4 CRM for Consultants to Take Your Business to the Next Level

Ah, you're ready to take the next step, aren't you?

Let me guess: you're drowning in leads and trying to stay ahead of all the customer communication is enough to make you pull all your hair out, right?

You were right to click on this article. You need a solution, and quick, or you're going to start bleeding clients left and right and all the hard work and dedication in the world won't be able to save you.

Ever heard of ‘work smarter, not harder'? CRM for consultants is the definition of that advice. It's the poster child. The face of the franchise.

And you're about to find out why. In this article, you'll learn:

• When Do You Need a CRM Software for Consultants?
• CRM Consultant Requirements
• Consultant CRM Selection Criteria
• 4 Best CRM for Consultants
• CRM Software Consultant Case Studies

When Do You Need CRM Software for Consultants?

There are many examples where a CRM for consultants is necessary.

There are cases when it seems optional. Those times never last. And then there are cases when a CRM for consultants becomes to companies what water is to a man lost in the Sahara desert.

So let's examine some of the examples when a company might need a CRM for consultants.

• They are unable to keep up with the lead flow
• Their customer data is hard to locate
• Customer service is coming up short
• They have long-term accounts to manage
• The reporting process takes too long

These are not casual problems. They're the type that can derail a business if they are not addressed correctly.

Customer service is a crucial part of the success of any business, and 73% of customers say that customer service is a crucial element when it comes to determining their brand loyalty. If a company finds itself swamped by customers and cannot keep up with the workload, we can reliably prophesize that there might be a customer drought in the near future.

But the lack of a CRM for consultants might go beyond affecting the customers you already have. It can get in the way of customers you're about to get.

You need to have an overview of the stages of the selling process each customer is in. You need to analyze your sales channels so you can examine how well they are operating and how much money you might be leaving on the table.

And you need to take those administrative tasks that are a waste of time for your employees and automate them so they can focus on cultivating new leads and advancing them down the sales funnel.

Come to think of it, maybe every consultant alive needs a CRM.

And why wouldn't they?

If your competition is automating their sales process and improving their customer service while at the same time making their business infinitely more scalable, they will eat you alive.

No ifs or buts. It's guaranteed to happen.

So maybe we should ask the opening question again: When do you need CRM for consultants?

The second your company comes into existence.

If you fail to do so, you're already falling behind the competition and ensuring your company won't be able to tackle the challenges it will inevitably face in the future.

Key Features of the Best CRM for Consultants

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a vital tool for consultants to streamline their operations and enhance client interactions. Here are some key features that the best CRM for consultants should possess:

Ability to Manage Leads

A robust CRM for consultants should offer a seamless way to manage leads. When potential clients reach out, the consultant can use the CRM to capture their information, including contact details and specific needs or interests. This feature helps in organizing and categorizing leads efficiently, making it easier to prioritize follow-ups and conversions.

Additionally, the CRM should allow for easy importing of leads and integration with lead generation tools for a continuous influx of prospects.

Tracking Client Communications

Consultants rely heavily on effective communication with their clients. The CRM should facilitate this by recording and tracking all client interactions. It should include features such as email integration, call logs, and notes, allowing consultants to keep a comprehensive record of discussions, agreements, and any client-related information.

This helps in providing a personalized experience and ensures that no important details are overlooked during consultations.

Creating Workflows

Consultants often deal with multi-step processes, from initial client contact to project completion. The CRM should offer workflow automation capabilities to streamline these processes. Consultants can create customized workflows that automate repetitive tasks and actions.

For instance, when a new lead is added, the CRM can automatically trigger a series of follow-up emails or set reminders for specific tasks, making the consultant's job more efficient and reducing the chances of missed opportunities.

Setting Notifications for Follow-ups, Upcoming Tasks, or Meetings

Effective follow-up is crucial for consultants to nurture leads and maintain strong client relationships. The best CRM for consultants should allow users to set up notifications and reminders for follow-up calls, meetings, or upcoming tasks.

Consultants can schedule these notifications at the right time, ensuring that they stay engaged with their clients and prospects. This proactive approach helps in building trust and increasing conversion rates.

Get an Overall Analysis of Sales Performance at Any Time

Consultants need to constantly evaluate their sales performance and identify areas for improvement. A top-notch CRM should offer comprehensive reporting and analytics features. Consultants can access real-time data on lead conversion rates, client engagement, revenue generated, and more.

By having access to these insights, consultants can make data-driven decisions to refine their strategies and boost their consulting business.

CRM Consultant Requirements

There are certain requirements that every consultant has when they're choosing a CRM for consultants.

