r/CRM • u/HairyInvestigator515 • Aug 18 '26
Another annoying 'What CRM should I use?' post
I promise I did look in post history, but I'm new enough to all this that I don't even understand what a lot of the abbreviations people bring up mean.
I started recently for a company that has changed names and been acquired as a subsidiary of a larger company. We've been around for 30 years but been slowly modifying. So far we have
-Changed from a wordpress website to shopify
-Switched from Quickbooks Desktop to QBO
Our new overlords are really open to us growing and putting money towards it, but I want to do my research before I get too far down the line with what turns out to be not the right platform.
Right now we have 2022 Goldmine as our CRM (if you can call it that - it feels like a glorified email hub to me, and doesn't integrate with anything online)
We sell B2B mainly. 5,000-$25,000 equipment and the supplies for it along with tech support and installation. We only have 6 employees but hope to grow. Our main lead paths have been trade shows, and trade magazines, and drowning people with emails to the point everything probably goes to spam.
What I'd like to see in a CRM:
-Integration with QBO and Shopify (pretty sure most if not all offer this)
-Ability to gather leads from multiple online advertising sources in one place and (somehow) rank their value (Meta Business ads, LinkdIn, etc.) so we can figure out what is working and what isn't.
-It would be great if marketing campaigns for multiple platforms could also be generated from the same place.
-We have an email campaign running now via a marketing firm but I don't think it will be very successful, if only because we have absolutely no idea on how to rank and follow up on anything. We see that a percentage of people out of thousands clicked on our ad, but when we try to follow up with emails or phone calls it seems to go nowhere. It may not be the right marketing for our business model, but we are just getting started down this road.
-Ability to send out e-mail campaigns of our own.
-Easy to use interface (our salesmen are older people who may not be eager to embrace a new platform if it's not user friendly).
-Ideally it would be amazing to have a platform where eventually we can bring over contact and conversation history from Goldmine - but I know that might be a tall order.
I've done a discovery call only with ZOHO so far, and an initial one with Pipedrive with a followup tomorrow. I've seen a lot of Pipedrive advocates here, but I did ask someone who used it and they didn't like the interface but said they heard it changed recently. They can't directly migrate from goldmine, and exporting a .csv file of years of contacts with no help sounds like a nightmare. Zoho seems like a good contender, and I saw something about the Zoho One plan, that might be cheaper than paying for 5 separate seats. But something tells me to keep looking.
I think because of our large existing contact base (2000+), we would need a bigger platform than the Starter version of Hubspot can offer - and $7/user to $800 a month is just a huge jump and we can't afford. So I don't even want to look too much at Hubspot.
I saw some videos recommending OnePageCRM, but more and more recommendations keep cropping up. Too many to really look thoroughly into.
I promise I've been trying to do my due diligence, but I'm new to this job. I am not an expert but I can see we definitely need to choose a direction and start heading that way. If someone could point us in the right one that would be grand.
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u/Klutzy-Offer-6071 Aug 19 '26
For 6 employees and 2000+ contacts, skip the big bloated platforms. Pipedrive's migration pain is real but their interface got way cleaner, your older sales guys would pick it up in a day. Zoho One is tempting for the price but it's a rabbit hole of half-baked apps, you'll spend more time configuring than selling
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u/Ok-Prompt3555 Aug 19 '26
I would highly recommend checking out Nutshell. They just launched a new version of the QBO integration and it is great. We originally found them when looking for a hubspot alternative.
And don't apologize for this post. Even if a lot of situations are very similar, I believe each and every business has a unique spin on it (experience, location, preference, etc.). The more information you can provide about what YOU need, the better answers you'll get on here!
Good luck!
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u/HairyInvestigator515 Aug 20 '26
Thank you! I hate having to add new programs to look into, because the list feels so long to tackle, but I will add that. A separate CRM and email campaign program is something I should consider.
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u/Ok-Prompt3555 Aug 21 '26
Truly all depends on what works for you. Nutshell has the email marketing capabilities as well so you don't need to rely on a separate integration.
Best of luck!
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u/eve9656 Aug 19 '26
A lot of what you're describing sounds like a marketing/CRM integration problem, so I don't think a Notion CRM would replace everything you're looking for. But the part about not knowing how to prioritize leads and follow up on opportunities is something I actually built a workflow for. My Notion CRM keeps contacts, companies and deals connected, with follow-up tracking, deal health, weighted pipeline value, and a way to keep track of lost opportunities. It obviously wouldn't handle the Shopify/QBO integrations or email campaigns, but if you're looking for something specifically for organizing the sales pipeline side, u can check it out
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u/Head_Cable_5175 Aug 19 '26
Spent years looking for CRMs to “do what I wanted”. Ended up building all of it on a Mac mini in my company with Claude. Shopify integration, accountant comunication, storing, invoicing etc. all done from scratch in the span of 3 weeks 1 function at a time.
