Long before we launched Freshsales on June 22nd 2016, our sales reps had a feeling about the CRM we used to use. And being a product company, it was a feeling that was too hard to ignore.
There has to be a better way to do CRM.
This feeling became our mission statement. And we started building our own CRM.
We sat down with our sales folks, recognized pain points, scoured the internet, and realized that our problems were also the problems of sales reps around the world.
That’s when we decided salespeople would be at the center of everything we built into Freshsales. Sure, engineers would build the CRM, but it’d work like how salespeople want it to—not like how engineers think it should.
A year and a half later, the features in Freshsales have evolved, but the focus has stayed.
And that’s because you—the sales reps of the world—have set the tone for us. You’ve told us what you want from a sales CRM. And solving your problems has given us joy and the strength to keep pushing harder.
So we thought this Thanksgiving season was the best time to say it—thank you. In a job like sales, you look forward to Thanksgiving more than most of us. A break from work, the excitement of a long weekend, surrounded by those you love (and the ones who love you), plus the most delicious food on the table: just the ideal kind of holiday.
We want to be a part of your celebration by thanking you. For helping us identify 5 values on which we’re building Freshsales.
Simplicity
CRM and simplicity? Until a few years ago, this was a paradox—and a maddening one at that. Because sales CRMs were complicated, they were used like a system of record, a data dump. And sales reps were either intimidated or frustrated as they waded through a complex, clunky interface. We didn’t want reps to jump through hoops; we wanted to keep things simple. Like the ability to make calls from the CRM in a single click. Or helping the rep get a 360° view of the customer from a single screen (instead of jumping between screens/tabs/tools).
Freedom
The freedom to customize the CRM according to your sales process is such an essential need, but it’s just not fulfilled enough. This rigidity in CRMs is part of the reason why reps detest them. If your sales process flows differently for different products/markets, you want to create multiple sales pipelines. Or you’d like to play around with the fields in your CRM and capture information unique to your customers.
When sales reps use the same tool every day, that tool must offer enough variety to keep them interested in it. It’s an important lesson we’ve never forgotten.
Intelligence
I know. Every other conversation has so much “smart” dropped around, it feels overwhelming. But let’s face the facts—from cities to homes, things are only getting smarter. And sales reps know they need smart tools to sell better. This inspired us to go big on lead scoring. When you have a new lead, and you’re figuring out what to make of them, imagine a number popping up against that lead. And imagine this number scoring the lead out of 100, based on their demographic details and website/in-app activity. Lead scoring brings with it a never-before sense of clarity to targeting and following up on leads.
Collaboration
Back when reps did their sales using Excel, cross-functionality wasn’t possible. You worked with what Excel had; if you wanted to do more, you accessed other tools which resulted in a system of siloed tools. For a scalable business you don’t want silos; you want more collaborations between tools. So how do you collaborate? By integrating the CRM with other tools—whether it’s marketing automation (MailChimp), building bridges between apps (Zapier), or analyzing customer activity across touchpoints (Segment).
Efficiency
When sales reps spend only 35.9% of their time actually selling, you know something’s wrong. It’s certainly not an efficient use of your time; worse, it’s spent on mundane activities like entering data, sending emails, and setting up meetings. One way to cut down on mundane activities is by automating them. Just the ability to set up workflows or automatically enrich a lead’s profile using a signup form can free up so much time on your schedule. And when you have more time to be efficient, who wouldn’t be thankful?
If you’re a sales rep and you’re reading this, thank you for giving us your time. Have an idea about how we can make CRMs better for you? We’re all ears at support@freshsales.io.
Happy Thanksgiving!