These are the main requirements to keep in mind:

Consultant CRM Selection Criteria

Selecting the right CRM software for consultants is a crucial decision that can significantly impact your business. To help you make an informed choice, here are some key selection criteria to consider:

1. What Are Your Requirements?

It's no use to pick a CRM for consultants with the shiniest features if they do not match the needs of your business. The worth of all the cool tools is, at the end of the day, determined by how well they help you tackle challenges.

It's important to determine what you need.

Is it reaching out to clients at scale? Is it qualifying leads? Providing analytics about the company's processes?

Answer these questions and then look for a CRM that promises to answer your needs better than any other.

2. What is Your Budget?

As is always the case, money talks.

It's important to know how much money you're willing to spend on your CRM for consultants. If the number is low, it might mean that you will have to sacrifice some of the features that your company might need.

But maybe the money's talking about something else. Maybe a change of perspective is required.

Instead of thinking about the CRM for consultants as an expense, you should think of it as an investment. And so if you're calculating an ROI, the cost of a CRM for consultants might make more sense.

The average ROI is $8.71 for every dollar spent on a CRM. How's that for an expense?

If a CRM for consultants enables your employees to spend less time writing emails, filling out spreadsheets, and manually qualifying leads, how many more clients might they bring onboard? How might that impact your revenue and your profits?

So instead of asking yourself about your budget, ask yourself about your investment and what you are willing to do to take your company to the next level.

3. User-Friendliness

The features of a CRM for consultants aren't worth much if they are hard to utilize.

A user-friendly CRM will ensure the processes run smoothly and you don't have to endure a thousand headaches for the chance to gain a tiny benefit.

An easy-to-use CRM for consultants will allow your employees to efficiently navigate data, keep up with their contacts, and improve the operational process of consulting.

That's why whatever the CRM your company chooses, it's important to try out the company's demo. You wouldn't want to find out your spouse is very high maintenance only after you've married them, right?

4. Customization

A customizable CRM for consultants is a great asset for any company. If the system can adapt and change as the company grows and changes, it will prove invaluable in making your company's teething problems far less dire.

So ask yourself: does the CRM have the capacity to grow with your company? Are you able to modify the interface, fields, tables, views, and security settings?

Are you able to customize CRM reports to provide you with the insights you need?

Find a CRM that can be adjusted to your company's specific needs and one that can be continuously adjusted to mirror the changing demands of your growing business.

5. Reliability

This is the final hurdle, the last great requirement.

Think of it like this. You can have a Formula 1 car, but if you don't have a pit crew that matches the quality of your car, you're not winning any championships.

The same is true of a CRM for consultants.

A CRM platform with a thousand features is pretty cool, but you need a reliable customer support system in place as well.

Which CRM has the resources to help get you set up and the technical support to ensure your CRM setup goes smoothly?

A highly technical and highly efficient support team is key to any successful CRM experience.

4 Best CRM for Consultants

With the right selection criteria in mind, here are four popular CRM options that cater to consultants, each offering unique features and advantages:

1. Ringy

Source

Yes, this one is ours. But hey, be honest: do you think we'd write an article about the best CRMs in the business if we weren't one of them?

That's what we thought.

Ringy is a cutting-edge CRM with a price that can compete with any company in the industry. The system helps companies scale their operations, automate time-consuming tasks, and raise the efficiency of their teams.

With Ringy, you can do the following:

A2P 10 DLC Compliance

One of the standout features of our CRM software is its ability to streamline communication and ensure compliance with A2P 10DLC regulations.

A2P 10DLC (Application-to-Person 10-Digit Long Code) is a regulatory standard in the United States that governs how businesses can send text messages to customers. This legislation was introduced to improve the accountability and deliverability of commercial text messages. It requires businesses to register their phone numbers and adhere to specific guidelines when sending SMS messages, particularly for marketing and customer communication purposes.

Let's explore how users can easily register their phone numbers using Ringy:

Additionally, Ringy now offers a convenient solution for users who still need to finish their A2P (Application-to-Person) registration. You can now buy a toll-free number through Ringy for only $10. This option is designed to provide businesses with greater flexibility, especially those who still need to complete their A2P registration process.

You can check out Ringy's pricing here.

2. Pipedrive

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Pipedrive is another customer relationship management system determined to help its users streamline their business processes, automate their tasks, and improve their customer experience.

Pipedrive offers:

1. A system that's easy to set up
2. A chance to automate your communications
3. The ability to integrate the CRM with over 250 services and tools
4. Qualify leads
5. Analytics and reporting

When it comes to the customer experience, users love the price of the system and the fact that it is easy to use. Some do complain about email automation and claim its analytics and reporting capabilities need improvement. You can check out the review more in-depth here.

You can further review the company's pricing plan here.

3. Zendesk

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Zendesk is a CRM that wants to help you lower operational costs, increase the productivity of your sales team, and improve the customer experience your company offers.

