On October 2, we held a joint live session with the Telegram channel “About CRM from an Integrator.”
Our co-founder and COO, Dmitrii Solovev, who has extensive experience working with the Zoho platform, provided detailed answers to the most frequently asked questions about Zoho CRM and the Business Lab.
Below are the key points from the conversation. To watch the full recording, follow the link.
Is Zoho focused on the Russian market?
No, Zoho wasn't focused on Russia from the beginning, as the market is tiny for them. Their main focus is the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. They didn't have a representative office in Russia.
Last year, due to US sanctions, Russian partners were excluded from the program, so I had to restructure our partnership.
Now we are legally an American company with offices in Europe and the UAE, but we mainly work with Russian-speaking clients focused on the international market.
Is Zoho only a CRM?
No, Zoho is a whole ecosystem, similar to a simplified version of 1C in terms of user experience. CRM is the core, surrounded by accounting, warehouse, marketing, office applications, and more. Everything works out of the box, but third-party services, such as Slack or MailChimp, can also be integrated.
Where are your clients located?
All clients are located outside of Russia, as sanctions and data retention requirements have made it difficult to officially pay for licenses.
Zoho is used by companies focused on the international market, such as those with legal entities in the UAE and Cyprus.
How does the Zoho Partner Program work?
To become a partner, you need to demonstrate 2-3 implementation cases, complete certification (demo presentation in English), receive temporary status for six months, and sell $5,000 worth of licenses. Afterward, you'll be granted Authorized Partner status, which includes listing on the portal, a badge, and six free Zoho One licenses for your team. Partners receive a commission of approximately 25-30% on license sales, as well as marketing incentives.
How do you work with clients?
We’ve moved away from one-off projects to a subscription-based support model. During the first month, we build a prototype with the client, demonstrate the system's capabilities, and then gradually configure and train the team. Our primary audience is small and medium-sized businesses, who aren't always able to formulate technical specifications.
How much do licenses cost?
We work with the Zoho One plan — $37 per user/month (annual billing) and $45 (monthly billing). Zoho One includes all applications in the ecosystem. There are also separate CRM plans: Professional — about $28, Enterprise — about $50, but if you use multiple apps, it's more cost-effective to use Zoho One.
However, Zoho One must be used for the entire company.
What are the main modules in Zoho CRM?
The core modules are Leads, Deals, Contacts, and Accounts. Leads are unqualified inquiries that are converted into contacts and deals. There's a built-in live chat that allows you to communicate with website visitors in real time. There's also integration with telephony (Zoho Voice), email, and WhatsApp (popular for communication, not for mass messaging).
How does process automation work?
There are workflow rules — simple rules with actions (field updates, notifications, webhooks). For more complex automation, there’s Blueprint — process management with mandatory field filling and transitions between statuses. The user sees only available actions and fields that need to be filled in to proceed to the next step.
Can you customize the interface and functionality?
Yes, there's Canvas for customizing the card interface, an API, and an SDK for creating custom applications and widgets. You can write client-side scripts and use artificial intelligence (ChatGPT) to generate sales offers and other texts. Complex integrations can be created through Zoho Flow, Zapier analog.
How do you structure your team and recruit?
Russian-speaking specialists who know Zoho are not too much. We build a team of Russian-speaking specialists, including those living abroad. We use HeadHunter and automated funnels with tests. We are planning to launch an educational center to train new specialists.
What is the perspective for Zoho and AI integration?
Zoho is actively developing AI tools, such as a studio for creating digital agents that can perform CRM tasks. This is currently in beta testing, but the potential is great. Zoho is a large company with a market capitalization of over a billion dollars and is growing without outside investment, relying on its partner network.