Top 13 CRM Software Reviewed

As entrepreneurs and sales teams compete for leads and sales, they need a better way to track the progress of their customers through every stage of the buying process. It is here that CRM software plays a very important role.

Regardless of which channel your customers are using, the purpose of customer relationship management (CRM) applications is to ensure a great customer experience and ultimately to guide them down the sales funnel from start to finish.

By leveraging email marketing, lead generation, and marketing automation, CRM tools allow companies to manage and improve the interaction between them within their database.

The following list and review of the best CRM software is intended to assist you in making an informed decision. I rated each software based on its features, integrations, sales capabilities, marketing tools, support, pricing, and more.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

What is the Best CRM Software?
What is CRM Software?
How to Choose CRM Software?
When choosing CRM software, ask these questions.
How Can CRM Software Benefit You?
CRM Software: How Do You Use It?
CRM Software FAQ
Conclusion

What is the Best CRM Software?

As I have tested a plethora of different CRMs across a number of companies and small business tools and enterprise tools, here are my top choices for the best CRM software for small businesses.

1. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a cloud-based CRM application that automates repetitive tasks and manages leads and sales using artificial intelligence. Over 90,000 customers are currently served by the company and they have successfully completed over $24 billion in transactions through their platform.

Key Features:

Easily manage leads and sales through forms, chatbots, and more.
Pipelines – You can organize your pipeline and create stages (hot, warm, cold) for reps and team members.
Communication Tracking – Tracks calls, emails, chats, and more in real time, allowing you to set your schedule in advance.
Apps – Access Pipedrive from any mobile device and integrate Pipedrive with other sales apps to boost sales.

Pros:

Deals, values, odds of winning, and close dates are easily added.
There is no limit to how many custom fields can be created.
Revenue estimates and recurring revenues can be tracked by custom reports.
A sales activity report can streamline the tracking of individual calls, emails, presentations, and events.
Reports on lead source data tell you where leads originated (organic, direct, SEM, social, outbound sales, etc.).
With “Sales Assistant”, you can receive automated suggestions for performance and save time.

Pricing:

In addition to the free plan, Pipedrive offers four paid plans, which are Essential, Advanced, Professional, and Enterprise. Among these plans, there are models that range from $12.50 -$99 per user per month, for a total of 80 users per month.

2. Freshworks CRM.

Smartest Sales Features.

A CRM solution based on artificial intelligence that uses Freshworks (formerly Freshsales), such as lead scoring, email activity, email capture, and a myriad of other features. The most noteworthy feature of this system is that it offers a 360-degree view of your business at all times.

Key Features:

Management of prospective leads – Provides solutions for converting them into customers.
Deal Management – Gives you a detailed picture of where a deal stands in your funnel. The tool also helps you organize each step in the funnel and maximize your conversion rates.
Lead Scoring – With AI-powered lead tracking features, you can score and rank leads and identify which are most likely to convert.
Automated lead assignment – The CRM helps select salespeople automatically based on selected leads.
Forms (web-to-lead) – When a person fills up a form on your website, they are automatically added to your database as leads.

Pros:

Automates and streamlines workflows at the highest levels.
Numerous integrations, ranging from Mailchimp to Zapier, Calendar to Piesync, Segment to Zapier.
The help desk has RESTful APIs that you can use to read, modify, add, and delete its data.
Segmenting leads according to their behavior.
Scoring leads based on their characteristics and behaviors.
Sends out personalized voicemail messages and welcome messages.
GDRP-compliant.
A 21-day free trial period is available.
Customer service is excellent over the phone and via email.
The best mobile CRM software with a mobile app.
Tracking events (tracks previous communication and plans the future approach).
Flexible in many ways.

Pricing Plans:

Four plans are available for Freshworks CRM, ranging from $12 per user per month to $79 per user per month (billable annually).

With Freshworks CRM, you can get started for free.

3. Zoho CRM

Best CRM For Small Business (SMBs).

With Zoho CRM, you can monitor vital sales and marketing opportunities, enhance conversion rates, and get a holistic view of your business. In terms of number of customers, Zoho CRM is among the best-known tools on this list.

