Does anyone know of any software which accompanies multiple sales reps and a sales manager? I have been slowly building up my own database with MySQL and PHP but I need more and have run out of time. Thus I am probably going to scratch the whole idea and just adopt some "off the shelf" program. I'd like a system that allows an administrative assistant to enter in new leads as they come in. The sales manager can assign the leads to a specific sales rep. The sales rep can print the lead details and add notes to the lead, as well as update the status of the lead. "Pending, dead or sold". Also very important is reporting the sale date. The reason I started writing my own database is that I never found what I needed off the shelf... Any ideas?
You're looking for Customer Relationship Management software (CRM). There used to be one called Sugar CRM. Once you get the keywords right you'll find there are loads of options. Is Zoho still going? Some will be hosted, some will be scripts, some will be expensive, some will fit in with your budget. Take a look at lots of them, there will be one that fits with your requirements.
You can use Microsoft SQL Server instead of MySQL. Microsoft SQL Server is one of the market's most established, popular, and consistent rivals.
except that SQL server is not a CRM solution, it's just a database platform. I imagine @niyoc382 would be happy to change if the right CRM product required it but it's not an answer in itself.
Here is a list of CRM software that I have used over the years: Goldmine, ACT!, SalesForce, SugarCRM, Copper CRM, HubSpot CRM, Highrise CRM and FreshWorks. They all have pluses and minuses and the cost range among this group varies greatly. One or two of these may no longer be around, btw.
Sales Force is perfect for this as it organizes the data in a great way, but you could also use Microsoft SQL or something similar that would be quite as good for your needs.
Are Salesforce and Microsoft SQL even comparable? One is a fully-fledged system, the other is a blank canvas, right?
They’re not comparable at all. Salesforce is a ready CRM with roles, pipelines, reporting and permissions out of the box, SQL Server is just storage and you still have to build everything around it. If you already ran out of time once, going “DB + custom app” again will put you in the same place. For setups like you describe, any basic CRM works, the real difference is how much customization vs time you want to burn. I’ve seen smaller teams go with lighter CRMs or even niche tools like epiccrm.eu when Salesforce felt like overkill.
Classic story. Don’t reinvent the wheel — take a look at ready-made CRMs like Odoo, Zoho CRM, or even SuiteCRM. They already have all of this: leads, assignment to sales reps, statuses, notes, and sale dates. Customizing them is usually faster than building everything from scratch in PHP, and way less stressful
i was in a similar situation a while back. We started with a custom PHP/MySQL setup but eventually switched to a basic CRM because it handled lead assignment and status tracking without us having to build features ourselves. If you’re mainly trying to save time, it might be worth looking at CRMs in general rather than writing more code — most of them already support the “assistant manager rep” flow