-developed as other tools.
Confusing user interface: some users find the user experience lacking, especially with forms, document merge functions, and fonts.

Reviews

Pricing plans

Standard: $14 per user per month
Professional: $23 per user per month
Enterprise: $40 per user per month

4. OnePageCRM: A CRM Tool For Small Businesses

OnePageCRM is a user-friendly sales management software designed to assist small and medium-sized businesses in streamlining their sales processes. It offers a centralized platform to manage client history, track meetings, and follow up on leads efficiently.

The platform emphasizes simplicity and ease of use, helping businesses to clarify their sales operations and foster stronger client relationships. OnePageCRM includes a free route planning feature called ‘On the Road’ to optimize sales routes and maximize productivity.

Features

Sales tracking software: OnePageCRM has a well-developed tracking system to help you follow up after clients and complete sales.
Lead generation: it offers easy lead generation and management features, simplifying your outreach efforts.
Data automation: OnePageCRM lets you automate repetitive and laborious manual tasks like data entry.

Pros

Great customer support: the CRM has a live support feature that users find very helpful, particularly during setup.
Affordable: the pricing plans are ideal for new and small businesses.

Cons

Limited feature set: OnePageCRM’s simplicity may limit its suitability for larger companies and teams with complex needs.
Import functionality issues: some users have reported issues with automatic deal import in certain versions of the software.

Ratings

4.7/5 star rating on G2
4.7/5 star rating on Capterra

Pricing plans

Professional: $9.95 per user per month
Business: $19.95 per user per month

5. HubSpot Sales Hub: Scalable CRM for Streamlined Sales

The HubSpot Sales Hub CRM offers a simple interface streamlining data collection, management, and visualization, facilitating better decision-making for sales teams.

Companies use HubSpot to enhance the cross-platform integration and data synchronization between HubSpot and other systems. The CRM helps you build efficient pipelines and offers route planning capabilities with add-ons from Mapsly and Badger Maps.

Features

Unified customer data: provides a centralized view of customer information, enabling teams to gain deeper insights.
Maximize production: The CRM automates tasks like call logging, reporting, and deal creation, freeing up sales reps’ time.
Routing maps Integration: easily integrates with route planning and management applications like Mapsly or Badger Maps, enhancing sales teams’ client touchpoints.
Artificial Intelligence: utilizes AI to identify and merge duplicate entries, improving data accuracy.

Pros

Cross-platform functionality: the CRM offers a wide range of features and customization options.
Applications integration: it connects with various business applications through third-party integrations and the HubSpot App Marketplace.

Cons

Limited client support: some users report issues with customer support, particularly with chat support.
Pricing: the pricing plans can be relatively expensive, with frequent upselling of features and options.

Ratings

Pricing plans

Starter: $15 per user per month
Professional: $90 per user per month
Enterprise: $150 per user per month

Pipeline CRM Is the Best Route Planning and Optimization CRM Software

If your business relies on on-field sales teams, investing in a CRM solution with a robust mobile app is essential. Look for CRMs that offer route planning and optimization features, enabling your sales reps to reduce travel time, optimize appointment scheduling, and control costs.

Pipeline CRM offers these features and more. The mobile app empowers your outside sales teams to access and update lead information on the go, while the inside sales team can collaborate with other departments to further process progressing sales leads. This integrated approach leads to an improved sales pipeline, faster sales cycles, and a more productive sales process overall.

But don’t just take our word for it, try Pipeline CRM yourself. Sign up today and get a 14-day free trial!

FAQs on Route Planning Mobile CRM Software

1. What Are the Benefits of Adopting a CRM with a Route Planning Feature?

Some of the benefits of having a CRM with route planning and optimization solutions are:

Enhanced efficiency: route optimization minimizes travel time and maximizes productivity, allowing sales teams to cover more ground and see more clients.
Reduced costs: by reducing travel time and fuel consumption, route optimization can lead to significant cost savings for businesses.
Improved customer satisfaction: timely and efficient visits enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

2. How Does CRM Sales Route Planning Work?

CRM sales route planning is typically implemented via mobile versions of CRM software. Locations are extracted from contact details within the CRM database and visualized on an interactive map. This allows users to identify locations, plan efficient routes, and navigate using pinch-to-zoom and location-tracking features.

3. Is Pipeline’s Mobile Route Planning CRM Compatible with My Device?

Yes, Pipeline CRM offers mobile applications compatible with both iOS and Android platforms. The route planning feature is powered by Google Maps, ensuring accurate route planning capabilities with a familiar user interface. For more detailed information, please visit this page.

CRM Reporting: How to Track and Analyze Sales Performance with Pipeline CRM

Andrew McDermott — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 09:18:27 +0000

CRM reporting is one of the most valuable yet underused features in many sales teams’ CRM software. These sales reports go beyond showing whether sales goals are being met. They track and highlight areas that need improvement, reveal opportunities for growth, and even forecast how your sales pipeline may develop in the coming months.

We’ll walk you through creating a CRM report to analyze sales performance using Pipeline CRM’s customizable reporting and forecasting features, explore additional sales reporting tools that can enhance your results, and share key metrics to help you get started.

What is a CRM Report?

CRM report refers to the analytic tool, built within a CRM, that allows you to pull and analyze sales, leads, and team performance data based on specific metrics.

The goal for creating a CRM report is to get both high-level and granular performance data in an easy-to-understand format, such as a table, chart, and diagram.

Some CRMs allow you to save the sales KPIs and visualization format as templates and share them with the team. This way, you can always refer to the same sales metrics and have reliable, accurate data to present to the board or even leads.

Essential Sales Metrics and KPIs for Effective Sales CRM Reporting

Some important sales metrics to track and analyze on a CRM sales report include:

Leads and Deals	Outreach Campaign	Sales Operations
Number of leads (MQL and SQL)	Open rates (email and text)	Sales revenue
Lead conversion rate	Click-through rate	Sales cycle length
Win and loss rate		Profit per salesperson
Deals by stage and owners		Activity (group and individual)

And here are some sales KPIs recommended to include in sales CRM reports

Renewal rates = completed renewals / total renewals
Average sales values = total sales / number of new customers
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) = average revenue per customer x total number of customers monthly
Churn rate = total number of customers lost / total number of sustomers
Customer lifetime value (CLV) = average order value x average order frequency x average customer lifespan

These sales metrics and KPIs are a helpful starting point. You should be able to create custom reports specific to your company or industry.

Related: Not all sales metrics apply to your industry. Find out the top 12 sales metrics and KPIs you should track for construction, professional services, and real estate companies.