Key Features:

CRM Analytics that integrates your data and derives actionable insights.
Artificial Intelligence-powered Sales Assistant – Zoho helps sales representatives and teams make sense of customer information and detect anomalies.
Performance Management – This feature helps you manage your small business expenditures more effectively with features like gamification, reporting, and sales forecasting.
Supports you in generating price quotes and accessing sales scripts.
The sales process can be charted out with Sales Builder and processing rules.

Pros:

Support is available in multiple channels via phone, chat, email, and social media.
High-level automation is provided.
It is highly customizable.
Integrated with more than 100 third-party services, including LinkedIn, Zapier, and email providers like Google and Outlook.
Scalable to a great extent.
The trial period is 15 days.
Includes a mobile app (paid plans only).
Consistently ensures the security, integrity, and compliance of data.
Multi-language options are available.
Up to three users can use the free plan.
Provides holistic management of calendars.
Data export/import capabilities are provided.
Data enrichment, email sentiment analysis, and more can be achieved using this predictive sales feature.

Pricing Plans:

There are three paid plans, called the ‘Standard,’ ‘Professional’ and ‘Enterprise’; they cost $12, $20 and $35 respectively (billed annually). You can also get a freemium account for up to three users with Zoho CRM.

4. HubSpot CRM

Best Free CRM with Marketing Tools.

A full-featured marketing suite, HubSpot CRM is one of their most popular products, but it’s not their only one.

It is hard to say that HubSpot CRM is not great for sales professionals because of its great features and time-saving tools. In addition, it can be an excellent tool for marketing teams, offering the ability to capture, track, and grow leads within a given database.

There is a free version of their software that you can install, but you can also upgrade and access the full suite of marketing tools they have to offer.

Key Features:

The e-mail and lead nurturing features let you send free, personalized emails and track their results using built-in analytics.
The CRM integrates your email inbox with your email contacts and automatically syncs and organizes your contacts in one place.
More than 300 Integrations – Connect any technology stack you already own to bring more functionality to the tools you use every day.
With Live Chat, productivity tools, and instant chat, you can better assist your customers.
Data on the Sales Pipeline – Sales leaders can view their complete sales pipeline and gain insights into their targets.

Pros:

You can upgrade at any time to a free plan.
They made it easy to use, including live chat, landing pages, email, ad management, documents, and more.
Segment your email list for free and send email marketing.
In a team email inbox, you can access all team messages in one location.
Form builder to capture lead information.
Tracking the ROI of paid campaigns on Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Using an ad management tool.

Pricing Plans:

There is a free plan from HubSpot CRM that offers plenty of great features to start with. In this case, you will be able to choose to upgrade to one of the paid plans offered by them:

Beginner ($40/month): Includes all features of the free plan, plus additional forms, up to 50 email list segmentations, $1000 in ad management, and 10 reporting dashboards.
Pro ($800/month): All the features of free and starter, plus 2,000 email list segmentations, $10k in ad management, 25 dashboards for reporting, and a chatbot. In addition, this plan also includes phone support, content strategies, SSL certificates, and a blog.
Enterprise ($3,200/month): Offers all features detailed above (plus high-end options), as well as user roles, event-based segmentation, predictive lead scoring, API calls, multi-touch revenue attribution, webhooks, and more.

Start using HubSpot CRM today.

5. Salesforce

Best Enterprise CRM Software.

On this list, Salesforce is one of the world’s most famous names, with more than a million users. This is a cloud-based CRM software that addresses all business branches, including sales, service, marketing, analysis, and more.

Key Features:

Module for managing opportunities – Identify the best sales opportunities with the module for managing opportunities.
Management of contact records – This module allows you to track customer information, communications, and social media mentions.
Sales Performance Management – Set and update sales goals and targets to improve the performance of your sales team.
With this, you can drag, drop, share, and track your files and updates.
Feature First Feed – You can choose what to see first (based on your settings).

