Why small businesses need help choosing software
Having just spent the past week here in Silicon Valley, we’ve had plenty of practice describing what Software Shortlist is, the customer need it serves, and how we deliver value. One thing that comes across loud and clear is that people understand the pain that small businesses face in choosing business software.
As a result, their questions were typically things like ‘will people pay enough to fund your service?’, ’how do you create the content cost effectively?’, and ‘how will you reach your customers?’
After all that, it was interesting yesterday to see a question posted on a LinkedIn discussion group that really captures the essence of the customer need we solve:
Wanted: online CRM program
Our business uses both a desktop CRM program and an online email marketing software program. Time to get “one-does-all” online program I think so we can create and follow the opportunities pipeline better.Have been trawling the Internet but one after the other promises a lot, but don’t really feel like having to do xxx free trials to find the one that would suit us best.
Is anyone using an online CRM program they can recommend to a small business?
In our view, this quote really captures the essence of why customers need a service like Software Shortlist. Now we just need to expand the range of software we cover so we can help more people like this…

4. November 2009 at 12:17 pm :
Completely agree – many small to medium businesses use computers extensively but really struggle with software selection. They tend to stick to a small range of common software that just about everyone uses. As a result they miss opportunities to actually improve effectiveness & efficiency in their business through the use of appropriate software.