InfusionSoft – Think twice before sinking your money in this CRM tool
I’ve seen a number of clients invest in CRM tools that are far more powerful than their businesses require – and more expensive than they can currently afford – because their business advisers have told them that they should invest in technologies now that will support their future business plans. These business advisers instill the fear in their clients that their company won’t be prepared in the future when their prospects and clients outweigh the capability for the company to manage them. I have never witnessed a case where this was the reality. In reality, the sudden onslaught of clients never comes, and even if it were to, most CRM systems are built so that all current data can be easily migrated with a learning curve for using the technology.
The biggest example I have seen in unfortunate CRM purchases is InfusionSoft. I have seen InfusionSoft touted by so-called industry experts and gurus (think Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, Ali Brown) who advise info-marketers to invest in this CRM solution now in preparation for future business. InfusionSoft has a number of drawbacks like not being able to paste text in various modules and difficulties pasting links to name a couple quick irritants. The biggest thing about InfusionSoft is that it is NOT for info-marketers. InfusionSoft is for businesses with actual sales teams. To use InfusionSoft effectively the business needs to be sales-oriented, equipped with a multi-person sales force, have a database with hundreds of thousands of contacts AND have the budget to effectively implement this technology. The time to migrate data, implement the tool and train a salesforce how to use it – and continue to update it – is extremely time intensive. This is not the responsibility of a business owner either. This is the responsiblity of an IT Leader. While Champion Assistants provides the service of IT Team Lead, we are very careful to only work with clients who have a business that is both financially and mentally prepared for a company-wide CRM rollout.
Sadly, I have seen a number of solo-preneurs buy InfusionSoft on the recommendation of their marketing or sales advisor and start implementing the software only to find that it’s extremely cumbersome to use and their business only requires a fraction of the power of the tool. InfusionSoft is not for contact management. It is in fact a full-scale CRM tool. Also, I have seen that the people referring this software get a handsome referral bonus, and I know there are ulterior motives at play as well. For instance the Dan Kennedy – Bill Glazer Inner Circle has made huge amounts of money through their referrals to InfusionSoft. They make so much money they actually hold presentations on buying InfusionSoft at their SuperConference and InfoSummit conferences! It’s great business for them, but not necessarily the right decision for all of those people trying to follow the Dan Kennedy – Bill Glazer methods.
I advise against purchasing any technologies that require your business to grow into. It’s difficult to predict if the tool will be outdated by the time you need it or if there would have been a better solution based on what your business actually needs at the time. Save yourself time and aggravation and focus on strategic growth instead.
Best,
Heather
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Hi, Heather.
Thank you for your thoughts on our software, service and clients. I certainly agree with your first part that companies (as a whole) need to seriously consider their software solution before making a large financial decision. I also concur that the industry frequently inflates the fear of a ‘swarm’ of prospects and customers. However, I will disagree on a few claims about our company.
In our earlier years, information marketing was the bread and butter of our business and it still is. Our core is well rooted with industry leaders such as Dan Kennedy, Michael Gerber, John Jantsch, Perry Marshall and more. Our software helped those industry leaders achieve the level of success they have. Moreover, we ‘get’ info-marketers and they ‘get’ us. Only our clients drive the product’s roadmap. That is, startup business owners, independent consultants, entrepreneurs, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and more.
Our software supports the needs of small companies with less than 75 employees. Sales force automation does not necessarily mean “no sales team,” rather, a highly optimized process that empowers sales consultants to sell more. The implication that every business needs a sales force is not quite right; we have these features based on our customers’ demands. We’re sorry if we didn’t make clear. We’re making substantial improvements regarding the self-service setup process.
Additionally, we designed our software for the business owner in mind. We have a substantially short implementation cycle for those who invest the effort, the time and the care into their business. On the other hand, we intend to attract serious entrepreneurs who already have a business model and need a way to scale and automate it for rapid growth. Before a sale is made, our sales team goes through a series of consultative questions to determine a prospect’s needs and interests.
Finally, I suggest to new small businesses to try a variety of point solutions to nail down their business needs. Once they figure out what works (and what doesn’t), they would be in a better position to consider Infusionsoft for their automated follow-up marketing. Again, we really appreciate this feedback. It will help us improve our alignment with info-marketer and small business owner needs.
Best Regards,
Joseph Manna
I wanted to provide an update in response to your feedback, Heather –
Infusionsoft has recently offered version a lower cost to better align ourselves with the needs of small business owners. We substantially reduced the setup and activation fee, and divided our marketing automation software into five editions.
You and your readers can check out the different editions at http://www.infusionsoft.com/product/products and compare the features, benefits and more. Additionally, we have professional versions of our software for Mortgage and Dental industries, too.
Also, we’ve expanded our confidence in the form a ‘Double Your Sales Guarantee’ to all new Infusionsoft clients. Basically, if a new entrepreneur or small business owner fails to double their sales, we will happily return their setup and activation fees, provided that they employ the features found within Infusionsoft. Mor information on that is available at http://www.infusionsoft.com/guarantee/
Thanks again for your feedback and interest in Infusionsoft. Please let me know if you have any questions… you can email me at joseph.manna [at] infusionsoft.com.