Pros:

24/7 customer support available via phone, email, and tickets.
Provides a high level of automation and personalization (good social experience).
A 30-day free trial period is available.
Cloud-based (fast and inexpensive).
It is a cross-platform application that runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, and Android.
There is an open API (therefore highly customizable).
Managing social networks and enterprise territory management are offered.
Customer support that is multilingual and multi-currency.
You can choose from a wide variety of email templates.
Einstein Lead Scoring is built-in.
Automated sales force management and business intelligence.
All devices are compatible, including mobile phones.
Connects partners with one another.
Tools for lead generation and process building built in.
The integration of several third parties (LeadExec, Ambassador, Zuora, Zendesk, among others).
Time-saving option for mass emailing.

Cons:

The product is not suitable for companies that want to deploy it on-premises.
The live chat feature is not available.

Pricing Plans:

In light of the fact that Salesforce offers many different products, the cost may vary for each of them. In terms of subscription plans, the lowest program costs $25 per month per user, while the most expensive plan costs $1,250 per month per user (same price billed annually). They can also help you make a plan that is customized to your needs.

6. Salesflare

Best Sales CRM For Automation.

Salesflare is different from most CRMs, where you and the rest of your sales team have to perform manual data entry, but this is not the case with Salesflare. The CRM is always up-to-date since it automatically assembles all the information needed to keep it all in order.

Key Features:

Easily create and track sales pipelines visually. Update them quickly and see progress as you go. There is no limit to the number of pipelines you can create.
You can monitor customer interaction with emails and website content by implementing email and website tracking. Easily track emails from Gmail, Outlook, or Salesflare.
Integrate email signatures with CRMs. No more copying and pasting. By analyzing signatures, the tool automatically updates your contact information.
Start typing a company name, then select the right search result. Exposed company and contact data: Automatically enriched company and contact data. After that, the publicly available company information is prefilled into the company profile.
Templates & workflows: Automate repetitive email flow with shortcut keys and merge fields in Salesflare and Gmail. Do you want to fully automate your follow up? It’s just a matter of establishing a workflow for emails.
Finding the right intro to build a relationship? Using Salesflare, you can determine who in your team knows the person at the company you’re pursuing (and how well they know them).
Keep up with customer followup, answer emails, or enter meeting notes with automated reminders.
Integrated business card scanner lets you scan and save business cards. All contact information will be extracted in seconds with AI.
Business intelligence dashboards that are ready-to-use save you money and time. Whenever you start using their tool, your data will begin being crunched and insights will be extracted.

Pros:

You’re up and running in days, not months: Teams are typically up and running within three days, as opposed to two months with competitors’ CRMs.
Even though it features a lot of power, it has a simple, intuitive interface. With its automation, even during difficult times, your team is able to keep it updated and use it.
Customers are happier; sales increase: Teams better track prospects so everyone gets the attention they deserve.

Cons:

Does not offer on-premise deployments.
It is only compatible with English-language software.

Pricing:

Three paid plans are available from Salesflare: Growth, Pro, and Enterprise.

The Growth plan includes most features, but does not include email sequences, permissions, or custom dashboards. For those who need enterprise-level assistance, there is the Enterprise plan. From $29 per month to $99 per month, prices range from high to low.

7. Nimble

Best Simple CRM.

Nimble is an excellent, albeit simple CRM software tool that can work within G-Suite inboxes or Office 365. Among other things, it allows you to update contacts, access company & contact insights, and manage deals within your workflow.

Key Features:

Social Media Management – helps you combine social media connections, communications, emails, and calendar appointments into one place.
Live Profiles – a way to quickly access contact details and interactions histories that are actionable and accessible from any computer.
You can keep your contacts organized by segmenting them into lists to take various actions.
Keep track of opportunities with our reminder feature.
Using pipeline pictures, you can always stay on top of your sales funnel at every stage.

Pros:

The system automatically sends out group emails to engage your audience.
Effectively engage customers/leads via email.
Integrations with services like Gmail, Outlook, HubSpot, Mailchimp, and more.
Offers a redesigned smart contact app (featuring a widget to add calendars, tasks, deals, etc.).
It is highly scalable and customizable.
You can try it for 14 days for free.
Prospector tools provide professional information about people who are not listed on a website.
Has the option to send group messages.
A task management system that allows team members to assign tasks to one another.
Compatible with mobile devices.
Secures data, ensures data integrity, and ensures GDPR compliance.

