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Best CRM Software

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Want to get right to the point? My top picks for the best CRM software are definitely Salesforce and Hubspot.

Without customer relationships, you wouldn’t actually have a business.

So, it makes sense to build and nourish those connections every chance you get. Doing so allows you to turn visitors into leads, leads into customers, and customers into lifelong buyers.

It’s the exact thing marketers have spent decades trying to figure out. In other words, it’s much easier said than done. But the best CRM software helps you build, create, and maintain those relationships.

However, there are hundreds of options to pick from, and choosing the right tool for your business isn’t always easy.

So, to help make your life a bit easier, we explored dozens of the best CRM tools on the market and narrowed it down to our top six recommendations.

Let’s get started!

Salesforce logo

Salesforce

Best CRM That Will Grow With You

Salesforce delivers impressive versatility for organizations of multiple sizes by offering several pricing tiers and excellent customization.

The 6 Best CRM Software to Consider

  1. Salesforce – Best CRM for scalability
  2. Hubspot – Best free CRM software
  3. Freshsales – Best CRM for ease of use
  4. Zoho CRM – Best CRM for SMBs
  5. Insightly – Best CRM for project management
  6. Nimble – Best CRM for social media management

#1 – Salesforce Review — The Best CRM for Scalability

Salesforce logo

Salesforce

Best CRM That Will Grow With You

Salesforce delivers impressive versatility for organizations of multiple sizes by offering several pricing tiers and excellent customization.

Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM software out there — for good reason. And it works for businesses of all sizes, offering plenty of versatility in how you choose to use it.

Additionally, as your business grows, Salesforce scales alongside you, with added features and extra functionality.

However, the lowest priced options work nicely for small organizations. Just remember, you can add more features in higher priced tiers as you need them.

In higher-priced plans, Salesforce has more features than other CRMs, which makes it a good choice for larger organizations.

Plus, it’s incredibly versatile with solutions for sales, marketing, employee experiences, and more. So regardless of the situation, Salesforce offers something for everyone.

Pros

  • Versatile software for businesses of all sizes
  • Detailed project management features
  • Third-party apps work directly with Salesforce
  • Multiple customization options

Cons

  • Pricing tiers are higher than some other CRMs
  • May require dedicated on-site tech support

Pricing

  • Essentials — $25 per user per month
  • Professional — $75 per user per month
  • Enterprise — $150 per user per month
  • Unlimited — $300 per user per month

#2 – Hubspot Review — The Best Free CRM Software Version

Hubspot logo

Hubspot

Best Free CRM Software Version

For small organizations, a free CRM like Hubspot will give you some surprisingly impressive features.

With most CRM software packages — actually, with most things in life — free versions sound great, but they don’t generally get the job done. Hubspot’s CRM is the exception to the rule. 

A multitude of small organizations, independent contractors, and SMBs can use the Hubspot CRM free version and receive a far better level of success than expected. 

Both the free and paid versions of the software are extremely easy to use, which is ideal for a small group that probably doesn’t have a dedicated person for tech support.

Hubspot’s primary focus area involves tracking sales and marketing projects and leads, and its free version hits the basics in these areas. If your organization becomes large enough, you can migrate to more powerful paid versions, but these tiers are oddly configured in Hubspot, creating some confusion among customers.

Pros

  • Surprisingly useful free version
  • Easy to be up and running quickly
  • No limit on users with several versions
  • Works nicely for both SMBs and self-employed independent contractors

Cons

  • Pay versions have oddly complex pricing tiers and usage limits
  • Customer service and tech support have hit and miss success

Pricing

  • Free version
  • Marketing, Service, and Sales versions with varying user limits and pricing tiers of $50 to $3,200 per month

#3 – Freshsales Review — The Best CRM For Ease of Use

Freshsales logo

Freshsales

Best CRM for Ease of Use

When you pick Freshsales for your organization, you’ll be up and running quickly, improving your efficiency.

Freshsales delivers a CRM interface that’s made for small organizations that don’t want hassles around setup or a sharp learning curve. You’ll be up and running on this CRM in no time, especially with the free or lower priced versions.

Freshsales excels in helping you communicate more effectively with the others on your team when creating sales projects. This is a strong CRM for those organizations with inexperienced sales people, as it allows administrators to track email messages to make sure sales people are following the proper steps. You even can have all sales calls recorded.

The weakest areas of Freshsales involve tracking down new sales leads and in developing and managing marketing projects.

Pros

  • Very strong mobile app
  • Includes advanced phone call management features
  • Extremely easy to use, even for beginners
  • Allows administrator to place users in teams for easier in-house collaboration and communication

Cons

  • Lags others in terms of project management
  • Could use better features for tracking down new leads

Pricing

  • Free version
  • Blossom — $12 to $19 (per month per user)
  • Garden — $25 to $35
  • Estate — $49 to $65
  • Forest — $79

#4 – Zoho CRM Review — The Best CRM For SMBs

Zoho CRM logo

Zoho CRM

Best CRM for SMBs

Zoho’s features have always been tuned to help small and medium sized businesses, giving it a leg up versus other CRMs.