How to Use Pipeline CRM’s Sales Reporting Feature to Generate CRM Reports

To show you how to create a CRM report, we’ll use the Pipeline CRM sales tracking and reporting solution. Its customization feature allows you to get a granular and high-level analysis of your team’s activity and deals, and even forecast your sales health.

You have two options to start creating the sales CRM report—both require no complex Excel formulas or separate spreadsheets.

Start with a default set of reports you can use to extract insights, or
Create ad hoc and custom reports to get answers to specific questions.

Let’s see the capabilities of Pipeline CRM’s data reporting solution.

Step 1: Creating Your First CRM Report

Let’s start by generating a report using the default templates and metrics. Go to your Dashboard > Reports (on the menu tab) > Reports (on the sub-menu tab) > Create New Report.

One left side, you see the sales report customization options. You can select the data source (Deals, People, or Companies), chart types, value measurement (count, sum, average value), and flexibility to group the data, and time period.

Step 2: Filter the Data to Only Show Information That Matters

If you’ve created custom Views on your Companies/Deals/People data, you can export them here. To do so, click on the Filters button (right top) > click on Import Filters > select the View you want to see. If you want to create a new CRM reporting filters, simply click on Add Filter Group.

Once the data is pulled through, customize the reports. For instance, change the graph type into line graph, only show data from 30 days ago, and break the data by Owner.

Step 3: Save and Share the CRM Reports

Once you’re happy with the report format and data shown, save this settings and share them with your teams. This way, you can save time everytime you need to check on your sales performance and ensure that all stakeholders are seeing the same data to avoid miscommunication.

Click on the Save Report button > Save As New Report > Give a name to your report > click Save.

Add back the report you just created to your View tab. This allows you to consolidate all your reports into one single page, helping in comparing and analyzing the saved dataset with other metrics or information.

You can also reorder the reports (e.g., key data on the top view) and change the window size (e.g., bigger views fro key reports).

See Pipeline CRM sales reporting feature in action in this demo video.

Pipeline CRM Reporting and Forecasting Customization Options

Note: Pipeline CRM has recently updated our interface. This guide is still referring to the old look, but the features and capabilities reman the same, even better!

CRM Reporting and Forecasting with Pipeline CRM: The Basics

You can navigate between reports using the left-side navigation. Reports are divided into three sections:

Historical Pipeline: includes deals won, win ratio, lost deals by loss reason, and won deals by source.
Active Pipeline (Sales Forecasting): includes forecasted to close, deals by stage, and active deals by status.
Activity: includes your activity report, activity scoreboard, revenue report, recent updates, and potentially your ROI report.

Sales Trends and Comparison Analysis with Pipeline CRM

Each report has three sub-sections to help you compare trends over time, deal owners, or custom deal types.

Trends Over Time: report on deals over a given timeframe. It allows you to view trends over time.
Compare Owners: enables you to report and draw comparisons between individual salespeople or teams of salespeople.
Compare Deal Types: enables you to compare specific types of deals by filtering custom fields that you track in Pipeline.

Setting Sales CRM Reports for Specific Time Periods

You can create reports or sales forecasts for various timeframes using the date selector in the upper-right corner of the screen on the Reports tab. The following options are available:

Any time
Today, yesterday, and this week
This month and last month
This quarter and last quarter (calendar)
This year and last year (calendar)
Custom Range

Sales Reports Analysis Based on Specific Owners or Types of Deals

You can drill-down on a specific sales rep’s deals (or types of deals) using the filter sidebar of the right side of your screen.

In the Trends over time subsection, you can filter by owner, source, and/or dropdown and picklist custom deal fields. The Compare owners subsection allows you to filter by source and/or dropdown and picklist custom deal fields. And, you can filter by the owner within the Compare deal fields subsection.

For the reports ‘Lost deals by loss reason’ and ‘Won deals by source,’ you can also specify what sources or lost reasons you are viewing.

Take a look at the links below to get a breakdown of each report:

Lost deals by lost reason
Won deals by source
Deals Won
Forecasted to close
Win ratio
How to build a report that tells you which deals need attention

Learn more about Pipeline CRM sales reporting feature from our knowledge base.

Other Sales Reporting and Analytics Tools Worth Trying

The information gained from the CRM reports should be sufficient to analyze your business performance and the sales team activities. That said, if you don’t have a CRM to create a sales performance report or need a more advanced reporting tool, the following solutions may be your favorite sales monitoring software.

Microsoft Excel: Best for Enterprises With Frankenstein Sales Tools

Does your team have a Frankenstein Stack? “A Frankenstein stack is characterized by multiple legacy systems stitched together over time, with add-ons, individual integrations, and tech workarounds.”

Many companies face a fragmented data landscape, with sales relying on a CRM and marketing using a legacy system integrated with web and sales analytics. This divide often necessitates data exports in XML or CSV formats for cross-departmental collaboration.

While this approach may be necessary for the time being, it introduces challenges like version control and data entry consistency. Excel, though a familiar tool, can be cumbersome for complex sales analyses.

If your organization is committed to using a legacy stack, Excel can be a viable starting point. For a structured, ready-to-use option, check out our CRM Excel Template. However, for more robust and scalable reporting, consider exploring modern sales analytics tools to streamline processes and ensure data accuracy.

Here’s what sales reporting using Excel data looks like.

Your CRM sales reporting tool should include exporting to Excel-friendly options (e.g., CSV, TSV, XML, etc.). If you’re using Pipeline CRM, for example, you can export your data to CSV and PDF formats. Here’s how:

Companies, Deals, and People

Select the columns and set your filters to the records you want to export

Click on the Export button > Export as CSV or Export as PDF

Activities

Navigate to the Reports tab > Activity Report

Set your filters to display the activities you want to export

Click on the Export button

Select either Export as CSV or Export as PDF

Agenda

Visit the Agenda tab

Set your filters to display the tasks and events you want to export

Click on the Export button

Select either Export as CSV or Export as PDF

Exports

Please remember that your export will only include the columns that appear on the page. If you would like to customize the data included in the export, click Add/Remove Columns to adjust the columns in the view. Any column that is checked off will display on the page.

To learn more about filtering within columns, please visit the following link: Creating, Saving, and Sharing Custom List Views.

Power BI: Best for Self-Service Data Visualization and Analysis

Power BI is a connector. It enables you to pull a large amount of data from various data sources in multiple formats. It’s free if you stay below the 1 GB data limit, it’s easy to use, reports are easier to share, and you can schedule an automatic data refresh.

Power BI goes beyond Excel by offering natural language querying. Simply ask your questions in plain English, and Power BI will use your data to provide insightful answers. For example, “What’s the total value of deals won/lost this year?”