Cons:

A single plan is available.
Doesn’t have the autoresponder feature.
There is no free plan available.
For integrations to work properly, a ‘sync’ tool is often required.

Pricing Plans:

It is only possible to buy one plan. It costs $25 a month (billed monthly) and $19 a month (billed annually).

8. NetHunt CRM

The Google account you use for NetHunt CRM and all other Google apps works together. As an add-on to G-Suite, it offers all the CRM functionality you are used to.

Key Features:

Relationship Management – Responsible for managing and following up on leads, taking care of existing clients, creating records, and answering customer questions.
Pipeline Management – Picks the right deals and activities that you should focus on every day or every week, and decides how close to closing each deal is.
Optimize your sales activities, track the sales cycle status, and pursue leads more effectively.
Keeping track of your leads will enable you to follow them up on time and deal with them appropriately.
Tracking sales across multiple channels, monitoring KPIs for the sales team, and collecting information on customers and leads.

Pros:

Integrates seamlessly with Gmail.
A 14-day free trial period is available.
Organize data by filtering, sorting, and saving it.
Customizable and scalable to fit any need.
Personalizes and sends bulk emails.
Prospective leads can be captured in one click.
User-friendly and intuitive interface.
A number of third-party apps are integrated into the system (LinkedIn, MailChimp, Twitter, Facebook, and more).
Hosted on the cloud (low-cost, easy setup).
The platform is multilingual.
Live chat, phone, and email customer service are available.
Mobile devices are supported.
Exporting and importing data is easy.

Cons:

Is incompatible with Linux.
There is no ticket customer support available.
It is not possible to deploy on-premise.
It is not possible to get a free plan.

Pricing Plans:

With NetHunt CRM, you choose from three plans: Pro, Pro Plus, and Enterprise. Prices start at $24 per month and go up to $48 per month.

9. Nutshell CRM

A comprehensive CRM system is a web-based package that can be used to deal with a multitude of problems facing businesses today. This is a comprehensive tool which is able to handle every aspect of a business CRM, and is perfect for keeping detailed records of business transactions. AWS is a cloud computing service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Key Features:

All your contacts can be managed, imported, and exported straight away (automatic contact sync, centralized database, business card scanner, intelligent search function).
Dashboards – View your sales performance with drilldown capabilities based on product, prospect and lead source (sales report, forecast report, loss report, activity report, funnel report, dashboard).
Sales Automation – Automate most processes for maximum efficiency.
Provides a comprehensive list of integrations by providing Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Intercom, Outlook, Slack, and more.

Pros:

Bulk emailing is the sending of emails at once.
The app is compatible with mobile devices.
Export and import data easily.
Provides an environment that is highly collaborative.
Flexible and highly customizable.
Hosted in the cloud (inexpensive, easy to use).
A wide range of customer support services, including live chat, email, and tickets
You can try it for 14 days for free.
Managing pipelines with drag-and-drop capabilities (board view, list view, chart view).
Secures and maintains data integrity and provides compliance with regulatory requirements (GDPR compliant).
Provides continuous backups by taking snapshots twice a day, once a week, and once a month.
Compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) protects billing information.

Cons:

There is no support for multiple languages (only English).
Does not offer on-premise deployments.
The pricing plans do not include a freemium plan.

Pricing Plans:

Two plans are available with Nutshell CRM.

It starts at $19 per user, per month for the ‘Starter’ version, and goes up to $19 per user, per month for the ‘Pro’ version (billed annually).

10. Insightly

By building lasting relationships with customers, insightly can help you grow your business more quickly.

Key Features:

This feature tracks the most relevant lead information, including the source of the campaign, the date of the email, the date of the phone call, and the date of the meeting.
Relationship Management – Helps you to build strong relationships with your existing customers and to attract new ones as well.
Several third-party integrations – Integrate with Gmail, Mailchimp, DropBox, Outlook, and other popular services.
Pipeline Management – Enables you to track sales pitch and identify how each sale is progressing in the sales funnel.

