The daybreak of all-in-one platforms isn’t taking place anytime quickly. However for those who’re recreation for a extra versatile strategy to your gross sales toolbox, the Indie Stack will certainly catch your consideration.
If the title doesn’t ring a bell, it’s as a result of the thought is fairly new. However the entire idea behind the stack is to offer you an alternative choice to utilizing all-in-one platforms that appear handy at first however then lack flexibility. And “that one function” you’ve requested by no means made it to the product’s roadmap.
So, what’s the cope with the Indie Stack?
What the Heck Is the Indie Stack?
Alright, so after I consider the Indie Stack, I consider taking actually high-quality items of gross sales tech that work nicely along with their native integrations. Every bit of software program enhances the opposite one to serve your particular person goal. Proper now, we’ve got 5 instruments: Shut, SavvyCal, SignWell, Reform, and Fathom.
The time period “Indie” is simply an umbrella for a bunch of unbiased corporations which are specialised in only one space and continuously enhance their merchandise. This stack isn’t solely high-quality due to the fashionable expertise that backs it up. It’s additionally about expert groups behind the instruments that supply nice onboarding and help alongside the best way.
All-in-one options like HubSpot are handy to purchase, but it surely’s not the best way to purchase tech today. On the finish of the day, this “mammoth” won’t fulfill the wants of every of your groups—they should entry specialised instruments that may be simply bolted collectively.
As Harris Kenny, Founding father of Intro CRM, says:
“There is a stress between having a single instrument that has every part constructed into it, but it surely’s restricted. Or choosing the absolute best instruments, and so they do not work collectively. We’re fixing this drawback with the Indie stack. “
“It’s a undertaking, or actually a collaboration, between a number of completely different unbiased software program corporations which are combining the absolute best instruments with native integrations so all of them work collectively actually seamlessly.”
This stack will do a few issues for you:
First, it should prevent the effort of looking for a toolset that may fit your gross sales group (we’ve already accomplished the heavy lifting for you.) Second, you’ll be capable of higher seize leads, have interaction with them, preserve every part underneath management, and at last, signal contracts with these leads nearly routinely.
Questioning how that type of stack “stacks” towards all-in-one platforms?
Let’s face it. Being a gross sales lead in a small biz or a startup means making all these choices concerning the instruments your group will use.
And in lots of circumstances, chances are you’ll suppose you’ve simply two choices. Both go for the all-in-one choice like HubSpot, face limitations, and handle them with extra integrations. Or, determine for your self find out how to glue collectively completely different instruments. When going for the latter choice, you may’t make sure how stable the combination is (till you really get your palms soiled.)
Properly, the Indie Stack is your third choice. The instruments right here aren’t random selections. Having issues constructed to attach collectively, with the intent of working nicely collectively, lets you have this actually good, clear, seamless workflow that may assist your group produce higher outcomes.
Harris from Intro CRM provides that: “It’s not an either-or. It’s this rising choice the place unbiased corporations that every deal with one particular process can say, ‘Hey, we will make it very easy to go from a prospecting dialog to a gathering, to sending you a contract, first signature, after which recording that decision and making the gross sales group higher.’”
So consider the Indie Stack as a lever that lets your gross sales group begin the income engine and preserve that engine in the long term.
The Finest Indie Stack for Startup and SMB Gross sales
Right here’s the primary tackle the form of the Indie stack (however we’ll be including extra choices sooner or later!)
Shut
Alright, let’s discuss your central hub for all issues gross sales. As it’s good to transfer quick, have every part underneath management, juggle completely different prospects’ conversations, and handle them, ease of use is essential. And Shut provides you this—it’s simply constructed for salespeople and SMB house owners such as you to have every part in a single place.
I personally suppose the CRM software program ought to by no means get in your approach. And as you’re busy folks, the instrument ought to show you how to begin conversations with prospects and provide you with all of the context so you know the way to develop the deal additional.
“The CRM ought to simplify your workflow,” says Harris Kenny. “You don’t wish to have a mountain of duties that you must click on by and 1,000,000 completely different fields that you must manually replace and click on between tabs to just remember to’ve obtained the appropriate subject every time. Shut along with the integrations provides you simply this—you may toggle between an influence dialer, ship a follow-up electronic mail sequence, ship SMS, schedule conferences, get type fills, and report calls. You possibly can’t put a value on that accessibility.”
As you see, you may simply work on bettering your gross sales effectivity merely since you don’t should juggle ten completely different instruments—you simply sync every part inside your Shut account simply.
Pricing:
- Startup Plan: $99 per 30 days for 3 customers
- Skilled Plan: $299 per 30 days for 3 customers
- Enterprise Plan: $699 per 30 days for 5 customers
SavvyCal
So let’s discuss SavvyCal. It’s really a crucial instrument for scheduling conferences with prospects. Whether or not that’s chilly outreach or inbound, you’ve to have the ability to schedule with them. After which to keep up that relationship and develop it, there’s gonna be a number of conferences earlier than the deal is closed.
So the entire course of must be simple and has to supply a great expertise for you because the gross sales rep and the person who’s really scheduling. We see that SavvyCal suits into that place. People can hop on a name collectively within the easiest method attainable.