It works with lots of data sources, including Pipeline CRM. That said, you have to feed your data into their system. It’s a house of cards. If anything goes wrong with your data sources, your insights may not be as reliable.

Sales Reporting in Power BI

Training with Excel is a helpful pre-requisite for working with Power BI.

There are lots of templates, formulas, and resources available for you to use with Power BI. Here’s an example showing you how to use Excel to create a sales dashboard in Power BI.

What about adding data sources in Power BI?

Tableau: Best Sales Analysis Tool for Generalists

If you’re using Tableau, you can pull data from almost any database or data source. It’s designed to be user-friendly, create data visualizations via its drag-and-drop interface, and share insights in a few simple clicks. Their platform is AI-driven and designed to work with the tools and formats you’re already using.

However, there are some downsides. For instance, Tableau comes with a hefty price tag. Here’s a customer complaining about “the 100-user minimum for “Viewer” licenses and Data Management Add On that starts at ~$6,000 /100 users.” It’s a great product if you don’t mind spending to get the insights you need.

Sales Reporting in Tableau

Tableau’s product line includes embedded analytics, CRM analytics, Einstein Copilot, and data management products.

Here’s how you can make a sales dashboard in Tableau:

Wait a minute. You’ll need to get your data into Tableau first. How are you supposed to do that? Easy. Integration. You can integrate your Pipeline CRM and Tableau accounts with Zapier or Skyvia.

How Do You Use Sales Reporting To Increase Revenue?

If you want to use sales reporting to increase your revenue, the formula is simple.

Data (what) » Insights (why) » Action (how)

What does this look like in action?

Data (what)	Our email open rate has decreased by 36%.
Insights (why)	CRM data shows that sales email strategies aren’t working as well.
Insights (why)	Customers consistently say they’re burned out by sales pitches.
Insights (why)	As a result, our sales email deliverability is down.
*Action* (how)	*Share content that’s personalized, actionable, and very valuable.*

How do you put this into action? It’s a simple, six-step process.

Choose a CRM or method for collecting sales data.
Get buy-in from everyone on your team so they’ll use it.
Collect data.
Ask questions about that data to generate insights.
Figure out how to address the issues raised by your insights.
Take action.

These steps aren’t complicated. It just requires a little bit of discipline and lots of consistency. If your team is consistent about using your CRM or collecting sales data, you’ll have data you can draw insights from.

Once you have insights (questions), you’ll have what you need to find solutions and take action.

Why CRM Reporting Is Essential for Your Business

An analysis of your sales performance is important because it offers clear insights.

Sales analysis can tell you where you were, where you are, and where you’ll be.

Using the sales metrics and key performance indicators I’ve mentioned above, your sales team can ask (and answer) important questions about your team’s performance, such as:

Is our lead response time improving or declining?
Is our sales revenue increasing, stagnant, or decreasing?
How many deals do we need to close (monthly, quarterly, annually) to hit performance targets?
Have our win rates improved year-over-year?
Have our close rates improved each month?
How many of our sales reps meet their monthly quota?
Which products are our most profitable?
How much time do our reps spend selling and closing deals?
Who are the rainmakers on our team? What are they doing differently?
Which of our sales reps produces the most profit for our company?

The right data gives you the ability to answer important questions. These questions give your sales team the clarity you need to make important changes across your organization—how you train salespeople, the products that generate revenue vs. profit, your position in the marketplace, and more.

Track, Report, and Forecast Your Sales Performance with Pipeline CRM

As we’ve seen, most CRM initiatives fail to deliver on expectations. Organizations’ satisfaction with their current CRM solution tends to be low overall. In fact, the estimated failure rate is at 90%.

Organizations aren’t clear on the outcomes, metrics, and KPIs that matter to them. As a result, their lack of clarity means their desired outcomes are fuzzy, implicit, imprecise, or unrealistic. If they’re goal tracking, they’re focused on collecting more data. They should be focused on drawing insights from the data they already have.

Sales analysis provides a clear picture of your past, present, and future sales performance. With Pipeline CRM’s advanced sales reporting, you can easily filter data, create customized reports, and share insights with your team for informed decision-making.

Try out Pipeline CRM today for free for 14 days, and let us know what you think.

Top Sales KPIs Per Industry (Including Calculations)

Pipeline CRM — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 09:45:37 +0000

Every industry faces unique sales challenges. Relying solely on generic sales KPIs, such as conversion rate and customer lifetime value (CLV), might obscure critical insights that can drive your business forward.

This article dives into 12 industry-specific sales KPIs for construction, logistics and transportation, professional services, and real estate. Plus, we’ll show you how to easily track and generate sales reports using Pipeline CRM software, helping you to streamline sales data collection and analyze its performance.

Sales Metrics for the Construction Industry

This includes tracking the sales performance of construction companies as well as painting, plumbing, and landscape contractors.

1. Cost Variance (CV)

Cost variance (CV) refers to the difference between the projected cost and the actual cost incurred in a construction project. Knowing this sales metric lets you identify potential cost overruns and closely track the overall project cost. Here’s how to calculate cost variance:

Cost Variance = Estimated Cost – Actual Cost

Estimated cost: the budgeted cost based on the project’s initial planning.
Actual cost: the real cost incurred for the project to complete.
A positive cost variance indicates that the project is under budget, while a negative cost variance means it’s over budget.

Related: Learn about 10 key sales metrics every sales representative should track.

2. Account Receivable Turnover and Accounts Payable Turnover

Accounts receivable turnover (ART) measures how often a construction company collects payments from clients, while accounts payable turnover (APT) indicates how efficiently it pays its suppliers. Understanding both ART and APT is crucial for effective cash flow management. By optimizing these metrics, construction businesses can improve financial health, strengthen supplier relationships, and create a more stable financial foundation.

Here’s how to calculate account receivable turnover:

Account Receivable Turnover (ART) = Net Credit Sales / [(Beginning AR Balance + Ending AR Balance) / 2]

Beginning account receivable (AR) balance: the money clients owe at the start of a specific accounting period.
Ending account receivable (AR) balance: the money clients owe at the end of a specific accounting period.
A high account receivable turnover (ART) indicates faster collections and strong cash flow.

For example:

A construction company generates $1,000,000 in credit sales during a year.
The beginning AR balance is $100,000, and the ending AR balance is $150,000.
Account receivable turnover = $1,000,000 / [($100,000 + $150,000) / 2] = $1,000,000 / $125,000 = 8 times. This means the construction company collected its payment from the client 8 times during the year.