Pros:

Mobile devices, Android and iOS, are supported.
Monitors and displays important metrics using visual dashboards.
Maintains data integrity (military-grade AES-256 encryption) and compliance with government regulations (GDPR compatibility).
Exceptionally flexible event and calendar management.
Flexible and highly customizable.
Filters and tags can be applied efficiently using features available in this program.
Tracking and automatic email reminders built-in.
You can try it for 14 days for free.
A very affordable software solution.
Support is available by phone, ticket, and email.
The software includes built-in tutorials that can be used to gain hands-on experience.
You can see your business macro and micro in real-time.
User-friendly and intuitive interface.

Cons:

The software does not support live chat or on-premise deployment.
Only supports English (the only language supported).

Pricing Plans:

Normally, the price is $29 a month for the first user and then goes up to $99 a month for each additional user (billed annually). Besides the free plan, insightly also offers plans for up to two users per account.

11. Engagebay

The Engagebay CRM system integrates sales, marketing, finance, and other business processes into one platform. Further, it is highly automated to maximize efficiency.

Key Features:

Email Marketing – This module offers a vast range of features including A/B testing, auto-responders, CAN-SPAM compliance, dynamic content, email marketing on the fly, and more.
Marketing Automation – Manage and measure campaigns with features like responsive landing pages, email marketing, and automation.
Market Automation – Creates customized calls-to-action, drip campaigns, sales intelligence, and website visitor tracking.
Using social media marketing, you can track analytics, manage contacts, automate blogs, manage content and manage multiple accounts.

Pros:

This plan is free and very good.
Numerous third-party integrations, including Xero, Zapier, and others.
Customizable and scalable to fit any need.
The interface is user-friendly and intuitive.
Support through phone, live chats, emails, and tickets.
Trial period is offered for paid plans.
It’s one of the cheapest plans on the market (entirey on the cloud).
Secures the integrity, security, and regulatory compliance of data (GDPR-compliant).
Consistent, real-time customer information (including past interactions and purchases).
Various forms and pop-ups to engage and convert visitors.

Cons:

Does not offer on-premise deployments.
It is only compatible with English-language software.

Pricing Plans:

Four major segments make up the report:

One-stop shopping
Promotions
CRM & sales management
Service Bay

Four plans are offered in the CRM & sales bay segment (1 free and 3 paid).

Paid plans start from $7.79 per month and range up to $29.99 per month (purchased bi-annually). Payments can also be made monthly or annually.

12. PipelineDeals

Small and medium businesses will appreciate PipelineDeals, an intuitive, cloud-hosted CRM software. There are excellent features that focus on increasing sales and empowering employees.

Key Features:

The Sales Pipeline Management tool enables you to visualize, optimize, and understand your sales pipeline so that you can be as efficient as possible.
Marketing Lead Management – Find, track, follow up on, and push the leads most likely to convert (to sales) along the sales funnel.
Managing contacts – Builds relationships with prospective leads and follows up with existing customers.
Sales Team Management – Establishes meaningful goals and monitors performance. Additionally, you eliminate duplicate efforts, delays, and confusion by building a collaborative framework to organize team knowledge.

Pros:

A 14-day free trial period is available.
There are no limits to deals, stages, companies, or contacts.
A limitless amount of storage is available.
Import/export (Excel or CRM) data is simple.
It is inexpensive and easy to set up because it is hosted on the cloud.
A high degree of customization and scalability.
It’s compatible with mobiles (Android and iOS).
Track open-rates, click-throughs, and downloads with an email accelerator built into the application.
Develop dashboards to visualize real-time data.
The platform integrates extensively with third-party apps (Mailchimp, Outlook, Excel, Zapier, etc.).
It tracks foreign currencies (either in the local currency or in any market).
Analytics, campaign management, and actionable insights delivered to you.
A wide range of customer support methods are available, including live chat, email, and telephone.

Cons:

There is no freemium plan available.
You don’t get on-premise deployment.
Multi-language support is not available (only English).

Pricing Plan:

Plans start at $25 per month and go up to $49.

13. Agile CRM

In recent years, Agile CRM has grown up as the premier all-in-one CRM with a focus on automating marketing and sales while pooling them on one platform. There isn’t a better SaaS service available today than FireEye, and it also happens to be one of the most affordable options as well.

Key Features:

A single-page management of your contacts can help you close more deals.
Manage all projects on the same platform using features like drag-and-drop lists and more.
You can share your calendar online and automate invitations, scheduling, and follow-ups.
Create, track, and analyze the results of professional emails and newsletters.

Pros:

You can use it for free up to ten times per year.
Cloud-based (inexpensive and easy to use).
Offers multiple chat windows, ease of data entry, and workflow automation.
Customer support is available over the phone, by email, live chats, and through support tickets.
Comprehensive email tracking to help you gain crucial insights into your email marketing efforts.
Autoresponders are included.
The integration of social media, billing, email, and customer support apps.
The Telephony feature lets you make calls with a single click, create call scripts, and automate voicemail messages.
Send personalized SMS and use mobile messaging to run campaigns with mobile marketing.
It helps you to create engaging landing pages that will attract and engage prospects.
The exit intent pop-ups (can convert abandoning visitors).
Easy to use, highly customizable, and scalable.

Cons:

On-premise deployment is not available.
The only language supported is English.
Customers have access to customer service 7 days a week (not 24/7).

Pricing Plans:

There is a free version of Agile CRM that has limited functionalities. You can choose from three paid plans that start from $8.99 a month and go all the way up to $57.99 per user per month.

14. Adsoup

The Adsoup CRM software aims at streamlining communications between businesses and customers and lets them interact more effectively. The main purpose for which it is most appropriate is for sales and small and medium-sized enterprises can benefit greatly from it.

Key Features:

The real-time messaging feature ensures that your customers can always be served from remote locations using a web browser.
Tracking potential leads – Know where your prospective leads are in the sales funnel and how they are progressing.
Keeping track of revenue generating channels will allow your team to focus on them more.
Communications across multiple platforms – Enables sales reps to keep track of prospects across multiple systems without missing out.

Pros:

Offers a great free plan.
Trials of paid subscriptions are available for seven days.
Lead generation (collecting Facebook leads, messaging ad responses, and emails into one pipeline).
Provides shared email with IMAP and Google Dialogflow (paid plans).
The app is compatible with mobile devices.
You can conduct simultaneous chats.
The canned response feature (added efficiency).
Revenue reports and real-time value tracking.
Cloud-hosted (cheap, simple setup).
Support via live chat for customers.
The dashboard provides a way to unify multiple channels.
The platform allows easy switching between different platforms and storage of documents.
Manage deals with drag-and-drop functionality.
Integration with numerous third-parties.

Cons:

It does not have email or phone support.
No multi-language support (only supports English).
There is an additional charge for add-ons.

Pricing Plans:

Adsoup, for one, offers a free plan which you can take full advantage of. Currently, the paid subscriptions begin at $19 per user per month (billed monthly) with a maximum of $56 per user. Those who choose to pay in advance receive a discount.

There are a few tools that have not been listed yet, such as SugarCRM, Netsuite, SAP, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

What is CRM Software?

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software is a type of online tool that helps organizations manage their sales pipelines, which begin with lead generation, and end with closing sales.

Using CRMs enables companies to access, organise, and make sense of customer data to increase sales.

CRM collects information from a multitude of channels including social media, social media campaigns, email campaigns, live chat, phone calls, personal interaction, feedback forms, and more. The application is also able to analyze the history of the customer, their buying patterns, and their need by analysing data analytics.

Basically the objective in this strategy is to enhance customer experience and satisfaction in order to turn leads into customers, then nurture and upsell the relationship from there.

Since CRM systems have been around for some time (originally in the form of paper files), their benefits have gradually become obvious as the emergence of widespread digitalization.

A CRM system is an integrated software package that combines sales, marketing, HR, customer service, IT, business intelligence (BI) and finance departments. Further, data is easily accessible by any employee at any time, which gives teams the ability to make quick, data-driven decisions based on real-time information.

