Nutshell CRM: Elevate Sales with All-in-One Campaigns

Nutshell at a Glance

Nutshell, founded in 2009 and headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, provides web and mobile CRM solutions designed primarily for specifically small businesses. Their approach focuses on delivering simple, intuitive tools that help businesses organize their contacts, new leads, and sales processes efficiently. Nutshell serves clients across various industries, aiming to meet the CRM needs of companies looking for a streamlined, easy-to-use platform. In 2024, the company expanded their offerings by launching Nutshell Campaigns, a tool designed to enhance their CRM capabilities with integrated email marketing solutions.

Nutshell's CRM platform has various features that streamline sales and marketing efforts. These include robust lead generation tools, customizable reporting options, and automation features that help businesses nurture leads and close deals efficiently. Unique selling points of Nutshell include their focus on team collaboration and flexible pipeline management options, which allow users to visualize and manage their sales processes effectively. Additionally, they offer a range of integration options with popular business tools. Nutshell emphasizes data security and compliance, employing 256-bit TLS 1.2 encryption for data protection and using a PCI-compliant provider for storing billing information. They have also completed a Cloud Application Security Assessment (CASA) and adhere to GDPR standards to ensure data privacy and protection. 

The company has established a strong reputation within the CRM market, earning several accolades, such as the 2023 Gold Stevie Award in the Relationship Management Solution category and the 2023 Sammy Award for Product of the Year. They maintain a positive standing with various industry authorities, reflecting their commitment to quality service and customer satisfaction. Additionally, their compliance with data security standards and reputable track record contribute to their credibility in the market.

Key Features & Services

• Sales automation: Nutshell automates routine tasks to allow sales reps to focus on engaging with leads and closing deals. They automatically move leads through the sales pipeline based on predefined criteria, assign tasks to team members, and provide reminders to ensure timely follow-ups. The automation tools also include drip email sequences that can be integrated with Nutshell Campaigns or MailChimp to deliver messages to prospects at the appropriate stages without manual intervention
• Email automation: The email automation features enable the creation of personalized email sequences triggered by specific pipeline stages. These sequences stop automatically when a prospect replies. The tool provides metrics on email engagement, such as reply rates and views, to optimize communication strategies. They include templates for frequently used emails, tools for building targeted email lists, and features to prevent excessive emailing that could lead to messages being marked as spam
• Contact management: Nutshell offers a centralized platform for managing customer information and supporting data import from various sources, including other CRMs and contact lists. They automatically enrich contacts with details like job titles, social media profiles, and locations. The platform also includes features for logging communications, syncing contacts, organizing contacts into hierarchies, and pinning important notes to contact timelines, ensuring contact info is readily accessible
• Email and calendar sync: The ability to integrate with major email and calendar services such as Google Workspace and Microsoft Office/Outlook, allowing users to manage communications and appointments directly within the CRM. This feature supports sending and receiving emails, syncing calendar events, and tracking email interactions. Users can manage their email visibility and privacy settings, and the tool automatically creates contact records for new senders or recipients
• Team collaboration: Nutshell provides robust team collaboration tools to ensure smooth communication and task management within the sales team. Sales interactions are stored centrally, and users can tag colleagues for assistance on deals. The mobile app keeps team members connected with real-time alerts, ensuring everyone stays informed about customer interactions and important sales activities
• Artificial intelligence: Their AI capabilities enhance productivity by summarizing timelines, generating conversation starters, and providing quick insights into customer interactions. The CRM’s AI writing assistant helps craft emails faster by checking grammar, adjusting tone, and translating content. Nutshell Intelligence gathers and updates contact data automatically, and their AI-driven voice-to-text tool facilitates quick note-taking and email composition
• Reporting and analytics: Nutshell provides reporting tools to track sales performance, forecast future sales, and analyze lost deals. They allow users to create customized reports to evaluate marketing efforts, monitor lead sources, and track the progress of deals through the sales funnel. The reporting tools also offer presentation-ready charts and visualizations for easy inclusion on the dashboard
• Pipeline management: Nutshell offers multiple views for managing sales pipelines, including Board, List, Map, and Chart views. These views help users track leads, visualize pipeline health, and manage sales activities effectively. The platform allows customization of lead cards and prioritizes important leads, providing flexibility to adapt the pipeline management process to the team’s needs
• Webform collection: Their web form builder enables businesses to capture leads directly from their websites and create new records in the CRM. The tool supports customizable forms, tracks form submission effectiveness, and allows for lead segmentation for targeted outreach. It also includes features to prevent spam and protect data integrity
• Lead attribution: The lead attribution feature automatically tracks leads' origin, helping businesses identify the most effective marketing channels. It offers detailed reporting on lead sources, conversion rates, and campaign performance, providing insights to optimize marketing strategies
• Email marketing: Nutshell Campaigns integrates with CRM data to manage marketing activities, including creating and sending personalized emails, newsletters, and automated drip sequences. The platform supports A/B testing to improve email performance and includes reporting features to monitor engagement metrics
• ProspectorIQ: Prospector IQ helps businesses find and connect with potential leads by searching a database of over 200 million contacts. It allows users to define ideal customer criteria, save search filters, and add qualified contacts directly to the CRM for follow-up. This feature aims to streamline prospecting and improve lead-generation efforts, helping attract new customers

