When businesses aim to enhance their customer relationships, they often encounter difficulty in choosing the most suitable customer relationship management (CRM) platform from the numerous options available. To simplify this decision-making process, we have curated a list of the top CRM software choices to be considered.
Best CRM Software Platforms
What sets them apart from others on the market, here are the top CRM systems listed in no particular order.
- Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell provides a contemporary CRM system that is simple to install and operate, regardless of the scale of your company. It is equipped with various CRM tools that assist your teams in increasing revenue through improved productivity, streamlined processes, and enhanced visibility of your sales pipeline.
Zendesk Sell also provides a mobile app that is easy to use and syncs with the desktop version, ensuring that your sales team stays on top of their game when working remotely.
The email intelligence tool enables sales representatives to track email communication effortlessly and increase their productivity with instant notifications, activity reports, and automated email templates. Furthermore, the power dialer feature allows representatives to make calls effortlessly while documenting each call and offering access to scripts, notes, and pre-built call analysis. Moreover, businesses can easily monitor call frequency, duration, and outcomes.
Sell also has sales prospecting functionality that leverages a untapped market comprising of more than 200 million professionals. Companies of any size utilize Sell to discover prospects and generate precise lists containing genuine, comprehensive, and precise records.
The interface is intuitive and customizable, allowing your team to easily grasp and utilize the powerful sales CRM features, resulting in less frustration.
Included in these features are:
- Email tracking and automation
- Activity reporting and analytics
- Customizable sales dashboard
- CRM mobile app
- Out-of-the-box integrations
- Contact and deal management
- Centralized platform
Both you and your customers benefit when you can effectively handle your sales and marketing tools in a centralized location and connect them with a help desk.
- HubSpot
HubSpot is a common option for businesses that are beginning their journey with customer relationship management software.
HubSpot simplifies data retrieval by providing a clean dashboard that consolidates all your essential CRM tools, making it as effortless as finding the “leave meeting” button following a five-hour Zoom call.
HubSpot, similar to most CRM programs, provides customization and features such as conversation intelligence and email tracking.
Additional functionalities: Enhanced capabilities:
- Reporting dashboard
- Company insights
- Deal tracking
- Pipeline management
- Less Annoying
Are you here with the question, “What is CRM software?” Less Annoying could possibly be the sales CRM platform that suits your needs.
By its name alone, it is evident that the main advantage of this product is its simplicity, which makes it a reliable option for small businesses venturing into the realm of CRM for the first time.
Less Annoying makes use of a simple search function in its contact management system, which facilitates quick and efficient contact tracking.
Additionally, there are other characteristics or attributes.
- Calendar and tasks
- Simple pipeline management
- Customization
- Mobile access
- Sales Creatio
Sales Creatio is designed for midsize businesses and large corporations, providing a comprehensive CRM software solution that enables the management of sales, marketing, and services in a single location.
Sales Creatio is well-known for its low-code technology, which allows users to customize their experience without extensive knowledge of coding. This feature is particularly beneficial for teams that have individuals who consider themselves to be less proficient in technology.
Additionally, there are other characteristics available.
- 360-degree customer view
- Field sales
- Project management
- Orders and invoices
- Apptivo
Apptivo offers a highly compatible and fully online CRM system that enables you to centralize your customer care needs from any device and using any browser.
With a targeted list of features, the platform has more than 65 integrated applications and a robust sales pipeline management system, ensuring no time is wasted when tracking potential customers.
Additional functionalities: Additional characteristics: Further attributes: Extra options: Added capabilities:
- Social news feed
- IMAP email integration
- Drag-and-drop email templates
- Developer API
- Insightly
If there is a highly enthusiastic Google expert in your team, Insightly could be among the best CRM software options for you.
With Insightly, you can seamlessly incorporate all your customer-relations requirements into your familiar existing Google App account, allowing your team to minimize the time spent on learning unfamiliar software.
If you think step by step, you may find Insightly’s lack of 24/7 support frustrating, especially if your team is located in different time zones.
Some extra features that are included:
- Automatic address book
- Fast search
- Web-to-contact forms
- File sharing
- Salesforce
Salesforce is a CRM heavyweight that is widely recognized.
Salesforce users can automate tasks and streamline workflow, thanks to its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. This feature is useful in freeing team members from tedious data entry and enables them to concentrate on sales.
Salesforce may have more bells and whistles than a small business needs due to its long list of features, which include commission management and call center management.
Additional characteristics:
- Quote-to-cash automation
- Opportunity management
- Sales forecasting
- Document management
- Copper
Copper, like Insightly, was designed with Google users in consideration.
