The right customer relationship management (CRM) software is crucial in an age where customer data is king, and in this Monday.com review we will cover some great things about this software brand.
According to research reported on by Econsultancy, 91% of businesses that have over 11 employees use a CRM to manage customer data and regulate their sales pipeline.
You should, too.
The question is, which CRM offers the work management tools you need while offering support to your sales teams?
This review digs into what the Monday sales CRM offers so you can decide whether it’s right for your business.
What is the Monday Sales CRM Software?
As a web-based CRM, Monday.com claims to offer everything that small businesses need to succeed. While it’s not the world’s leading CRM (Salesforce takes that honor based on its number of users), it’s one of the CRM alternatives small business owners can try if they can’t find what they need with other CRM providers.
Monday.com markets itself as a workplace operating system rather than calling itself a CRM. But functionally, the two are the same thing.
Monday stands out because it offers businesses control over their customer data and sales pipeline without requiring any coding experience. You can build workflows and get industry-specific solutions designed to support your business through Monday.
The CRM has several features, which Monday calls “building blocks,” along with being compatible with several apps and software packages your business may use to manage customers.
Beyond this, the Monday CRM includes team collaboration tools that help team members to work together to serve their customers.
The Key Features of Monday.com
While Monday talks a lot about how it can help you build your sales pipelines, you need to understand its key features to get to grips with what the tool has to offer.
Project Management
The ability to stay organized is key for team members when they’re working on complicated projects. Monday’s suite includes tools designed for project management to keep your people on track.
Planning
Monday gives you a calendar you can use to schedule specific posts and assign writing tasks to your team.
This CRM software also helps you to create project plans and assign deadlines to your team members. You can also track resources, ensuring that your assets are used correctly throughout the project.
Tracking
An unsupervised project is one that’s doomed to failure. Monday’s tracking tools help you to stay on top of deadlines while also helping you keep an eye on the completion speed and the budget you’ve assigned to each project managed in the tool.
Templates
Sometimes, it’s hard to come up with a full workflow that accounts for what your project team needs to do and how the result of their work fits into your sales process. Monday’s customizable templates help you to get up and running on a project without wasting time on drafting documents.
Reporting Tool
Time tracking, risk assessments, and task management are all available in the Monday project management tool. Simple ports help you to cut through the data your projects generate so you can see if everything is on track.
Content Management and Creation
According to online marketing experts Ahrefs, 82% of marketers actively invest in their content marketing. That’s no surprise because quality content can generate up to three times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing while costing almost two-thirds less.
Monday.com accounts for this with several tools that help marketing and sales managers to create their content marketing strategies.
Once your marketers complete the first draft of a piece of content, they can upload it to Monday for editing by your company’s higher-ups. You can approve content within the CRM and easily shuttle work onto the next stage of your content management pipeline.
Curation
Inspiration can come from many sources, which is where Monday’s curation service comes into play. The CRM makes it easy for people to share content that inspired them, with that content often being useful as part of the foundation of your own writing.
Manage Leads
Gaps in your lead management system result in potential customers slipping through the cracks. When that happens, they’re likely lost forever.
Monday mitigates this issue with lead management tools, including lead tracking and simple assigning.
Sales Analytics and Reporting
What’s happening inside your sales pipeline?
If you can’t answer that question, the odds are that your pipeline isn’t as leak-free as you’d like it to be. With Monday, sales reps can get in-depth analytics and reporting that help them see what’s happening with prospects who are in the sales pipeline in real-time.
Development
While you don’t need to know how to code to use Monday.com, the CRM understands that a lot of software development teams use its tools to manage their work.
Its suite of development tools makes it easy to collaborate on coding tasks. You also get access to a calendar view, which is great for planning sprints and keeping track of backlogs.
Contact Management
Every customer you interact with has contact information. Monday lets you record and edit that information as needed. You can also add notes to each customer that indicate where they are in your sales pipeline.
Deal Management
Mismanagement can lead to the failure of a deal at the final hurdle. Monday’s time tracking, deadline management, and general reporting tools let you track your entire sales cycle, so you always remember what’s happening with a deal.
Custom Pricing Plans
The Monday sales CRM has five pricing plans, from a simple free version for individual users to an enterprise plan that makes Monday a fully customizable CRM.
Here are the five plans you can access:
The Free Forever Plan
This free plan is for individuals and allows you to have two members. You get access to 200 templates and can upload an unlimited number of documents. But you can only have up to three boards and have no access to a dedicated customer success manager for the account.
Price – Free
The Basic Plan
The first of Monday’s paid plans gives you 5 gigabytes of storage space and better customer support. You also get unlimited free viewers. Monday gives you three seats at the cost of $8 per seat.
Price – $24 per month
The Standard Plan
Guest access is the biggest benefit of the Standard plan because it allows you to show your plans to your clients. You also get access to the Calendar View feature, as well as multiple automations and integrations.
Price – $30 per month
The Pro Plan
Go Pro, and you get access to private boards. Time tracking and a chart view also become available, making this the plan of choice for companies that need to keep different teams connected.
Price – $48 per month
Enterprise Plan
Beyond the customized setup and tailored onboarding that comes with the Enterprise plan, you also get enterprise-grade security. Premium customer support comes from the Monday team, and you can create unlimited boards, though the price goes up with the more boards you create.
Price – Varies
Monday.com Pro’s and Con’s
There’s a lot to like about Monday.com, starting with its ease of use. Creating boards is simple, as is the overall setup process. And even if you’re worried about getting tangled up in complex workflows, the Forever Free plan gives you a chance to get to grips with the service before you invest your money into it.
The ready-made templates make it even easier to jump into a project, with the ability to offer guest access on some of the paid plans being great for collaborating with your clients.
Monday also offers plenty of integration options, with Zapier, Google Calendar, Dropbox, and Slack all being available. However, Salesforce is still missing from the list, which is a big omission in the CRM world.
The per-user pricing plans are restrictive, too, with many businesses having to opt for a customizable Enterprise plan because the standard tiers don’t allow them to include every team member they need.
The Pros
- The customization capabilities, especially once you move to the Enterprise tier, are tremendous.
- A simple pricing structure for most tiers reduces budgetary complexity.
- The Monday mobile apps are available for all tiers.
- The software is great for small businesses that need help with daily task management.
The Cons
- The user interface can feel cluttered, especially as you add more members and boards.
- While the integrations are great, the lack of Salesforce is a significant omission.
- Per-user pricing limits what you can do on many of the standard tiers.
Is Monday the Right CRM and Project Management Software for Your Business?
The Monday sales CRM gets a lot of things right, making it a viable alternative to more costly customer relationship management solutions. Its sales forecasting and tracking tools help you to keep an eye on your pipeline (for more AI forecasting software, read here). And as a customizable CRM software, you can tailor it to suit your company’s needs.
However, Monday may not have everything that large businesses want out of their CRM. Though it’s less expensive than Salesforce and similar, more established CRMs, that lower cost comes at the expense of detailed customer management.
If you need a tool for tracking workflows and managing your team, with useful CRM tools included, Monday.com may be a good option. But if you want to dig deep into the weeds of customer relationship management, there are better tools on the market.
Resources:
https://support.monday.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005310945-What-is-monday-com-
https://www.business.com/reviews/monday-crm/
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/16145-monday-com-review.html
https://tech.co/crm-software/monday-crm-review
https://www.trustradius.com/products/monday/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons
