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What is CRM?
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) manages all of your customer and prospect relationships.
Used at every level from CEO to Associates, this system helps companies to manage and analyze all of their interactions with an individual or company.
The concept of a CRM started to take shape in the 1970s but was limited to sparse customer engagement and manual information management.
CRM systems really took off in the 1990s with a man by the name of Tom Siebel, who developed the Siebel Systems in 1993, followed by the first mobile application in 1999. After that, the leading providers in the industry adopted the idea of a cloud-hosted CRM system. Soon, solo entrepreneurs and small teams had access to an open-source CRM system because of the huge wave of price reductions.
Once the importance of customer and prospect analysis became prominent by 2009, companies everywhere were looking to profit from the influx of new information available to them. Since then, companies reach a much wider and more diverse audience across a multitude of different platforms and touchpoints. Nowadays, CRMs act as the hub for many organizations as they plug-in their HR software, email marketing and sales dashboards.
Why Do You Need CRM?
A CRM is extremely useful for improving a business’s relationship with its customers by compiling data from a range of communication channels. Those channels can include everything from a company’s website, telephone, email, live chat, marketing materials, and social media.
The CRM approach can facilitate information and data so that businesses are able to learn much more about their target audience and how to best fulfill their needs and wants. By increasing customer loyalty and usage and reducing customer complaints and turnover, the implementation of a CRM system can have impressive effects on customer satisfaction.
A CRM is also important for lead generation because it uses tools to analyze previous marketing campaigns, purchases, service satisfaction, and other customer data. By automating many of these processes, CRM software aims to create a better business experience for the company and its customers.
Salesforce Review
Founded by its CEO, Mark Benioff, Salesforce is a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) company headquartered in San Francisco that focuses on CRM. They’re the leaders in the industry because of their CRM software that helps businesses access data anytime, anywhere, from a number of devices.
Features
The quality and quantity of information that Salesforce retrieves make them one of the most popular cloud platform providers in the world. When businesses use Salesforce, they are able to look at and analyze individual accounts, contacts, tasks, events, and opportunities to help them best understand their relationship with each record. And since they are a cloud product with a mobile application, it’s easy to stay in constant communication with your business and teams at all times of the day.
Pros
- A powerful cloud CRM platform
- Easy to use add/remove features
- Round-the-clock accessibility
- Robust App landscape and third party plug-ins
Cons
- Expensive
- Complex interface and integrations which will likely require expert support
- Difficulty contacting customer support
- Weak reporting
Salesforce Pricing
Salesforce Recommendation
There’s no question that Salesforce is the CRM provider of choice for enterprise businesses, but for small to medium-sized companies you might look at more affordable options. While their platform is one of the best in the industry, you can find other providers that offer 90% of the features Salesforce provides for much less cost.
Zoho Review
Zoho is another powerhouse CRM that works with over 150,000 businesses in over 180 countries. Their SaaS applications and tools enable a business to run entirely with Zoho’s unified customer experience platform. Known as one of the leaders in CRM for small businesses, Zoho’s cloud product delivers high-end features for businesses on a budget.
Features
For businesses and owners wanting a CRM solution that’s easy to implement, Zoho is an ideal choice. Right away, you can get up and running with easy to follow guides that walk you through the process step by step. Even with Zoho’s basic plan, they have a lot of fantastic features to take advantage of, such as reports and dashboards, sales forecasting tools, defined rules and profiles, and also the capacity to store 100,000 records.
Pros
- Affordable starting point with a Free Basic version available
- Easy to use
- Great customer support
Cons
- Pricey add-ons
- Slow connection at times
- Customer service limited to weekdays
Zoho Pricing
Zoho Recommendation
Although Zoho lacks the powerhouse features Salesforce has, they don’t have much of a downside. They provide an excellent service with a lot of high-end CRM features to help small and medium-sized businesses connect with customers, partners, and potential customers.
Insightly Review
Insightly, Inc. is a privately owned CRM company founded in Australia but now headquartered in San Francisco. Currently, their software provides a wide range of features and integrations that are most suitable to medium-sized businesses across a variety of industries. With over 1.5 million users around the globe, Insightly has quickly grown into a viable CRM solution.
Features
Customers choose to manage their business relationships with Insightly because they have an attractive and functional CRM platform. Their customizable and adaptable interface enables businesses to capture new customers and renew contracts and interests with existing ones. Insightly allows businesses to integrate notes, contacts, emails, and much more into one system to drastically lighten the workload.
Pros
- Functional design
- Wide range of features
- Gmail and Outlook plug-ins
Cons
- Basic project management function is weak
- Minimal data graphics
- Extra costs for leads
Insightly Pricing
Insightly Recommendation
If you’re a small to medium-sized business then Insightly is an excellent CRM provider. With an easy to use interface, exceptionally functional features, and various integrations, Insightly makes it easy for businesses to build relationships with their customers and create loyalty with their brand.