Here’s how to calculate account payable turnover:

Account Payable Turnover (APT) = Total Purchases / [(Beginning AP Balance + Ending AP Balance) / 2]

Total purchases: the total money spent on a project.
Beginning account receivable (AR) balance: the money owed to suppliers at the start of a specific accounting period.
Ending account receivable (AR) balance: the money owed to suppliers at the end of a specific accounting period.
A high APT indicates an ability to pay bills quickly, and a low APT indicates potential financial problems.

For example:

A construction company makes $1,000,000 in purchases on credit during a year.
The beginning AP balance is $100,000, and the ending AP balance is $80,000.
Account payable turnover = $1,000,000 / [($100,000 + $80,000) / 2] = $1,000,000 / $90,000 = 11.11 times. This means the construction company paid its suppliers 11.12 times during the year.

3. Working Capital Ratio

Construction businesses often face short-term expenses like material purchases and payroll. To assess their ability to cover these costs, calculating the working capital ratio is crucial. Here’s how to calculate it:

Working Capital Ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities

Current assets: including cash, accounts receivable, and other inventory that can be converted into cash (usually within a year).
Current liabilities: including accounts payable, loans, accrued expenses, and other debts (usually within a year).
An ideal working capital ratio is 1.5 or higher. A ratio below 1 indicates potential liquidity problems.
- For example, if the result is 1.57, your construction business has $1.57 in current assets for every $1 of current liabilities.

Related: Confused by sales jargon? Our A-Z glossary of sales terminology provides clear definitions for common sales terms.

Sales KPIs for the Logistics and Transportation Companies

4. Lanes Won

In the logistics and transportation industries, “lanes” refer to the shipment routes between two locations. This means that “lanes won” refers to the routes a company has successfully secured to transport goods for a defined period.

Lanes Won = Total Number of Unique Lanes Secured

To get a more in-depth understanding of the metric, you can break the calculation further based on the following:

Transportation mode: truckload, air, or sea, etc.
Industry segmentation: food and beverage, ecommerce, or manufacturing industry.
Density: the number of shipments per lane to examine the profitability and utilization.

For example, your logistics business secures the following number of lanes in a month:

30 truckload lanes
10 air freight lanes
15 sea freight lanes
Total lanes won = 30 + 10 + 15 = 55 lanes

5. Revenue Per Load

Revenue per load measures the average income generated from each logistics shipment. It helps assess the efficiency of operations and the effectiveness of pricing strategies in relation to overall profitability. Here’s how to calculate revenue per load:

Revenue Per Load (RPL) = Total Revenue / Total Number of Loads

Total revenue: all the generated revenue from shipments within a certain period.
Total number of loads: the total number of shipments completed within a certain period.

It’s difficult to set the benchmark as the ideal revenue per load differs depending on the mode of transportation, distance, weight, location, and other factors.

That said, here’s an example of its calculation:

Total revenue: $1,200,000
Total number of loads: 400 loads
Revenue per load = $1,200,000 / 400 loads = $3,000 per load

6. Sales Activity Index

Measuring the sales activity index allows you to assess the relationship between your logistics sales effort and sales results. In other words, how effective your sales reps are in generating paying customers.

There’s no standardized formula to calculate the sales activity index, as it is based on the specific sales metrics and activities you want to track. However, the common approach is as follows:

Sales Activity Index = Number of Sales / Number of Sales Activities

Number of sales: including the generated revenue, number of signed contracts, or new clients acquired.

Number of sales activities: including sales outreach (emails, calls, and texts) and the number of proposals sent.

It’s important to note that not all leads or sales activities contribute equally to revenue. To accurately measure sales efficiency, consider assigning different weights to different types of sales. For example, securing large contracts or acquiring new clients should be valued more highly than smaller contracts or recurring revenue.

Sales Metrics for Professional Services

This includes tracking the sales performance of agencies or consulting firms (operations, HR, management, strategy, IT, marketing, etc).

7. Sales Pipeline Value and Coverage

Sales pipeline value refers to the total expected revenue from all the active leads and opportunities in the pipeline. On the other hand, sales pipeline coverage is the ratio of the total pipeline value to the sales target or quota. Knowing your income potential helps you predict future revenue and manage resource allocation, such as marketing expenses and task prioritization.

Here’s how to calculate the sales pipeline coverage:

Sales Pipeline Coverage = Total Pipeline Value / Revenue Target

Total pipeline value: the sum of the estimated value of all the active leads in the pipeline.
Revenue target: the desired sales revenue for a specific period.

The ideal pipeline coverage is generally between 3 and 5. However, a high pipeline coverage doesn’t necessarily guarantee sales; the quality of opportunities also matters. This guide will show you how to measure lead quality.

For example:

Total pipeline value: $500,000
Revenue target (quarterly): $200,000
Sales pipeline coverage = $500,000 / $200,000 = 2.5.
This indicates that the agency has 2.5 times the required revenue in its pipeline in this specific quarter.

8. Billable Hours

Billable hours refer to the time spent working on client projects that can be charged or billed within a specific period (usually on a weekly or monthly basis). Here’s how to calculate billable hours:

Total Billable Hours = Total of Hours x Hourly Rate

Keep in mind that not all project-related activities are billable. To understand which actions are billable, here are some examples of billable hours for an advertising agency:

Creative development: project brainstorming, designing, and copywriting.
Account management: client meetings, project reporting, and performance analysis.
Social media and SEO management: content creation, email marketing, SEO optimization.

Here are some examples of non-billable hours:

Training and skill development, e.g., watching online courses.
Attending networking events.
Internal team meetings that don’t involve client work, e.g., dividing the workload.

9. Forecasted Revenue Recognition

Forecasting revenue recognition involves a prediction of when a company will earn income based on sales pipeline and project timelines. This is crucial for agencies to plan finances, allocate resources, and manage cash flow. The timing of revenue recognition is directly linked to how clients are charged, whether it’s by project completion, retainers, subscriptions, or performance.

Here’s an example of how to calculate the forecasted revenue for an advertising agency:

Project: social media campaign
Contract value: $100,000
Duration: 3 months
Revenue recognition method: percentage of completion
- Phase 1 is 30%, phase 2 is 40%, phase 3 is 20%, and phase 4 is 10%.

Forecasted Revenue Recognition:

Month 1: $25,000 (Phase 1 completion)
Month 2: $40,000 (Phase 2 completion)
Month 3: $35,000 (Phases 3 and 4 completion)

Please note that this is a simplified example. When calculating the forecasted revenue recognition, you should consider dynamic factors such as project scope, delays, or early termination, which can impact the revenue recognition results.

