April is an exciting month for us. Our parent company was founded in April 2002 and HaystackCRM was founded in April 2017. There’s something about early spring that gets our creative juices flowing :)
HaystackCRM was born out of the need to help Xtern manage its rapidly growing customer base.
It became challenging to keep our sales pipeline full, while simultaneously doing our day jobs. We realized that we needed a centralized location to manage disparate customer data.
— Some of us kept spreadsheets
— Others of us jotted notes on paper
— A few of us just kept the information in our brains, perhaps never to be unearthed again!
This type of information all took a backseat to the actual work of building custom software.
— Meetings we had with leads
— Events we attended to market our business
— Sales prospects we were cultivating
We couldn’t move nimbly from one project to the next, and we were leaving potential new business on the table.
We searched for an existing CRM that would seamlessly integrate our sales workflow into our daily work. The products were:
— Too bulky to use gracefully
— Too expensive for our small business
We also wanted something that:
— Could be used on our phones, with an elegant design similar to apps we were using as consumers
— Could be used to jot (or voice-narrate) notes when we were running from meeting to meeting
— Had a mapping feature so we could easily locate meetings while we were on the road
We couldn’t find what we wanted, so we took our wishlist and created something cost-effective and devoid of technological clutter. We now have a product for users that value a lean feature set and transparent pricing.
Our users help us improve our product by sharing feedback, both positive and negative. Don’t be surprised if you get an email from us asking how things are going (with HaystackCRM that is!) Though, feel free to tell us how things are going in the rest of your life :)