If you have a business, you likely know how important it is to build and maintain relationships with customers. Without any customers, you wouldn’t have a business. That being said, building and then keeping track of all these relationships can be a lot to handle. This is why Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software was created.
CRMs are used by businesses of any size to help manage customer relationships. At the core, CRMs are still used for that, but they also include many more features now. CRMs can be used to manage sales, marketing, sale transactions, invoicing, accounting, payrolling and much more. They can also help you grow your business as a good CRM can help you find leads and prospects through a sales pipeline. Apart from CRMs, you can also improve your customer relations by using scheduling software.
With so many great, beneficial features, what’s not to love about CRM software? There is a wide variety of companies that offer CRM software, so finding the best one can be hard. Thankfully, we’ve done it for you! We’ve compiled three of the best CRM software options and took a look at the pros and cons of each. If you are looking to make your business as efficient as it can be, keep reading!
Best CRM Software Reviews
Pipedrive
First on our list of the best CRM software is Pipedrive. Pipedrive is a CRM software and account management tool. With Pipedrive, small businesses and medium-sized businesses can streamline their sales and marketing process. Notably, Pipedrive CRM can help companies visualize their sales process. Using the entry-level software costs $12.50 per user per month, a low price to pay to help a sales team become more efficient.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using Pipedrive.
Pros
- The entry-level version of Pipedrive is affordable at only $12.50 per user per month.
- Pipedrive offers a great customer experience as it is a super easy to use CRM. This means small business owners can easily use the software without any prior knowledge.
- Sales pipeline methodology is built into Pipedrive to make the software more efficient.
- Pipedrive helps users choose which activities and deals their sales teams should focus on. This is meant to encourage business growth.
- Pipedrive has great customization options. For example, you can easily turn on or off any modules you don’t need.
- Pipedrive is available via a mobile app for easy access. All of your data will be backed up in real-time to a server.
- Customer support is available 24/7 via phone, email, or live chat.
- Available in 13 different languages.
- You can easily import or export your data into or off of Pipedrive if you want to use a different CRM platform.
- A 14-day free trial is available for sales people to try out.
Cons
- Lack of marketing automation software.
- Pipedrive is best used as a current sales tool. This means it is not built for email marketing, DRIP automation, or newsletters.
- There is no separation between your contacts and list of new leads.
Summary
As a small business owner, you may be hard-pressed to find a better CRM. Pipedrive is the best CRM software for small businesses as it is affordable, easy to use and effective. With Pipedrive, you can track emails, set goals to help keep your company organized, and much more.
Small businesses do not need to worry about extensive CRM systems to help make their company run smoothly. Pipedrive has everything any small business would need. You don’t need to take our word for it, utilize Pipedrive’s 14-day trial today and test it out for yourself.
Hubspot
Another one of the best CRM systems available is Hubspot. Hubspot has been around since 2005 to help companies streamline their business processes so they can reach their full potential. To do this, you can use Hubspot for marketing, sales processes and organize customer data, such as their contact information. This will keep all of your important information in one, easy to reach place.
If that wasn’t enough, Hubspot also includes free CRM software for email marketing, social media management, customer service tools, and marketing automation software. It can also be used for content marketing or to build a whole new website.
To learn even more about this software customer relationship management, Hubspot, let’s look at some of its pros and cons.
Pros
- The Hubspot CRM is free to use, making it a great option for any small business, regardless of their budget. A paid account is also available for anyone that wishes to access more features.
- You can use the Hubspot CRM on its own or can connect it to the marketing, service, and sales hubs.
- Your customer interactions and prospects will be tracked. Interactions via email, social media, or phone, the information will be stored.
- Tools for sorting deals, creating reports, and tracking performance are all available as well.
- Hubspot allows you to integrate third-party apps, such as WordPress or Outlook, so you can utilize them within the CRM.
- Marketing, sales, and customer service courses are available on HubSpot Academy.
Cons
- Reporting tools are quite basic.
- This CRM is best used by small businesses that don’t have a complex sales process.
- If you need access to more of Hubspot’s features beyond their basic ones, you will need to pay at least $50 per month.
