Ask HN: Is Intelligent CRM a Need?

#1

Post by revolt2tech » Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 5:50 PM UTC

I make B2B SaaS apps. I don't have time to add all of my users into CRMs - they just don't support database as a source channel.

I want to create an intelligent CRM that gets users from your database automatically, and categorizes each user with behaviors (or $ value) and give custom actions, based on their category (for example: give %20 discounts who is not visiting the SaaS anymore).

Do you think it is a good idea? I talked with some users but they are choosing traditional CRMs over mine. Is this a wrong positioning or just the idea doesn't solve any problems? Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Is Intelligent CRM a Need?

#2

Post by PaulHoule » Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 5:54 PM UTC

I think some salespeople see it as a high touch process and they don't want to wind up like

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(folklore)

Of course them feeling that way doesn't mean that is right for the business.

People have been applying automation of all forms to CRM systems for a long time. I worked years ago for a company that developed solutions for locating stores and designing sales territories and we were so serious about a product for Salesforce users that they sent me to Dreamforce.

We built it out for one customer that is in the motor oil recycling business and had a database of prospects that was basically everybody involved in auto repair in the U.S. I don't know how they populated it, but our geospatial analyst built something that could assign new prospects to sales territories and I wrote the code that hooked this up to the Salesforce API.

I'm not calling this out as anything special, quite the opposite, all kinds of people are doing things like this all the time with traditional CRM systems.

Re: Ask HN: Is Intelligent CRM a Need?

#3

Post by revolt2tech » Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 7:19 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I think some salespeople see it as a high touch process and they don't want to wind up like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(folklore) Of course them feeling that way doesn't mean that is right for the business. People have been applying automation of all forms to CRM systems for a long time. I worked years ago for a company that developed solutions for locating stores and designing sales territories and we…

Thanks! Looks like I need to move to the next. May I know your/your company's biggest painpoint? This way, maybe I can start without an idea

Re: Ask HN: Is Intelligent CRM a Need?

#4

Post by PaulHoule » Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 10:28 PM UTC

revolt2tech wrote: post #3

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I think some salespeople see it as a high touch process and they don't want to wind up like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(folklore) Of course them feeling that way doesn't mean that is right for the business. People have been applying automation of all forms to CRM systems for a long time. I worked years ago for a company that developed solutions for locating stores and designing sales territories and we…

Thanks! Looks like I need to move to the next. May I know your/your company's biggest painpoint? This way, maybe I can start without an idea

The marketing folks haven’t found a CMS they really like.