Sales Metrics for the Real Estate Industry

This includes tracking the sales performance of real estate agents, property managers, or property developers.

10. Sales Volume

Sales volume refers to the total value of properties sold within a definite period. This sales metric helps to assess the real estate firm’s market position, agent productivity, and overall business health. Here’s how to calculate sales volume in the real estate industry:

Sales Volume = Property 1 Price + Property 2 Price + … + Property N Price

If you own a large real estate company with multiple agents or offices, you can calculate sales volume per agent, per office, or by property type to get more detailed insights.

11. Listing-to-Meeting Ratio

The listing-to-meeting ratio measures how effectively a real estate agent converts initial meetings with potential clients into actual property listings. Here’s how to calculate the listing-to-meeting ratio:

Listing to Meeting Ration = (Number of Listing Secured / Number of Meetings Held) x 100%

Number of listings secured: the number of properties an agent or firm has successfully listed for sale.
Number of meetings held: the number of initial meetings or consultations held with potential sellers.

For example:

An agent held 16 meetings with potential sellers in a month and secured 8 listings.
Listing to meeting ratio = (16 / 8) x 100% = 20%

This means that the agent was able to convert 20% of their meetings with potential sellers into actual listings.

12. Commission Rate Per Sale

The commission rate per sale refers to the percentage of the property’s sale price given to the real estate agent as payment for their services. Here’s how to calculate the commission rate per sale:

Commission Rate = (Total Commission Earned / Sale Price of the Property) x 100%

Real estate commission rates can vary significantly based on location, market conditions, and the specific agreement between the agent and client. While the traditional commission rate often ranges from 5% to 6% of the sale price, there are alternative structures:

Commission split: this is one of the most common arrangements, where the commission is typically divided equally (50/50) between the buyer’s and seller’s agents.
Negotiated rates: agents and clients may agree on a custom commission rate based on the property’s value, market conditions, or the services provided.
Flat fees: instead of a percentage, agents may charge a fixed fee, which can be converted into an equivalent commission rate for comparison purposes.

For example:

The sale price is $500,000, and the total commission earned is $30,000 this quarter.
Commission rate = ($30,000 / $500,000) x 100% = 6%.
This means this real estate agent earned a 6% commission for this quarter.

How Pipeline CRM Reporting Keeps Your Sales KPIs Right On Track

One of the key benefits of using sales CRM software is the ability to easily generate reports that closely monitor your sales growth and team performance. However, most CRM systems are limited in that they can only display a few sales metrics in a single view. If you want to check additional metrics, you often have to replace the previous reports.

With Pipeline CRM’s new and improved reporting capabilities, you can view multiple reports in a single window. You can also adjust the size of each view (e.g., from half to full-width screen) and drag and drop the most important metrics to the top of the list.

To analyze sales performance over time, simply select a predefined time range or create a custom one. All reports in the list view will automatically adjust to the chosen timeframe. Additionally, the displayed data is dynamic, so deals no longer meeting the specified criteria will be excluded from relevant reports. For example, a deal with a status of ‘won’ will no longer appear in the ‘deals on progress’ report.

Furthermore, to analyze the sales report more deeply, simply apply the relevant filters. For instance, you can change the value measurement method from ‘sum’ to ‘average’ and display the data based on ‘project type,’ ‘owner,’ or ‘deal status.’

Other handy sales reporting features of Pipeline CRM include:

Various default report views, such as deals won, deals by stage, and activity report.
Create, save, and share new report views with your team.
Download the reports as PNGs or PDFs and schedule them to be automatically sent to your inbox based on the chosen time (e.g., every Friday morning).

Streamline Your Sales KPIs Reporting Process with Pipeline CRM

By incorporating these industry-specific sales metrics into your tracking strategy, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of your business’s performance and identify areas for improvement. This empowers you to optimize your sales strategies and drive sustainable growth.

To simplify sales data collection and analysis, consider adopting Pipeline CRM. Our CRM software lets you easily gather and track all relevant sales metrics, delve into detailed results, and share insights with your sales team.

6 Best AI-Powered CRM Software in 2024

Pipeline CRM — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 21:33:18 +0000

There’s no denying that artificial intelligence (AI) powered software helps people work faster and increases overall sales productivity. In sales, for instance, AI-powered CRM solutions have revolutionized how you manage your client communication and relationships. It can also help you reduce repetitive menial tasks and automate sales workflows. Thus, freeing up time and effort for more meaningful endeavours.

If you’re looking for the best AI-powered CRM solution to help you get certain tasks done faster, this blog is for you. We will explain how the best AI CRM software can help you streamline the customer experience and communication and accelerate the deal-closing process.

Why Do Businesses Need an AI-Powered CRM?

Today, most businesses already leverage AI to ensure smooth and continuous functioning. Even as far back as 2020, insightful research by McKinsey & Co. predicted automating sales can lead to a 10% sales uplift potential. With tremendous advances each year, today’s AI-powered CRMs can revitalize your entire sales and CX division.

Here are the key benefits of a custom CRM solution with AI integration:

Automate various sales workflow, such as customer communication with personalized messages
Ace sales forecasting where new leads and proposals are concerned
Analyze data and patterns to identify trends and configure solutions
Free up employee time that can be dedicated to critical functions

AI-integrated CRM systems bring a lot to the table. So, here’s how you can assess your business requirements and capabilities to narrow down on must-have features of AI-fueled CRM software.

How to Assess Your Business Needs for an AI-Powered CRM

AI-based sales CRM features have been around for a while now. So, it can be tricky to identify which of the many offerings out there works best for your business needs.
If you’re wondering what features you’ll need, these questions can help shed some light:

What are the business goals and needs?
What aspect of your customer relationship management needs help?
What are your internal technical capabilities? Do you need a ready-to-go platform or one you can customize and tweak in-house?
Can the new CRM integrate with the tools and applications you already use?
What are your future business growth plans? Can the CRM be scaled?
What are some need-to-have or nice-to-have features that will influence your budget?

A good automated CRM solution will include features like email writing assistance, data entry automation, sales reporting and forecasting, real-time collaboration, historical databases with search capabilities, an intuitive interface, mobile-friendly features, secure storage, efficient lead management, and instant notification.

Keeping these in mind, here are six sales tools with CRM AI integration that are widely used and have produced great results.

Top 7 AI CRM Software

1. Pipeline CRM: Easy-to-Use AI-Powered Task Assistance for Productive Sales Teams

Pipeline CRM combines features like customizable data tracking with ease of access and integration. It empowers sales and customer support teams to maintain and build stronger relationships based on data-driven solutions and decision-making.