This cloud-based CRM is perfect for small to medium sized businesses.

Zoho CRM has focused on the SMB area of the market since its introduction, which gives it a bit of an advantage over other CRMs.

Zoho is extremely easy to use, which is perfect for an SMB that may not be able to have a person dedicated to running the CRM software. Its interface places all of the most important features on the main screen, allowing users to jump right in and find the data they need.

Pricing points are reasonable with Zoho, although the free and most basic versions are extremely limited. And should you need to contact customer service, you may have some problems, as the results are not consistent from call to call.

Pros

  • Takes very little time to start using it
  • Extremely flexible to meet needs of multiple businesses
  • Useful mobile app interface
  • Originally designed with small businesses in mind

Cons

  • Free and low priced versions are extremely limited
  • Customer service performance could be better

Pricing

  • Free version
  • Standard — $12 to $18 (per user per month)
  • Professional — $20 to $30
  • Enterprise — $35 to $45
  • Ultimate — $100

#5 – Insightly Review — The Best CRM For Managing Projects

Insightly logo

Insightly

Best CRM for Managing Projects

Use Insightly to keep your marketing projects moving forward, gaining success with clients.

If your organization struggles with keeping sales projects on task, Insightly has some impressive tools to help in this area. If you don’t have a specific person who handles projects like this, Insightly’s features will give your SMB a huge boost in productivity.

Insightly is packed with features making it great at its price. The administrator can set up multiple levels of permissions, ensuring that employees only can see and edit the fields they actually need to do their jobs.

Insightly has numerous automated tools, such as for new lead generation. However, some of those automated tools are shallow, meaning they don’t go into enough depth to help an organization that has advanced needs in that particular area.

Pros

  • Excellent project management features
  • Multiple automated tools for simplicity
  • Keeps leads and clients completely separate
  • Reporting features are easy to use and understand

Cons

  • Lots of features, but some don’t go into enough depth
  • Interface takes some work to use efficiently

Pricing

  • Free version
  • Plus — $29 (per user per month)
  • Professional — $49
  • Enterprise — $99

#6 – Nimble Review — The Best CRM For Social Media Management

Nimble logo

Nimble

Best CRM for Social Media Management

Keep in touch with existing clients and generate new leads by upping your social media presence with Nimble.

For those SMBs who need to up their social media presence, especially in communicating with clients, Nimble is one of the strongest CRMs focusing on social media channels. Through these social media hits, you’ll be able to generate extra sales leads as well. 

With Nimble, the interface is extremely easy to use, allowing your organization to be up and running quickly. As you might expect with a CRM that has its strength in social media, Nimble’s mobile platform is easy to use, giving you powerful tools on multiple types of devices.

Nimble’s biggest weakness exists in its project management features. For example, it’s a little more difficult to collaborate in-house between sales members with Nimble than some others. But its low price per user is pretty impressive for those SMBs that don’t need to focus on project management.

Pros

  • Helps you manage your social media presence
  • Strong mobile app
  • Delivers good lead management features
  • Interface is easy to use and understand

Cons

  • Some problems with customer service
  • Struggles in helping you with project management

Pricing

  • $19 to $25 (per month per user with individual pay upgrades available)

What is CRM software?

CRM stands for “customer relationship management.” It refers to a type of software that helps you track communications with customers and gives your sales team the information they need to turn leads into buyers.

CRM is a communication management solution that helps you manage current clients, as well as helping you create and develop relationships with new clients. Some of the features you may find in CRM software include:

  • Generating new sales leads
  • Managing sales leads
  • Logging communications with existing clients
  • Tracking responsiveness of clients
  • Creating and managing marketing campaigns
  • Managing social media contacts

Several years ago, CRM software was so expensive and complex that only the largest organizations could put it to use. With the advent of cloud based software subscriptions, though, CRM software is now far more accessible to organizations and businesses of all sizes.

When Does It Make Sense to Invest In CRM Software?

Despite recent changes in CRM software making it more accessible to smaller organizations, it’s still a significant expense for most small businesses.

And while CRM software is important, you may not yet need it depending on where you’re at with your business. So here are some ideas to help you decide if you’re ready to invest in CRM software.

1. Business Planning

Do you feel like your business is meandering? Maybe you have some goals for growth, but you’re not sure how to reach them. CRM software can help you with these problems.

2. Customer Service

If you feel like you are struggling with your customer service, it may be because you’re not able to track your interactions with existing and prospective clients properly.

CRM software has quite a few tools for tracking your client contacts, ensuring you’re giving them the proper level of attention.