Copper is chosen by people for its G-Suite integration capabilities. While its features may not be distinctly unique, users consistently praise Copper’s effortless user experience as its finest attribute.
Additional features:
- Pipeline reporting
- Google integration
- Project management
- Task automation
- Zoho
Zoho CRM is an excellent choice for businesses of any size, unlike numerous other CRMs that are specifically tailored for either small or large companies.
Zoho CRM offers the features commonly found in leading CRM software brands and also includes an artificial intelligence assistant called Zia. Recognizing the presence of multitaskers, the team behind Zoho CRM introduced Zia to provide additional support. Zia possesses the ability to respond to queries, retrieve sales reports, and even transcribe dictated notes.
Further features:
- Workflow automation
- Deal management
- Process management
- Journey orchestration
What Is CRM Software?
By tracking contacts and fostering them, CRM software aids in the development of customer loyalty and repeat sales. The integration of smart software enables the information collected by a reliable CRM to be easily accessed by other business platforms. In essence, CRM serves as the core component in managing the entire customer journey, ranging from the initial marketing interaction, to a successful transaction, and through to future engagements.
Some small businesses resort to using spreadsheets in order to replicate the functions of a CRM system. Nevertheless, this homemade remedy only provides a limited range of features compared to a full-fledged CRM, and when your customer database surpasses 100 entries, its inconvenience will become quite bothersome.
The top CRM solutions surpass spreadsheets in terms of usability and functionality. In addition to storing user and contact information, they automate various processes like generating calendar events, issuing appointment reminders, prioritizing the sales pipeline, and detecting new sales opportunities. By integrating with other customer data, such as interactions with the help desk, CRM systems can determine the probability of success for each opportunity.
This information is very valuable and provides ample opportunities. It allows you to pinpoint potential prospects for up-selling or cross-selling, convert your existing customers to new products or services, focus on new marketing strategies, and keep track of invoices. The software is also a crucial tool as it prevents multiple salespeople from pursuing the same prospect. By selecting the appropriate CRM software, you can greatly enhance your team’s collaboration and productivity while simultaneously boosting sales.
How to Shop for a CRM System
When deciding on a CRM, it is crucial to recognize that it is a substantial investment. Your pricing decision should begin with understanding how your salespeople work and having an idea of the features that can assist them. To obtain the most advantageous deal, you must assess your needs and consider them in relation to the suitable pricing tier. However, there are also additional factors to be cautious of.
When going through the process, the initial setup and training can consume a significant portion of the budget, as well as upgrades and ongoing support. Furthermore, incorporating the software with current systems could require additional equipment. As a result, the implementation of CRM workflow may necessitate the purchase of new PCs, smartphones, or tablets for the sales or customer service teams. These expenses can rapidly accumulate.
In addition, numerous CRM providers are broadening their offerings to include various domains beyond customer relationships. They are progressing towards overseeing the complete sales lifecycle, in which CRM embodies the entire customer journey. The level of customization required increases as the tool becomes more extensive. This is why it is vital to thoroughly assess these products.
When it comes to any software, it is important to make use of free trials whenever possible. Regardless of the number of reviews or demonstrations you go through, you cannot truly grasp the functioning of CRM software unless you experience it firsthand. Additionally, it is advisable to involve colleagues from various departments in the software testing process to assess its effectiveness in diverse scenarios.
What’s the Latest in CRM Software?
As businesses seek to enhance their customer interactions and retention, CRM software continually evolves in various ways. This can involve introducing new features and technologies, as well as reimagining familiar functionalities. With competing vendors striving for dominance in the market, the emergence of trends will shape the future state of CRM for the coming years.
A trend that has affected the industry is the inclination of customers to favor cloud-based CRM systems. In our most recent tests, all CRM systems are offered as cloud-based subscriptions, with limited availability in other forms. These cloud-based subscriptions, also referred to as software as a service (SaaS), possess numerous benefits compared to traditional on-premises software, such as reduced initial expenses, increased scalability, and enhanced flexibility.
One more recent advancement is social CRM, which combines CRM software with social media platforms so that businesses can monitor, engage, and manage their social media presence and interactions. Additionally, social CRM software enables companies to utilize social media data to generate leads, identify influencers, and gauge customer satisfaction.
Omnichannel CRM takes the idea of social CRM to a higher level by enabling businesses to engage with customers through various channels and devices, such as phone, email, web, mobile, and messaging apps. The goal is to offer a cohesive understanding of the customer’s journey and preferences across all points of contact.