Pipeline CRM particularly simplifies email communication with its built-in AI writing assistant that is powered by the OpenAI system. Considering how emails are often the first touchpoint between you and a potential customer, it is important to send the right message at the right time. Here is how Pipeline AI email assistant benefits your sales team:

There is no need to write the prompts. Simply click the prompt button to write different email messages, such as ‘say hello,’ ‘thank you,’ ‘book a cool,’ and ‘follow up.’
To edit the text, highlight it and select commands like “more engaging, “ “rephrase,” “lengthen,” or “shorten.”
Write custom prompts to have full control of the results.

Key Sales Features Include

Efficient lead management with customizable deal stages.
Automated sales workflows that streamline tasks like daily prioritization, suggest next steps based on deal status, and automatically generate new deals for retainer customers.
Unlimited storage to store all your sales-related information and documents.
Vast integration options with popular business apps and tools, including Customer.io, QuickBooks, AirCall, and Asana.
Fast go-live turnaround time of 48 hours.
Intuitive interface, instant notifications, and great mobile app capabilities.

Pricing Plans

Start plan: $25 per user per month.
Develop plan: $33 per user per month.
Grow plan: $49 per user per month.

Rating

4.4/5 rating on G2

2. Hubspot CRM: AI-Powered Solution for Varied Business Sizes

With clients like eBay and Tripadvisor, HubSpot is a household name where CRMs are concerned. The HubSpot CRM has great reviews for good reason: It is an intuitive and powerful analytical platform to drive productivity and customer engagement.

HubSpot’s AI features include SEO recommendations, AI summarizations, and content drafting capabilities. It also offers marketing automation and pipeline generation, which can help businesses easily customize the platform and organize their tasks, contacts, etc.

Key Sales Features Include

Predictive lead scoring.
Automated email sequences.
Conversation bots.
Extensive integration with other apps.
Availability of free plan with limited features.

Pricing Plans

For businesses: Marketing Hub Professional at $800 per month and Marketing Hub Enterprise at $3,600 per month.
For individuals and small teams: the free version starts at $15 per month.

Rating

4.4/5 rating on G2

3. Salesforce CRM: AI-Based CRM for Streamlining Sales Operations

Salesforce is one of the leading CRMs in the world.

The Salesforce Sales Cloud CRM provides a centralized platform for your marketing, sales, and service teams to collaborate seamlessly and work in alignment.

Salesforce’s Einstein 1 platform helps you use AI-powered functions on client data to set up customizable, predictive experiences to address your CRM needs. The Einstein Copilot helps you gauge the future of your pipeline based on predictive analytics.

Key Sales Features

Lead scoring, opportunity insights, and predictive analytics.
Personalized customer interactions.
Sales automation tools.
AI voice assistant.
Diverse packages and multiple integrations.

Pricing Plans

For enterprise-size businesses: pricing starts at $165 per month and goes up to $500 per month with Einstein 1 integration.
For small- to medium-sized businesses: the Starter Suite costs $24 per month, whereas the Pro Suite is $100 per month.

Rating

4.4/5 rating on G2

4. Zoho CRM: Intelligent Platform for Sales and Customer Experience Automation

Next on the AI CRM software list is Zoho CRM. This platform breaks down departmental silos, enhancing collaboration and improving efficiency for your sales and customer experience teams.

Zoho CRM’s AI assistant, Zia, helps teams predict sales outcomes, take voice-narrated notes, and automate menial tasks. In addition, Zia’s capabilities can be accessed via chat or voice commands and prompts, making it easy to use on the go.

Key Sales Features Include

Lead scoring and sales forecasting.
Omnichannel communication.
Actionable insights for data-driven decision-making.
AI assistant with chat capabilities.
Free trials and minimal learning curve.

Pricing Plans

Standard plan: approximately $10 per user per month.
Professional plan: approximately $16 per user per month.
Enterprise plan: approximately $28 per user per month.
Ultimate plan: approximately $31 per user per month.

Rating

4.1/5 rating on G2

5. Zendesk CRM: Smooth AI-Powered CRM for Lead Management

Zendesk CRM emphasizes full sales pipeline visibility so your sales team can make data-driven decisions while maximizing productivity. The integrated sales CRM comes with various automated features and tools, such as email integration and sales triggers.

Key Sales Features Include

Email integration with automatic tracking.
Easy segmentation and filtering of deals in real-time.
Task sequencing.
Centralized platform with leads, contacts, and account information.
API access and mobile app.

Pricing Plans

Sell Team plan: $25 per user per month.
Sell Growth plan: $69 per user per month.
Sell Professional plan: $149 per user per month.

Rating

4.2/5 rating on G2

6. Freshsales CRM: Intuitive, AI-Powered System for Automated Lead Assignment

Last on this AI CRM software list is Freshsales CRM. Its AI assistant, Freddy, can help you identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities and automate lead assignments. AI also helps spot risks and bottlenecks and prioritize “warmer” deals.

Key Sales Features Include

Deal and sales sequencing insights.
360-degree customer view.
Robust mobile app with an intuitive interface.
Good customer support.
A wide variety of languages are supported.

Pricing Plans

The Growth plan is around $12 per user per month.
The Pro plan is around $50 per user per month.
The Enterprise plan is around $75 per user per month.

Rating

4.5/5 rating on G2

7. Softr – Powerful no-code CRM platform

Softr is a simple yet powerful no-code platform that can help you build custom sales tools including CRM to manage your entire funnel without developer resources. Trusted by over 500,000 teams—from small businesses to major corporations like Universal and Hopin—Softr lets anyone create custom apps to power internal and external workflows.

Softr’s AI functionality include: AI text generator, AI content generator, AI app generator to build business apps with CRUD functionality, AI-generated designs, data, themes, and copy.

Key Sales Features Include

Sales pipeline tracking
Lead capturing
Account management
Customer onboarding
Project management
KPI reporting

Pricing Plans

Free plan (and free trial available on all plans)
Basic: $49 per month
Professional $139 per month
Business: $269 per month

Rating

4.8/5 rating on G2

Pipeline CRM is the Best AI-powered CRM for Your Business

When selecting a CRM, prioritize features like robust sales forecasting, seamless integration, mobile accessibility, and extensive customization options. Additionally, consider an AI-powered CRM to automate tasks and boost productivity.

Pipeline CRM is an excellent choice, offering a user-friendly interface, powerful AI writing assistant, and comprehensive features. Experience the difference by trying Pipeline CRM for free today!

