Being Nimble in a Social Selling World
Updated January 24, 2015
Being Nimble in a Social Selling World
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Software Version
July 2014 Release
Overall Satisfaction with Nimble
Nimble is used by the organization to handle leads, future advocates, existing advocates. The entire organization is using it. This CRM solution is dealing with the challenge of keeping track of and pulling into one view all the social signals and streams of people and organizations we provide services and solutions today. And, the more it is utilized the better it becomes for it's intended purpose. I believe that ideally this is likely one of the best social intelligence tools for organizations with simple CRM needs.
Pros
- This CRM tool allows us to save a tremendous amount of time in data entry. On any web browser or email client communication via Google (and soon other clients), we have the means to quickly add users into the system, view all their pertinent social media streams, enter notes, to do's, follow ups, schedule meetings, all without going into the actual Nimble solution. It's awesome!
- The integration with other systems is powerful. Integration to systems such as email marketing solutions, marketing automation like ACT-On (via cazoomi), and financial accounting systems like QuickBooks is a big time saver for a small organization.
- The Nimble System has an integrated email inbox where you can capture and communicate back with every email which comes in without leaving the tool.
- With it's Nimble Contact Widget automatically fills out the contact record from just a name and email. It's automagic—Saves time. Recently, the company launched the Nimble contact widget for Google Chrome, Hootsuite, Safari and Firefox. It's an awesome new feature.The Smart Contact add in is awesome! The ease of getting a contact record into the system on any website (LinkedIn, Twitter, or company websites) is 2nd to none. Not only are you able to get information into the system quickly there, but even in Gmail. Beyond the data entry efficiencies, with Nimble you can immediately connect the dots in terms of what the contact likes,dislikes, follows etc. with it's ability to pull in all the social intelligence via their digital footprint. From there, you are on your way to developing stronger relationships.
- On the main dashboard, we can view all the "engagement" opportunities we have with contacts who have "followed" us or otherwise had some interaction so that we don't miss enhancing our relationship opportunities. In short, from one view we can listen and respond in one CRM tool!
Cons
- Reports: Opportunity Management and/or Forecasting is an area of improvement. In June, we had a major improvement for reports and sales forecasting. This was a major step in the right direction.
- Import: The Import process is cumbersome. I have used many import tools and while this is not the worst it's mediocre at best. The key is having an implementation partner or using someone on the App Market to import your initial data such as demographic or profile information from your legacy system like Goldmine, ACCESS etc. If all your data is in Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, GMAIL contacts it's no problem. We just had specific fields which needed to be pulled in twice for "contact" and "accounts" linked information. For example, Revenue was a field we captured at the contact level and account level. We wanted to see that information in both places. As a result, we had to import twice due to the lack of linkage right now. I am sure it will get improved but not that good now. It can be overcome and not that expensive to do it once you get the process down.
- Templates: There are no standard word templates which can be used to send out regular communications without going out to a third party system like MailChimp. In other words, when you have follow up emails which are routine to check in you have to copy and paste those type of "word" or "google docs" templates into the Inbox of Nimble to send out accordingly. There is a work around but if you are using some other CRM tools this is something to be aware of in your evaluation process.
- Account Management: Many tools have ways by which to "link" shared "data" between accounts and contacts. For example, XYZ company has 3 or more employees. When you input information you would like the address to "flow" down to others. Or, you have a shared "field" on the contact record but would like to have it also displayed on the "account record". There is no way to do that. Therefore, be mindful of that situation. If you work with company records, it's a bit cumbersome to deal with this right now (as of 1/1/2015).
- Google Chrome Add in, dramatically improved data entry time.
- With ease of capturing new contacts into the system with Google Chrome Add In, it has improved data entry errors and improved our ability to get the lead into the "nurture phase" of marketing activities
- Social insights are now actionable information in real time rather than having to piece it all together from other systems
Nimble fits nicely in the "contact management" "social crm" space. As mentioned, it's not a full fledged CRM tool yet (sales, marketing, service, projects, defect tracking) etc. but it's in a good class for those small organizations who haven't any experience with automated tools and need to get into the Social Media world in order to be successfully develop relationships in the 21st century Social Selling world.
Using Nimble
- Sales
- Social Insights
- Marketing
- Integration with ACT ON via Cazoomi (an excellent product)
- Integration with BombBomb Video Email through Zapier
- Sales Forecasting with improved reports release in June 2014 it allowed us to do that
Evaluating Nimble and Competitors
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
Social Selling is critical in business today. And, we needed more than the standard CRM tools provided in the market in order to develop meaningful relationships with our future advocates and existing client advocates. It didn't hurt that the price allowed us to comfortably add this to the mix as well.
No changes.
Nimble Training
- Self-taught
Yes, the system is very intuitive and there is sufficient online training for the organization or user to benefit from on the "how to's". If you are hoping to obtain "business process" time savers or how to implement "social selling" into your business process then you will need to enlist a trained consultant.
Nimble Support
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
During the import process I requested support from them on the specific order of information to allow the custom fields to come over. They actually took my spreadsheet and adapted it to meet the requirements to move some data into the system. They didn't have to do that. They did anyways.
Using Nimble
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Social Integration
- Activity Management
- Letter Templates (integrate with Word for standard word merge functions)
- Reporting of Sales Forecasts up until June 2014 release which now provides basic features in this area
Yes - Apple and Android (soon to be here)
Comments
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