The CRM marketplace is booming, and there are more options out there than ever before. Some of the best of today’s options offer simplified, easy-to-use, cloud-based software designed to implement quickly. This new generation lets you get back to the business of growing your business instead of slogging overtraining and installation struggles.
So, how can you possibly choose between two solid options like CRMDialer and Sugar CRM? Experts will tell you — and we happen to agree — that you need to consider several things before you can choose the right CRM for your business. These elements are important when you’re choosing between any CRMs, not just these two. Considerations include:
- Your business goals: What are your priorities? Some common goals include tracking leads, tracking your customer base, managing relationships, organizing operations, creating custom reports and increasing productivity.
- Reporting and analytics: Functionality is one thing, but the ability to view your data is essential to evaluating your efforts and making changes as needed. This also provides unique training opportunities down the line.
- The number of people using the system: With most CRMs, the monthly or annual cost is based on the number of people using the platform.
- Need for a call center cloud: Not all CRMs include call center capabilities. Some integrate with your existing phone system. Others don’t. Some give you everything rolled into one package.
- Marketing tools: No matter what business you’re in, having access to email marketing tools and SMS can up your marketing game, contact rate, and profitability.
Having the right CRM can make all the difference for your bottom line. Now that you have a better vision of what you’re looking for in a CRM, let’s compare these two platforms so you can see what each one has to offer.
Compare CRM Features
You still have your business goals and needs in mind, right? They’re essential to evaluating whether the features these platforms have to offer to meet your business’s needs or not. It also helps to read testimonials from actual clients, which can give you even better insight into how each CRM will fit into your business practices.
About Sugar CRM
Sugar bills itself as the simpler alternative to the complicated CRMs that have flooded the market. To that end, they created an easy-to-use interface designed to turn it on and start using it. Sugar offers several editions, including a CRM for Sales, Service, IT and Marketing with multiple deployment options and a 360 customer view. Some of the key features include:
- Quote management to streamline the sales cycle
- CRM Reporting and Dashboards so you can monitor your customer support, sales and marketing metrics
- Forecasting to increase the predictability of your business performance
- Mobility that lets you use Sugar on all your devices
- Customization and configuration that lets you personalize Sugar for your specific business
- Campaign management so you can create, deploy and track your campaigns
- Calendar and email integration
- Lead management
- Social CRM
- Google Apps integration
About CRMDialer
While Sugar CRM prides itself on focusing solely on providing a stellar CRM for small and large businesses, CRMDialer does things a little differently. This platform is designed to replace your existing phone system and CRM. That’s right — you get a call center cloud in addition to powerful CRM tools to help grow your business.
Powered by IRIS, this unique system was also born out of a desire to offer you a simpler solution to hard-to-use, complex CRMs with the essential tools you need, a few groundbreaking extras and an easy-to-use interface that clients love. Some key features include:
- Cloud call center with power dialer, click-to-call, and local presence dialing
- Dialer Metrics with real-time monitoring and reporting
- Call recording and playback for QA and training
- Built-in helpdesk
- Chat
- Real-time visitor tracking
- Email validation
- Lead management
- Electronic signature
- SMS to help you connect with even more prospects, leads, and clients
- Speech Recognition for highly accurate transcription of spoken words into text
Compare CRM Pricing
Now that you have a better idea of the features each CRM brings to the table, it’s time to consider the costs. Ultimately, you want a CRM that gives you the features you need at a price you can fit into your business’s budget.
Sugar CRM Pricing
Sugar has no hidden fees and a clear pricing module. You can choose from three different plans based on the size of your business. To try it out, you can opt for a free trial, which gives you seven days to test out all the functionality without having to enter any credit card information. Plans are billed annually, and each requires a minimum purchase. For more info on the paid plans, check out the table below:
| Professional ($40/user/month) | Enterprise ($65/user/month) | Ultimate ($150/user/month) |
|---|---|---|
| Sales automation and forecasting | Includes everything in the Professional plan | Includes everything in the Enterprise plan |
| Customer service and case management | Product level quotes and forecasting | Assigned technical account manager |
| Lead management and sales campaigns | Advanced workflow | 5 sandbox instances |
| Online support | Support 12 hours a day, 5 days a week | 24/7 support |
| 15 GB storage | 60 GB storage | 250 GB storage |
CRMDialer Pricing
Transparent pricing, no hidden fees, and no long-term commitments make this platform shine. You pay on a month-to-month basis, and you can cancel or change your plan at any time. That gives you instant scalability, so you can grow your platform as your business grows. So, here’s how it looks:
| Essential $149 Per User Per Month | Growth $499 Per Month Unlimited Users | Enterprise $899 Per Month |
|---|---|---|
| 5,000 Voice Minutes | 15,000 Voice Minutes | 30,000 Voice Minutes |
| 1,000 SMS Credits | 3,000 SMS Credits | 6,000 SMS Credits |
| 500 Email Validation | 500 Email Validation | 500 Email Validation |
| 5 E-Signature | 5 E-Signature | 5 E-Signature |
| Unlimited Sales Leads | Unlimited Customer Invoices | International Calling |
| Unlimited Emails & Events | Unlimited Voicemail Drops | Email Validation |
| Unlimited Visitor Tracking | 1 Application Mapped for E-Sign | Custom SMS Credits |
| 2 Hours of Client Success | Collect Customer Payments | Source Code Licening |
| Free Gmail Extension | Open API & Zapier Integration | Single Sign On (SSO) |
Why Choose CRMDialer?
Okay, so we’ve looked at the features, compared what each platform has to offer and even compared the pricing. It’s clear that Sugar has its own unique benefits, and it’s a great product for many businesses. But CRMDialer offers some groundbreaking tools of its own. Still wondering why this might be the platform for you? Consider these reasons:
1. You want more than just a CRM.
Look, Sugar CRM does a great job with what they offer. But CRMDialer replaces your phone and your CRM system with tools to help you get more done. The Power Dialer includes:
- Voicemail drops, IVR and call recordings
- Click-to-call, which allows you to contact up to 300% more leads
- Local presence dialing, which boosts the response rate by up to 400%
2. You understand the value of real-time visitor tracking.
With Sugar, you can download a plug-in to get website visitor tracking, but with CRMDialer, real-time visitor tracking is included. As soon as a visitor clicks a link or visits your website, you (or your reps) get a pop-up alerting them to the activity along with a record of everything you need to know about the lead. Seeing what’s happening in real-time gives you a great opportunity to contact leads, prospects, and customers at the perfect time and with a perfectly targeted message.
3. You want to provide incredible service.
This platform includes a built-in helpdesk that allows you to monitor the progress of any issues. You can track tickets from the time they come in until they’re resolved. Agents receive instant notification of ticket status, and you can provide next-level customer service no matter where you are.
4. You want to build a collaborative environment.
One of the greatest ways to encourage collaboration among your reps is to provide a tool where everyone can share information in one single spot. CRMDialer’s chat function does just that. You can share images, files, and other information. Search for what you need and find it instantly. Even create special channels devoted to projects or topics.
As you can see, CRMDialer is a worthy alternative to Sugar CRM, although both options bring their own unique benefits to the table. We’re pretty sure that once you have a chance to take the platform for a test drive, you’ll clearly see how it streamlines your business and helps boost your bottom line.