A different feature of CRM known as the customer data platform (CDP) is also available. These systems gather and consolidate customer data from different sources, including online and offline transactions, web browsing, social media, and third-party platforms. CDP assists businesses in establishing a reliable source of customer data and offering a comprehensive understanding of the customer.
CRM vendors have been incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into their systems to automate tasks, offer customized suggestions, and extract insights from data. AI has also been utilized for improved customer interactions through chatbots, voice assistants, and sentiment analysis. Additionally, vendors have started to explore the possibilities of generative AI, utilizing language models like ChatGPT, to enhance these functionalities even more.
How to Match a CRM System to Your Needs
The most challenging aspect of selecting a reliable CRM is comprehending the capabilities of the product and determining the exact requirements of your sales team. Sales is a demanding and frequently fast-moving occupation, making it possible for your staff to become overwhelmed by the very tool you acquired to support them. This can negatively impact the rate of acceptance and usage, thus it is crucial to grasp their needs prior to introducing additional technology.
It is tempting to skip doing this homework and instead pay for a comprehensive CRM software package that includes all features. However, this approach will likely end up costing more in terms of time and money, and it may not provide the flexibility you expect. This is because these large CRM software packages are often platforms, not just tools. The many features they offer are the result of integrating with various third-party solution providers, rather than being built-in options. Integrating with third-party providers adds additional licensing expenses and other costs.
To approach the software evaluation better, start by understanding how your employees will use it. Consider the tools your team currently uses and their existing processes. Determine how these tasks align with the CRM software being considered. Also, think about the most common tasks performed. For instance, if a tool requires users to navigate through multiple menus to log a call or email, it will make their jobs more complicated rather than simpler. Many CRM tools now integrate email and sales functionalities into a unified inbox or centralized dashboard, enabling users to manage most daily communications and tasks within the CRM tool itself.
The methods by which companies engage with customers are undergoing rapid changes. While email is still the preferred mode of interaction for most customers, social media is quickly emerging as a transformative technology for customer engagement. It is important to comprehend the dynamics of customer interactions through email and ensure that your CRM software aligns with and supports this relationship, rather than obstructing it. A well-optimized CRM system should seamlessly capture data from email exchanges, eliminating the need for manual input by your employees.
After considering the requirements from the sales team’s point of view, reverse your thinking and consider your customer’s perspective. It may be helpful to conduct an online survey or focus group to determine their most satisfactory sales experience. By understanding this, you can customize your CRM system accordingly.
Why Is CRM Data Quality Important?
In order to tailor the process effectively, it is important to prioritize data quality. This entails being meticulous about both customer information obtained from the CRM and imported data from other systems like finance or service desk tickets. To ensure cleanliness, the data should be verifiable and in the correct import format, aligning directly with the CRM’s queries.
In 2022, Validity conducted a study involving over 600 organizations worldwide that use CRM. The study found that 75% of respondents believed that their firms had lost customers due to poor quality CRM data. Additionally, 44% estimated that their businesses had experienced a direct loss of at least 10% in annual revenue as a result of bad CRM data.
To ensure good data quality, it is necessary to conduct regular and repeatable tests on your system. Depending on the size of your staff and CRM investment, the Validity report suggests considering appointing a data management professional to oversee the maintenance of clean CRM data. This individual should manage the entire data flow, including any connected apps, and perform various data management tasks such as automating workflows, ensuring data protection and backup. If you anticipate hiring such a individual, it is recommended to involve them early on, preferably during the evaluation stage prior to making any purchases.
Watch Out for CRM Complexity
Complexity often poses a hindrance to the adoption of CRM. Some of the CRM products we evaluate offer an interface that can be extensively customized. This customization goes beyond superficial changes in appearance. Following data gathering, a CRM primarily functions as a central hub for workflows. This implies that you have the ability to determine the specific data you wish to collect, designate individuals responsible for providing it, specify the appropriate timing for its inclusion within your sales process, and determine its ultimate destination.
Step one for successful adoption is retooling your CRM’s interface to display only the necessary tools and features needed to complete the required steps. This may require a substantial amount of effort and not all tested products have this capability. However, leveraging the deep customizability of your CRM is one of the most effective methods to ensure that your CRM instance is user-friendly.
If things go wrong, whether it’s due to a software bug or difficulty in using a specific feature, having a responsive support team is essential. It can be included in your SLA if you have one, but if you don’t, you’ll have to independently ensure their reliability.
- Make sure to understand the level of support associated with your pricing tier and whether you can modify it.
- Research the provider’s support forum. You’re checking for the kinds of questions that are being asked and how long it takes before a response is issued.
