SalesOutlook CRM Review
""A complete demand generation CRM for Outlook"
- Calendar/Reminder System
- Document Management including Quotes/Proposals
- Email Marketing and Archiving
- Internal Chat Integration
- Marketing Automation Integration
- Oracle NetSuite ERP and Constant Contact Integration
- Sales Dashboard
- Task Management
- Teams Phone System Integration (auto dial from contact)
- Territory Management
Free Trial
Pricing starts from
$25
Free Trial
Premium Subscription
Amount of users
2+
Training/Documentation/Video
Online Support
Mobile Access
Sales pop-out Dashboard with week at a glance, sales performance charts and all items within a certain timeframe.
SalesOutlook Ribbon Toolbar and side panel from the Inbox view.
Excel Reporting. Use Excel to slice and dice the data the way you want. v
Power BI Reporting and Analytics.
NetSuite Integration. Synchronize accounts, contacts, appointments, tasks, emails, and create transactions in NetSuite. Requires a NetSuite subscription.
Constant Contact Integration. See email marketing history per contact. Requires a Constant Contact subscription.
Auto-dial Contact with and log call. Requires Team Phone System subscription.
For businesses that use MS Outlook as their email service, multi-award winning SalesOutlook offers a familiar interface for managing and sharing customer data, advanced reporting, email marketing and mobile access, without having to leave your inbox.
SalesOutlook CRM is the first and arguably best CRM solution that is completely embedded into the folder structure of MS Outlook. Although several other CRMs offer integration or synchronization of data with Outlook, SalesOutlook is one of the few CRM’s that is fully embedded into MS Outlook and MS Exchange Server.
SalesOutlook CRM is a fast, intuitive, simple and a highly customizable Outlook CRM add-in which makes it ideal for a wide range of businesses. As your choice, SalesOutlook CRM data is fully “hosted” (in the cloud) or installed on your network.
Quick Facts
- Our Rating: 80/100 ( OR 8/10)
- Free Trial: Yes (20 days)
- Ideal for: Small and medium sized businesses
- Training offered: Yes
- Users Limit: No
- Mass import/export: Yes
- Email marketing: Yes (internal or integrating with Constant Contact)
- Lead Capturing: Yes
- AWARDS: Editors choice (PC Mag & CNET), ALL STAR AWARD 2011 (Constant Contact), Best Outlook CRM 2010 (Willy )
Company Background
Since 1998, SalesOutlook, Inc. has pioneered the use of MS-Outlook and Exchange Server as the technology platform for a complete CRM System. SalesOutlook remains the only complete Outlook CRM System that can “Automatically Auto-File” all email correspondence. SalesOutlook is a very cost effective Outlook CRM Solution because it is simple to install, easy to use, fully customizable and the only CRM System that is 100% inside of MS-Outlook!
SalesOutlook CRM is a unique and comprehensive Customer Relationship Management and email marketing system that was developed from the ground up to be fully embedded into Microsoft Outlook. This system is the first of its kind, and was designed to combine the functionality of a CRM system with the user-friendly aspects and familiarity of Microsoft Outlook. SalesOutlook CRM can be implemented within minutes and automatically syncs all customer data with MS Exchange. All files and email correspondence are saved to the contact’s profile, and because SalesOutlook CRM depends on Microsoft Outlook, there is no need for a dedicated MS-SQL server database.
Reaching contacts via email campaigns is simplified with SalesOutlook CRM. These email blast forms are available in HTML or RTF formats, offering users more flexibility when it comes to sending custom email blasts to a client base. This feature, paired with a seamless integration to Constant Contact, means that SalesOutlook CRM can efficiently and quickly create the ideal email campaign for your targeted contacts. Each member of your team is able to view the email campaign results from within each individual contact record.