3. You’re Employees Are Ready

To make the most of your CRM software, your employees have to be willing to spend time learning how to use it and willing to enter data.

If employees are struggling to track customer engagements with your current system, and it’s costing them success and commission, they will be more open to trying a CRM package.

4. Growth Management

If you find your organization growing haphazardly, introducing CRM software can help you manage the growth in a healthier manner. Growth is beneficial, but if you don’t manage it properly, you could do more harm to the organization in the long run by alienating clients.

5. Mobile Accessibility

As members of your organization look to make use of mobile devices during out-of-the-office sales calls, CRM software that runs from the cloud can be a valuable tool.

Salespeople can access the data they need from anywhere on any device with a cloud-based CRM tool, rather than trying to rely on handwritten notes that are back at the office.

Methodology For Choosing The Best CRM Software

Although the majority of CRM software packages provide similar types of services and benefits, you will find significant differences when you drill down a little bit. 

The best advice for finding a type of CRM software to meet the needs of your organization is to focus on how you will be using the software. A feature that is extremely vital to your competitor may not be applicable to your business. With that in mind, here are some of the features we have emphasized in our selections of the best CRM software.

Cost

For the majority of CRM software packages, you’ll end up paying a set fee per user per month. Because of this, you will want to think carefully about which members of your organization need access to the software. It’s a significant waste of money if you are purchasing CRM software subscriptions for all of the people in your organization, when actually only half of them actually need to use it.

Here are some common price points per user per month you can expect with CRM software:

Less than $25

These inexpensive packages are made for small organizations. You probably won’t need a dedicated tech person to install and manage the software in this price range, which is handy. 

However, these CRMs have a limited number of records they can store and other limitations. Customizing the software is a bit of a pain in this price point too.

Mid-range ($25 to $75)

Small and medium businesses often will make use of CRM software in this price range. The vast majority of cloud-based CRM software packages have multiple versions with mid-range pricing, so if your planned budget fits in this range, you will have quite a few choices. 

Customization is a key component for software in this price range, as SMBs often need to make some tweaks to fit specific use cases. 

The biggest drawback in this price range is limitations in the number of records you can store and in finding across-the-board in-depth features. 

More than $75

Some CRM software may cost as much as a few hundred dollars per month per user. This type of software often requires significant customization before installation to match the needs of huge organizations.

CRM software in this price range may even have an ecommerce component to it. So SMBs that need to be able to sell products online may need to jump to a CRM in this price range.

Many times, the CRMs in lower pricing tiers only have a cloud storage option. If you need to store your records at your location for security purposes, rather than in the cloud, a high priced CRM software package may be your only option.

Free Trial

Most CRM software packages, especially those for SMBs, will have a free trial period, usually between 14 and 30 days. This is a helpful way to test the software’s interface, although it can be difficult to gain a true feel for how the software will work on a day to day basis with a free trial period.

Quite a few CRMs also have a completely free version that you can use for an indefinite period of time. But these versions will have significant limitations.

Interface

Some CRM software packages will offer an easy-to-use interface, which is helpful when employees may be leery of using the software. If entering data and obtaining results is too complex, employees are not as likely to use the CRM. 

Always check the interface in every device through which you’ll be accessing the CRM, whether that’s a web browser, smartphone, tablet, or other device. Some CRMs may have a beautifully simple interface in a web browser, but the mobile version is a mess.

Marketing Tools

If your organization struggles with marketing to both new and existing clients, look for the best CRM software package in terms of marketing ideas and management. These tools can include email marketing, social media messaging, and creation of marketing campaigns. 

Progress Reports

Seeing the progress of your sales campaigns becomes easier when you’re using CRM software, as it often includes customizable reports consisting of simple text, graphics, charts, or data in spreadsheets. 

Sales Leads

For any business, generating sales leads — and making the most of those leads — is extremely important. CRMs help you manage your sales leads, using automated points of contact, such as follow-up emails, or through giving you the means of making direct contact with leads.

ERP Vs. CRM

Understand that some ERP (enterprise resource planning) software packages will contain all of the features found in CRMs. Other ERPs may only overlap with CRMs with one or two features. You can think of ERP as focusing on the in-house management of operations, including accounting and human resources for the organization, while the CRMs focus on customer and client management.

So some organizations will need both an ERP and CRM, while others may be able to survive with only an ERP.

Salesforce logo

Salesforce

Best CRM That Will Grow With You

Salesforce delivers impressive versatility for organizations of multiple sizes by offering several pricing tiers and excellent customization.

Summary

Ultimately, managing the relationships you have with clients and customers is the lifeblood of your organization.

Salesforce and Hubspot are our top recommendations for most businesses. They’re easy to use, effective, and affordable as well. However, they’re not perfect for every business in every industry.

So, be sure to use the methodology we talked about as you go through the process of choosing the best CRM software for you and your business.

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Source: https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/best-crm-software/

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