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Searching for a top-notch customer relationship management (CRM) program for your solar business? Check out our assessment of the top CRMS available right now.
Searching for a top-notch customer relationship management (CRM) program for your solar business? Check out our assessment of the top CRMS available right now.
Are you trying to find the finest CRM for the solar sector that will work for your company? Look no further; we’ll assist you in your quest today as we examine the top CRMs that provide comprehensive solar business solutions.
Any solar firm needs a CRM, or customer relationship management system. By adding workflow automation, it assists you in managing your relationships with clients, keeping tabs on crucial information, and boosting productivity. We’ll review the characteristics of several CRMs, compare them to Google Sheets, Pylon, and Open Solar, and suggest the top choices for solar firms in this blog article.
Get in touch with us if you’re unsure of which CRM to utilize. We’ll assist you in making an informed selection with a free 15-minute consultation.
What advantages do solar firms get from utilizing a CRM?
Let’s start by looking at some of the advantages of adopting a CRM program for your solar business.
1. higher rates of consumer retention
Enhancing client management is arguably the most significant advantage. You can keep track of customer interactions, sales statistics, and other crucial information using a CRM. Understanding your clients and growing your business depends on this knowledge. Having customer data and client interactions documented enables your team to quickly access customer information, have a centralized point of communication, and enhance the whole process from making the first contact with the customer to completing the purchase.
2. boosted sales and profitability
The ability of CRMs to boost sales and revenue is another significant advantage. You can monitor your sales data and performance and create a sales pipeline with CRM software. Understanding what functions well and poorly in your sales process depends on how you analyze this data. Additionally, CRMs frequently contain features like automatic follow-ups and reminders that aid in closing transactions more quickly.
3. enhanced operational effectiveness
CRMs frequently have API interfaces with other programs, including email marketing platforms like Xero and MYOB or your accounting program. Even seamlessly integrated solar designs from Pylon and Open Solar platforms are possible.
API connectors facilitate work automation and time savings. Your staff will be able to work more effectively, save a lot of time, and concentrate on activities that are more crucial.
Which solar CRM tool is the best?
It might be difficult to choose the CRM software that would work best for your solar business because there are so many available.
We conducted research on some of the top solar CRM systems that can keep your sales, installation, and operations teams coordinated.
1. Zoho CRM
A cloud-based CRM tool called Zoho CRM offers a variety of capabilities to assist companies of all sizes in managing their client connections. It has features like lead management, deal management, sales automation, and contact management, among others. Zoho CRM is a very adaptable tool because it interfaces with more than 500 different business apps.
Zoho CRM has a number of important features, including:
- Manage your contacts and their information in one location using contact management. There are notes on conversations, tasks, deals, and other things as well as the fundamentals like name and contact information.
- Sales Automation: Use tools like lead-gathering forms, automated follow-ups, deal management, and more to streamline your sales process. This enables your sales force to put more effort into completing transactions than in doing menial duties.
- Lead management is the process of gathering leads from multiple sources and following them as they go through your sales funnel. This makes it simple to gather all of your eligible solar leads in one location.
- Deal management: Keep track of all of your sales possibilities in one location. This entails monitoring the status of transactions, providing reminders, and other things.
- Keep in touch with your consumers who contact you via live chat, social media, and email with omnichannel CRM.
A free version of Zoho’s CRM, which is intended for small home enterprises, is available for testing purposes. Alternatively, you may take advantage of a 15-day free trial to use their whole CRM before deciding on a subscription plan. Paid plans begin at $22 AUD each per user per month.
2. CRM HubSpot
Another hugely well-liked CRM is HubSpot, which performs all the essential functions of a CRM including API connectivity, creating sales pipelines, and lead management.
Free CRM capabilities are available from HubSpot, and a basic package includes features like email scheduling, contact management, and business application connectors. However, using all of their CRM capabilities requires paying more and is better suited to larger or B2B businesses.
Several of HubSpot’s core modules are appropriate for a solar company, including:
- Sales Hub: The free Sales Hub allows you the ability to schedule calls and emails with potential leads as well as provide customized estimates. You can get other capabilities like establishing deal funnels, setting sales objectives, and discussion routing with the premium option.
- Email marketing, ad management, and list segmentation are among the Marketing Hub’s free capabilities. Additionally, the premium plans will provide you with tools for marketing automation, SEO, marketing campaigns, and content planning.
With HubSpot’s flexible plans, you may buy a single module, a collection of modules, or their whole library of modules. The entire CRM package is available for a 14-day free trial and costs $67 AUD per user every month.
3. Capsule
Because it provides a variety of functions at a more reasonable cost, Capsule CRM is an excellent tool for smaller enterprises. Due to its many features and low cost, Capsule CRM is a fantastic solution for small organizations. Capsule CRM is an extremely flexible tool since it can be integrated with more than 500 different business apps.