SalesOutlook CRM’s intuitive interface provides a host of features that optimize the user experience. Contacts can be dragged and dropped into different lead categories, such as “Opportunity” or “Customer Inquiry” directly from the email interface. By right-clicking on a customer name, users can easily access contact information, providing instant visibility into all the necessary information related to any particular buyer. SalesOutlook CRM is a specialized system that builds upon a frequently-used email medium to create a CRM that will optimize user efficiency and boost customer satisfaction. It’s a great fit for growing companies in a variety of verticals and we generally recommend it to companies with more than 5 users.
Highlights of the CRM
SalesOutlook adds a toolbar to Outlook’s existing toolbar which provides quick access to the different modules of the CRM.
The Following are some of the notable features of SalesOutlook:
- Quick add/search from the SalesOutlook toolbar
- Sticky notes when you open an account or contact
- Automatic Filing – All incoming and outgoing emails (along with the attachments) are automatically filed and linked to the related contact, so you’ll never lose an important email again
- Built-in templates for emails, business documents etc.
- Powerful integration with MS Office allows you to create Word, Excel and other documents from within the Outlook CRM and the info is automatically extracted from the account or contact.
- Extensive Reporting – Excel, Power BI, Crystal Reports
- Oracle NetSuite and Constant Contact Integration
- Teams Phone integration for auto-dialing and tracking calls.
Getting started (2/5)
Unfortunately, we had a tough time installing SalesOutlook; it took quite a while and some effort for the application to be fully functional. However, once installed it didn’t disappoint us; importing contacts was a snap, and basic customization took just a few minutes. SalesOutlook provides free installation help.
Work Area (18/20)
SalesOutlook is Account centric i.e. all the contacts and other information you add, roll up to the linked Account (Accounts are actually the companies you’re dealing with). This logical grouping of the data makes it very easy to add new info, manage different activities regarding a client and generate different reports.
If you open an account, the entire linked records including contacts, leads, opportunities, activities, notes etc. appear on the same window. Likewise, if you open a contact, its account and other related data will appear on the same window. There are numerous options for you to create new documents, customer service queries, tasks, or add new contacts, leads, opportunities… put simply, you can perform all the activities from the same window.
User interface (10/10)
Since it uses Outlook’s familiar interface – there is just the toolbar, which is rather unobtrusive and elegant, and a few folders down below your inbox.
Price (6/10)
There are two different editions of SalesOutlook available:
- Standard Team Edition : $25/Month/User
- NetSuite Edition: $35/Month/user
Integration with 3rd party apps (8/10)
The CRM integrates with several industry leading applications such as Oracle NetSuite, Constant Contact, MS Office, Crystal Reports, MapPoint, Teams, QuickBooks and so on.
Customization (10/10)
SalesOutlook is totally customizable, which makes it a perfect choice for almost any type of business. It also allows you to add custom fields to different modules, which takes personalization to the next level. If you want rigorous personalization, further customization is also available, just contact their professional services department.
Mobile support (4/5)
Since it’s designed for professionals who need full and complete access to their entire customer database even when they are on the go, the CRM runs on almost all smart phones and mobile devices.
Scalability (7/10)
SalesOutlook client base has single users as well as very large global corporations with hundreds of users. For very large companies with huge amount of data, it’s recommended to create a separate customer database for each business unit or division. Though there is no limit to the number of users, the scalability of SalesOutlook is determined by the number of records in each folder. The recommended number of records in each folder is under 40,000. The auto-archiving feature makes sure your records stay within this limit and moves old records to archives folder when the limit is exceeded.
Customer support (10/10)
The customer support team of SalesOutlook is unquestionably one of the best we’ve encountered so far. When there were issues installing the application, we always received quick and comprehensive responses. You can reach the customer care department either by phone or via their web form.
Back up and security (7/10)
Since your database is stored locally, the backup and security issues are handled by the Exchange Server.
Features of SalesOutlook CRM
Dashboard
With the help of graphical representation of your sales funnel and sales forecasts, the management dashboard offers a quick overview of your company’s performance. However, unlike other CRM’s, you won’t spend most of your time here, but probably in your inbox and access the CRM features via the mini-toolbar.
