noCRM.io innovates even during covid-19

Interview of Grégoire Murgue, Country Manager DACH & Global Business Developer from noCRM.io

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?

Grégoire Murgue: Everything is going well here in Berlin despite the evolving health crisis… we hope to see the end soon.

With my team, we work from home for a long time. noCRM.io is fully remote since our launch in 2013. However, before covid-19, I was used to working from home or in coworking spaces. I also moved around for meetings with technology and commercial partners, networking events, or fairs. Doing everything online is great, but it’s even better when you have the choice between online and IRL (In Real Life) meetings. The COVID-19 reminds us of the importance of the relationship with others and our need for social interaction.

Tell us about you, your career, how you joined noCRM.io

Grégoire Murgue: After multiple experiences abroad (Belgium, Germany and Spain) in web marketing, I have joined the noCRM team. Since January 2019, I am in charge of the D-A-CH market (Germany D – Austria A – Switzerland CH) from the German capital. Every day I exchange with German-speaking users and partners.

Before joining noCRM, my work life was not the same. I used to go to the office every day and respect the different working and lunch hours (very different according to the country). With remote work, I can more easily change my tasks (content, sales, marketing…). I am, therefore, more and more efficient and stay available for my teammates and users.

I have now been with noCRM for almost two and a half years, COVID or not, there are still a lot of interesting things to develop and to learn.

How does your noCRM.io innovate?

Grégoire Murgue: noCRM is born from the idea that CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) are not designed for salespeople.

In the beginning, our CEO, Sunny Paris, used different CRMs to sell another SaaS. He wasted more time and energy filling out data than being able to create and track his leads. So there was a real need to build a new agile solution with which it is possible to easily and quickly create a deal and then track it in the sales pipeline.

Sunny Paris, CEO and co-f0under from noCRM.io

The creation of noCRM also comes from the fact that there is a frequent complaint from CEOs: “The data in the CRM is not updated”. This is not because salespeople are lazy. Sales reps don’t want to waste time filling out the CRM form. This tool is just not designed for their main needs: creating, tracking and closing sales!

With my team, we innovate to make life easier and less stressful for salespeople

How the coronavirus pandemic affects noCRM.io and how are you coping?

Grégoire Murgue: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the activity of sales reps whose role is to prospect and meet new people. In 2020, our growth was around 8-10%, whereas our usual growth is around 30-40%. With Covid, we have lost customers, especially in tourism. Nevertheless, noCRM has its advantages: we receive more requests from sales managers looking for software to remotely “drive” their teams while giving access to data without being present in the company. The current crisis has therefore also pushed companies to make the Digital Transition.

Concerning our team organization, even if we are 100% remote for a long time, we have new online meetings to exchange more information, knowledge, and ideas.

• Coffee meeting to tell how the weekend was and to plan the new week
• Master class to discover and learn new features designed by our tech team.
• Teambuilding to get to know each other better on other topics outside of work such as travel, music…

Overview of our many meetings on Zoom.

On my side in Berlin, the biggest change and what I miss the most is being able to be on the road to meet partners over coffee or ice cream (yes, this is quite common in Germany). Until things get back to normal, I exchange more online on LinkedIn or online events.

Did you have to make difficult choices and what are the lessons learned?

Grégoire Murgue: At the beginning of the sanitary crisis, we always stayed close to our users and showed our support.

Also, the need for new specific features for more management, collaboration and communication became more important with the current situation for remote teams. To meet this need, we decided to launch a new edition, the Dream Team

The pandemic has allowed us to focus on developing new features that are necessary with the current context and for any company that integrates more digital technologies

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Grégoire Murgue: Working from home every day and not being able to go to the coworking place can make you feel alone. However, thanks to the new team meetings we’ve implemented like the coffee meeting, there are more informal exchanges now, which is great for keeping the teams connected and great for mental health.

As we offer a SaaS (Software As A Service), the impact of Covid-19 has not been critical for us. So we don’t stop at helping salespeople become more efficient.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Grégoire Murgue: The CRM market is very and hardly competitive. But respecting our philosophy: making the life of the salespeople easier by allowing them to save some time and to easily manage their leads with a simple tool, is what makes our difference on the market. We offer our customers only the essentials, nothing more, nothing less. Our plan to beat the competition is to continue to free sales reps from CRMs not designed for their activity.

Your final thoughts?

Grégoire Murgue: Keep moving forward. The pandemic has been quite difficult for everyone. It’s been harder to stay focused and keep people connected. But we managed to keep the team together by preparing and launching the Dream Team edition of noCRM.io.

I wish everyone to stay safe and I thank my team who has been able to show more and more innovation during the health crisis.

Also, just a thought for all the people who have been affected by the pandemic.

Your website?

youdontneedacrm.com