What is Zoho?
If you’ve never heard of Zoho, you’re in luck.
We’re about to introduce you to one of the most powerful tools for small and medium-sized businesses.
But before we talk about the value of their products, we want to introduce the company, because Zoho’s corporate philosophy gives both partners and customers a lot to like—and to root for.
Ethical Capitalism
Founded more than two decades ago in 1996, Zoho has pursued slow, steady, sustainable growth over short-term profit-taking. They’re a private company, which means they don’t have to answer to the stock market. They also haven’t taken any venture capital, which means they don’t have greedy investors to repay.
Given the difference, it’s no surprise that you’ve probably heard of Salesforce but may not have heard of Zoho.
Zoho cares about its users.
Unlike many of their competitors, Zoho has also refused to join the Big Tech ecosystem of “surveillance capitalism.” Their software is funded by subscriptions, not advertisers or venture capital, which means Zoho’s only means of staying in business is to provide their customers with a product that’s worth the price, with no strings attached.
Zoho keeps costs low.
Whereas a company like Salesforce spends the majority of its income on sales and marketing—and on the $1.1 billion Salesforce Tower, the fanciest and most expensive building in downtown San Francisco—Zoho spends most of its revenue on its products and people. Most of your monthly subscription goes right back into product development.
A Veritable Smorgasbord of Apps
And then there are all of the apps outside of CRM! There were over 50 at last count, and while a few aren’t quite ready for prime time, improvements are constant, and the core suite is a rock-solid platform on which to build your sales organization—or indeed your whole company.
Zoho has top-quality apps to replace almost anything you’re using. Not only does Zoho CRM replace Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, it integrates with Zoho Books, which replaces Quickbooks, and Zoho Desk, which replaces Zendesk. Zoho Workdrive replaces Google Drive. Zoho Cliq replaces Slack. Zoho Campaigns replaces Mailchimp. Zoho Writer, Sheet, and Show replace Google Docs. Zoho Sign replaces DocuSign. Zoho Vault replaces LastPass. And so on.
There are app bundles for nearly every business function:
Sales & Marketing, Finance & Accounting, HR, Logistics, and IT.
And if licensed as part of Zoho ONE, which Zoho bills as “the operating system for business,” you can get all of that for a fraction of what you are paying today.
As with anything, precise circumstances will vary, and it’s important to talk to your IT professional before deciding if Zoho is right for your organization.
But the Zoho suite should definitely be included in any comprehensive service review, especially if you are currently paying for Quickbooks, Zendesk, or Salesforce, or if you want to upgrade from Hubspot or Pipedrive.
