Comparing CRM approaches: Notion templates for CRM vs Bigin by Zoho CRM
- Published : November 7, 2024
- Last Updated : November 7, 2024
- 134 Views
- 9 Min Read
Choosing the right customer relationship management (CRM) platform for your small business is crucial. It can greatly impact how you work and build customer relationships.
The right software can make your team's tasks easier and help you create lasting connections with customers. However, it's easier said than done. With the numerous options in the market, the process can be daunting.
In this article, we will compare two different types of CRM software. The first one being Notion, a flexible work management tool with a CRM template. The second being Bigin by Zoho CRM, a tool made for small businesses.
At the outset, we want to clarify that Notion is not a CRM. It is a work management tool. Notion helps you track your projects. It also shows you what actions you need to take to reach your goals.
On the other hand, Bigin is a CRM. It is designed specifically to help small businesses with their sales processes.
With that important distinction out of the way, let's dig deeper and understand the different facets of these two tools.
Origins and motivations
Notion
The makers of Notion designed an all-in-one workspace. They wanted to combine notes, tasks, databases, and calendars in one place. Its flexibility enables users to create customized workflows, including CRM templates. Notion is popular among freelancers, small teams, and organizations that need a multipurpose tool for documentation, project management, and collaboration.
Notion CRM template
Notion is not a dedicated CRM platform. However, its sales CRM template offers a simple and flexible space. You can use it to track your sales pipeline and customer interactions.
The image below shows a template that organizes your leads, prospects, and deals. It uses different columns for their status: Lead, Qualified, Proposal, Negotiation, and Closed.
Each record represents an individual deal. It includes important details like the company name, deal value, contacts, and the sales rep in charge. You can easily customize these properties to fit your specific requirements.
One of the standout features of Notion's CRM template is its seamless integration with the rest of the Notion workspace. Each deal record is like a Notion page. You can add notes, meeting minutes, proposals, and other important documents directly on the page.
This centralized approach removes the need to use many tools. It makes sure that all deal-related information is easy to access.
Bigin
Bigin by Zoho CRM was created to address the specific needs of small businesses seeking a simple yet powerful CRM solution. Zoho developed Bigin to streamline sales team processes, manage customer interactions, and enhance productivity with minimal setup. It's primarily used by small businesses that require a dedicated CRM system without the complexity of larger CRM platforms.
Bigin's pipeline management module
Bigin's Pipelines module enables businesses to create and manage multiple processes within their CRM. Its Team Pipelines feature redefines how CRM software functions by going beyond just managing sales operations.
(Bigin's pipeline module)
Team Pipelines help businesses bring together all their customer-facing operations. This includes marketing, sales, onboarding, delivery, and support. You can manage all these within one Bigin account.
The key highlights of Team Pipelines are as follows
Businesses can create distinct pipelines for all their customer-facing teams, such as marketing, sales, support, and customer feedback.
Each pipeline shows important records for the operation it represents. For example, it includes leads for marketing, tickets for support, and testimonials for customer feedback.
Businesses can set up multiple sub-pipelines within each main pipeline to manage specific operations, like separating testimonials from individual and corporate clients.
Teams can customize pipelines and sub-pipelines to make them operation-specific and align with their unique processes.
Team Pipelines help businesses organize and centralize their customer-facing processes in Bigin. This promotes better coordination and a clear view of customer interactions.
So as you can see, Bigin is a complete CRM solution. It does more than just sales. It acts as the main source of all customer information for different teams and operations.
Comparing CRM functionalities: Notion vs. Bigin
When it comes to managing customer relationships, the specific actions you can perform in your CRM tool are crucial. Let's delve deeper into how Notion and Bigin by Zoho CRM handle key CRM-related actions, from basic tasks to more complex marketing activities.
Setting a reminder
Notion | Bigin |
In Notion, setting a reminder involves creating a task within a database or a calendar and manually setting a due date and time. This can be done by adding a "Reminder" property to a task item and configuring the date and time. | Bigin simplifies this by offering built-in reminder functionalities that are directly linked to your tasks. You can easily set reminders for follow-ups directly within your tasks. |
While flexible, this process requires manual input and can be time-consuming if you have numerous reminders to set. | This streamlined process ensures you never miss an important follow-up. It is also more efficient for handling multiple reminders. |
Setting follow-up tasks
Notion | Bigin |
Creating follow-up tasks in Notion involves setting up a task database and linking tasks to specific contacts. You need to enter details manually and make sure that tasks are connected to the appropriate contacts through relational properties. | In Bigin, setting follow-up tasks is more straightforward. You can assign tasks directly from the Activities module, the record details page, or the contacts or companies list view, as they are integrated into the CRM workflow.
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For example, after a sales meeting with a client, you can create a task in your task database titled "Send Proposal to Client X", link it to the client's entry in your CRM database, and set a due date for the task. | In Bigin's case after the same sales meeting, you can go to the client's record in Bigin, navigate to the tasks section, and create a follow-up task there titled "Send Proposal," assign it to a team member, and set the due date. |
CRM pipeline templates
While Notion has a few CRM templates ready to go, Bigin offers a more comprehensive set of templates to choose from.
Bigin has a template for you, no matter what type of business you run. This includes real estate, legal firms, schools, software companies, stores, recruitment agencies, and insurance companies. This means you won't need to spend time customizing it to fit your needs.
