Like every Saturday, you’ve decided to play golf with your friend Bryan. Like you, Bryan is a sales manager for a sizeable SME with about 700 employees. But as you approach the 4th hole, Bryan asks for your opinion on Salesforce, the CRM software he wants to roll out in his company. What if you tell him the truth?
Bryan: You know, we’re a decent-sized mid-market company already, and we don’t even have a CRM that really deserves the name...
- You: You don’t have a CRM? With your team of 40 salespeople?
- 50, even! And 10 sales managers to lead them. But we’re still in the Dark Ages, planning prospecting and tracking sales activity by juggling our ERP and Excel files every which way. This just can’t go on!
- I was in exactly the same situation as you three years ago, and I said, that’s it. I told my CIO: "I want a tool that lets me put my business strategies into action and really manage my sales force." I was tired of setting directions that no one else followed, and I wanted to regain control over all commercial activity. Easily my best decision in the last five years!
- Did you go with Salesforce too?
- Oh no, no way! I attended one of their webinars and was almost convinced. But my CIO opened my eyes: there are many other solutions in the market, just as effective. And with Salesforce, all our data would have been hosted in the United States...
- So? And then? Do you really think it’s that bad?
- Are you kidding me? Let me remind you that you work in the aeronautics industry. You think it’s reasonable to let all your business data sit in the US? After the Snowden case and their Patriot Act, which gives them the right to search any data hosted on their soil, suspicions of commercial espionage have been rising in recent years. It’s a reckless risk. For once, I was completely in line with our CIO: keeping control of our business data is non-negotiable.
- Maybe you’re right… Still, their solution looks okay to me. Salesforce is still the Rolls-Royce of CRM software, right?
- Yes, a Rolls-Royce is nice, but I’ve never seen one outpace a Ferrari on the track. It’s true the Salesforce interface is good-looking, and when they first came out, they made the other solutions look old. But things have changed since then: CRM has evolved massively in recent years and we need to look at where the innovation really is. With Salesforce, you’ve got your Rolls-Royce. With Microsoft Dynamics, you’ve got a Porsche, and with Odoo you’ve got the car of the future: a hyper-connected Tesla! Just look at the Salesforce reviews and Odoo reviews on Google once in a while.
- Maybe the budget isn’t the same either?
- Yes, but not in the way you think. Salesforce is the world leader in image… and in cost! Honestly, for large SMEs like us, that makes the licences about 1.5 to 2 times more expensive. And with Salesforce, once you start taking all their modules that criss-cross in every direction, it quickly turns into a real monster of complexity. Those are the downsides of Salesforce.
- You can always change your CRM if it doesn’t suit you…
- On paper, yes. As long as you still have control over your data. But when your data is scattered all over the United States, with their damn Patriot Act on top of that, and you want to get it back… bro, you’d better have a lot of time on your hands.
- All right, I get it. You don't like Salesforce...
- No, it's not that at all. I’ve got nothing against Salesforce. Honestly, it’s a very good solution for an SME. But like anything else, before making such a big commitment, it’s worth taking a closer look. And now the market is very innovative and competitive. Start by typing Salesforce alternative on Google, it’ll really open up your options! It’s like golf: if you don’t want to end up in the bunker, you have to think your decisions through!