- Check for DIY resources. Are there self-service tools for certain issues if there’s a support site? If there are, be sure to run through them to see how effective they are. Search the knowledge base to see what kinds of articles are included and the usual format. Make sure this content will be helpful to you.
- Investigate the product’s training options. Complex tools usually require some level of training, so see what your service vendor provides. Is on-site, in-person training your only option, or are there online resources, such as well-organized blogs, videos, and recorded webinars?
Make Mobile CRM a Priority
It is important to carefully examine the mobile app of the CRM solution. It should be a standalone app, rather than merely a mobile “capability” that is essentially a mobile-friendly version of the desktop website. Furthermore, there should be no additional cost for this mobile app. Mobile devices have distinct characteristics from desktops or notebooks, and employees use them in different ways. The software also functions differently on mobile devices, resulting in varied behaviors for business processes involving them.
When choosing a CRM software, consider if it is compatible with the mobile device platform your team uses. Determine if you provide employees with iPhones or have a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environment, which means supporting multiple platforms. Then, assess the capabilities of the app. Some apps only allow a read-only view of your sales pipeline or contacts, requiring updates on a computer. Other apps offer a seamless and responsive experience, allowing all tasks to be done on a mobile device. Test the mobile app in a manner that reflects regular day-to-day usage before committing to CRM software. For many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and their employees, the mobile functionality of a CRM app may be more essential than the desktop version.
Many CRM vendors specifically target a workforce that operates on mobile devices. These apps provide all the necessary features, with web design and layouts that are optimized for mobile usage. If your sales team primarily uses tablets and smartphones instead of laptops, it is important to equip them with suitable tools, and these apps fulfill that requirement.
Integrating CRM With Your Existing Systems
If the features offered by Salesforce and other larger CRM platforms meet your requirements, you can easily set up your entire solution by accessing the appropriate modules within their extensive feature stacks. However, in case there are any missing elements or if your sales team prefers using alternative software, you may have to rely on third-party vendors’ software to address any shortcomings.
Integration comes in two main forms. The simpler option is when the CRM system or the system you want to connect to supports the other system as a “native” integration. This implies that the company provides a ready-made integration module that can be easily downloaded and used whenever needed. You will have higher success with well-known targets, as many companies create pre-built integrations specifically for companies like NetSuite or Salesforce.
Another option is to create your own integration. This is particularly simple when both systems have an open API, with the most commonly used one being REST. By utilizing a REST API, developers can tailor an integration specifically for your needs. This choice offers the greatest degree of flexibility and customization, but it may also result in higher expenses depending on the coding expertise required.
In addition, you may also want to consider examining third-party software options or the software you currently use to determine if any integrations are available. It is possible that you already have a preferred email marketing software or would like to link your cloud storage service, lead management tool, or customer service management platform. As previously stated, the ability to connect your email account and potentially your calendar will be necessary.
A prime illustration of an integration that adds value to CRM would be the inclusion of your product support or help desk system. Aside from your sales team, your product support professionals are likely to have extensive direct interaction with your customers. The valuable information they gather from even brief conversations can be highly beneficial for a salesperson. Issues with one product line can potentially translate into opportunities for upselling another product.
At the beginning of your purchase, it is not sufficient to only know that your CRM supports third-party integrations. The range of integrations can vary greatly, so it is important to have a fairly accurate understanding of the desired experience for your salespeople and customers, both currently and in the future. Take sufficient time to carefully plan and map this out in order to minimize the chances of a deployment failure and to generate enthusiasm among your staff for the new system.
How to Secure Your CRM Data
When working with the sales pipeline and customer data, it is important to prioritize security, particularly if utilizing a SaaS CRM solution. This means that a significant portion, if not all, of your customer data is stored in the cloud. You should have confidence in the security requirements of the company you are working with. It is concerning if your CRM software allows you to choose a password without generating an audit trail when changes are made or if it does not allow you to establish access controls for each user. Customer data is incredibly valuable, especially since customers are becoming more reluctant to share it. Securing this data is not only about maintaining privacy, but also safeguarding profitable relationships that directly impact your financial success.
First and foremost, research is the key factor when considering integration and CRM software. It is important to ensure that the chosen CRM software can integrate with existing IT security software, particularly the identity management system, to enable single sign-on authentication for employees. However, the most crucial aspect is conducting thorough research. This entails thoroughly examining the vendor’s service level agreement (SLA) to determine the exact location of your data, who is accountable for its security, and the protocol in place in case of any issues. Additionally, conducting online investigations to check if the vendor has experienced any previous security breaches and understanding their response to such situations are also reliable ways to gauge the potential risks associated with entrusting your data to them.