Summary
Hubspot is a great budget-friendly CRM solution as the CRM is free, making it great for a smaller business with limited needs. If your sales process is complex, however, you will need to pay to access more of Hubspot’s features. This can lead Hubspot to be more expensive than other CRM solutions. If the basic CRM is enough for your team, it’s a great option.
With it, you can access the following:
- Contact management
- Contact website activity
- Company records
- Deals
- Tasks and activities
- Company insights
- Email integration (Gmail and Outlook)
- App Marketplace integrations
- Custom support form fields
- Ticketing
- Prospects
- Forms
- Opportunity management
- Lead management
- Sales automation
- and much more
As this CRM system is completely free, what do you have to lose? Hubspot is one of the best, most affordable CRM system options available to smaller businesses.
Sage CRM
The last CRM on our list of the best CRM software is Sage CRM. Although Sage CRM started in the United Kingdom, this CRM is now available in 23 countries, including Canada. As Sage CRM has been around since 1981, the software has been perfected.
With Sage CRM, users can enjoy plenty of features. This includes content management, project management, sales force automation, and much more. Here are some of the pros and cons of using this CRM software, Sage CRM.
Pros
- Available in 23 countries, including Canada.
- Sage CRM offers the best customer support via phone, live chat, and email. The help desk is available for assistance in training, troubleshooting, installation, upgrading, cancellation, and more.
- Advanced features, such as campaign management and case management, are available on Sage CRM.
- Sage CRM can also be used to integrate social networks, great for building customer relationships.
- Third-party platforms can be integrated into Sage CRM.
- Sage CRM can produce actionable insights and voluminous sales information.
- CRM tool for collaboration is available on Sage CRM.
- The software offers your team insights into how your business is doing. It will help you come up with recommendations for how to best improve your business.
- Sage CRM offers great sales and marketing techniques that would work best for your customers.
Cons
- There is no trial available for Sage CRM.
- The Sage CRM cloud-based software is on the pricier side at $39 per user/ month.
- Sage CRM runs a quote-based plan. This means you need to contact Sage CRM sales reps to find out how much the plan will cost.
Summary
Although Sage CRM is one of the more expensive CRM platforms, it is also one of the best. Sage CRM has been around since 1981, and their team and sales reps have learned a lot. In that time, the software has constantly been improved upon to ensure business owners are getting the most out of it.
You can rely on Sage CRM to help you build customer relations, which will, in turn, help you grow your business. To find out the price of the Sage CRM plan, you will need to contact their team directly.
How to Choose the Right CRM Software For You?
As there are so many CRMs available right now, finding the best one for you and your team can be hard. As every business is different, so are the needs for your CRM. That being said, here are some of the important factors you should consider before choosing a CRM solution.
The first thing you should consider is what features you need. Most CRMs will have similar features, but which are the most important to you and your business? Start by making a list of all the features you need. Maybe you only want lead management and marketing. Maybe you want e-commerce integration or project management. Whatever it is, ensure that the CRM you choose has features you actually need.
Then, think about how easy CRM solutions are to implement. If the software is confusing and hard to learn, you may end up wasting more time than you save. This is especially true if you have to teach your entire team how to use the CRM.
Lastly, think of the cost. CRMs can be expensive, but you want to ensure the cost is worth it for your business. If it will end up saving you a lot of time and it fits in your budget, it’s likely a good option.
The Bottom Line
CRMs are no longer just for managing customer relations; they have evolved into much more than that. Now, most CRMs can help manage projects, create marketing plans, enhance contact management, forecast sales, heighten productivity, and much more.
Any business, no matter how big or small could benefit from using a CRM. This is especially true when free CRMs, such as Hubspot, exist to help small businesses thrive. Even if you want a more extensive CRM, fees for Pipedrive and Sage CRM are fair and often worth the expense.
Before you commit to any CRM, ensure that it offers all the features you need to help your business grow. The main benefit of using a CRM is that it saves you time and thus saves you money. If the CRM doesn’t have the features you need to save you time, try different software.
Most CRMs offer a trial for free. This is a great way of testing out the software to see if it will benefit your businesses or not. Notably, Hubspot and Pipedrive both offer a 14-day trial. Head over to their respective websites to test out the software for yourself. If you are interested in Sage CRM, you can contact their team for a quote on the software.