Pricing & Plans

Nutshell offers four pricing tiers with annual and monthly billing options to suit different business needs. It is important to note that Nutshell states that opting for annual billing offers a cost-saving of up to 15% compared to the monthly billing rates.

The Foundation plan provides a simple, flexible CRM solution to help teams organize their contacts, leads, and conversations. When billed annually, the cost is $16 per user per month, while the monthly billing option costs $19 per user. This plan includes unlimited data, contact management and communication timelines, email and calendar sync, a customizable single sales pipeline, and free live support.

The most popular option, the Pro plan, enhances the Foundation plan with sales automation, multiple pipelines, personal email sequences, sales and activity quotas, and a full suite of reporting tools, including Activity, Funnel, and Forecast reports. The Pro plan costs $42 per user per month if billed annually and $49 per user per month when billed monthly.

For businesses looking to utilize artificial intelligence features, the Power AI plan is available at $52 per user per month when billed annually and $59 per user per month if billed monthly. This plan includes everything in the Pro plan plus 50 AI timeline summarizations per user each month, Zoom transcription summarization, click tracking and notifications, connected form setup, and unlimited in-app phone dialing and recording.

At the top tier, the Enterprise plan provides comprehensive features without limits. It is priced at $67 per user per month when billed annually or $79 per user per month with monthly billing. The Enterprise plan includes everything in the Power AI plan, unlimited pipelines and custom fields, 100 AI timeline summarizations per user each month, API support, audit logs, changelogs, and a dedicated success strategist with free scheduled phone support for teams of five or more users.

Add-ons

• Competitor IQ: Online competitor tracking software free for all Nutshell customers. It allows users to compare site traffic with competitors, analyze traffic strategies by channel, and track historical performance trends of competitor sites
• AppConnect: This add-on integrates data and workflows between Nutshell and other company applications. The Foundation plan is free for teams with five or more CRM seats; the Pro plan is free for teams with four or more CRM seats; the Power AI plan is free for teams with three or more CRM seats; and the Enterprise plan is free for teams with two or more CRM seats. It includes monitoring, quality assurance, and support for these integrations to ensure they run smoothly
• Nutshell Campaigns: This add-on combines CRM and email marketing in one platform. It starts at $5 per company per month and offers no-code email design, pre-built templates, audience creation from CRM contacts, newsletters, broadcasts, automated drip sequences, A/B testing, and a full reporting suite
• Revenue Booster: Available for $37 per company per month, this package provides tools to enhance efficiency and revenue, including Nutshell Scheduler for scheduling online meetings and Email Booster for sending templated emails directly from the inbox
• Nutshell Landing Pages: This add-on, priced at $37 per company per month, enables the creation of unlimited no-code landing pages with a drag-and-drop editor. It also includes over 30 templates and easy integration with Nutshell Forms and Scheduler
• Nutshell IQ: Starting at $37 per company per month, this add-on helps identify new sales opportunities by filling pipelines with ideal customer matches from a database of over 200 million contacts, uncovering website visitors from unknown companies, and discovering contact information for new individuals at known companies. Each plan comes with ten free Nutshell IQ credits, and more can be purchased

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The Advantages & Disadvantages of Nutshell

