“We know they can get a much better deal”

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“They are paying an exorbitant amount of money for functionality they could get at a much better value,” says Zoho’s Director of Marketing, Rodrigo Vaca in an exclusive interview with CrmR.us

Earlier this week we reported that Zoho CRM has launced Zwitch, an aggressive marketing campaign directed at Salesforce.com’s clients to encourage them to migrate to Zoho CRM’s platform, promising them 80% savings in CRM-costs.

To follow up the story, we asked Zoho Director of Marketing Rodrigo Vaca (follow him on Twitter) to shed some light on the background of Zwitch. Although he refused to give us the exact number of customers Zoho has successfully lured since the campaign went live on July 21, the director assured us that Zoho has “aggressive investment and growth plans for the CRM arena”.

What makes Salesforce clients so special that a dedicated program was designed to lure them to Zoho’s platform?
From our point of view, two things make Salesforce customers ’special’ for this kind of a program. Firstly that they are already familiar with the SaaS model, and most importantly that they are paying an exorbitant amount of money for functionality they could get at a much better value.
When you look at Salesforce’s installed base, their customers spend on average north of $18,000 a year on their CRM with Salesforce. In these uncertain financial times, we know they can get a much better deal: not only get a better price, but the same functionality and even more.
Do you plan to go on designing similar programs targeting other CRM providers’ client base? If public, who’s next?
Sure, we plan to do this in the future as well – not only Salesforce in the CRM space and not only for CRM – but for other Zoho products in general as well.
How many new clients do you expect from the Zwitch program? Now that the program is live for more than a week, does Zwitch seem to meet the expectations?
We are so far pleased with the performance. But remember our Zwitch program is of course a means to the end, not the end itself.
The comparison highlighted in the press release compares Zoho’s Professional Edition with Salesforce’s Professional package. Are the two packages 100% equal in functionality?
We believe that for the most part, both editions equally address the CRM needs customers have.
Is Zoho CRM able to provide all the functionality offered by higher level Salesforce packages? Is Zoho’s Enterprise package equal to Salesforce’s Enterprise package? What about Salesforce.com’s Unlimited package?
It is dangerous to compare based solely on names. That’s why we invite our customers to make a list of the current, and potential future requirements, and then see what edition fits them the best. But perhaps the most important part is: what good is it to have the most obscure CRM report, when you’re not covering in the basics?
The recent Zoho CRM + Mail integration demonstrates this well. Not every salesperson has the need for complex bells and whistles that high-end (read: expensive) CRM providers offer to justify their prices, but every salesperson out there needs to have a easy-to-use CRM+Mail integration story.
Do you consider individual pricing, individual product development or customization when talking to potential new clients, who came from Salesforce?
Our CRM product directly addresses the needs that most customers have when “zwitching” from Salesforce.com. We also have a network of CRM professionals who provide customization services for those customers that might need some help. That said, we pride ourselves in being flexible and striving to meet our customers’ needs.
How high is Zoho CRM priorized among other Zoho products concerning development?
Right at the top. CRM is a very important space for us. Zoho CRM is one of our products with the most history and where we have invested the most for a long time. It also generates a big percentage of our revenue. You can be sure we are fully committed to the CRM space.