Our Annual CRM Review for Advisors– 2018 Edition

If you’re in the market for a new CRM, you may find this issue helpful as we review our “Top Four CRMs Used by Advisors.”  If you’re going to work with a team, virtual or in-house, and you want to stay on top of tasks and know that things are getting done, you need a good CRM.   It’s what we at TOI call “The HUB” for all things task, workflow and note related.  It’s also one of the most requested “recommendation” questions that we get asked from advisors.

A Little History Lesson on CRMs

CRMs are forever changing with the demands of the virtual and mobile offices.   Twenty-six years ago when I first started Total Office, the top CRMs used by Advisors that we worked with were Goldmine, ACT!, Protracker and Junxure.

All four were pretty hard on the pocket book, overly complicated to learn and had more features than most advisors needed. But they worked and got the job done.   That was until the Virtual Office trend started to catch on and offices were being staffed from more than one location.  At first, logging in remotely through software such as “Log Me In” and “GoToMyPC” helped to solve the problem; however, because the CRMs were so robust, working on them remotely caused the systems to become very slow and many times would “freeze” in the middle of working, causing frustration and work not getting done.

Then along came the new breed of online CRMs.  A staff member could log in anywhere as long as they had internet connection.  What a difference this made in productivity!  The Top Four desktop CRMs were slow to move to The Cloud.   Their systems were so complicated that their programmers had a hard time replicating them into The Cloud.  When they did, the results weren’t very good and they were slowly falling short.

 

Today’s CRM

Today there are a TON of cloud-based CRMs for every budget and industry with new ones cropping up every day.  For the purpose of our Top Four in 2018, we are going to center around the top cloud-based CRMs that we work with for our clients.  Are you ready?  Here we go!

 

www.redtailtechnology.com
Redtail Technology’s CRM happens to be one of the very first online CRMs that we started working with way, way back in the late 1990’s- early 2000’s.  It is the CRM that we use in our office and has been a longtime favorite of ours.  Although, that could be changing as Wealth Box is fast becoming the CRM of choice (see review below).

Why we like it:
Redtail is intuitive, feature rich, and integrates with many popular software and services. We like that client data and personal information is readily available on a single screen, making client servicing an efficient process. Tasks and notes are easy to update and flexible notification settings keep everyone in the loop. Workflows keep things consistent across the team.

Features Advisors Like:

• Easy learning curve
• Compliance tracking
• Workflows provide for consistent client service
• Ability to run a client report for gathering personal and account information

Pros

• Easy to setup, work in, and train new users
• Tasks can be assigned to multiple assignees, linked to multiple contacts, and/or linked to client notes for greater content.
• Workflows allow for moderate complexity – including multiple outcomes, multiple assignees, target date driven due dates, etc.
• Mail merge options ensure continuity of communication

Cons

• While Workflow steps can be easily rearranged, the subtasks within them cannot. (We recommend writing your processes outside of Redtail first, then building them out).
• Workflows are linear – even with multiple team members assigned, workflow steps must be completed in a specific order – no jumping ahead.
• Workflow notifications show up in a separate section, not in daily tasks. You’ll need to be diligent about checking the workflow sections to make sure you don’t miss anything.
• Reporting functions are not very robust outside of the provided templates – customization is limited.
• Mobile app leaves a bit to be desired

Price*:
$99/per database with 15 users.

 

www.wealthbox.com
Wealthbox started coming on our radar a few years ago when we had a new advisor move to it.   It was a bit herky jerky at first, with a lot of features missing to make us really turn a head.   But the developers are quick to improve and add new features that it’s quickly becoming a favorite of ours over our longtime favorite, Redtail CRM.

Why we like it:
Wealthbox (WB) has an easy-to-view layout where everything about a client is all on one page including the ability to keep track of phone calls, email, tasks, files and financial data.  WB integrates with Google mail, eMoney, Google Drive, social media platforms, newsletter programs, Veo/TD Ameritrade and  Dropbox, just to name a few.

