When I wanted a customer relationship management (CRM) tool for my freelance business, I first tried out a heavyweight tool that allows extensive customization and detailed workflows. I know several freelancers who used this tool successfully in their businesses, and I thought it might work for me.
I spent more than a year watching videos, reading articles, and trying to embed the tool into my business.
It was a miserable year.
The tool I’d chosen was far more complex than I wanted. It was also a barrier to using my invoicing software, which I loved and which worked seamlessly with my business. The tool kept me busy, but it didn’t make me more productive.
As I defined in my previous article productivity is using your resources to achieve your goals. Busyness is checking things off your list—it’s about the number of hours you work, not the progress you make toward your goal.
Medium-sized businesses need to be productive, not just busy, if they’re going to reach their aggressive growth goals.
You’re likely already familiar with areas where you and your team can be more productive, such as:
- Time tracking
- Project management
- Communications
- Meetings
But how do you choose the right tools? You don’t want to waste time and money trying to make a bad fit work. While the right tools depend on your specific needs and goals, there are several characteristics to consider in your review process:
- Tool simplicity
- Tool functionality
- Team collaboration
- Automation and efficiency gains
- Tool integrations
- Report and analytics
- IT and security concerns
- Cost-effectiveness
Let’s look at each in turn.
Tool Simplicity
It doesn’t matter whether a tool promises productivity if your team finds it so difficult to use that they actively avoid it. Look for tools with intuitive user interfaces that are easy to learn. You’ll get the tool up and running quicker and spend less time and money on training. Plus your team will make fewer mistakes with it from the beginning.
Remember, though, that “intuitive” and “easy” are subjective. Consider creating a small team to trial the software. Ask for honest feedback. Better to know before you’ve fully launched something that it’s not going to work.
Tool Functionality
Streamlining workflows and making task management more efficient benefits any company. As a midsize business, you also want to think about how a tool can scale with you. As your company grows, workflows can become more complex and bloated. Will a tool you choose today work if you add a new person? Three people? Ten?
Any productivity tool should work for you today. If you can get one that will work for you in the next few years, you’ll help a growing team stay productive even as the work becomes more involved.
Also look at tools that can remove bottlenecks. The struggle with smaller teams is the number of different tasks each person is asked to do and the amount of time it takes to complete those tasks.
I’m a bottleneck in my own business, getting in the way of my team members receiving new assignments and returning them to the client. To help move things along, I created a project management system that logs new files automatically when they hit my Dropbox and highlights them in red so that I know I have to assign them. It’s a small savings per project that adds up over time.
Team Collaboration
Select tools that help your team collaborate and communicate more effectively. Do you need several people to be able to work on the same document at once? Cloud software like Microsoft SharePoint and Google Workspace can help them do that. So can many other tools, like Coda and Quip. Consider what the final output needs to be and what would work best in your environment.
What kind of communications does your team need? Maybe communications can be separate from document collaboration. Slack and Discord could be good solutions. Both enable file-sharing, voice and text communications, and conversation channels.
Automation and Efficiency Gains
Look for tools that automate repetitive, manual tasks. You’ll boost employee productivity and free up time for more strategic work. Streamlining workflows and eliminating bottlenecks is crucial for midsize companies.
Tool Integrations
Integration can streamline processes by allowing data to flow seamlessly between different systems and eliminating rekeying data in different software.
How big a deal is this? According to a RingCentral global survey of 2,000 knowledge workers, the average employee loses 32 days per year switching between tools. Imagine what your team could do with all that extra time.
Your biggest choice will be between an all-in-one package and separate but integrated apps. Suites like Google Workplace and Zoho One not only are easier to manage but also can mean a cost savings.
That said, if your team won’t use many of the apps or the apps aren’t easy to use, you likely won’t be saving any money. Make sure you do the math first.
When you can’t, or don’t want to, purchase an all-in-one software package, think about how you can integrate your different tools. Many enterprise software companies list their common integrations to help you navigate this decision, and tools like Zapier will allow you to connect your favorite tools with a little effort.
Purchasing separate tools allows you to choose the right tools for your team and pay for only what you use. You might also be able to allow individuals to choose some tools that work best for them, helping them reach personal productivity goals. Watch the bottom line, though, because the cost of individual tools can be higher than that of a suite.
Reporting and Analytics
To understand how well a tool is working for you and your team, you’ll want comprehensive reports and data analytics. Look for analytics on process efficiency and employee productivity, as well as your preferred key performance indicators. It should go without saying that the data should be easy to understand, extract, and share.
IT and Security Concerns
Your team’s tools won’t live in a vacuum. Check with IT to ensure any tool you’re considering will work within the whole IT environment. What will be required to get these tools up and running? Will IT be able to support these tools, or will you need to become the hands-on expert?
Check in, too, with whoever is in charge of information security for your company (hopefully, someone separate from IT). Will your new tools integrate with your current security plan? How should the tool be set up to protect the company? What best practices should you follow when using your new tool?
Cost-Effectiveness
Evaluate the cost of the productivity tool in relation to the value it provides. Look for tools that offer a balance between features, usability, and cost to ensure that you get the best value.
To evaluate cost-effectiveness, look at metrics like:
- Time saved per employee per week or month
- Reduction in task completion time
- Decrease in errors or in rework
- Increase in output per employee
Also look at potential cost savings from a reduction in labor costs, manual tasks, or errors. And don’t forget to calculate costs related to implementation, management, and maintenance. While implementation is a one-time cost, you’ll need ongoing management and maintenance to keep your tools running well.
Review Tools
So how do you find these unicorns of productivity tools? Before you talk to a salesperson, check out G2, a massive database of software featuring genuine reviews from users. You’ll get detailed descriptions of the software, including various pricing plans. You can create lists of software, curated by requirements, and invite your team to help evaluate your candidates.
A tool can become so embedded in our workflows that switching can be a nightmare—or impossible. Keep user and company needs in mind as you research, and be willing to test out a candidate to see if it will really work for you.
It’s cliché to say that the right tool for the job makes all the difference, but it’s cliché because it’s true. Productivity is the key to your company’s success, and the tools we use make a difference.
Once I realized that the problem with my CRM tool was that it didn’t match my needs, I was able to quickly fix the problem. I switched to a lighter CRM that integrated with my invoicing system and have been much happier—and more productive—since.
Do the same for your team and yourself.
What are some of your go-to productivity tools that have helped your business thrive in the areas of collaboration and productivity?Â
What tools and tactics just straight-up have not worked for you?Â
Leave your advice in the comments below!
Erin Brenner is the owner of Right Touch Editing, a boutique editorial agency that specializes in helping small and midsize businesses to be more engaging with their audiences, more persuasive in their marketing, and clearer and more precise in their communications.
Erin is also the author of The Chicago Guide for Freelance Editors: How to Take Care of Your Business, Your Clients, and Yourself from Start-Up to Sustainability, Marketing Yourself Guide (with Sarah Hulse), Copyediting’s Grammar Tune-Up Workbook, and 1001 Words for Success: Synonyms, Antonyms & Homonyms. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute for Editing and Proofreading and a Full Member of ACES. Follow her on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
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