“Scheduling that first assembly with somebody is a make-or-break second,” says Harris. “It is really easy to lose that prospect as a result of they’re , however they are not one hundred pc certain. All of it comes right down to little issues like ‘I wish to add somebody from my group to this name. Is it simple to do this or not?’ SavvyCal has a bunch of options that make that actually simple.”
SavvyCal landed in our Indie Stack as a result of it has a robust integration with Shut CRM. You possibly can routinely create and replace contacts in Shut when your prospect books a name. You possibly can embed SavvyCall straight in your web site to get extra leads straight to the assembly.
See find out how to connect Close and SavvyCal under.
Pricing:
- The Free Plan: $0 per consumer per 30 days
- The Fundamental Plan: $12 per consumer per 30 days
- The Premium Plan: $20 per consumer per 30 days
SignWell
If you need your group to shut extra offers, nicely, you simply want that signature on the contract, proper? Thus, the better it’s so that you can ship out the contract, the higher. And that’s why we included SignWell, an e-signature instrument for legally binding e-signatures and sooner doc signing, in our stack.
The instrument lets you pull a few of that normal knowledge from Shut CRM and velocity up your work across the contract.
It helps you not solely with the execution of the contract however automation of the entire course of within the CRM—that saves a number of back-and-forth work. Due to a stable integration between SignWell and Close, you may ship out contracts inside your Shut account that routinely replace exercise in your alternatives. One other cool automation is that if you change standing in Near “deal gained,” your contract will get despatched out.
See precisely how these two play collectively:
Pricing:
- Free: $0 per 30 days
- Private: $10 per 30 days
- Enterprise: $30 per 30 days
Fathom
And off we go to Fathom—an AI Assembly Assistant that information, transcribes, highlights, and summarizes your conferences so you may deal with the dialog. It’s really an indispensable instrument for us at Shut. Due to Fathom, I’ve gotten in a behavior of being current throughout conferences versus note-taking.
And for you as a salesman, it’s tremendous vital to be current—it helps to construct relationships together with your prospects, ask higher questions and get their key ache factors. It’s related in any dialog, actually, however in gross sales talks is a game-changer.
You too can use Fathom together with your group. Harris provides an important instance of this.
“You should use Fathom to educate your group and say: ‘That is the dialog circulate for our main salesperson. These are the questions she’s asking. Let’s attempt to be extra like her and shut offers like she closes offers.’ That type of stuff is feasible when you’ve a instrument that masses shortly, masses simply, masses reliably, and permits you simply to report.”
Fathom, as you guessed it, additionally suits nice within the stack—all of your recordings are pushed directly to your Close account and are routinely synced to the appropriate contact.
Pricing: Beginning value $19 per consumer (no annual obligation)
Moreover, Fathom presents a particular supply for Shut customers—get 20 p.c off on the annual Professional Plan for the primary yr with promo code—CLOSE20.
Reform
Reform is solely an consumption type builder that may align your group with the advertising and marketing group. Thanks to an integration with Close, you get all of the submission actions in your Shut CRM account each time somebody submits a lead gen type.
Reform syncs all of the vital details about an individual who stuffed out the shape— contact title, firm title, and no matter subject your type has. So you’ve all the data that offers you context and a clue concerning the subsequent steps within the gross sales course of.
“The factor to not miss in such types is branding,” provides Harris. “Does it appear like it is your type, or does it appear like some bizarre blob of HTML that got here from elsewhere? Does it load shortly? You recognize, is it good? Is it identical to crisp traces and well-stylized? That’s all that Reform delivers.”
Reform has a robust integration with Shut, due to which you’ll be able to get pleasure from:
- Mapping Reform fields to contact, lead, and customized fields in Shut
- Gathering new leads, enriching current ones, or each
- Mechanically storing all type submissions in Shut for simple querying
Pricing:
- Fundamental Plan for $15 a month
- Professional Plan for $35 a month
What Organising the Indie Stack Can Do for Your Enterprise
There are three key advantages of organising the Indie Stack in your day by day gross sales workflow:
It Saves Your Time
Whereas it’s a cliche that point is cash, generally you simply wish to promote, not swap between completely different instruments that won’t even play nicely collectively. That’s why we provide you with a “advised stack”—identical to in a high-end restaurant, you get a advice of what pairs nicely with what.
Right here, you get the perfect mixture of instruments that work nicely collectively. You routinely save tons of time as you keep in your Shut account and handle every part from one place.
It Higher Organizes Your Gross sales Processes
The Indies Stack is crafted for small companies and startups on the stage the place founders wish to delegate extra possession to their salespeople. And right here, issues can’t get uncontrolled. You want a stable record of instruments that allow you to arrange your gross sales course of and shut the gaps earlier than scaling. Sooner or later, I consider you’ll be simply plugging extra instruments in, and we’ll show you how to make it simple.
It Offers You a Lot of Freedom and Flexibility
The Indie Stack provides you interoperability. It’s like with the dev’s microservices structure—when one thing goes south, you don’t should blow up your total tech stack, however you simply regulate one a part of it to your wants.
Shut, SavvyCal, SignWell, Fathom, Reform—the Indie stack is right here for you, so that you don’t should duct tape any form of toolbox by yourself and fear concerning the high quality of integrations or cope with API documentation. Seize the advised gross sales toolbox that may prevent a number of complications, particularly when scaling your gross sales group and striving for higher effectivity.