Features Advisors like:

• Easy to use
• Easily manage contacts, tasks, emails all in one place
• Can run reports on clients and prospects

Pros:

• All the clients are securely stored and easily accessed.
• All of the information related to a contact is on one page.
• Easy to use workflows, tasks that can connect the Wealthbox to an Outlook or Gmail calendar

 Cons:

• Once the task is assigned, you can only connect one contact to the task.

Price*:
Basic Core CRM Features $35/month
Pro Email Synced for power users $49/month
Premier Customizable, Multi-Workspace $65/month

 

www.junxure.com
Out of the former Top Four CRMs back in the day, only Junxure CRM is still included in our Top Four. It’s not for everyone, and as you will read in our reviews below, it’s still pretty complicated and most advisors that use it have been working with it since its early “desktop” days and not because it’s a favorite.

Why we like it:
Very Robust and reliable.  It could easily become a One Stop Shop and there’s not much it can’t do.

Features Advisors like:

• Integrates with most other programs an advisor would need –and they WORK.

Pros:

• Can securely store personal client information, financials and the like while knowing the system will be up and running 99% of the time
• Easily launches from the CRM into any of the integrations

Cons:

• Way more than what the average advisors will use
• In Junxure’s attempt to be so detailed, the program becomes overly complicated and can be frustrating.
• Learning curve is a little steep
• One of the higher-priced CRMs

Price*:
Most expensive option: Pricing ranges from $44 per user per month to $700 per month for its premium product, which bases price on AUM rather than users or databases.

 

www.salesforce.com

Another “old timer,” Salesforce is one of those CRMs that has been around since the old Top Four.  Difference is, when it converted to The Cloud, it did a much better job than the others.   Its popularity is mostly with sales teams, and even though it has an Advisor version and can be customizable, in our opinion, it falls behind Redtail and Wealthbox.

It’s pretty over-complicated, has a lot of features that Advisors wouldn’t use and unless you spend some big bucks to customize it, it lacks a lot of features that would make it more of a favorite for us.  Here’s the rundown:

Why we like it:
As with the other CRMs, the dashboard in Saleforce allows you to visually see all open tasks and dates due on one screen, and reminder messages notify advisors/staff when a task is due.  It integrates with a wide variety of outside data sources, e.g., Black Diamond, WealthCentral, NetDocuments, Morningstar, BNA, Money Guide Pro, to name a few.

Features Advisors like:

• Easily manage billing and reporting services with the Orion integrated billing software within Salesforce
• Advisors can rebalance their client’s accounts with the Portfolio rebalancing service included in Salesforce.
• Follows leads all the way from start to finish and allows the ability to designate contacts as prospects and current clients
• Notification of client birthdays and anniversaries along with the automatic email feature that allows the advisor to set the system to send the client an email on their special day

Pros:

• Can be customizable to meet your requirements instead of requiring you to change to meet their requirements
• Synchronize contacts, calendars, and emails with Outlook
• Integrates with a large list of Apps through the AppExchange
• All the information is stored securely in the Cloud with mobile access.
• Records can be linked together to show how your data is related.
• Create workflow templates
• Reports can be customized to your desired information.
• User-defined fields can be created in the Classic and Lightning versions of Salesforce.

Cons:

• When a client’s entity is updated, you also need to update the client’s contact information. The information does not automatically update each section, i.e., the entity and the contact pages would need to be updated separately.
• Price is higher than other CRMs
• Lengthy and more complex system to use and to set up compared to other CRMs
• Expensive for the smaller businesses

Price*:
Prices for different products from Salesforce range from $25 – $300 per user per month, billed annually.

 

If you feel these four CRMs are still a little more than you need, we would suggest looking at smaller, less robust CRMs such as Insightly.com or LessAnnoyingCRM.com. 

If you didn’t see the CRM you are looking for, contact us.  Chance are we’ve worked with it and can tell you more about it.

We hope you’ve found this article helpful. When we run across other CRMs worthy of our List, we will be sure to pass on the information. Next month we will review Online Document Storage.

*Prices as of this writing

 

Review Disclaimer:  The reviews and opinions expressed in this article are purely those of our own. We do not and have not received compensation for our review. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the provider. We make no representations, warranties, or assurances as to the accuracy, currency or completeness of the content contained on this website or any sites linked to or from this site.

Copyright 2018 Sherry Carnahan