Nimble is a social CRM tool two years in the making from the co-founder of GoldMine Software, an early player in the contact manager market. “The core of Nimble is a relationship manager, really a contact manager, and that’s not a dirty word,” says CEO Jon Ferrara, who founded Nimble, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based company, in 2009
The company’s SaaS product, Nimble Contact, is a social relationship manager that makes it easy to track and nurture personal and business relationships. Unlike a contact manager in which the user fills in all manner of information about prospects and customers, Nimble Contact searches for, and integrates, contacts from Google Contacts, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. It also accepts files from Outlook, generic CSV files, and vCard information. “Life is social, and business is social, and people buy from people they like. We help them build those relationships,” says Ferrara.
“Your contacts are already on the ‘Net,” Ferrara continues. “We import your information, sync your calendar, and give you a single place for all your contact records.” When you click on a name in the contact list, Nimble pulls up that person’s profile information and past activity on social networks. All the information needed to reach the contact, and see what he or she is doing, is on your Nimble page.
Marketing and sales processes of all types will benefit from Nimble’s portal into the social network world. Users can both monitor and create social media messages from within Nimble Contact. The software will also capture leads from websites and feed them directly into drip marketing campaigns.
In May of this year, the company announced its Global Solution Partner Program, looking for resellers, consultants, and integrators catering to the small business market. So far, more than 250 partner companies have signed on, most of which also provide sales automation or other CRM products. Ferrara says about half of Nimble’s partners were GoldMine resellers. “I have a simple philosophy,” he says. “Make others successful and you’ll succeed. It’s cost effective to sell through partners, and small businesses love to buy from local partners.”
Nimble Contact for individuals is free. The team version, with pooled contact lists that let everyone on the team track the messages and activities of gathered contacts, will cost $9 per user per month when it becomes available in a few months. Nimble is listed in the Google Apps Marketplace, and should now be in the Apple App Store.