HubSpot CRM Review
HubSpot CRM is a free provider with premium add-on options that use innovative marketing technology solutions to help small businesses grow. In their early years, HubSpot focused on marketing automation and social media campaign management but recently moved into the customer relationship management game. While lightweight, it is clean and easy to adopt.
Features
Due to HubSpot’s recent acquisition of PieSync, users are now able to sync data in real-time on the go, which means businesses are able to get up-to-the-minute accurate information for their sales representatives. HubSpot CRM’s software also features a dashboard that shows sales performance, deal forecast, productivity, and team activity. And best of all, businesses can enjoy unlimited users, data, and up to one million contacts.
Pros
- Free workable version
- Smart up-to-date interface
- A ton of features
- Geared toward sales
Cons
- Pricey with all the add-ons
- Mobile app issues
- Only one email per contact
HubSpot Pricing
HubSpot Recommendation
HubSpot CRM is an excellent provider for people looking for a straightforward and easy to use interface. They also offer customizable plans to meet the budget of any business owner, which is a huge benefit for small and medium-sized businesses.
Pipedrive Review
Pipedrive is a private SaaS company that makes a CRM web and mobile application with tools and features “designed for salespeople, by salespeople”. Pipedrive was created using activity-based selling methodology, which enables companies to plan their sales activities and track deals. With their cutting edge software, Pipedrive claims its users close an average of 28% more deals after their first year.
Features
It can be argued that Pipedrive is currently the leader in CRM software with a ton of customers and reviewers singing their praises. From the lead to the deal, the platform is easy to navigate, and their integrations improve functionality across the board. Pipeline’s activity-based selling process is also great for organizing sales teams and keeping everyone up to date.
Pros
- Easy to set up and get started
- Easy to navigate
- Organized reporting
Cons
- Lacks integration support
- Problems with third-party apps
- Lacks more communication channels
Pipedrive Pricing
Pipedrive Recommendation
Although they aren’t cheap, Pipedrive does offer a much better product than some of it’s more expensive competitors. Overall, businesses are happy with Pipeline’s user interface and the overall functionality of their software. For a period, they’ve also extended their free trial to 21-days so it may be worth a test if this options is still available.
Freshworks Review (Formerly Freshsales)
Freshdesk (part of Freshworks) launched its second product — Freshworks CRM in 2016. Freshworks’ CRM platform maximizes the productivity of sales teams with built-in features such as phone and email, lead scoring, and workflow automation. Their main appeal is that they’re affordable and have an easy-to-use platform.
Features
One of the attractive features on the Freshworks CRM platform is their contact management display that automatically populates with data from your company’s website and posts from your social media accounts. The leads and contact page will then tell you exactly how much each contact has made for your business. Their software also integrates with major platforms like Gmail so that multiple systems can sync together.
Pros
- Easy-to-use interface
- Automatic phone call recording
- Customizable email templates to speed up simple communications
Cons
- Lacks advanced lead generation tools
- Doesn’t integrate with some software (such as project management software)
- The free plan lacks many features (no reports available)
Freshworks CRM Pricing
Freshsales Recommendation
While Freshsales’ plans can be a little convoluted, making it difficult to decide which plan is best for you, they have an impressive array of communication tools and easy-to-use software. For SMBs that want to get set up quickly and easily, Freshsales is an appealing option that offers affordable pricing, customizable options, and a proactive AI assistant.
Keap
Formerly known as Infusionsoft, Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing platform is built to help entrepreneurs and small businesses get organized, follow up, automate, grow sales, and free up time. Its top-tier product, Max, is designed for larger businesses that need more advanced marketing and sales automation.
Features
Much like other CRM products, Keap’s platform enables your business to house all its communications and client activity in one place. It’s easy-to-setup interface allows you to connect all your data, applications, and devices by integrating popular apps such as Gmail, Zapier, Outlook, and AppointmentCore. Its personalized email templates let you time communications to send when new leads come in. Keap also offers a free 14-day trial—no credit card required.
Pros
- Very good email templates
- Customizable campaign features
- Opportunity tracking
Cons
- Emails often go to spam folder
- Steep learning curve for some
- Credit card processing issues
Keap Pricing
Recommendation
Ideal for smaller businesses where management has several different roles, Keap’s interface is an all-in-one email marketing solution, CRM, marketing automation, and sales tool. Larger and more traditional companies would be better off without this hybrid approach and keep marketing and sales departments separate (such as Salesforce and Marketo). But for fledgling businesses looking to boost sales, this intuitive interface is something to consider. Plus, they offer a coaching package to help you get set up.
Thanks for the post – very helpful! I’ve been doing sales for my own company these past 7 years using mainly excel sheets. Do you think it’s worth spending the money for Salesforce?
Do these all have Marketo and Clearbit integrations?