After trying Next Gear, NetSuite, and Salesforce, Gallagher Business Development finds the perfect CRM with Zoho

Kevin Gallagher started GBD, Gallagher Business Development, to equip small and medium businesses with the right marketing strategies and tools for the digital age. Kevin has over 15 years of sales and marketing experience, which most recently involved heading marketing strategy for the thirty member sales team of a Fortune 500 company. Kevin was on the marketing scene long before the internet, and has had firsthand experience with digital marketing since its early days. Empowering small and medium-sized businesses with the latest innovations in marketing is a passion for Kevin, as he says, "I love small businesses. I believe they are the cornerstone of our economy. I help them every day by providing the same marketing opportunities that their large competitors have, but at a small business price tag."

Kevin has done a video review of Zoho CRM, and discusses features, pricing, and the differences between editions in detail. He also explains some of his favorite features. Below is a written summary of the features he uses everyday at Gallagher Business Development.

Deals module for revenue tracking

Kevin uses the Deals module after speaking with and meeting a prospect a few times. He assigns the amount that he expects to receive from the particular prospect. He has also customized this module to suit his business. He renamed Deals to Clients, and removed the deal stages that did not apply to him. He loves the Kanban View that lets him see and sort Deals by his set criteria, like deal stage, expected revenue, or deal type. Kevin says, "It is a quick way to organize information by what you want to see first. You can also drag and drop components from here so it is not static like a report that only lets you view items."

Tasks for project tracking

Tasks in Zoho CRM can be used to track any activity. Kevin uses tasks, and task reminders for project-related activities with titles like, "Share first draft of marketing strategy" or "Send out email campaign to 3,000 customers." Kevin also likes having "Tasks for the Week" as one of his home page components so that he is always on top of what has to be done.

Campaigns module for planning and measuring ROI

As a marketing consultant, Kevin knows the importance of tracking his marketing expenses down to the dollar. The Campaigns module in Zoho CRM, not only lets you track returns on your expenditures, it also lets you plan out your activities. Once you create a campaign, you can track all updates as Tasks, Calls, and Meetings. Kevin also loves that you can have Child Campaigns, which are sub-campaigns associated with larger campaigns.