An effective CRM Software comes in handy if you want to be ahead of your competition. I certainly hope you won’t choose just any old CRM Software for your business. Whether you are a startup or a seasoned, well-established company, CRM Software should be a valuable addition to your existing marketing strategy.
To help you out, here’s a list of the top 6 CRM Software Screening Criteria for Small Businesses.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a wildly popular email marketing service, but you can also use it as a CRM. It’s great for small businesses, with a simple and easy-to-use dashboard, marketing automation, reporting, sales funnels, and a useful drag and drop tool for creating emails.
You can also store contacts, manage customer information and add 3rd-party integrations (including eCommerce integrations) from Constant Contact’s huge marketplace. The number of integrations makes it easy to build just the right platform for your business.
Features:
- Email scheduling
- Easy list segmentation and list cleaning
- Marketing automation to make lead nurturing a breeze
- Drag and drop builder to easily create stunning emails
- 100+ email templates
- Easy integration with eCommerce platforms
- Run Facebook and Instagram ads to grow your email list
Pricing:
Plans start at $20/month for the Email plan, but you’ll want to go for Email Plus (starting at $45) to get all the features that will make this a an easy CRM software option.
Salesflare
Salesflare is another popular CRM that you might want to consider, and their tagline says it all: less work, more sales.
That’s because Salesflare is a CRM that allows you to connect with customers–not to mention all of your favorite marketing tools. You can get started in just a few clicks, and generate more sales even if you have little data starting out.
This software gathers your leads’ contact information from social profiles, email signatures, and other public sources. Plus, all of your meetings and phone calls are automatically logged, so you don’t have to worry about forgetting tedious data entries.
Features
- Contact information is gathered and automatically updated from public sources
- Meetings and calls are recorded and filed to keep you organized
- Files exchanged with customers are automatically sorted and tracked
- Sales opportunities are placed in an easy-to-read dashboard
- Notifications are sent telling you who messaged you and from which channel
- To-do lists are automatically generated to help you stay productive
Pricing
Plans start at $29/month when billed annually. From there, pricing jumps to $49/month for the Pro plan and $99/month for the Enterprise plan.
Hubspot
HubSpot offers a completely free version of its CRM software that is rather popular among small businesses. The software includes all of the basic features provided by CRM software, allowing you keep track of your company’s activities, including contacts and company profiles, assigning & tracking deals, and managing all of that data in a detailed dashboard (visible to all team members). Already a HubSpot Sales user? Then you can also use this CRM software to boost your inbound sales. Not to mention, HubSpot offers several integration options with popular apps like SalesForce, Shopify and Microsoft Dynamics.
Pricing: Free of costs or upgrade to paid version (starting at 41 EUR / month).
Website: www.hubspot.com
Salesmate CRM
With Salesmate CRM you can speed up the sales processes and offer customers a personalised experience. Manage your contacts effectively and keep track of all related sales activities. This tool is also perfect for sending out email campaigns and you’ll know what happens to your emails once you hit send. As a Small Business you appreciate flexibility and scalability and Salesmate understands these needs. Some unique features within this CRM software include: Prospect & Lead Engagement, Sales Pipeline & Activity Tracking, Sales Automation & Sequences and more.
Pricing: Starts at $12/user/month.
Website: www.salesmate.io
Zoho
Though we’ve included Zoho in our enterprise-grade software list, this software can also be employed by small businesses – thanks to the variety in editions offered. Zoho offers a lot in terms of sales/marketing features, including website visitor tracking, lead scoring, sales signals (with pop-up notifications about leads) and more. However, keep in mind that some of the most of the advanced features are included only in the professional and enterprise editions.
Pricing: Free version, Standard ($12/month), Professional ($20/month), Enterprise ($35/month) and more.
Website: www.zoho.com
Salesflare
If you hate filling out a CRM and want one that actively helps you sell, Salesflare is a good choice for you. It automatically pulls up all the info you need and automatically keeps itself up to date.
Salesflare is built specifically for small and medium-sized businesses who sell B2B. And while it may look simple, it still packs a lot of power. You can even use it to send personal email sequences at scale
Pricing: $30/user/month
Website: www.salesflare.com
Agile CRM
Agile CRM is a CRM software offers a lot of those big business features like custom appointments, drag-and-drop marketing automation and reports via email. This software also supports widgets, a large library of plugins, API-powered integrations and more. The free version, however, is quite limited in terms of features offered.