The CRM can:

1. Help with customer support across all channels from a single platform
2. Automate your workflow
3. Use AI to qualify leads
4. Assist customers with online tickets

When it comes to Zendesk reviews, customers can't say enough good things about the product itself, but some have come forward with complaints about the customer service of the company.

You can review the Zendesk pricing plan more closely here.

4. Freshsales

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Freshsales is a customer relationship management system that seeks to help you streamline your business processes with an easy-to-use solution that will improve the effectiveness of your sales team.

The CRM offers your team a chance to:

1. Use AI to qualify leads
2. Capture visitor information with web forms
3. Communicate across all channels
4. Gain insights through analytics.

You can examine Freshsales' pricing plan in more detail here.

When it comes to customer reviews, users claim that the CRM is simple to use and has a great support team, but they also complain about slow loading speeds and the inability to filter accounts and contacts together.

CRM Software Consultant Case Studies

1. MindMove

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MindMove is a company that focuses on offering to coach to organizations of all sizes, to help its managers take the next step and grow.

Using a CRM, their coaches can manage their entire process from a single platform, even when traveling. Their calendar, their client touch-points – they can do it all through the CRM, even using their mobile device or tablet.

With the number of clients rising, customer relationship management systems have become an invaluable tool that ensures the tedious manual tasks become automated and streamlined, allowing their coaches to focus on the job at hand.

2. Pinnacle Marketing & Consulting

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Pinnacle Marketing & Consulting is a company that found the answer to numerous issues with the use of a CRM.

The company operated for eight years before adopting a customer relationship management system, building up a large database of prospects, leads, and clients with whom the company maintained constant contact.

The CRM provided them with an overview of the sales process, telling them exactly what stage of the pipeline each client was in. That has allowed the company to take advantage of business opportunities, as some 65% of their business comes from repeat clients.

Using CRM, the company can also create SmartLists that segment their clients based on their needs and inform the company exactly which clients need to be presented with a certain piece of information. In doing so, the company ensures they only make offers to clients who are in a position to benefit from them.

3. Silicon Cities Consulting & Advisory

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Silicon Cities Consulting & Advisory is a company that specializes in project management and advising on international market development. The company's main goal is to beat the benchmarks of business projects and to help companies expand internationally.

But that changed as the pandemic forced the company to pivot in order to survive the lockdowns. They switched to launching a business designed to help organizations with hygiene.

And that's where a CRM had to come in.

Since all the communication went through online channels (WhatsApp), the company needed a CRM that could integrate with any piece of software.

By finding a CRM, the company's employees were able to communicate with their customers straight through the CRM which allowed them to understand where they were in the sales pipeline, and what the next step was at any given moment.

FAQs

1. How Long Does it Take to Implement a CRM?

Every business is different, so the answer to this question is largely dependent on the specifics of each company.

The size of the company and the number of departments is one question. The CRM itself can also be a factor.

Some CRMs promise implementation in as little as two weeks, while others claim it might take even small businesses from 1-3 months to implement them.

There is also the question of whether or not a company hires outside help to assist with data migration and system testing. Oftentimes, CRM providers can also offer training programs.

The implementation of a CRM shouldn't be rushed, however, as it might lead to a company missing out on all the benefits of a platform.

2. Is Implementing a CRM Expensive?

Not necessarily. Acquiring a CRM for consultants can come for the low price of $12.50/month per user. So clearly the price doesn't represent some astronomical figure.

But the better question is to ask how much a company might get in return. When a CRM is viewed as an investment instead of an expense, companies might find that acquiring one makes a lot more sense.

With the streamlined business process, the increased effectiveness of employees, and the increased ability to scale, companies might find that the investment they made into a CRM might be one of the most lucrative decisions they ever made.

3. Is CRM Difficult to Learn?

A CRM system is not difficult to learn. The challenges come from the implementation process.

People need to change their habits. They need to adjust their work patterns and trust the CRM to do its job.

The use of the platform itself is not rocket science and besides, many platform providers offer their clients training and advisory services when their CRM is first being adopted.

So when it comes to ‘learning' how to use a CRM, it is the initial disruption to the workflow of employees that usually represents the greatest challenge, but once that is overcome, companies begin to run on all cylinders with the help of CRMs.

After all, on average, a CRM increases sales by 29%.

Conclusion

A CRM for consultants is an indispensable tool that cannot be ignored by any company in the industry (or any other industry, for that matter).

The automated workflow, the overview of the sales process, and the deep insight provided by the gathered data and analytics mean that a CRM for consultants is absolutely necessary to the success of any company.

You should take a very close look at your needs and requirements, research the market to determine which CRM platform best suits your needs, and jump headfirst into the implementation of a CRM platform – armed with the info we just shared with you.

Better yet, why not contact Ringy today and discover exactly how the platform can help you take their business to the next level?