Example of a template that insurance firms can use
Example of a template that law firms can use
Not only that, but Bigin even lets you select pipeline templates based on the kind of teams using their software. For example, a content team could use the content planner pipeline as a project management tracker.
The same content team can use the sales pipeline to track their current relationships with external content partners. Either way, Bigin offers teams a lot of flexibility and a single source of truth.
Here are some of the different team-oriented pipelines available in Bigin:
Complex tasks: Drip email sequences
Notion | Bigin |
Notion can manage complex tasks with integrations and custom workflows. However, setting up drip campaigns and email sequences takes a lot of work. It often needs third-party tools like Zapier or Mailchimp. | Bigin has built-in support for creating drip campaigns and email sequences. This lets you set up and manage them directly in the CRM. We've streamlined the process and designed it for efficiency. |
To create an email sequence, you would first need to design the sequence in a third-party tool. Then link it to Notion via an integration. And finally manage the campaign details within Notion. | To run a drip campaign, you can use Bigin's built-in tools to design the sequence, schedule emails, and track responses—all in the CRM. |
Other considerations
Parameter | Notion | Bigin |
Integration flexibility | Integrates with popular tools like Google Drive, Slack, and Zapier, offering flexibility for various workflows. However, CRM-specific integrations might require additional customization or third-party services. | Integrates smoothly with other Zoho apps, like Zoho Mail and Zoho Desk. It also connects easily with third-party apps, such as Google Workspace and Office 365. This makes it a more powerful choice for businesses seeking comprehensive CRM capabilities. |
User customization | Notion is very customizable, but users might face a steep learning curve. This is especially true for more complex CRM features.
| Bigin is a simple CRM that adapts to your business. You can set up your database to match your business needs and find information easily. It's designed to be user-friendly and quick to learn. |
Ease of use | Notion was built to be simple and easy to use. However, to set up CRM actions in it, you need to know your way around. | You can set up Bigin effortlessly in 30 minutes.
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Overall efficiency
| Notion is a good option for users who need a flexible, all-in-one tool, but it's less efficient for dedicated CRM tasks.
| Bigins is highly efficient for managing customer relationships and sales processes with minimal setup and configuration. |
Notion serves as a flexible tool that can do many things, while Bigin specifically focuses on customer management. For small businesses needing a good CRM for sales software, Bigin is the best choice. It focuses on managing customer relationships well and efficiently.
Relational database
A relational database is crucial for managing relationships effectively and linking contacts, companies, and deals. Notion and Bigin handle this aspect differently.
With Notion, users can create relational links by customizing templates and adding relational properties. However, this process is complex and requires a detailed understanding of Notion's database functionalities. It's a more flexible approach but may not be as straightforward for those new to Notion.
On the other hand, developers designed Bigin with a relational CRM database at its core. It inherently connects contacts with company and deal information, offering a more intuitive and robust CRM experience out of the box. For small businesses looking for a dedicated CRM solution without extensive customization, Bigin's approach may be more suitable.
User reviews
Notion as a CRM
"Biggest downside is the lack of built-in automations. The recent 'Button' feature helped bring about some new possibilities, but it's still lacking. Relation and rollup properties in databases are nice, but in order to get the full benefits, your database(s) and pages have to be designed in a pretty specific and consistent way, and without a built-in mapping feature they can be complicated to keep up with."
- u/Austrunano on r/Notion
"I have several databases in Notion and the biggest downside for me is that they can be extremely slow, especially on mobile. Mine are quite small and all for personal tracking purposes; I can't imagine using them for massive amounts of work data."
- u/RemotePersimmon678 on r/Notion
"Biggest drawback is that inexperienced notion users can easily break stuff with a wrong click."
- u/oooKenshiooo on r/Notion
Bigin by Zoho CRM
"The CRM options available in the market are either too expensive, with complex features that are not essential for a small business, or are priced less with nominal features. But Bigin is game-changing. It has exceeded our expectations such that V4 Creative cannot work without it."
- Dawid Roux, Managing Director, V4Creative
"Bigin CRM is incredibly simple to use, making it an excellent choice for businesses of any size. The user-friendly interface allows you to manage contacts, deals, and tasks effortlessly, even if you’re new to CRM systems. What truly sets Bigin apart is the exceptional support from the team. They are always available to help with any questions or issues, ensuring a smooth experience from start to finish."
-Aleshio, Small business proprietor on G2
Final thoughts
If you like customizing your own tools and need basic customer management, Notion's CRM template works fine. However, most small businesses will get better results using Bigin, which is specially designed for customer management.
Bigin helps you manage customer relationships more easily and effectively and lets you focus on growing your business and keeping customers happy. While it's simple to use out of the box, you can still customize it if needed.
Notion remains an excellent choice for documentation and project management, but for specialized CRM needs, Bigin stands out as the better option.
To sum it up, your choice depends on your specific needs and expertise. If you value a multipurpose tool and are ready to invest time in customization, Notion can still serve as a versatile platform.
However, for most businesses looking for a robust CRM solution, Bigin by Zoho CRM is the way to go. Sign up for a free trial and find out for yourself!
AnubhavAnubhav is a product marketer with an insatiable thirst for all things content marketing, technology, and SaaS. His expertise lies in crafting compelling narratives that resonate with audiences and drive business growth. With a deep-rooted interest in entrepreneurship, Anubhav closely follows the latest industry trends and innovations, constantly seeking new ways to elevate marketing strategies.
