It seems this topic was discussed in the past. But it's been years.
My question...
What CRM do you use and would recommend.

Thank you.
Steve
www.stevevaught.com

Hey Steve,

My recommendations are to follow, but first...

For CRMs, you really have TWO categories of choice:
A. A specialized CRM designed a specific industry (magicians, dentists, real estate, etc.)
B. A general CRM for ANY business of 1 - 10,000 employees.

FYI. I'll also suggest a hybrid of two at the end of this post.

The advantage with a Specialized CRM is that everything is done for you, the costs are low, and you don't have a huge learning curve. You can be up and running right away! The disadvantage is that it will only do 80% of whatever you hope it will do. They are run by small teams, with limited resources, and they may not ever add the features you want, or play well with your favorite business apps.

The advantage with a General CRM is that they have a HUGE staff with customer support, forums, a large user base, tons of integrations, and you can customize them however you want. The disadvantage is that it can take dozens (or even hundreds!!!) of hours to customize a general CRM for your specific business industry and process. The learning curve can be extremely high.


MAGICIAN-SPECIFIC CRM RECOMMENDATIONS:
https://mago.co/about/
https://www.getgiggio.com/

Both of these are designed for magicians / musicians. They are inexpensive, and have MOST of tools that a solo performer would want. They offer a free trial as well.


GENERAL CRM RECOMMENDATIONS:
If you already live in gmail, look into Copper: https://www.copper.com
If you live in Microsoft 365, look into Pipedrive: https://www.pipedrive.com
If you want an all-in-one solution with TONS of integrations: https://www.zoho.com/one/


FINALLY:
There's another CRM for public speakers called SpeakerFlow. They take the extremely powerful Zoho One, and customizes your install with their templates and workflows for the speaking industry. This is a hybrid of the two, as you get the custom workflows and templates, with the dependability and advantages of an industry-leading CRM. The disadvantage is that pricing is NOT cheap.

Frankly, if you do mostly corporate work, then the speaking industry workflows will be just fine (it's all about booking time on stage at a company or association event). If you do kid shows and private parties, this won't be a good fit at all.

SpeakerFlow is here: https://speakerflow.com/


There's tons of CRMs out there. And I personally know magicians who use all of the above mentioned CRMs.

Good luck,
Joe

I use HubSpot and I like it. I would definitely recommend looking into them and seeing if it's a good fit.

Yes! HubSpot is also very popular.

Regarding these systems - I'm assuming that your data is loaded into their system and stored in their cloud. How easy is it to later export the data if you at some point want to use it in a different system - or just have it in a spreadsheet? And can you export any categorizations or other enhanced info that you've added via the CRM? Thanks.

Hi Herb. Sorry for the delay in answering your question. I'm not on here very much.

Your assumptions are correct. It's all in the cloud. How much you can export depends on which CRM you are using. Almost ALL of the big guns (Hubspot, Zoho, etc.) allow you to export everything to .csv files and other local storage. There are also free tools (some by 3rd parties, others by the CRM company itself) to transfer from one CRM to another, should you ever switch.

You can also integrate the CRM to work with your services, like gmail, yahoo mail, google calendar, outlook, dropbox, paypal, square & stripe, your bank, etc.

The idea is that your CRM (in your web browser) becomes your hub, your center of all business operations, where you have EVERYTHING from client notes, event photos, calendar, email, contracts, invoices, you name it. It's how you run your business, anywhere in the world, from your laptop or phone.

I can only imagine you guys are doing ten shows a day every day to require this insane level of CRM for something as simple as doing magic shows.

Personally I have everything in a good old fashioned spreadsheet. Client info, fee, date they have paid, and when I get home after the show I quickly make a note of the effects I did in another field, so for repeat shows I know what I did.

When someone books a show I update my invoice in my word processor and email it to them as a PDF. Takes one minute.

For accountancy purposes I have another spreadsheet which is what used to be called a “cash book” - when a payment comes in I write it down with the date. When I have a business expense I write it down with the date. Takes seconds. If I’m lazy and haven’t bothered to do it in real time then all I have to do is check my bank and credit statement online and write anything I’ve missed in. It takes seconds.

I will email every client a few days before to confirm the details (the main reason is so they don’t stress out about the entertainment not showing up and ring me). That’s a cut and paste email. Takes seconds. It doesn’t have to be automated. What happens if my system automatically sends a client an email saying I’ll be there but I myself have forgotten about it?

I can only imagine you guys doing 3,650 shows a year need something more complicated.

What happens if it sends an automatic email and you yourself have forgotten about the booking? This is your question? You don’t want to use software that is not as forgetful as you are, about professional (Allegedly.) bookings? You can also program it to send yourself an email reminder every day until the event so you don’t forget. In reality I don’t use much of this either but since forgetfulness seems to be an issue in all seriousness it would benefit you more than most.

Explains lots this does. Before you claim that was a joke or trap nobody buys it.

Like any tool these things need to be used properly. These can tie in with your marketing and keep you in touch with clients if that is your desire.

Danny, you are writing to "Futureal" not "Fedora".

I know.

The “it’s a joke” runs rampant here. You’re not even close to original in this. It’s a trap was directed at you as a funny callback.

Although looking at past posts it is entirely possible he was making a sarcastic reference. We’ll see! It is in the wheelhouse for him.

Either way the only part meant for you was the trap reference.

You can customize how you use a CRM - the #1 reason I use one is so I can easily build an e-mail list, and then create sub-lists.