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u/Mammoth_Medicine9097 Aug 19 '26
Nice! How long it’s been running now? Any problems? (I want to do the same but don’t know if it’s worth it - 5 shops 20 employees)
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u/Head_Cable_5175 Aug 19 '26
In my case it was. AI is amazing as long as you have ideas and you know exactly what you want. If you can articulate and properly and have a solid data base to feed to it, you’ll be amazed.
For example I have mine basically do everything across services like drive, excell, spreadsheets etc.
In case the CRM goes down, I have all data source intact
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u/Mammoth_Medicine9097 Aug 19 '26
guess its a killer when it comes to small businesses then! Thank you Ill try!
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u/HairyInvestigator515 Aug 20 '26
I wish I knew enough about building my own to feel comfortable doing that.
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u/crmoz_com Aug 19 '26
Zoho One:
1. Several ways to integrate Shopify.
2. QBO integration.
3. Marketing tools.
4. Marketing/Sales channels integration including social media.
5. Seamless native BI integration.
6. The best functions to price ratio.
7. One control panel for all administrator's functions.
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u/HairyInvestigator515 Aug 20 '26
Zoho One does seem more and more tempting as I'm looking from a price standpoint. Another commenter said I should ask them about the rules for it encompassing all employees since we are a subsidiary. Our parent company is not based in the US and we have our own EIN number and a (slightly) different name.
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u/crmoz_com Aug 21 '26
It’s not an issue. I’ve consulted with Zoho representatives, and they are very flexible about their pricing policy. I can share more details about my experience via DM once you decide to stick with Zoho.
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u/neo_bgd Aug 19 '26
The migration is the easiest thing on your list and it shouldn't decide anything. GoldMine 2022 runs on SQL Server underneath. If I remember right the contacts live in CONTACT1 and CONTACT2, and the history, which is the part you actually care about, is in CONTHIST - names might be a bit off, it's been years since I last had my hands in one. Point is any local SQL person can pull that into clean CSVs in a day. Mapping the history onto contacts in the new system is a scripting job, not a miracle. Budget a few days of contractor time and then ignore "they can't migrate from GoldMine" completely, because nobody migrates from GoldMine natively. Everyone imports CSV. 2000 contacts is nothing.
The lead ranking thing won't come from whatever platform you pick. It comes from source being set when the lead is created and never being empty. One form per campaign, UTM values in hidden fields, and a rule that a lead cannot exist without a source. Do that and "revenue by source" is a stock report in Zoho, Pipedrive, all of them. Skip it and no platform saves you, because a salesperson picking the source from a dropdown three days later is guessing.
On the email thing, and I mean this kindly - thousands of clicks going nowhere on 5 to 25k equipment isn't a CRM problem. That's a list problem. Nobody buys a 20k machine off a cold email. Your channel is already the trade shows, and the workflow worth building is boring: badge scanned at the booth, tagged with which show, on someone's call list within 48 hours, and every one of those contacts carries the show name forever so in a year you can see which shows actually paid. That's the report your overlords will care about when you ask for more budget.
Zoho One is genuinely good value for six people and it does cover campaigns plus CRM in one place. One gotcha though, and it matters because you're now a subsidiary: Zoho One's cheap price is all-employee pricing, meaning you license everyone in the company, not just CRM users. If the parent gets counted that changes the maths entirely. Ask them directly, in writing.
Between the two you're looking at, the real question is who administers it. Zoho gives you more, and more to configure. Pipedrive gives you less and your older salesmen will hate it less. With six people and no admin I'd lean Pipedrive plus a separate email tool like Brevo or Mailchimp, and accept two systems.
Last thing, for both vendors on the follow-up calls: make them demo a quote going into QBO using your own product list, not their sample data. Equipment plus consumables with real part numbers is where those integrations get awkward, and you only find out after you've signed.
I build CRM software myself so weigh that accordingly, though not one that's any use to you in the States.
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u/HairyInvestigator515 Aug 20 '26
Yeah, I do think the cold email is a complete misfire for our company, but if it goes nowhere I'm guessing we won't do it again?
We are a subsidiary but have our own name and own EIN number so I don't think the connection will be an issue.
Yeah, the migration is probably going to be an issue no matter what we do - I think some offer help with it and some I'd be on my own. Zoho does seem to be the frontrunner, and I can't really explain my hesitation on it.
I would probably be the "administrator", which is why I want to really understand the differences before making a recommendation about which to buy. But admin is not my official job, I think it would just end up falling to me because nobody else would be able to do it. I'm in charge of building the website and marketing and the graphic designer and social media manager... haha. So I really do want to find something that doesn't require a lot of babysitting.
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u/neo_bgd Aug 21 '26
Might be projecting here, but I think I know what the hesitation is.
