You may be wondering who is SharpSpring or you may not be…either way I thought I would write a small piece about SharpSpring and why, as a business, we chose to become a partner back in 2017.
Background.
I started Dovetail Group in 2017 with the desire and goal of helping share some of the knowledge I had learned over the previous 12 years in BPO and data-driven Marketing Technology. Our focus was always going to be on small to medium-sized businesses; often this category of business provides the level of service and outcomes we want and expect but do not necessarily achieve the exposure the “big boys” get.
Partnering with a particular SaaS vendor was never part of the original plan; I had felt that doing this could lead to poor decisions of adoption i.e., implementing something based on the brand and not necessarily the best fit for our customers.
I recall receiving a call from a prospecting company who had obviously done some research on our business and then tried their luck with a cold call. I was skeptical but they said enough for me to book an appointment with a SharpSpring representative the following week.
The call was set, and I was ready to ask all the tough questions with the aim of uncovering the smoke and mirrors some of these SaaS companies like to try and get past you…By the end of the call, I was in.
What convinced us?
- The fact that the demonstration was live and directly from their live instance.
Yep, no ‘smoke’ No ‘mirrors‘ – SharpSpring was ‘eating their own dog food‘ and managing their entire sales and marketing processes from the very platform they were trying to sell us. This was a key differentiator. Often software companies want to demonstrate from a demo platform environment, which has been set up with ALL the “bells and whistles” BUT forget to leave out the finer detail of how hard it can be to achieve.
- SharpSpring’s model is different to other SaaS Martech providers on the market.
Their #1 focus is to enable businesses like Dovetail Group with the opportunity to build a business off the back of their technology. They provide us with the platform and licensing to resell it as we wish. Our agreement includes direct and unlimited access to the platform Subject Matter Experts – this means if we do not know how to do something, they will!
- SharpSpring is not just a CRM & Marketing Automation tool – it is The Revenue Growth Platform.
When you sign up to the platform you get access to all its features and benefits from Day 1 – no strings. With its one single view of the customer CRM (B2B & B2C), email marketing, landing pages, campaign analytics, and custom reporting it truly is a platform and not a disjointed tool. Not to forget Chatbots, Ad-Retargeting and native integration with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter plus more – do everything you need from one platform.
- The cost of SharpSpring leaves their competitors asking, how do they do it?
As partners we are SharpSpring’s ‘boots on the ground” for selling the platform, therefore, they do not have that direct overhead. Nor do they pay millions of dollars in expensive advertising trying to convince everyone their platform is the best. They know who they are, and they know who they are serving. This means we can resell The Revenue Growth Platform at a fraction of the price compared to their main competitors – HubSpot, Marketo, Infusionsoft, Act-on, and Salesforce Pardot.
The Industry.
The MarTech industry is a cluster of products and solutions (>8000) and many more promises that each will make our lives easier. The truth is most of them can, but it takes time, commitment, and money.
Buyers are often left holding the proverbial “baby” with something that looked great when it was demonstrated but the reality can be quite different once you have unpacked your investment. One of 3 things can happen next –
- Everything is as it should be – great!
- You realise that it is not going to do what the salesperson said, or
- It is going to require a whole lot more investment to get it working the way you need it to work (often this is the case).
If you experience number 2 or 3, the biggest problem now is that you have signed a multi-year licence contract, which is costing you thousands of dollars and now you must find the budget to get someone to administer the problem.
Our choice for The Revenue Growth Platform, SharpSpring was easy and like most technologies, they can all have their idiosyncrasies. The key is being able to access and enable the powerful features and benefits without having to reach for your wallet everyone time you want to do something new.
If some of the above sounds familiar and you would like to discuss how we can help, complete our Digital Maturity Assessment (No obligation) plus check out our fixed packages here or call us on 1800 706 109 or email [email protected].
You can review all the features of SharpSpring here and look at some of the other blogs we have posted on the benefits of having The Revenue Growth Platform driving your business success.
Need more help?
Having trouble with your SharpSpring form stylesheets or appearance? Want to get started with the SharpSpring CRM? We can help! As a SharpSpring Silver certified agency, we have a great deal of experience in setting up custom forms, form fields, stylesheets and general usage of the SharpSpring platform. Why not work with us today and get more from your SharpSpring investment.