Advantages

• Free trial: Nutshell offers a free trial for new users, allowing businesses to explore their CRM features before making a financial commitment. This trial helps users assess if the software fits their needs correctly without upfront costs
• Live demo: Prospective customers can take advantage of a live demo, where they can see the CRM in action and understand how they can streamline their customer relationship management processes and improve sales efficiency
• Social media integration: Nutshell supports social media integrations, allowing businesses to sync data from platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. For example, Facebook integration adds new leads from ads directly into the CRM, while Twitter syncs contact activity. The LinkedIn integration, via Zapier, allows the syncing of leads and contacts between LinkedIn and Nutshell, streamlining workflows and enhancing relationship-building with prospects
• Real-time lead notifications: Nutshell provides real-time notifications to inform you of important events. You can receive updates in-app, via email, or mobile push notifications. Alerts include new leads, changes to assigned or watched leads, activities, tasks, mentions, comments, reactions, form submissions, and clicks in marketing emails
• Dedicated success strategist: A dedicated success strategist is available for Enterprise plan users, providing personalized guidance and support to maximize the platform’s benefits
• Online meeting scheduler: Nutshell’s online meeting scheduler, available with the Revenue Booster add-on, makes scheduling meetings with customers and prospects seamless. Users can create unique meeting links, share them via email or websites, and manage bookings without leaving the CRM
• Nutshell IQ and Competitor IQ: Nutshell IQ offers tools like ProspectorIQ, VisitorIQ, and PeopleIQ to help businesses find and connect with high-value leads. CompetitorIQ provides insights into competitors’ website traffic and marketing strategies, helping businesses stay ahead

Disadvantages

• Phone support only available on Enterprise plan: Phone support is restricted to users on the Enterprise plan, which may limit immediate assistance for customers on lower-tier plans
• Marketing as an add-on: Many advanced marketing features, such as Nutshell Campaigns, are available only as add-ons, which may require additional costs beyond the basic CRM subscription
• No free plan: Unlike some competitors, Nutshell does not offer a free plan, which may deter smaller businesses or startups looking for cost-free CRM options

Nutshell's Customer Experience

Nutshell maintains a profile on the Better Business Bureau (BBB), though they are not accredited or rated. On review platforms, they hold a 2.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot, 4.3 out of 5 on both G2 and Capterra and a 7.1 out of 10 on TrustRadius.

Positive feedback

Customers expressed satisfaction with Nutshell as a sales tool, particularly for small businesses. They highlighted their ability to help teams build effective sales processes, improve communication, and provide visibility into team activities. Many customers praised the platform’s ease of use, noting that it is intuitive to set up and navigate, with a user-friendly interface on desktop and mobile apps.

Users liked Nutshell’s automation features, such as automated tasks, email templates, and drip campaigns, which streamline communication and enhance sales efficiency. The integration with other tools and platforms, like Zapier and RingCentral, was also well-received for seamless data synchronization and improved workflow management. Customers appreciated the available customization options, allowing them to tailor the CRM to their business needs.

Customers were satisfied with the customer service experience, often mentioning the team’s responsiveness, willingness to implement user suggestions, and their helpfulness during onboarding. The platform’s ability to provide real-time notifications, audience engagement tracking, and customizable reports were also highlighted as valuable features that improve day-to-day operations.

Negative feedback

Customers have expressed some frustrations with Nutshell related to their service and functionality. Issues with customer support have been noted, particularly with response times and the lack of direct contact options. Users have also faced challenges with email integration and limitations in customizing certain features, such as contact management and call tracking.

Some have reported difficulties with the platform's integrations and the need for additional add-ons to address functional gaps. The lack of a quotation interface and problems with syncing information across different areas of the CRM have also been highlighted as areas for improvement. Additionally, the search functionality and the mobile app have been criticized for not meeting user expectations. While Nutshell offers valuable features, users have pointed out several areas where the service could enhance their functionality and user support.

Customer Support & Service Options

Nutshell provides multiple avenues for customer support. Users can reach out via live chat on their website, email [email protected], or submit a ticket to contact their sales team.

Additionally, they offer access to their cost calculator, helpful resources, a comprehensive help center, their blog, and webinars to assist users in navigating and maximizing the platform.

The Bottom Line

Nutshell have positioned themselves as a robust CRM solution for small-to-medium-sized businesses, combining a user-friendly interface with powerful features tailored to streamline sales and marketing efforts. Established in 2009 and headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Nutshell’s continuous evolution, including the recent launch of Nutshell Campaigns, demonstrates their commitment to providing an integrated platform that supports comprehensive customer relationship management and marketing strategies.

The platform's strengths lie in their sales automation, contact management, and AI capabilities, which enhance productivity and streamline workflows. With their pricing plans and various add-ons, Nutshell offers scalable options for diverse business needs. However, some users have noted challenges with customer support, email integration, and the need for additional add-ons, which could impact the overall user experience.

Nutshell remains a compelling choice for businesses seeking an accessible and efficient CRM system, particularly those that value an all-in-one solution for managing customer relationships and marketing activities. Prospective users are encouraged to explore the platform’s features, take advantage of the free trial, and consider how Nutshell’s offerings align with their needs and growth objectives.

If Nutshell CRM does not meet your needs, you can visit our review page and use our comparison tool to find a solution to enhance your business operations and customer relationships. Additionally, you can visit our blog page for a deeper understanding of the CRM industry.

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