–Joe
Thank you for the update. That is quite the guarantee, although it’s unfortunate that wasn’t offered to all the businesses who set up the standard Infusionsoft product. One of my clients paid for the software (and ongoing monthly fees), paid an Infusionsoft consultant to set it up and never got it running properly. The consultant wasn’t even able to match contacts to specific broadcasts for him – which is about as basic a request as there could be. Sadly it seems that Infusionsoft consultants are under-qualified because my client is more than reasonable and patient.
Additionally, although I think it’s great that so many example broadcasts are set up in Infusionsoft, I think that it’s totally unprofessional that a whole series of them is dedicated to toilet seats. Seriously, potty humor? Your development team may have amused themselves, but Infusionsoft comes off as unprofessional.
Heather,
Thanks for sharing your feedback. I want to offer that our small business coaches are empowered to fully assist the client with whatever aspects they need help with. We also provide frequent internal training to ensure all employees are up to speed with the functions and features of Infusionsoft, small business concepts and are strong at guiding clients into building processes for their business.
We’re human about it, too. If you have a client who feels their setup was inferior, please pass along my contact information so we can reach out and address it.
We now offer a line of new sample templates, of which don’t specialize in toilet seats. Ideally, a marketer would modify the products and services; we chose “toilet” because it stands out more than “widgets.” Either way, a marketer or copywriter should be able to easily modify them in a matter of seconds.
We like to be professional, yet accessible. We try not to take ourselves too seriously, as we focus our efforts on software that works.
Thanks again for the feedback. We’re always interested in improving and making our software the best marketing automation software for small business on the Web. Thanks to you, we’re getting there.
~Joe
Ouch, Heather! “Unprofessional!?” Having worked with Infusionsoft quite extensively since October 2008 “unprofessional” is not a word that comes to mind. Was the consultant your client used an Infusionsoft employee or a CMAC? I call about once a week to get a question answered or discuss best practices and I’ve always gotten the support I’ve needed. I will stipulate that Infusionsoft’s growth has caused some longer hold times and/or the new agent had to refer with a more senior agent from time to time but even that has been rare and it’s hard to hold that against a growing company that goes out of their way to educate and support their consultants and clients at no additional charge. In the beginning I would call as much as 3-5 times per day and they were always gracious and patient with me. Having used and trained on SFDC I can say I’ve enjoyed the support from Infusionsoft much more than SFDC. Additionally, Infusionsoft does so much more without having to add on modules and bolt-on additions or plugins that it can take a little longer to master everything they give you.
Infusionsoft is indeed a CRM with licensing for 4-5 users right out of the shoot and it does require the business owner to do some thinking as they implement and leverage it. I don’t know of too many 2-20 person companies with an “IT Leader,” therefore, the business owner must learn this system if they are to stop working 100 hours per week.
I’m currently working with an excellent IT firm with 5 employees and a bunch of contractors and they were using AutoTask, which turned out to be inadequate and they had just moved to High Rise because it was “only $49/mo” and they got 15 licenses.
I’ve been looking into it with them for the last couple of weeks and it is nice tool for storing names, notes, and scheduling simple tasks. But after just two days of intensive prospecting we were already behind the 8 ball. We could not assign fulfillment jobs, tasks can only be scheduled at 15 minute intervals, and all-in-all this tool is just an online Rolodex / calendar.
Where I see this company – and most companies – struggle is in their marketing. This IT company has, literally, the smartest, most capable IT person as co-owner that I have ever met but they are struggling for business because not enough companies know of him and his talents.
Therefore, if businesses are to grow and prosper they must learn to market themselves. That is a business owner’s #1 job, period. Until they learn to market their business they will be chained to being a “doer” of their craft and their business will suffer from the limitations that come with the “cult of personality.”
While my client is the best IT guy in the world he could manage/supervise 10 or 20 or 30 “good” IT guys and see to it that they provide excellent support with his input and guidance rather than him doing all of the work himself.
The common thread behind all successful businesses is the division of labor, the production/delivery of a quality product/service and great advertising/marketing. And I’ll beat a great offering with a good-enough offering with better marketing every time.
Thanks for creating a great site and forum here. I hope to connect with you on LinkedIn because we can never have too many smart connections!
Remember, life is too short for follow up calls.
Thanks for your response! I really appreciate what you had to say about small companies not having an IT Leader and this is a very important position to consider as businesses grow. There are a lot of factors and internal processes to consider when establishing the requirements for new systems and how they will be implemented.
We’re now in the middle of converting yet another client away from InfusionSoft. In this case they came to me because they purchased it, got the consulting, had problems, didn’t get the support, complained to the higher ups who promised a dedicated consultant (I don’t know if that person was an employee or contractor) and that person never showed up for the appointment nor got someone else to notify my client they wouldn’t be available. In an unfortunate way InfusionSoft is good for my business, but I don’t like seeing to-be clients come to me because they invested in a software that doesn’t meet their needs. I still think there are a lot of other solutions out there that are better and lower cost. Aside from the software itself, my general concern is clients who invest in a software that they don’t need but are operating in optimism that they will need it eventually. InfusionSoft is one of the many things guru info-marketers promote (and earn huge commissions on) and their audiences get caught up in the hype.
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