Further details of question: I’m looking for a combination of systems that can automate a lot of the administrative mundane tasks needed in a sales/contract cycle. I suspect there would be lots of integrations using apps like Zapier to connect things like-calendar, leads, emails (auto email generation), notes, tasks, invoice, payments etc etc.
As an example, I would do an online marketing event say on Facebook and post a leadform. Everyone that fills out the lead form gets logged into the CRM and gets an email invite to schedule some time to discuss my services on my calendly link. If after discussing, they want to proceed further, ideally, I would hit a button on an app that would move them to say a ‘prospect/contact’ and an onboarding document along with an invoice get sent automatically. I would prefer to take payments via ACH so some way to integrate getting paid without Paypal type 3% fees would be great. During the onboarding, the clients would need to upload some documents which I prefer to have them stored in the same CRM so I can easily access the documents per client.
Once the documents are uploaded, I would like an event on my calendar created so I can review the documents (or a task with a due date). After a few weeks, an automatic email would get sent to invite them to review the process with my team. We should be able to create tasks directly in the CRM and assign.
This way, for any lead or client, we have all the information we need in one place in a very easy to follow lifecycle. It may even be awesome to create a flowchart for the entire lifecycle and be able to see any client’s flowchart to see where that client lies but I’m not sure if that’s possible.
I’m aware of CRMs like Salesforce Essentials, Zoho, Hubspot, Infusionspot/Keap, Freshsales, Pipedrive etc etc as well as integration apps like Zapier, appexchange so I suspect a combination of those is what I need.
Answer: I love your initiative in wanting to automate your processes! You could definitely have these flows set up in systems like the ones you’ve mentioned but is you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to Salesforce, Hubspot, Infusionsoft, Keap or looking for a no-code version of Zoho, then I’d recommend looking at either using a custom project management software system like Pipefy with their integrated email triggers and webforms or a more CRM-based solution like Pipedrive where each stage would trigger different actions. In both cases, you’d have emails triggered that contained links through to document signature templates or payment pages with the signed documents or payment receipts being sent back into the CRM or project management software system. As for the payment option, you can use a Paypal PayMe page but you’re looking for lower fees so I’d recommend paying for a cheap generic domain (i.e. [yourbusinessname]payment.com), setting up a Carrd single page website and integrating Stripe so you only pay 1.75% (rate within Australia). The cost of the domain name and Carrd subscription will be offset by your sales.