The general consensus is that CRM solutions have been able to connect interdepartmental teams and drive sales while breaking down business silos.

How to Choose CRM Software?

These are the top 10 features to look for in a web-based CRM program:

1. Sales and Lead Management

A CRM should generate leads from a variety of sources, such as inbound marketing campaigns, sales calls, email signups, and so on. To save time and follow up with leads more efficiently, consider using preset tasks. From the moment your lead enters your CRM, it should be nurtured through your entire sales pipeline, all the way to closing the deal.

2. Marketing

It is helpful to have marketing tools built into CRMs, such as email pipelines, databases, and social media integrations, to help with marketing and sales alignment.

3. Integrations

CRM systems often integrate with other important enterprise business applications, including email marketing solutions, advertising platforms, data visualization platforms, and more.

4. Analytics and Reporting

There are several CRM platforms out there which have built-in reporting capabilities as well as predesigned reports. You should look for live reporting and dynamic reporting options.

5. Product Mobility

The sales team is on the move, so is the CRM compatible with different devices including notebooks, smartphones, and tablets? You should determine if your CRM includes support for mobile devices and tablets as well as computers.

6. Implementation Timeline

There should be relatively little time spent on product implementation, it must be low-cost, and it must be error-free. Inquire with your support engineer about the timeline and the resources your team needs to provide to make this happen.

7. Project Management Workflows

As a sales team, you should have task management boards and approval checklists to help you manage your tasks effectively and efficiently.

8. Security

Choosing the right CRM for your needs is fundamentally based on the security of your files and platform. As your CRM integration is going to deal with a large amount of data, it is important that the security of your platform is top-notch.

9. The user experience is crucial

What is your CRM’s usability like? It is important not to forget UX, and to ensure that your team is comfortable working with this tool for a lengthy period of time, and that there is a minimal learning curve involved.

10. API Calls

Integrating your CRM with custom data should be possible through an extensible, open architecture.

When choosing CRM software, ask these questions.

Is this intended for small businesses or enterprises?
Is this software compatible with the tools I already use?
Are there minimum user numbers and how many seats are provided?
Is it easy to train employees?
What are the setup fees and the total cost?
What type of security features are included in the software?
What APIs are available?

How Can CRM Software Benefit You?

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from using a good CRM as follows:

1. Improved customer relationships and interactions.

In order to make your business more efficient, CRM software allows you to optimize your customer information and turn it into insights that will allow you to serve your clients better.

2. Cross-selling and up-selling are possible.

Knowing the customer’s preferences and choices will provide you with the information you need to suggest the purchase of complementary products. Additionally, you can recommend other valuable versions of the product(s) that are more expensive than the one your customer has bought and that have added features.

3. Enhances collaboration.

In order to sever business silos, every individual within the organization has the ability to access the same data in real time, which can lead to improved collaboration between team members and among sales and marketing divisions.

4. Improved efficiency.

As long as you know about information such as the customer’s preferences, choices, and purchase history you are able to avoid the client spending a lot of time explaining their requirements. By leveraging your expertise, you can increase work efficiency, satisfy customers, and capitalize on your knowledge.

5. Save money in the long run.

It can be expensive to set up CRM, but it is a one-time investment. Increasing efficiency and collaboration, on the other hand, leads to higher productivity, which is ultimately cost-effective.

6. Enhances employee engagement.

When employees can access data, they feel empowered, which results in them taking a greater interest in their jobs. CRM solutions, therefore, naturally boost employee involvement.

CRM Software: How Do You Use It?

With all the benefits associated with CRM software, it’s easy to start using it. To get the best results, you need to use it across the organization.

Using a CRM is as simple as following these steps:

1. Add Sales Representatives.

As a first step, make sure that in addition to your salespeople, you also get them on board your CRM tool since they will be most critical.

If you want your sales team to generate the most revenue for your business, CRM is crucial for them to have the most success. This is why it is important to make sure that they will find it simple to use it as well.

