We all have to start somewhere and usually that is a place where there’s little budget but lots of time, which is why free tools are used to organise your leads. It’s a great option to get business off the ground. However, when business grows, those tools can become more labour intensive than they are helpful. But maybe you’re wondering which tools to replace and what to replace them with. Stop looking! Here’s the 3 free tools we suggest replacing with a CRM when the time is right for you.
This is part of a series of blog posts to help you create better systems in your business. Check out the first post in the series – 3 web forms integrations to automate your sales.
3 Free Tools to Organise Your Leads
Yes, they’re free and by not spending money you’re effectively saving money, right? Wrong! These free tools will offer limited function and they’re more likely to need your time to organise, manage and maintain them.
Here’s the usual free options that entrepreneurs will go to when starting out.
Spreadsheets
When starting with a minimal budget a Google Sheet can do the job you need. It’s simple to setup and you can customise with the details you want to collect. However, as you grow you’ll notice that a spreadsheet can quickly become messy and it isn’t easy on the eye.
When you’re ready to find a tool that’s better organised, easier to maintain and holds your contact’s details in a more favourable view then a purpose built, user friendly CRM will be the perfect option.
Email Contacts
Again, a free option that’s ideal when you have just a few contacts to manage. Keeping the contact record up-to-date can become a job in itself and who does that? Managing follow-up actions is getting easier in an email inbox, with both Gmail and Outlook offering a task app to create those tasks, schedule them in your calendar and set reminders to get them done.
However, this is a manual process that could be automated instead. With automation, those tasks can be triggered automatically with a workflow that creates follow-up tasks, reminders and emails for you.
Productivity Tools
Trello or Asana fall into this category with their Kanban style project setup, with a card created for each contact and a project to organise them all in. It looks better than a spreadsheet and easier to manage next actions and tasks. However, it’s still manual.
These are all great for getting into the habit of collecting contact details, updating them and even setting follow-up actions as and when needed. However, as your schedule gets busier you may want to know that those tasks happen every time they’re needed without you haven’t to set them up from scratch every time.
Grow your income and save time with Keap CRM
Repeatable tasks and processes are easily setup and maintained in Keap. Starting with the CRM to organise your leads your tasks can be automatically created or even completed for you. Including tasks such as:
- Adding a new contact
- Triggering a follow-up email
- Creating a follow-up task to send a quote or proposal
The possibilities are endless and even the most individual business can benefit from time and money saving automation.
What’s Next?
Automation can be just what you need to feel the freedom of taking time out of your business. However, it’s a blank canvas that can create overwhelm and the fear of learning new tech.
Is that you? Then you’re in safe hands with Solofusion. We work with entrepreneurs and business owners to create their individual timesaving systems in Keap at pricing to suit all budgets.
Find out exactly where you could be saving time and money in your business and schedule a call with Tania. Check calendar availability and book yours in today.
Got questions? Let us know, email them to tania@solofusion.co.uk
What are your thoughts on ditching the free tools to organise your leads?
Let us know! Share in the comments. We look forward to reading and replying to them.
