If you are a startup, you must put the user experience on top of your list. It doesn’t matter what kind of product or service you are selling, if you can provide an exceptional user experience towards your clients, you will always have them coming back!
A great tool to allow you to manage customer interactions is through a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Here, I will show you the best CRM software out there!
Agile CRM
Benefits:
- Agile CRM offers a free, full-featured sales CRM for up to 10 users, which is explicitly targeted at startups
- The platform integrates contact management, marketing automation, real-time alerts, and VoIP telephony, social suite, and email and web tracking
- Stick your appointment calendar online and Agile CRM will automate all your upcoming voice calls and follow-ups
- Easily attach documents to deals, companies, contacts, and emails in-app.
Drawbacks:
- Price increases dramatically as you upgrade between versions; may cause problems as your company scales
- Not that many customization options
Pricing:
- Free version is available for up to 10 users.
- Starter version is $8.99 per user/per month (billed every two years)
- Regular version is $29.99 per user/per month (billed every two years)
- Enterprise version is $47.99 per user/per month (billed every two years)
There are no free trials available for paid plans.
Website: agilecrm.com
HubSpot
Pros
- Understands salespeople’s needs
- Powerful features
- Well-integrated with Hubspot’s other tools
- It is easy to use
- Free (basic) version available
- Good customer support
Cons
- The paid version of the CRM software can be costly
- Built for marketers, later adapted for salespeople
Price
HubSpot has four pricing plans.
- The first plan of HubSpot’s CRM is free, with all the basics you need to start out.
- The second plan starts at $45 per month and focuses on more in-depth marketing and sales strategies with additional features.
- The third plan covers professional business needs and starts at $800/month with 2,000 marketing contracts.
- The fourth plan covers enterprise business needs and starts at $3,300/month with 10,000 marketing contracts.
Capterra Score
👉🏼 HubSpot has a high user rating of 4.5/5 stars, making it one of the best beginner CRM tools out there. Users like the features that come with the free version.
HubSpot is a household name in the sales and marketing world and their CRM software is one of the best tools for all types of businesses.
In fact, HubSpot is one of the best types of CRM software created for inbound marketing. The tool enables you to manage your social media presence and content, streamline your sales funnel, and do other digital activities. It is also easy to use and is scalable.
The CRM software is suitable for salespeople, operations managers, marketers, sales leaders, customer support teams, business owners, the list goes on.
HubSpot is ideal for SaaS companies, its ease of integration with other apps makes it an attractive option for integrated marketing and sales teams.
HubSpot is a go-to for your first experience of a customer relationship management system.
Salesforce
Pros
- Customizable and powerful
- Indefinitely scalable
- Seamless integrations (including third-party integrations)
- Great customer tracking
- Efficient email marketing tools
- Good customer support
Cons
- Lengthy and expensive setup
- Costly and fit for larger companies
Price
Salesforce has four pricing plans. It also has a 30-Day Free Trial.
- The first plan is $29 per month and is ideal for small businesses with up to 10 users.
- The second plan is $89 per month and is ideal for any team size with a complete CRM.
- The third plan is $176 per month, it has more customizable features and is the most popular option.
- The fourth and last plan is $351, with unlimited CRM capability.
Capterra Score
👉🏼 Salesforce has impressive user ratings at 4.5/5 stars. All users commend the software for its features, customizations, and functionality.
If you’re looking for a CRM software you can customize and optimize to fit any business size then look no further than Salesforce.
Salesforce is a cloud CRM tool and is currently being used by over 150,000 businesses as it comes with multiple CRM features to help you build a good relationship with customers and grow your business from the ground up.
Salesforce CRM software is well-rounded and works best for all the requirements of your business.
Salesforce Sales Cloud, also called Customer 360, is an integrated CRM platform used for marketing, sales, service, IT, and more. This CRM platform allows for all team members to view predictions, keep up with insights, and have a 360-degree view of the customer and their needs.
That’s not all, Salesforce also offers detailed analytics, advisory services, product tools, the list goes on. This CRM platform offers solutions for small businesses, SaaS, sales, marketing, commerce, and more.
Pipedrive
Pros
- Simple UI
- Chatbot feature
- Customizable
- Customer support
- Affordable for startups and SMBs
Cons
- Some features are hard to find
- Not as scalable as Salesforce or Hubspot
Price
Pipedrive has four pricing plans.
- The first plan is $15 per month and is great for startups.
- The second plan is $29 per month, ideal for growing teams.
