When you select a web based system for managing customer relationships (a CRM tool), be sure it’s a good fit for your team. In fact, let’s back up a minute. The acronym “CRM” can sound a bit scary and make people think of it just as a reporting tool and yet another thing they have to do. I prefer to refer to it as Communication Relationship Management, so that you are efficient and effective when communicating what’s going on with the people you interact with. Keep that in mind when reading this!
A recent client (a director of business development) began investigating Salesforce alternatives, as Salesforce required a significant financial investment and technical resources, and because he saw Salesforce adoption as a barrier and challenge. That client took the initiative and was rewarded with FMYI. He is not alone in these feelings. Others out there find disadvantages to include “high recurring subscription costs, mixed customer support reviews and a lake of feature sets and functionality that forces users to pay extra for AppExchange products or pay for customization tools.”
After he started using FMYI, he gave a skating analogy that made a lot of sense. He said with FMYI, his team could strap on their skates and go – some faster than others, but all moving in the right direction. On the other hand, with Salesforce he had to hire people to build a rink and consult, burn daylight pulling people for training after training and in the end was too burned out to skate once it was ready.
Of all the Salesforce alternatives, FMYI is positioned as a very different, more usable CRM. Hundreds of managers use FMYI to easily track client and prospect updates, along with tools for action and team communication. But what also makes FMYI unique is that you can connect contacts to various projects and interact on those. Or you can build a resource library of forms, articles and best practices, plus allow sharing to foster healthy communication.
Salesforce is a complex tool no doubt, but here is what customers have told us they found with Salesforce and how it compares to FMYI:
• Salesforce costs add up quickly, plus require IT and technical resources to setup and customize, whereas FMYI is virtually instant to start up, any person can run it and is much more budget friendly.
• Salesforce has many extra tools that many businesses don’t necessarily need, taking real estate, causing confusion, and lengthening training efforts.
• Salesforce is rigid even when needs of the organization change, whereas FMYI allows flexibility as you go, making the system scalable to new initiatives.
• Salesforce structure is not intuitive to some users, such as busy people on the go that just need to add or drop information and move on.
• Salesforce is often too complex for people, whereas FMYI has the look and feel of a favorite social network and is more easily adopted.
• Salesforce deployments take time, and by the time you’re done, you’re left feeling burned out.
• Salesforce requires many rules, regulations and processes and then training, training and more training, all preventing usage.
I know of a company that spent tens of thousands to put in Salesforce and three years later, they pulled the plug because after many, many trainings, people simply didn’t use it. Let’s put that in perspective. Say you are a company with 15 employees and go with Salesforce Enterprise level, you are spending $125/user/month for a grand total of $22,500 a year! Compare that to an FMYI site with all of the features turned on, you’re looking at $10/user/month for a grand total of $1,800. And did I mention we offer free support? Let me save you the time of doing the math, that’s a 92% savings! When looking through Salesforce alternatives to fit your team’s style, we certainly hope you will give FMYI a try.