How Agencies Use Pipeline CRM

Andrew McDermott — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 12:10:55 +0000

Trust is the fast track to getting clients to sign agency business contracts. But what’s the quickest way for agencies to build trust with their prospects? It’s setting and meeting expectations. The better your agency meets expectations, the easier it will be to generate revenue. Here’s how agencies use Pipeline CRM.

An agency CRM system gives you the platform you need to set and meet client expectations consistently over time. Today, we’ll take a closer look at how three agency businesses use Pipeline’s agency CRM to do just that.

1. MGECOM: Multiple Years of Growth with Pipeline CRM for Agencies

The first on the list of our CRM agency users is MGECOM. MGECOM is an advertising agency focused on affiliate program management. They became a Pipeline CRM customer in June 2006, shortly after they launched. Pipeline CRM has helped MGECOM scale from a tiny operation in the founder’s spare bedroom to one of the largest and best-performing affiliate program management agencies in their niche.

MGECOM came to Pipeline CRM with specific needs and requirements:

Manage MGECOM’s messaging, flow, and frequency of touchpoints
Tell salespeople what to do and when to do it
Scale up or down with demand

“Since we started in 2006, we’ve gone from tracking three or five deals at a time to having a couple hundred prospects in various stages of our sales pipeline at any given time,” says MGECOM CEO Matt Enders. “Our messaging, flow, and frequency of touchpoints have certainly evolved over the years, but Pipeline CRM keeps us from making missteps, no matter how complex things get.”

Here are some of the other Pipeline CRM features that helped MEGOCOM scale and make our CRM agency one of the best CRM solutions in the market:

Smart agendas: daily agendas that populate automatically. Create an intuitive to-do list for your team while they perform daily sales tasks.
Smart emails: use advanced rules and conditions to automate lead engagement, send welcome messages, and resurrect dead leads.
Robust reporting features: MGECOM relied on deal insight, activity tracking, and sales forecasting reports to gain a macro- and micro-level view of their organization’s performance.

“Our greatest challenge is the same as it’s always been: getting someone to put their signature on the dotted line,” says Enders. “Pipeline CRM helps us maximize each opportunity. Our business development team keeps it open in a window whenever they’re working. We use it to track every communication we have with every prospect.”

As CEO, Enders stays on top of everything with Pipeline CRM’s robust reporting features. “On a day-to-day basis, I can get the 30,000-foot view and see where things are, but when I need to dig in, it’s just a matter of a couple of decisive clicks to get the specifics I need.”

Results From Pipeline CRM

MGECOM relies on Pipeline CRM to tell its salespeople what to do and when to do it. It keeps track of everything in a customized manner, so they never miss a deal. The best part is that Pipeline CRM is incredibly affordable.

“The tracking has to be much more robust than any one person’s brain. Pipeline CRM gives us scalability. It’s full-featured and incredibly inexpensive. Nobody has to be tied to a database, and all of our documentation is readily accessible to everyone who needs it.”

Even better, Pipeline CRM allows MGECOM to manage personnel changes with ease. “When we’re getting someone new up and running, we don’t even need support documentation. It’s so intuitive. A new person can start using Pipeline CRM and be comfortable within a day of playing with the interface.”

Continue reading the MGECOM case study to learn more about our agency CRM.

2. Evergrowth: SaaS Sales Incubator Relies on Pipeline CRM

Lithuanian consulting firm Evergrowth started as an in-house incubator for Practica Capital, a European venture capital company. Evergrowth accelerates B2B Software as a Service (SaaS) startups across Europe by helping sales and marketing teams develop predictable sales pipelines within a data-driven sales framework. They turn SaaS companies into sales machines.

Here’s what Evergrowth needed:

Robust data reporting: Evergrowth has strict data reporting requirements. They need to be able to analyze client performance at any given time.
Comprehensive CRM integration: Evergrowth needed an agency CRM that could work with its already established technology stack. It needed plug-and-play functionality that would allow it to sync its tools together in a few short clicks.
Agenda feature: This feature simplifies tasks for sales leaders, making their jobs easier. Smart agendas, enabling customized filters and columns, and AI assistants ensure everyone knows what needs to be done daily.

Evergrowth’s CEO, Jean-Baptiste Daguen, had this to say about Pipeline. “Our business and our SaaS clients make decisions, thrive, and run on data. That’s why we love Pipeline CRM just as much as our clients. Pipeline’s game-changing features include its straightforward integration with Google and Excel.” Daguen also pointed out the agenda feature, which makes sales leaders’ jobs easier by enabling customized filters and columns. “Other CRMs are so much more limited in how data is displayed.”

Here are some of the other Pipeline CRM features that helped Evergrowth scale SaaS companies:

A sales-first CRM: Evergrowth needed a flexible, simple, easy-to-use CRM that could be customized and adapted to the sales team’s needs. Pipeline CRM’s platform offers flexibility to customize deal stages, data, analysis, reporting, fields, forms, and more
Robust sales data management: with just one click, Evergrowth can record and freeze their data in the CRM database. This action only takes just 3 minutes with Pipeline CRM but could take up to an hour with other agency CRMs
Training and onboarding: Pipeline CRM provided the Evergrowth team with extensive training, onboarding, and support.

Daguen onboards his clients with a two-day workshop. During those sessions he helps define their ideal customer profile. He continues their training by showing them how to create filters and dashboards.

“I’m a sales guy myself, so one of my favorite tools before using Pipeline CRM was spreadsheets,” said Daguen. “Pipeline CRM is a great transition from spreadsheets and so much more intuitive. You can work easily with its inline editing, create filters, add columns, and make unique lists to ultimately see where you can add value in your pipeline.”

Results From Pipeline CRM

Evergrowth has seen steady growth since adopting Pipeline’s agency CRM system. Although its agency has 20 employees, it constantly tries to recruit two to four employees every month to keep up with the demand for its services.

“What differentiates us is that we are an extension of our clients’ teams. We challenge them on the sales process, think with them, and ask them why they are contacting certain leads. Along the way, we help businesses solve problems, and Pipeline CRM helps us accomplish that.”

Continue reading the Evergrowth case study to learn more about our agency CRM.

3. Wire Stone and TenthWave Use Pipeline’s Agency CRM to Manage Merger Transition

Wire Stone is a digital marketing agency with eight offices worldwide. Established in 2000, this full-service agency provides marketing transformation, demand generation, audience engagement, and experiential branding to its clients.

Wire Stone used Excel, Salesforce, and various other CRM platforms in the past. From a scaling perspective, these options were either too complicated or unmanageable for the team. When Wire Stone merged with TenthWave, they decided to take a closer look at what they were using. They couldn’t pass up the combination of Pipeline CRM’s simple navigation and intuitive user interface.

