Unlike most CRMs, Sugar Sell doesn’t let you buy a plan and create an account right away. Instead, you need to contact sales to book a demo and have them set up an account for you. This might be frustrating if you want to get started right away, but it can also be helpful, since it means you get someone to walk you through the complex interface.
When you log into Sugar Sell for the first time, it takes you to the default Sales Rep dashboard. This presents a lot of information, with an emphasis on your accounts, sales pipeline, and schedule. It’s convenient to have immediate access to this data, but all this data can be overwhelming. The interface generally doesn’t provide any immediate guidance, and the icons on the right-hand menu might not be obvious if you haven’t worked with CRMs before.
The dashboard is the core of Sugar Sell. My account automatically directed me to the Sales Rep dashboard, as mentioned, but you can switch your default view to the Manager dashboard or a custom one. You can also modify your dashboard with Dashlets, the Sugar Sell equivalent of widgets, to ensure that it displays all of the information you need. Focus Drawers let you view more detailed information about a task, contact, or opportunity without leaving the dashboard. This reduces the time it takes to switch between and complete tasks.
You can create multiple dashboards to ensure that everyone on your team has immediate access to the tools they need. For example, you might create distinct dashboards for sales reps and team managers. You can even build unique dashboards for individuals with highly specific duties. Zoho CRM offers similar flexibility.
To get started with the software, I first went to the Contacts area. However, I ran into some trouble—I couldn’t find the Import button. After some searching, I realized it was within a sidebar sub-menu; you have to hover over the contacts icon and click the “…” icon to get to it. Other apps, such as Freshsales, make this more intuitive for first-time users.
(Credit: SugarCRM/PCMag)
When I tried importing a CSV of contacts, Sugar Sell automatically mapped most of the columns to relevant fields. However, a few columns didn’t have exact matches within the system, so I had to map them manually. For example, I had to connect “Company” to “Account Name.” After those fixes, the software imported all of my contacts in under a minute.
Alternatively, you can import contacts directly from Gmail or Microsoft Outlook. Just keep in mind that the official SugarCRM documentation recommends importing contacts from a CSV file.
Sugar Sell offers extensive tutorials, including some video tutorials, which you can access via the sidebar. You can also find links to relevant tutorials in certain areas, like the import page for contacts. Still, I wish these were more prevalent throughout the CMS since it’s a fairly complex program.
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