Pricing: Free for up to 10 users, or choose the Starter package ($14.99/user/month).
Website: www.agilecrm.com
Freshworks CRM
Freshworks CRM (previously Freshsales) enables you to automatically capture your website visitors as sales leads and group them based on their engagement with your website. Assign them to the right salespeople on your team. Reach out to each lead with complete context and track deals by the personalized pipelines.
Pricing: Package for Growing Teams ($25/user/month).
Website: www.freshwork.com
Capsule CRM
Capsule CRM is a very easy-to-use CRM software that allows its users to track both relationships and sales pipelines. Not to mention it can be used on both desktops and mobile. The user interface is broken down into five groups: dashboard, people and organisations, sales pipeline, calendars and tasks and lastly, cases. One pitfall, however, is that it offers less functionality in terms of campaigns and reporting.
Pricing: They have both a free package (up to 2 users) and a Professional package (£12/user/month).
Website: www.capsulecrm.com
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Source: Microsoft Dynamics
If you are a Microsoft user you probably know that Microsoft Dynamics 365 is an all-in-one platform for sales and marketing. This CRM has rather extensive CRM functionality as well as integration with Microsoft products and LinkedIn.
The only setback with this tool is that it can be difficult to navigate at first for new users and mobile app features are limited.
Pricing: Different modules and licensens offered. Sales Insight i.e. (€ 42.20/user/month)
Website: Dynamics.microsoft.com
6 signs your small business needs a CRM software
All this is well and good. But when do you need a CRM for startups or a small businesses? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
1. Overwhelming Lead Flows
Having tens and hundreds of leads is wonderful. But what happens when those become thousands? You get flooded with leads. In such a situation, a CRM for startups helps you prioritize your leads. This not only makes taking actions on leads efficient but also results in an organized database of leads generated.
2. Complicated Consumer Database
Manual data collection methods such as excel work well in a business’s early stages. But as the business grows, you need to invest in smart tools. A CRM software acts as the singular source for data access. This can drive success rates while at the same time retaining customers by making quick decisions.
3. Sales Ambiguity
With the sales team more or less on the road, it can be hard to keep track of progress. A good CRM software allows for real-time updates across devices. In addition, it helps to forecast future sales and resource allocation.
4.Poor Customer Service
Getting a customer is just half the work, keeping them is the main challenge. If your business is becoming more of addressing complaints and less of the above-par service delivery, get a CRM now. Effective customer retention begins with ease of managing case flows alongside customer service. A powerful CRM software routes cases to the corresponding agents thus increasing efficiency. At the same time, setting up customer-based communities enable them to answer their own queries.
5. Account Management
All clients are different. Customers that have been associated with you for a long time require more attention and appreciation. But it doesn’t have to be as tedious as it sounds. A CRM software system can remind you of special events and milestones. Thus, you can send your valuable customers’ personalized communication on time. This shows that you care and are grateful for their support and business.
6. Inefficient Reporting Processes
As I said a while ago, avoid using manual processes. Manual data entries take up too much time and are prone to human error. The best part about CRM systems is that they not only store data in one place but also break down reports into minute details. Therefore, there is an increased scope for accurate data analysis and reporting. 100% Intro Added Body Added (1000 Words) Conclusion Added Featured Image Assigned Category Selected Add Used Keywords as tags
4.Poor Customer Service
Getting a customer is just half the work, keeping them is the main challenge. If your business is becoming more of addressing complaints and less of the above-par service delivery, get a CRM now. Effective customer retention begins with ease of managing case flows alongside customer service. A powerful CRM software routes cases to the corresponding agents thus increasing efficiency. At the same time, setting up customer-based communities enable them to answer their own queries.
5. Account Management
All clients are different. Customers that have been associated with you for a long time require more attention and appreciation. But it doesn’t have to be as tedious as it sounds. A CRM software system can remind you of special events and milestones. Thus, you can send your valuable customers’ personalized communication on time. This shows that you care and are grateful for their support and business.
6. Inefficient Reporting Processes
As I said a while ago, avoid using manual processes. Manual data entries take up too much time and are prone to human error. The best part about CRM systems is that they not only store data in one place but also break down reports into minute details. Therefore, there is an increased scope for accurate data analysis and reporting
Conclusion
CRM Software is a must these days, if you are in business. CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, will allow you to keep track of your customers in a more efficient way. What a CRM Software does is organize information about your customers in one place. It also allows you to manage their profiles, from which you can track everything from their interests and hobbies to when they last visited your business.