RahRahBooty profile picture
RahRahBooty profile picture

RahRahBooty

Business Development

Executive
Opinionated
Member
+7

CRM or no CRM?

Every org I’ve worked for has used Salesforce except for my current company. Talk about a learning curve.


We’re over here hustling out of Excel/Google sheets and I was curious.. how many other people are crushing it without a CRM?



How do you manage your territory?

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40 comments

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Chep
WR Officer
6
Bitcoin Adoption Specialist
Salesforce and loft help so much. I know people who like to use excel sheets as well, but personally I think that's what my cadence is for. Work smarter not harder
RahRahBooty
Executive
0
Business Development
Amen to this. I day dream about how much more I could achieve every day if I had SFDC or anything else 
MatyHoo
Good Citizen
4
Manager of Business Development
When properly managed, a CRM can be a great tool.  When not well managed can easily become a disaster.
ARRyouReadyKids
Politicker
4
Enterprise Account Executive
It's almost always an automatic disqualification to me if your company doesn't have a CRM. always blows my mind tbh
RahRahBooty
Executive
1
Business Development
Yeah I know better for the future. 
Rallier
Politicker
3
SDR Manager and Consultant
My company has Dynamics. Just kill me
KingofGIF
Politicker
1
AE
Pipedrive would be better, my condolences 
Sgt_Trollingham
Valued Contributor
1
Business Development Director
We are considering moving from SF to Pipedrive. Can you list out pros v cons or your experience?

KingofGIF
Politicker
0
AE
interesting, why the switch? Pipedrive is barebones, but does not require the amount of work or money that SF does to get it to the right level to fly, I mean,  they seem to heavily target SMB and startups, so that anwers.
random thoughts:
- in the end, it does lack the infrastructure and integrations that hunbpot and salesforce have, that can be a bummer, although you can make workarounds with zapier or others
- ego wise for AEs, is a cheap tool? 
- pros - just open the pandora box, no instructions and after 10 mins you can start selling
- incredibly easy to use, award-winning logic design by developers 
paddy
WR Officer
3
Director of Business Development
A CRM is really only as good as its administrator. You can have a nice tool like SF but if you have an admin who doesn't manage it properly or builds it poorly then it's useless.
Salespreuner
Big Shot
1
Regional Sales Director
SFDC 💯
Telehealth_2the_Moon
Notable Contributor
1
Director of Business Development
Ouch, CRMs already suffer when people aren't active on keeping it up to date, can't imagine relying on a group to keep a spreadsheet clean. 



Is it working for you and the team though? If so, how?
RahRahBooty
Executive
1
Business Development
It’s not just me and my team, it’s my entire org! And surprisingly it does.. my company does very well. I imagine how much better they would do if they could actually coach to KPI’s. 

I find it to be a challenge. I’m used to having a tool that essentially automates my cadence. Having to do it on my own takes a lot of discipline. 


Telehealth_2the_Moon
Notable Contributor
0
Director of Business Development
Yeah I bet. It seems that the only way that can work well is if there are some really established best practices that everyone follows tightly. 

But yeah, some of the reporting functionality is great, but for your leadership it's hard for them to miss something that they haven't had a taste of before.
RahRahBooty
Executive
1
Business Development
The funny thing is, there isn’t really. Everyone is doing their own thing. 

It’s seriously mind blowing to me 
Telehealth_2the_Moon
Notable Contributor
1
Director of Business Development
Wow, I just keep making guesses and totally missing, what a unique thing going on there.
Lambda
Tycoon
1
Sales Consultant
my company has SFDC but i use one note for everything that way i can keep it if they fire me
Beans
Big Shot
1
Enterprise Account Executive
SF & Outreach combo over here.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
🦊
SF but without the micromanagement of making me loathe using it. 🤣
Tapati0
Opinionated
1
Business Development Manager
My current company doesn’t believe in sales using a CRM tool. They think it’s too “big brother”. Everything is kept on excel sheets. I picked up the free version of HubSpot to keep myself organized especially with customer information. My old employer had salesforce and man do I miss it. 
RahRahBooty
Executive
1
Business Development
I feel your pain here
CaneWolf
Politicker
1
Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract
Dude, your company is using Excel sheets? That's asking for somebody to fuck everything up on his or her way out the door.
Tapati0
Opinionated
0
Business Development Manager
Mine used excel sheets or nothing at all. I took over some accounts after a rep got let go and I had no information to go off of. Had some fun first meetings. 
CaneWolf
Politicker
0
Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract
To be fair, I've inherited deals from reps that put nothing into the CRM plenty of times as well.
RahRahBooty
Executive
1
Business Development
Yup. That’s the worst or when you reach out to someone that used to be a client but you had no idea and you look like a rookie jackass. 
swizard
Celebrated Contributor
1
Sales Evangelist
Salesforce - for teams 20+ // smaller teams - tone of saas products out there much cheaper and fast-to-onboard
braintank
Politicker
0
Enterprise Account Executive
Get them to pay you to deploy a CRM (free documentation available online and on youtube). You and the company are severely hamstrung without one. 
RahRahBooty
Executive
0
Business Development
We supposedly getting one next year 
braintank
Politicker
0
Enterprise Account Executive
How big is your company and what are you selling?
RahRahBooty
Executive
0
Business Development
Ohhh just $4B and I essentially sell an expensive library card 
braintank
Politicker
0
Enterprise Account Executive
Dang, can't imagine running a company that size off gsheets. Good for y'all but must be a pain in the ass for whoever has to maintain those spreadsheets. 
RahRahBooty
Executive
0
Business Development
 lol WE maintain our own spreadsheets. No one else has access to them. Crazy, right?!
braintank
Politicker
1
Enterprise Account Executive
you have my condolences...
MMMGood
Celebrated Contributor
0
Senior Account Executive
SFDC. Just keep in mind: It’s not a silver bullet. 
RahRahBooty
Executive
0
Business Development
Oh I know lol but better than nothing 
thegrinch
Politicker
0
SDR
I hope they're reinvesting those savings back into you!
IRS
Good Citizen
0
Regional Solutions Consultant
SF is where it's at.
Skerp22
Catalyst
0
Account Executive, Expansion
I've been at my current company for almost 4 years, and we've never had a CRM. It was up to salespeople to stay organized with everything. Some people were super old school and used notebooks, i created my own log of clients/contacts/call notes/etc. in Excel to keep track of everything - it was like my daily Bible.

We were bought by a PE company last year, and a month ago we had this new CRM rolled out that we all now have to use (not Salesforce). Talk about a learning curve.

While I'm certainly all about keeping track of activity, clients, deals, etc. to keep myself organized in the day-to-day, I find that my company is more-so using this CRM as a babysitting tool - which is really frustrating and seems like they're spending a lot of time micro-managing.
Wolfof7thStreet
Valued Contributor
0
AE
You definitely need SOME kind of CRM, crazy they have you prospecting in sheets
cw95
Politicker
0
Sales Development Lead
Never used Salesforce, we use hubspot. It is literally just a data entry system that gets forgotten about. Much more of a paper and pen guy. Which I then also forget about. 

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