- Sales tools: Capsule provides thorough sales tools like the sales pipeline, which also contains the potential values of various sales prospects.
- Task management features include the ability to repeat activities, automate a sequence of subsequent tasks, and set tasks for phone calls and appointments.
- Reporting: You will be able to keep track of every step of your sales cycle, generate reports on opportunities that were won and lost, and filter information by time frame.
- connectors: Capsule CRM offers a variety of connectors, including those with Xero, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and others. Additionally, you may utilize their API to connect to a specialized third-party program.
- Contact management: Information about each client, business, and organization you work with may be quickly gathered.
Capsule CRM provides a lengthy 30-day free trial to try out all of its capabilities and has a starting price of roughly $26 AUD per user each month.
4. Pipedrive
Another excellent CRM for solar firms is Pipedrive. And with all the features available, it’s simple to understand why. It is a CRM with a strong sales focus that can track and organize conversations and emails across devices.
A few characteristics that make Pipedrive excellent for solar enterprises include:
- The visual sales pipeline provides you with a clear picture of each deal’s status and what must be done in order to finish it. Additionally, you may make comments, set reminders, and monitor particular offers.
- Forecasting: Using your existing deals in your pipeline, you may forecast your future sales.
- Deal management: Pipedrive’s system for managing deals is thorough and includes tools for lead creation, qualifying, nurturing, and prioritization. When striving to maintain solar lead engagement high, their CRM enables you to increase conversion rates and sales momentums.
Pricing for the “Essential” Plan begins at around $22 AUD per user each month, and a 14-day trial is available.
5. Google Sheets as a CRM substitute for solar
Google Sheets is excellent for newly established businesses. Free, readily shared, customizable, and capable of generating graphs and reports, it is also simple enough for most business owners to comprehend.
Numerous CRM functions, such as deal management, contact management, and sales pipeline monitoring, are also available in Google Sheets.
Online, there are various free CRM templates for Google Sheets that offer the same functions as a CRM. An excellent Google Sheet CRM template should have sheets for contacts, deals, deals’ value, stages, and chance of closing, as well as sheets for sales, which show sales deadlines and income estimates.
A drawback of utilizing Google Sheets is that it lacks UI-friendly features, sophisticated sales monitoring and forecasting, and thorough connections with accounting and marketing automation systems. If you’re searching for capabilities like these, a CRM could be a better choice for solar companies.
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What if I already use a solar design program like Pylon or Open Solar?
If you’re currently utilizing software like Open Solar or Pylon, which both include CRM software, you might be thinking whether it’s really necessary to use a separate CRM.
We’ll examine the free CRM offered by Open Solar and contrast it with the more costly CRM choice offered by Pylon.
Direct solar
As a part of their software package, Open Solar includes a CRM module.
The CRM functions offered by Open Solar include reporting, forecasting, task management and automation, contact and opportunity management, and task management. It may be simpler to quote ideas if Open Solar connects with finance tools like Plenti and Brighte.
With the help of the Open Solar API, you can connect Open Solar with your system, import leads, start outreach campaigns in response to client behavior, and sync project statuses. The capacity to anticipate revenues, build sales pipelines, or perform effective interfaces with accounting or marketing tools seemed to be lacking from Open Solar’s CRM.
Built-in CRM for OpenSolaris with specialized processes
It would be useful to test out this solar CRM if you’re looking for a straightforward CRM or are currently an Open Solar user.
Pylon
Use of their premium CRM may be something you want to think about if you currently use Pylon. You can track deal pipelines, monitor KPIs, link applications with Zapier, and import solar leads from sources like SolarQuotes, SolarChoice, Facebook Ads, and Google Ads using the solar CRM capabilities offered by Pylon.
They cost $49 per user per month for one team or $99 per user per month for an unlimited number of users and teams, making them a little more expensive choice. For a free trial to discover how the solar CRM can work with your company, contact Pylon.
In conclusion, CRMs provide a variety of capabilities that solar enterprises may find to be quite helpful. The top CRMs for solar firms are Pipedrive, HubSpot, Capsule, and Zoho. You may find free CRM templates for Google Sheets online, but keep in mind that Google Sheets isn’t as feature-rich as premium CRMs that have been created for significantly enhancing corporate operations.
One of the CRMs that they currently link with can be worth considering if you already use software like Opensolar or Pylon.
Conclusion
When selecting a CRM, solar firms must choose what features are most essential to them and if a free or paid CRM is better for their operation. When it comes to CRMs, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, so you should take the time to weigh your alternatives before choosing. In the end, it’s critical to balance the benefits and drawbacks of each CRM to choose which would be most suitable for your company’s needs.