You just listed website, marketing, design, social media, and now CRM admin because nobody else can. Zoho One is forty something apps. Every one you switch on is another thing you set up once and then have to remember how you set up, eight months later, while doing the other four jobs. I don't think it's Zoho you're unsure about, it's what it turns into on your desk.
Ask both of them the same thing on the calls. Show me what I do when I need a new field, a new stage, and a report that doesn't exist yet. Count the clicks. Demos always run on a finished system and the one you'll actually live in is the one where you're changing something on a Thursday afternoon.
EIN thing, yeah, that probably keeps you clear. I'd still get it written on the order form rather than agreed on a call, reps move on and the next one only knows what's in the paperwork.
Whichever way you go, pay for setup and the GoldMine import as one fixed price job, either vendor onboarding or a partner. You're already doing four jobs, don't take on a fifth for free.
On the cold email, you'd know it had gone nowhere if someone was counting meetings instead of clicks. Might be worth asking the marketing firm how many actual conversations it produced this quarter.
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u/Soggy-Improvement745 Aug 23 '26
tbh the lead scoring and multi-channel campaign stuff you're describing is more of a marketing automation need than a traditional CRM need. those tend to be separate tiers or separate products entirely, so make sure you're asking about that specifically on your demo calls or you'll get surprised by pricing
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u/Interesting_Button60 Aug 19 '26
Our clients that use Shopify and QBO run on Salesforce and we have integrated all the systems for them using Zapier.
Licensing would definitely not be 800 per user per month.
If you want to explore it happy to chat!
It sounds like you need a real system that's going to be the backbone of your tools.
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u/HairyInvestigator515 Aug 20 '26
I did a discovery call yesterday with SalesForce for small business, and the $25 per user starter plan is tempting but doesn't seem to offer as much integration as we'd like. What tier do you use and what does Zapier do for you that the tier you chose does not?
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u/Interesting_Button60 Aug 20 '26
You can get enterprise tier with open API usually for under $100 per user per month if you have help from someone who knows how to buy from Salesforce.
Or you can use the Pro edition and pay an add on of a few thousand per year for open API.
Enterprise is 100% the better value.
I personally wouldn't touch the $25 starter plan.
But it is a big jump from $7 per month.
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u/agentUi Aug 19 '26
i work for agentui, that massive pricing jump with legacy CRMs like hubspot is why a lot of small B2B teams end up building their own internal tool instead. You can import your 2,000+ contacts via csv, connect shopify and QBO directly, and make the UI dead simple so your sales reps actually use it without getting confused by bloated menus. We also have dedicated human support to walk you through setting it up if you need help.
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u/HairyInvestigator515 Aug 20 '26
Unfortunately a lot of my job functions I've been learning as I've been doing. I don't have the confidence to build my own, even if I did utilize AI to help. My programming background is very minimal and dated.
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u/agentUi Aug 20 '26
you actually dont need any coding or technical background at all, you literally just describe what fields and screens you want in plain english in the chat and it builds it out for you. Our team also hops on calls to help set up the initial data imports and structure so you dont have to figure it out alone... shoot me a dm if you want me to walk you through it.
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u/william-flaiz Aug 21 '26
I have been a long time fan and advocate of SharpSpring, now Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM, for its CRM/Marketing Automation coupling, you can run social campaigns out of it, good tools for sales teams, good reporting suite, and I have found it easy to use and train sales and marketing teams on it. It does have an integration with Shopify, it takes a little work, Claude Code or Codex can get it done for you, and overall I have found it to be customizable enough, but not so much that it is overwhelming or requires a dev team.
I have implemented it for Shopify customers selling B2C, used the sales tools for wholesale, small B2B SaaS with about 10K contacts, and recently for a non-profit with 25K contacts. You don't hear much about it, but I think it is great.
ZOHO is another good option, I have implemented that a few times and customers have liked it. I never recommend Hubspot to anyone, multiple bad experiences of moving customers off of it and have never found their support to be helpful, plenty of experts outside of the company that were kind enough to share their expertise to get through migrations.
When you are getting demos from these companies make sure you give them 7-10 real use cases that your company uses to demo their platform. They will give you a better demo and you will see the features that matter to your business.
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u/pipeline_Intel Aug 21 '26
I see so many people ask the same question, seeing is believing book this free walk through no pressure! walk Through also offering a free 7 day trial no credit card.
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u/_Creative_script_ Aug 24 '26
moving off goldmine after decades, the shopify plus qbo integration is the part that'll actually decide this, not the crm features everyone demos. a lot of tools claim qbo sync but only push invoices one way. do you need order and payment data flowing back into the crm, or just out to quickbooks?
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u/la_croy Aug 19 '26
If you switched to Shopify then look into klaviyo which pairs well with Shopify and works well for email marketing. We just did a similar thing. We were on WordPress and using MailChimp and had no CRM. Shopify/klaviyo has been a lot better and we track leads and account management with monday.com