HubSpot or Active Campaign? Why choosing a CRM is like buying a car

Which CRM is the best? Should I choose HubSpot, Active Campaign or one of the rest?

It's a really important moment choosing your CRM platform for the business and like most things in life, all are not equal and you will get what you pay for.

The first thing to consider is the four levels of success when it comes to a great CRM implementation

Level 1 - The one source of truth.

The critical first level for successful CRM implementation is to get everything out of your head and into a system. The average customer journey from awareness, through consideration, selection, onboarding, delivery and retention is around 70 individual steps. You can not possibly keep this information in your head (why would you) when you can release it into a platform.

It's also critically important for redundancy. No-one in the business holds company marketing and sales information anywhere but your CRM. If your team members calls in sick, goes on holidays or leaves, the sales opportunity does not disappear with them.

Level 2 - Stop the leaks.

You need a sales process which captures every lead that comes your way. 90% of business owners don't have a watertight sales process which ensures every lead is nurtured. This leads to massive waste as your prospects give up on waiting to hear back from you and go with your more proactive competitor. Your CRM needs to express this sales process so every lead is visible, nurtured and given every chance to convert.

Level 3 - Killer conversion rate

This is where your marketing automation program kicks in. There are two distinct ways we use marketing automation to drive conversion. The first is the 'spray and pray' method of blasting a newsletter to your list. The second - a precision targeted method of customer journey messaging (sending a message directly related to an action or event the prospect has been involved in). Your CRM needs to be able to deliver both through automation.

Level 4 - Data driven decisions.

This one is really simple. Have clarity and visibility over the performance of all your marketing and sales activities. With the right data, decision making becomes simple. Do more of what works and either adjust or eliminate what isn't delivering results. Your CRM should give you the right dashboarding and reports for you to make decisions in no more than 3 clicks of your mouse.

These four steps are the benchmarks of what you should be considering when choosing your CRM platform. You're either going to get all of them in one or you will have to patch them together with a variety of platforms.

Now.. to the big question, what platform is right for me?

Let's use a really simple analogy to help you understand what you need out of your CRM platform.

Why Choosing a CRM is like choosing a car?

Your first car, your first CRM...

Your first car, super exciting and in most cases, it's pretty cheap and gets you from A to B. You're really chuffed because... well... you've got a car, and that's way better than what you had before - nothing. This is where platforms such as Active Campaign and Copper come into play. Really powerful platforms for kicking you off your business journey. They give you a capability of marketing automation and sales pipeline management but are lacking when it comes to data and dashboarding as well as are limited in marketing capability.

A platform like Active Campaign is brilliant for your first CRM, but you may outgrow it in time as your needs change and your business grows.

Time for a nice car....

Whereas we may have fond memories of our first Nissan Pulsar or Mitsubishi Sigma, they really don't do the job anymore. This is where HubSpot fits into the equation. It's your one stop CRM solution which you can capture leads, convert them with a world class sales process then keep them by understanding how well you deliver your services.

HubSpot is the next level platform that will take you from a 7 figure revenue business to 8 figures and beyond. You're not going to need to change or migrate to another platform and you can continue to double down on your capability suite.

Key functionality of HubSpot which puts it above the pack;

- a one stop marketing shop where you can build and launch search engine and social media marketing (SEM - Google, Facebook, Linked In and Instagram ads)

- the ability to run specific campaigns built on assets you manage within HubSpot (ads, blogs, emails, landing pages etc)

- an internal content management system which allows you to see what content resonates and what misses the mark

- attribution throughout the customer journey so you can see exactly what marketing efforts are working and why

- the ability to run ticketing and customer surveying to help retain your clients and ask them to refer new business your way.

The bottom line.

The business journey is different for everyone. Choosing your CRM is a big decision you need to get right in the first place because the last thing you want is to go through the process again anytime soon. The right platform will change your life. Get all that minutia detail out of your head and into a system. Start operating in your highest space but having clear data to drive your decision making process.

If you're not sure which platform is right for you, then speak to an expert. We're here to ensure you get it right.

Click the link below to claim a CRM discovery session and finally get the insiders guidance on just which platform is right for you.

You don't have to work this out all by yourself. We're here to help

Trust the Process.