2. Segment Your Audience.

The sales funnel segmentation can be done in many different ways depending on the company and the business model it uses. One of the most common methods in order to identify potential customers is to divide them into various stages, such as ‘leads,’ ‘opportunities,’ and ‘customers,’ which clearly defines them from a business perspective.

3. Import Your Contact List.

The majority of small businesses use different CRM systems to serve various purposes, but it is a good idea to use only one system for all purposes.

Nevertheless, regardless of whether or not you’re using a single CRM, you’ve got to import your data like your contact list, past orders, and other customer information. CSV file upload is almost as common as using the CRM system tools.

4. Third-Party Integrations.

CRM, which is a customer relationship management system, is created to focus on customer details and data through as many channels as possible. In order to get the most out of your CRM software, you need to actually integrate it with third-party applications.

A few of the crucial integrations that you should be considering are Amazon, Alibaba, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, among others.

5. Create a Dashboard.

You can easily create a dashboard using CRM systems to summarize your business data and make it easy for you to manage. Using a dashboard lets you experience real-time control of what needs to be done by displaying it on a single screen.

A central control panel is basically a visual interface that gives you access to all the functions of your business and allows you to control anything at any time by just looking at it.

In addition, you will be able to view and monitor updates on projects, tasks, charts, visualizations, and a lot more.

6. Create Reports.

In order for your marketing efforts to be accounted for in actual sales, you must work with your sales team. Therefore, you should provide them with as much information as possible, so that it will be easier for them to find the right customers for the right product.

It is a good practice to create sales reports at regular intervals, such as a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis, and to send them to the sales representatives.

The reports provided by these companies help the sales representatives to:

You should evaluate how they have been performing
Evaluate the team’s performance and make necessary changes
Maintain a record of the targets they have reached and the goals they still need to accomplish
Maintain a spreadsheet of comparative performance between your colleagues (in order to consider bonuses and incentives)

In this way, the sales representatives can then modify their performance accordingly.

CRM Software FAQ

Which CRM is the easiest to use?

Quite a few options are available to you if you’re trying to find a CRM that’s simple and easy to use. In order to be able to sync your HubSpot account with your Gmail account, we have to take advantage of HubSpot’s free version. Similarly, NetHunt, another CRM that runs from Gmail, has the added advantage of being easy to install. The most important thing to remember is that Nimble CRM has a reputation for being easy to use and simple to set up.

CRM is it difficult to learn?

There is no need to be worried about the learning curve associated with implementing and using a CRM. In general, CRMs provide helpful onboarding support and technicians who assist you with configuring your system and setting up the technical integrations.

Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, SAP, and Salesforce, if you’re looking for a highly customizable solution have excellent implementation support, as do SAP and Oracle.

Is there a CRM offered by Google?

There is no CRM offered by Google itself. Nevertheless, there are quite a few CRM system integrations that work with Gmail.

Zoho, Agile CRM, Streak, HubSpot, Freshworks CRM, and Salesforce Essentials are all CRM applications that easily integrate with Gmail accounts.

Is HubSpot CRM really free of charge?

According to HubSpot, its basic CRM will always be free of charge and users will always be able to sign up for free. They provide contact management tools, tasks and activities, contacts.com activity, prospects.com activity, company insights, ticketing, and much more for free.

What is the best CRM software for sales?

As part of a best-in-class CRM tool, it should include sales pipeline tools, customer and lead information, automatic follow-ups, cross-sells, upsells, and a number of other essential features. Here are some of my favorite picks:

HubSpot
Zoho
Freshsales
Salesforce
Nimble
Pipedrive
NetHunt CRM
Nutshell CRM

Conclusion

The CRM tool market is large and varied, and there are multiple tools available, each with its own unique features and benefits.

The best options for the best customer relationship management software are Pipedrive and Freshworks CRM if you want to start using the software as a whole.

There’s no denying that you are the best person to know what your business needs. It is your responsibility to decide what it needs. Make sure that you factor in the value you’re getting at a definite price point, and the outcome you hope to achieve.

In order to determine the best cloud deployment option, consider things such as features and functionality, third-party integrations, ease-of-use, pricing plans, etc. Consider all the aspects of picking the right CRM software for your company before you make a final decision.