Website: Microsoft.com
Pricing (single user, as of February 2023):
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6/month
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50/month
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium: $22/month
User experiences and comments on Microsoft Outlook
Name: Ulrich Riedel
Comments: I tried Hubspot, then talked to a Hubspot advisor. We realized that for my needs Hubspot doesn’t work. But MS Outlook Contacts does. I would recommend it, but only if someone does NOT use automatization to reach out to prospects/clients. I have one User-defined Field, which I called “CRM Stage”. 00-07 for Prospects/Clients; 10-17 for Collaborators (e.g. other consultants); 20-27 for Other Relationships. The stages are customized to my needs.
I use Outlook Contacts for all my business relationships. Tracking the CRM stages of those relationships is one of many dimensions I capture, track and update with any contact. I track relationships with my contacts outside project opps, as part of tracking the contact itself. I record discussion notes, in the “Notes” section of the contact, with time, participants and circumstances. I schedule a task for myself to reach out periodically. This is my primary sorting mechanism for my contact (in another User-defined Field called “Follow-up Date”, together with a User-defined Field called “Next step”).
Name: Patricio Simpson
Comments: It’s cheap, and very easy to use Excel and my Outlook contacts. In my Notes, for each person, I write major relevant “talking points” (i.e. if the person is married, has kids, what School/College do they go to, what team do they support, where do they live, where did they move from, where were they born, etc. etc.) Also write down birthdays for each person, and add a Yearly Reminder in my Outlook Calendar… and next year, I send them a quick Happy Birthday email. I find it extremely effective to use a personal touch when I reach out to colleagues/ friends/ prospective clients, etc. For each interaction or call, I take notes in OneNote.
