SharpSpring is my marketing automation platform of choice.
June 21, 2016

SharpSpring is my marketing automation platform of choice.

Clifford Jones | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller

Overall Satisfaction with SharpSpring

SharpSpring is my go to system for managing all my business relationships, sales enablement, opportunity management, lead scoring, campaign ROI tracking and more. I have helped over 300 companies implement various marketing automation and CRM solutions since 2008 when I became an Infusionsoft customer and then, partner.

The primary reason I sought a new solution was I outgrew what I was using and wanted to explode my email and contact list, email volume, without blowing through my budget. SharpSpring empowers me to do this with amazing ease, considering my extensive experience using systems like SharpSpring.

Please choose any software like this wisely. Include your entire team, key players, in the decision and selection process. These systems are only as effective as they are implemented. Plan on hiring and paying a proven professional with at least 10,000 hours experience doing this kind of work. Unless you also make your own paperclips, don't be in the marketing automation, email and content marketing business on top of what you do best now. While there are a growing number of viable marketing automation solutions on the market now, your decision to invest in true sales enablement and marketing automation is the difference between getting what you want in your business and staying where you are, or worse, like getting left behind by your competition because someone like is driving their SharpSpring marketing automation and sales enablement bus.

Pros

  • Killer ROI tracking at the campaign level.
  • Exceptional email deliverability and reporting at workflow, email level.
  • Powerful sales enablement tool, light CRM, easily integrated with all top CRM solutions.
  • SharpSpring doesn't try to be all things to all people. They do what they do best, email marketing, automation, lead scoring, opportunity and sales pipeline management, etc.
  • Great support for partners.
  • Partner centric is good for the customer because SharpSpring doesn't let "anybody" sell this kind of software like many of their competitors.

Cons

  • List management could be improved.
  • Their new landing page builder is going to be awesome. (Just announced!)
  • They dramatically improved their focus on support for partners which helps us serve customers better, more affordably.
  • My contact and email list exploded using SharpSpring.
  • My email engagement improved by at least 30%, almost immediately.
  • My email marketing has never worked better before. SharpSpring has made a huge difference in sales, ROI.

There is no comparison between SharpSpring and Infusionsoft. In full disclosure interest, I was an Infusionsoft customer and then a consultant and partner. I sold Infusionsoft rarely, but helped hundreds of companies get better results with it between 2008 and May of 2016 when we agreed to end our business relationship.

SharpSpring does not try to be all things to all people. You will not be sold SharpSpring in a seminar. SharpSpring is partner centric meaning they focus their business model on choosing, training and supporting real marketing and software professionals, experts like me, to sell and implement this software.

Never buy this kind of software without proper consideration and by including your key players, users of the system, in the selection process. Then plan on investing in real coaching and training for the long haul. Unless you think sales and marketing is a one time event. And if so, no software on the planet can help you. (Just being honest. That's what I am paid to do when teaching, coaching and training any of these systems.)

You have to take the long view with any of these solutions. Infusionsoft tries to be all things to all people including ecommerce, CRM, campaign building, reporting, email marketing, etc. It's a decent system for many companies when chosen and implemented correctly, which hardly ever happens because of the abhorrent sales practices - "Double your sales with our software when you buy it today in our seminar and we sell you training that won't work."

SharpSpring is best suited for company owners and CEOs who seek to align sales, marketing, team and tech. SharpSpring and any serious sales enablement and marketing automation platform needs a real administrator, champion of sales and marketing team admin and performance, to properly set up and manage this powerful solution for the long haul.

Do you see professional sports teams taking a short term view of giving their players the best gear, coaching and training? No. For a reason. The top performing sales and marketing teams commit to choosing and using the gear, software, that is best for them. This takes intelligent, informed decision making for success.

SharpSpring is not a real CRM system so don't expect it to be. If you need a high powered CRM, choose it wisely, also, and integrate it with SharpSpring. Again, this is all about suitability of your software solutions. Give this proper consideration, talent, time and budget and you will get a positive ROI. I've seen it many times provide a huge result. I've also seen this fail often, too.

No software will double your sales or fix your systemic failures and flaws in your business model. This kind of software will make your weaknesses glare in a big way, which has the distinct benefit of giving you and your key players a choice; fix your business with the right solution or not.

Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM Feature Ratings

8.1
WYSIWYG email editor
9
Dynamic content
8
Ability to test dynamic content
8
A/B testing
8
Mobile optimization
8
Email deliverability reporting
9
List management
6
Triggered drip sequences
9
9.5
Lead nurturing automation
9
Lead scoring and grading
10
Data quality management
10
Automated sales alerts and tasks
9
4.0
Event/webinar marketing
4
4.0
Social profile integration
4
8.3
Dashboards
9
Standard reports
9
Custom reports
7
8.5
API
9
Role-based workflow & approvals
9
Customizability
6
Integration with Salesforce.com
10

Using SharpSpring

5 - Sales, marketing, content, etc. This is the beauty of marketing automation and sales enablement software when chosen and implemented wisely. This is about sales enablement integrated with powerful email marketing and automation. The reporting functions in SharpSpring are superior to what I found with Infusionsoft, which I used almost exclusively from 2008 - 2015.
1 - I am a full time marketing automation, sales enablement, content marketing, analytics guy with a small, elite team of super talented people behind me on contract when I need them. The beauty of this software is it requires the users, sales and marketing people, to use it daily for best results. When used daily and fully, this software rocks the ROI. You can keep a lean team using automation properly. You just have to know what the heck you're doing when you choose and implement this level of automation.
  • Sales enablement, driving sales, revenue.
  • Aligns sales, marketing to ROI tracking.
  • Keeps team disciplined and focused.
  • Social selling to drive sales results.
  • Lead scoring to improve time management.
  • Sales pipeline management and tracking is killer when set up correctly.
  • Expanded landing page use.
  • Integrate with new CRM in another year or so, if needed.
  • Better analytics and ROI tracking for our campaigns and those of our clients.
They are the best choice for me and I could use any system I want because I know how to build and pilot these solutions. I love SharpSpring and plan to be a long-term partner with them. My customers love SharpSpring so far, but I must admit not everybody is as disciplined as they can be to drive the real ROI. If you buy a Ferrari or your dream race car and don't get training or use it on a track, pay pros to coach and train you, how will you get the silly car to perform well?

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