Set up a CRM

[chadwhitacre]

Reticketing from #844.

[chadwhitacre]

I want to really buckle down and start SELLING, and a GitHub ticket is the wrong tool to manage that. We could maybe kludge it in Freshdesk or even my personal email, but I'd rather not mess around.

[chadwhitacre]

https://www.odoo.com/ (cf. gratipay/finances#27)
http://www.apptivo.com/
http://www.sugarcrm.com/
https://www.salesforce.com/
https://www.pipedrive.com/
https://www.nutshell.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_CRM_systems

[chadwhitacre]

I don't like that Odoo wants me to think about "my database."

[chadwhitacre]

And the UI is not very intuitive. I'm having trouble learning about using a custom email domain, e.g. And I got a goofy "bounce out and sign in to add more apps" flow, reminds me of Piwik and the leakiness of "we are installing an instance of our software for you." I want a seemless SaaS experience.

Checking out Pipedrive and Nutshell ...

[chadwhitacre]

Nutshell includes email sync in their lowest tier ($20/mo). Pipedrive has it in their second ($25/mo).

[chadwhitacre]

I am thinking that I'd like to use [email protected] for this(!).

[chadwhitacre]

Pipeline has the most intuitive UI so far for me (Salesforce, Odoo, Nutshell, Apptivo gave me a weird 500 on sign-up(!)). I think I might run with it, though we need to plunk $25 to get email.

[chadwhitacre]

Yeah, I think Pipedrive will do nicely. I'm at Catapult today so I don't have our PNC card handy. I plan to sign up for the gold plan next chance I get so I can configure [email protected](!).

I like that we can set up multiple pipelines for different kinds of deals. We could use Pipedrive to track deals in funding, public relations, partnerships, etc., in addition to sales. 👍

[chadwhitacre]

The reason I think this is important to do now is #411. This is an area like customer support, legal, and safety. We need to be able to cultivate deals in private, even if a part of closing a deal will often be negotiating openness.

For example, I had a meeting this morning under #844. I have a post written up summarizing the meeting (it was great!), but I need/want to anonymize it. My plan is to scrub that ticket of all of the specifics of brainstorming and reaching out to people. Instead, we should track aggregated numbers and anonymized specifics publicly there, and keep the details of deals in a private CRM.

[chadwhitacre]

I've set up [email protected]! And I've configured it as my address in Pipedrive. I tried some finagling to forward and auto-bcc mail to Pipedrive, but to no avail. Gold plan it is!

[chadwhitacre]

Fielded a call from Salesforce (told them we were going with Pipedrive) and Pipedrive (told them we were going gold!). I may add my personal card today to get mail going. I just need to remember to switch billing before the 30-day free trial is up. :)

[chadwhitacre]

I've added my personal billing details, connected the [email protected] Gmail account (and turned off spam filtering in Gmail), and sent my first mail from inside Pipedrive! Looks like it works! :-)

[chadwhitacre]

I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS.

[chadwhitacre]

Gonna leave this open until I switch billing.

We should also update Inside Gratipay.

http://inside.gratipay.com/appendices/tools
http://inside.gratipay.com/appendices/access (pain! ouch! 😖 )
http://inside.gratipay.com/appendices/channels
http://inside.gratipay.com/howto/

[chadwhitacre]

Gonna try Lead > Prospect > Opportunity for a companies (#844) pipeline.

[chadwhitacre]

Billing switched.

[chadwhitacre]

Added to the budget.