Accounts
The Accounts menu corresponds to Companies or Organizations.
Accounts are represented as small rolodex cards, which show you the basic info about the company at a glance. Once you click any of these cards, a simple yet comprehensive menu appears that offers all the features you’d see in a high-tech CRM.
Contacts
Contacts menu stores information of your clients and people working in your Accounts. It’s similar to the Accounts menu and features all the related information, from basic contact info to communication history.
Searching contacts is also very easy, just type in the first three or four letters and the corresponding contacts will pop up.
Opportunities
This is an advanced menu that makes storing, managing and sorting your opportunities on different criteria a breeze. Turning an opportunity into a project and assigning contacts to it is a matter of a few clicks.
Leads
It’s a powerful lead management system that you see in most advanced CRM systems. Leads are fully integrated with Constant Contact for improved lead nurturing programs.
Activities
This is actually a task list that integrates with the built-in calendar. Neat!
We really liked the way you can perform a wide range of different activities from this menu i.e. sending emails, creating tasks or appointments or even a new document and all the data form this activity will be automatically incorporated into the new task or document.
Service
The customer support module allows your customer service department to create and assign different types of support tickets/inquiries and keep track of your client’s complaints. You can add details of the problem, link it to an Account or Contact and then assign it to a team member. Any action taken will be appended to the ticket, which can be viewed by the management.
Again, all the details including email interactions, activities, attachments, status updates etc. regarding a particular ticket are available on the same window.
Reports
Running any of the inbuilt reports is a matter of a few clicks (though you need to install Crystal Reports). These reports can then be exported to almost any report reader e.g. Excel, Access, Crystal Reports etc.
SalesOutlook Vs. Prophet CRM
The two products are fairly similar since both allow users to enter sales information and access reports, create customer files, and even customize quotes. There are, however, subtle differences especially when talking about customer support features, cost effectiveness, scalability and user friendliness.
Avidian Prophet CRM is slightly less expensive, and has a slight edge as far as its task delegation and tracking capabilities.
On the flip side however, SalesOutlook is more comprehensive and ideal for all types and sizes of businesses, particularly those in Manufacturing. Installing SalesOutlook was a tad tricky, but installing Prophet was an even tougher task. Ideally, you also require a separate hardware for the Prophet Server software. Another big downside of Prophet is that it’s not as tightly integrated into Outlook as SalesOutlook. A user can use a different machine to open his Outlook but not his Prophet account since the license only applies to one specific user plus the machine. In other words, a valid user won’t be able to access Prophet on a different machine even when the Prophet client is installed.
To choose one of the two CRM’s, it all boils down to your particular business needs and personal likings, but generally speaking, while Prophet CRM is a good option for smallish, peer-to-peer networks, SalesOutlook is a great option for small teams as well as organizations with hundreds of users. Essentially you get what you pay for, and SalesOutlook offers better value-for-money in our opinion.
Benefits
- Extremely simple and user-friendly yet packed with countless handy features
- Very fast, windows opened quickly, and navigating their tabbed categories was a breeze
- All the related information in one place
- Highly customizable but can be used straight out of the box
- Immediately share email campaign responses within Outlook
- Seamless integration with Constant Contact,
- SharePoint and several other 3rd party apps
- Easily manage multiple lists from within Outlook
- Automatically saves & files all emails along with the attachments
- Seamless multi-user data synchronization
- Opportunity & Pipeline Management, Lead Tracking & Web2Lead Integration
- Automated price quotation module
- Works online as well as off-line
- Advanced sales reports with Crystal Reports and powerful document management
- Unlimited user training (Free) and unrivaled customer support
Shortcomings
- Requires the Windows Version of Microsoft Office
- No option to capture leads/info from social media
Conclusion
If your employees use MS Outlook, and you want a robust, powerful and functionality-rich CRM, we recommend you give SalesOutlook 14 day free trial a go. We are impressed by the plethora of clever features, robust and user-friendly interface and first-rate customer service.