Andrew Varsanyi and his co-founding partner Chris Massie wanted a better customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Both had worked at length for organizations and struck up a friendship over the years talking about the struggles of small- and medium-sized businesses.

“That kind of first manifested itself in a conversation about CRM,” Varsanyi said.

“I was managing a big CRM change implementation that was just incredibly painful and costly.”

It was that experience that suggested to Varsanyi that there had to be a better way to operate a CRM.

The duo began mapping out a system that was geared toward skilled professionals – particularly the people who use them.

That’s where Calgary-based Evolved Metrics began.

“We build the CRM tools in big companies to help accountants and for marketers, but not for the salespeople actually doing the work,” Varsanyi said.

“So, we wanted to tackle that problem.”

The flaw in big CRMs

Varsanyi said one of the flaws in the bigger CRM systems out there is that they’re geared toward tracking the marketing part of making the sale.

If a company is doing a large part of its potential sales online or through social media and email, these systems make sense.

“That’s tremendously valuable for companies, particularly companies with big marketing budgets,” Varsanyi said.

“I don’t think that meets the market for small businesses who don’t want to do that. There’s a ton of small and medium-sized businesses who aren’t really interested in spending $10,000 a month on social media ad commitments.”

Varsanyi said they meet their customers face-to-face, on job sites, or whatever service they may offer.

The other aspect is cost transparency. Companies with large sales and marketing budgets might not worry about the cost to implement a CRM package.

Varsanyi said their cost is upfront. They charge $25 per month, per user.

It’s a straightforward sign-up process and he said within an hour you can integrate your email system, Google Tasks, and other outside software.

“It’s built around the activities of the salesperson,” Varsanyi said.

‘Eye-opening experience’

Varsanyi said that most of his background is in process and operations management. Going through the Platform Calgary Junction program opened him up to different areas of business management.

“Marketing is something that in a lot of ways, it’s just black magic to me,” Varsanyi said.

What the program taught them was how to talk about their business with prospective clients.

“I think that’s been an eye-opening experience and a really valuable one,” he said.

The big goal now is driving clients and growing awareness. They know they’re up against big companies like HubSpot and Salesforce. There’s a lot of money and a loyal client base.

“We feel like they don’t serve the market segment that we’re after,” Varsanyi said.

Now, they’re just getting the word out to companies with smaller sales teams who focus on personal client relationships.