Wire Stone came to Pipeline CRM with the following needs:

Simple CRM system: they wanted a simple, easy-to-use option that didn’t require major support from IT or major investment.
Keep team members in the loop: with multiple user rights, roles, and responsibilities, they needed to make sure everyone had need-to-know information right at their fingertips.
Monitor sales opportunities in real-time: to ensure that they can go over deals with a fine toothcomb.

Craig Wishner, Global Business Director at Tenthwave Digital and Wire Stone, shares his thoughts about Pipeline CRM.

“I made sure that we kept Pipeline CRM when Wire Stone acquired us because it’s a tool I utilize and like to use. I didn’t want something I wasn’t familiar with. To me, having that repository of information makes life easier because it allows you to go back and see when you talked to a prospect or customer list, as well as what the conversation was about,” Wishner said.

Here’s a look at the core agency CRM features Wire Stone needed for their business:

Simple setup, no admin required: Wire Stone could import, set up, and manage their business post-merger without admin support. No need to call IT for help, no fighting with group policies or custom operating systems.
Effortless CRM data migration: TenthWave and Wire Stone needed to migrate all their sales CRM data from Salesforce and import it into Pipeline CRM. The data transferring feature from Pipeline CRM made that easy, saving time and money.
Deals tab: many Wire Stone employees use it as a repository to help track new business outreach and opportunities. They monitor current and future clients, as well as track the progress of what’s moving forward
Account customization: Wire Stone needed to provide their organization with need-to-know access to customer and deal information. Pipeline CRM enabled Wire Stone to customize and set user rights and permissions, ensuring everyone had the data they needed and nothing more

“If you don’t have a tool, process, or approach to conducting your business, you’re in quicksand,” Wishner says. “You have to have some type of mechanism that keeps you embracing your different outreach… Pipeline CRM does that for me.”

Results From Pipeline CRM

Our customizable contact and sales management allows Wire Stone to easily record and track all leads within the sales pipeline. They can add personalized notes to each deal, allowing them to leverage this information to accelerate the deal-closing process.

When first jumping on board with Pipeline CRM at Tenthwave, it was a breeze to export all of our data from Salesforce to Pipeline CRM. We had lots of information to retain, and being able to transfer that information over to Pipeline CRM was instrumental for us.

To me, having that repository of information makes life easier because it allows you to go back and see when you talked to a prospect or customer list, as well as what the conversation was about,” Wishner said. “Any golden nugget that can help you in a conversation is important to me. Pipeline CRM was the conduit for data transfer, which lent itself to better organization and productivity across our teams.”

Continue reading the Wire Stone case study to learn more about our agency CRM.

Pipeline CRM: The Key to Sales Success

Set expectations, and meet expectations. This formula is the key to more sales revenue for your agency.

Clients buy when they trust you. Setting and meeting expectations over time builds a strong agency/client relationship. When you have an agency CRM system, you have a clear path to increased trust and revenue. The better your agency is at meeting client expectations, the easier it will be to persuade each of your agency clients to spend big.

Learn more about Pipeline CRM’s powerful features for agencies. or check out our integrations here. And when you’re ready to test our agency CRM, sign up for a 14-day free trial!

CRM Software Hacks – Pipeline

The new list view feature hindsight

Track Deals Past and Present with Hindsight

Looking for a lost deal? Check the Recycle Bin!

Close CRM Alternatives for Marketing Agencies

TL;DR of 5 Top Marketing Agency CRMs Similar to Close CRM

1. Pipeline CRM: Best for Sales Automation and Team Collaboration

Key Features

Pricing

2. Hubspot: Best Modular CRM Solution

Key Features

Pricing

3. Keap: Best for Marketing-Focused Agencies

Key Features

Pricing

4. Insightly: Best Customer Service Solution CRM

Key Features

Pricing

5. HighLevel: Best White-Labeled CRM Solution

Key Features

Pricing

What’s the Best CRM Alternative to Close CRM?

Pipeline CRM: An Excellent Close CRM Alternative for Marketing Agencies

Using Kanban in Sales: History, Tips, and Examples

What is Kanban?

The History of Kanban

Kanban as Shop Signages

Toyota’s Lean Manufacturing Kanban

Kanban in Today’s Business

Leveraging Kanban Sales System for Effective Sales Workflows

Examples of a Kanban Sales Process in Pipeline CRM

Deal Organization

Deal Progression and View Customization

Get a Clear View of Your Sales with Kanban Pipelines

CRM Dashboard Customization: How to Add Multiple Sales Pipelines to Your Pipeline CRM Dashboards

What Can You Customize on a CRM Dashboard?

Why Is a Custom CRM Dashboard Essential for Your Business?

Enhanced Focus and Efficiency

Tailored Insights for Specific Roles

Instant Access to Critical Data

How to Customize Your Pipeline CRM Dashboard for Multiple Sales Pipelines

Step 1: Create a New, Customized CRM Dashboard

Step 2: Edit the New CRM Dashboard

Step 3: Save the New Tailored CRM Dashboard

Step 4: Share the New Customized CRM Dashboard With the Team

Focus on What Matters with Customized CRM Dashboards

Best Practices for CRM Implementation in Construction

The Construction Industry’s Need for CRM Implementation

What Do These Issues Have to Do With CRM Software?

The 7 Best Practices for Implementing Sales CRM Tools in Construction

1. Setting Goals and Defining Your Objectives:

2. Verify That the CRM you Want Matches Your Goals:

3. Clean and Prep Your Data:

4. Get Your Team’s Buy-In Ahead of Time:

5. Rally Your Team Behind The Objectives:

6. Measure CRM Performance:

7. Follow CRM Best Practices Consistently:

Why Your Business Should Follow Best Practices for CRM Implementation

CRM Implementation With a Tech-challenged Team

Choose a User-friendly CRM:

Begin With the Basics:

Give Guidance and Support:

Accept Automation:

Rely on Relevance:

Reward Your Rainmakers:

Pipeline CRM: a Leading CRM for Construction Companies

5 Route Planning and Optimization Software for Sales Teams to Close More Deals

Why Is Route Planning and Optimization Important for Outside Sales Teams?

1. Pipeline CRM: A Sales-Focused CRM with a Robust Mobile CRM App

Features

Pros

Ratings

Pricing plans

2. ActiveCampaign: Route Add-Ons for Delivery and Sales Teams

Features

Pros

Cons

Reviews

Pricing plans

3. Zoho CRM: A CRM with Sales Team Optimization Tools