Five Hundred Plus, an Icelandic CRM solution named in homage to the maximum public number of LinkedIn connections, is worth checking out if you ever wish you got a reminder to keep up relationships. I’ve only played with it for a short time, but I can already tell that I like it – the service maximizes simplicity and usefulness.
You log in through LinkedIn, where Five Hundred Plus imports your contacts. You then see them all listed in your Contacts column – and then it’s as simple as dragging and dropping people into the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Annually column, depending on when you would like a reminder of when to get in touch with the contact again.
Reminders can be sent as an email on the Monday of the week to get in touch, or you could just remember to check Five Hundred Plus every now and then. Contacts that you need to follow up with are highlighted in red, and the list always shows you the order of when you need to get in touch with contacts next.
Here at ArcticStartup I wouldn’t mind a reminder every now and then to ping key people in certain ecosystems, so this is the simple product I’ve been looking for. But if you’re in tech, sales, or PR, this system would also likely work well in your workflow, or you can us it in addition to your current CRM solution.
The service got started as a side project away from their main startup, Brand Regard, out of the team’s own necessity. Co-founder Geir Freysson tells us that he’s tried every CRM solution under the sun, and has developed a hate-hate relationship with all of them. There are just too many tabs, clicks, reports, and features that keep you bogged down rather than improving your relationships, he claims.
“It’s helping us close deals without wasting time – and that’s the only result we care about,” adds Agnar Sigmarsson who together with his business partner Geir Freysson came up with the idea. “We still use a traditional CRM system to manage our company’s pipeline, but to make sure no leads or contacts go cold we use Five Hundred Plus” he says.
Freysson tells us that all of the current features will stay free, but they’re considering adding paid features, such as team functionality, or integration into other CRM solutions. Five Hundred Plus is only in Alpha, but I say check it out.
