Thought that CRM trial was a waste of time... now I'm eating my words

I signed up for a 14-day trial of Pipedrive back in March just to prove to my partner it wouldn't help our small consulting firm. We had 47 leads sitting in a spreadsheet going back 6 months, and I figured a tool wouldn't fix our follow-up problem. But after 3 days of seeing automated reminders and pipeline stages, I actually started calling people back. We closed 4 deals from that old list within 2 weeks, which was about $3,800 in new revenue. Now I'm wondering if I should have tried this years ago. Anyone else find a tool they swore they'd hate?

3 comments

3 Comments

jenny1981d ago

I read somewhere that people who resist CRMs are usually just scared it'll expose how bad they are at following up, and that hit close to home. That line you wrote about eating your words really got me because I had the EXACT same experience with HubSpot's free version last year. My partner kept saying "just try it for a week" and I went in rolling my eyes, but those automated reminders for old leads are seriously powerful. It's like the tool forces you to be the professional you always claimed you were, and suddenly that spreadsheet feels EMBARRASSING.

ward.anna1d ago

500 leads in my old spreadsheet turned out to be duplicates and dead emails. I get a CRM can be useful but I don't think it's "forcing you to be professional" or whatever. You could just set a reminder on your phone for follow ups. It's a tool not a personality transplant.

taylor9571d ago

Huh, funny thing is the real test is keeping up with the tool after the newness wears off.