- The third plan is $59 per month, contains enhanced features best suited for increasing revenue and optimizing your business performance. Best for larger companies.
- The fourth and last plan is $119 per month, ideal for enterprises.
Capterra Score
👉🏼 Pipedrive has an impressive rating of 4.5/5 stars, users claim that its simple UI and speed are some of its greatest assets.
Pipedrive is ideal for both small and mid-sized businesses. Sales teams in startups also love to use Pipedrive as it simplifies the sales process.
What’s more, the tool helps teams to organize sales leads to improve conversion rates and revenue. Pipedrive calculates the conversion rates for your business, making it easier to determine how many leads you need to reach your sales goals.
Pipedrive’s automations and optimizations allow you and team to save time and focus on the most important tasks.
Some basic features of the CRM software include:
- Lead and Deal management
- Communication Tracking
- Reports and Insights
- Apps
- Integrations, and more
Copper
Benefits:
- Copper provides startup-friendly features like automated data entry, smart identification, lead and customer tracking, plus optimization of sales contacts and opportunities
- Integrates natively with G Suite, meaning data import is seamless from Gmail and other Google tools you (probably) use every day
- Improves management of teams and workflows with weekly pipeline progression reports using drag-and-drop functionality, custom filters, and alerts when deals might be going stale
- Provides an eye-pleasing sales pipeline for easy tracking and managing of leads through the qualification process
Drawbacks:
- There is a bit of a learning curve, so be forewarned you’ll need to set aside some time to meaningfully implement it at your startup
- There can be issues with importing data from Excel, meaning you’ll be required to manually enter information into Copper
Pricing:
- Basic plan is $19 per user/per month, billed annually
- Professional plan is $49 per user/per month, billed annually
- Business plan is $119 per user/per month, billed annually
Copper offers a 14-day free trial for all plans.
Website: copper.com
Zoho CRM
Benefits:
- Zoho CRM is easy-to-use with simple user interface targeted at startups and small businesses, including customizable modules, automation, and social media features
- Allows you to define your workflows and rationalize everyday tasks, as well as manage leads
- Data porting features allow you to quickly migrate your data from spreadsheets and contact management software to the Zoho platform, making implementation pretty straightforward
- Integrates with Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ for reaching out and engaging with leads quick and snappy, at just the right time
- There’s a free CRM for up to three users—great news for super-lean startups, although (as one might expect) it is somewhat limited features-wise, with less customizability and no mass emailing feature
Drawbacks:
- Zoho lacks individual email tracking and individual lead notifications, which can be limiting if you rely heavily on one-on-one engagement
- Add-on modules are priced on top of the existing CRM product you purchase, so costs can add up when you want to expand your use of the platform
Pricing:
- Free version is available for up to three users and is targeted at home businesses
- Standard version is $12 per user/per month, billed annually
- Enterprise version is $35 per user/per month, billed annually
A free trial is available for the Standard and Enterprise versions.
Website: zoho.com/crm
SugarCRM
Benefits:
- Provides a comprehensive CRM solution covering marketing, sales, and customer service, with an emphasis on cross-team sharing of relevant and useful intel
- Lets you map customer journeys to get your messaging right, and automate complex business processes like lead routing quote review and approval with drag-and-drop flowchart
- Vendor customer support is attentive, which is a major plus for startups who need quick answers and issue resolution times; on top of that, there’s a large user community surrounding SugarCRM, so you can talk shop with other startups
Drawbacks:
- You have to have at least 10 people on your team to use SugarCRM, so it might not be appropriate for very small startups
- SugarCRM app’s roots are in the open-source, developer community, so there’s a moderate learning curve, meaning you’ll need to take time out to learn the platform
Pricing:
- Sugar Professional plan is $40 per user/per month (10 user minimum), billed annually.
- Sugar Enterprise plan is $65 per user/per month (10 user minimum), billed annually
- Sugar Serve plan is $80 per user/per month (10 user minimum), billed annually
- Sugar Sell plan is $80 per user/per month (10 user minimum), billed annually
- Sugar Market plan is $1,000 (unlimited users, 10,000 contacts per month), billed annually
A free trial is available for all plans. After answering a few questions on the vendor website, you’ll be assigned the version of SugarCRM that best matches your business needs.
Website: sugarcrm.com
Conclusion
CRM software is crucial for managing customer data and interactions in a growing startup business. Using the best crm for startup allows you to see your revenue streams, leads, opportunities, leads coming from social media, conversations about your business on social media, etc. It is important to track everything so you can optimize your marketing budget.