Recommend a personal CRM tool
April 5, 2017 5:05 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for a CRM-type tool to track my professional relationships. I'm looking for something that I can use to capture notes on my interactions so I can quickly refresh myself on my history with someone or search to find who I talked with X about. Free or cheap (<$50) strongly preferred; Mac or online.
I'm not good at remembering people, and I want to use some tools to make it easier for me to manage my professional relationships. I have a couple of specific things I want to do:
* When I have a meeting with someone, I want to be able to review our history so I can refresh myself on their interests, personal goals, past topics of conversation, etc.
* I frequently remember talking about a topic with someone several months prior, but I can't remember who it was. I'd like to be able to search my notes so I can find who that was.
* I would love if this tool can show me who I haven't contacted in a while so I can remember to proactively reach out to my contacts and maintain the relationship over time.
I'm not good at remembering people, and I want to use some tools to make it easier for me to manage my professional relationships. I have a couple of specific things I want to do:
* When I have a meeting with someone, I want to be able to review our history so I can refresh myself on their interests, personal goals, past topics of conversation, etc.
* I frequently remember talking about a topic with someone several months prior, but I can't remember who it was. I'd like to be able to search my notes so I can find who that was.
* I would love if this tool can show me who I haven't contacted in a while so I can remember to proactively reach out to my contacts and maintain the relationship over time.
Salesforce is overkill for this! Don't do it! You'll regret it!
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:36 PM on April 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:36 PM on April 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
I am currently using Highrise for this. It's... mostly ok. I'll be interested to see what others suggest, but you can try Highrise for free to see if you like it.
posted by primethyme at 6:03 PM on April 5, 2017
posted by primethyme at 6:03 PM on April 5, 2017
The free version of Highrise should cover you well for this. It's designed from the ground up to do what you're asking (track relationships) and you get 250 contacts with the free version.
posted by ToucanDoug at 6:29 PM on April 5, 2017
posted by ToucanDoug at 6:29 PM on April 5, 2017
You may want to explore SuiteCRM - an open source, free CRM. https://suitecrm.com/
posted by theobserver at 11:02 PM on April 5, 2017
posted by theobserver at 11:02 PM on April 5, 2017
Zoho CRM?
posted by travellingincognito at 12:46 AM on April 6, 2017
posted by travellingincognito at 12:46 AM on April 6, 2017
A combination of LinkedIn and Evernote could do the trick. LinkedIn lets you add (private) notes on a contact's profile. Evernote has great search, and you can also scan business cards with your camera phone and it will recognize the text.
posted by acridrabbit at 7:08 AM on April 6, 2017
posted by acridrabbit at 7:08 AM on April 6, 2017
I use Cloze.com
It works off your email accounts and connects to your cell phone account to combine your interactions. It acts as your email client too, if you want, and the experience is the same across mobile devices and computers.
It extracts everyone you've interacted with into its contact list, and can supplement that information from LinkedIn.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 7:37 AM on April 6, 2017
It works off your email accounts and connects to your cell phone account to combine your interactions. It acts as your email client too, if you want, and the experience is the same across mobile devices and computers.
It extracts everyone you've interacted with into its contact list, and can supplement that information from LinkedIn.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 7:37 AM on April 6, 2017
Hubspots CRM is free and worked fine for a former company of mine.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:30 AM on April 7, 2017
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:30 AM on April 7, 2017
You may want to check out Ryze | The Personal Relationship Manager as potential tool.
posted by lucasbaze at 10:04 AM on April 22, 2017
posted by lucasbaze at 10:04 AM on April 22, 2017
I was a huge fan from Evernote Hello a few years ago and when it was abandoned I stopped using these type of applications. monica just came out today and it seems to be what you are looking for. I haven't used it because I didn't feel comfortable saving personal information on someone else cloud.
There's also ntwrk but I've never used it either. I just started using Contacts Journal CRM which saves everything locally but I chose to backup the information on iCloud, it's still the cloud but gives me a bit more confidence than some random company. It's not as pretty as the others but it looks like the developer is very active.
posted by ruben at 3:08 PM on June 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
There's also ntwrk but I've never used it either. I just started using Contacts Journal CRM which saves everything locally but I chose to backup the information on iCloud, it's still the cloud but gives me a bit more confidence than some random company. It's not as pretty as the others but it looks like the developer is very active.
posted by ruben at 3:08 PM on June 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:12 PM on April 5, 2017