The best way to learn about organizing the content would be to check out other Desk.com sites (see their customer page for examples). The knowledge base is two tiers (topics and articles) so it's somewhat limited but very simple to set up.

We love Intercom as it combines many of the best aspects of a Help System with an easy to use interface and gives the ability to segment users and give them semi-personalized messages based on the combination of their activity in the app and how recently they visited. Intercom supports real-time messaging too.

Hi there - depending upon your needs your should check out Zipwhip (takes inbound SMS on behalf of existing land line or Toll Free number); or a service like FrontApp (SMS is one supported channel). Alternately, build your own solution with Twilio.

Find the first company (small is fine) who might need your solution. Convince them you can help them succeed. Keep asking until they say yes. If you don't find that company, keep asking. You'll use the first "yes" to find more - don't give up!

You can always compete by offering something your competitor does not provide (either different products, different services, different prices, or different target market). Start by finding out what your customer needs - then build a version of your product. Iterate, iterate, and iterate.

The best practice workflow for using a CRM is: model something that already works. Imagine a very high-touch process where you list all of the steps for the "happy path" of a successful sale. Then, model that same process in your CRM.