Best CRM Software Of 2024

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Why We Picked Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a cloud-based CRM solution that serves businesses of all sizes and across various industries. It provides users with real-time data analysis, AI-powered sales performance optimization and extensive automation and customization. You can streamline workflows and improve sales efficiency with lead nurturing, deal management, and third-party integrations.

During our test run of their free trial, we loved working with standout features like the customizable dashboard, automated lead creation via the email parser and drop-down linking for account, product, lead and quote creation.

However, users report a learning curve associated with full feature utilization and customization. Additionally, some advanced features and functionalities require upgrades to higher tiers making it expensive for smaller teams. Overall, Zoho CRM offers an interoperable solution for businesses looking for a customizable, affordable CRM platform.

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Pros & Cons

Work Offline: Users who mention this feature say the platform functions well even when used in offline mode.
Business Management: The system monitors business performance, populates the website with suitable visitors and keeps a tab on productivity and output, eliminating unmatched customers and removing hassle according to users who mention this aspect.
Affordable: Users said the software is budget-friendly as compared to other CRM systems and has considerably more adaptive features for the price.
Integrations: Reviewers appreciated Zoho’s integration with in-house tools that support unified workflows, flexibility and email functionality.

Learning Curve: Users mentioned some features and customization requires additional time and learning to implement.
Customer Support: Zoho’s customer support and inquiry resolution isn’t very responsive, according to users who refer to support. However, the chat support is comparatively better.
Lags and Delays: Reviewers noted there is sometimes a lag in notifications for email tracking and updates.

Key Features

Sales Force Automation: Automate tedious sales tasks such as lead generation and routing, data entry, email notifications, field updates and more. Optimize lead management, deal management, account management, contact management, and manage workflow and assignment rules.
Process Management: Enable your sales team to follow a standardized sales strategy. Use the blueprint feature to log offline processes such as order management or deal closure, ensuring consistent execution. Create automated approvals for common activities such as vacation time requests, capital expense reports and pricing discount requests. Additionally, you can set rules for assigning leads, escalating cases and validating CRM data.
Opportunity Management: Keep everyone’s antennas tuned to the same channel with Zoho’s activity tracking for all customer interactions like emails, calls, tasks and notes. Create deals and associate them with campaigns with drop-down fields and generate multiple pipelines using the standard template or your own personalized fields You can create a custom Kanban view using dropdown options and fields.
Multichannel Support: Connect with your email platform to send emails directly from the CRM. Connect your brand’s social media channel to respond in real-time, follow relevant conversations and automate lead generation. Use the Phonebridge integration to enable sales reps to easily log and track information from calls. You can also embed live chat and lead capture forms on your website to facilitate sales, marketing and customer service efforts.
Sales Enablement: Aid sales reps in their daily jobs using features like quotes and purchase orders (via integration with Zoho’s Finance Suite), a documents library, integration with Zoho’s presentation and document creation applications, and external-facing portals for partners and vendors. It also offers a calendar, a feature called SalesInbox for prioritizing the most lucrative emails, a web meeting platform through the Zoho Meeting integration, real-time notifications, collaboration feeds and more.
Performance Management: Gauge how a product, team or region is performing with forecasting tools. Group customers based on shared attributes (region, product, etc.) with territory management and gamify elements to encourage friendly competition that boosts performance among sales reps. Zia can also help improve performance by helping you target leads that are most likely to generate revenue. Your sales reps can engage with website visitors via chatbots for web and mobile, so every query receives attention even if they’re away from their desks.
Marketing Automation: Streamline marketing efforts by segmenting customers using a range of criteria, automating lead nurturing follow-ups, creating code-free web forms to gather customer information, scanning and uploading business cards, and analyzing campaign spending. Use capabilities like end-to-end event management, email campaign capabilities, surveys, and marketing details like budgets and performance metrics. A hierarchy feature lets you hook sub-campaigns to related main campaigns.
Team Collaboration: Use Feeds as a central location for collaborating, sharing announcements and offering advice. You can integrate chat functionality to facilitate everyday tasks and automatically send real-time sales updates. Users can leave notes on records or activities and tag other team members. Other features include groups for collaborating around specific events or for specific purposes, as well as project management tools via integration with Zoho Projects.
Third-Party Integrations: Connect with more than 50 third-party apps for collaboration, document management, live chat, telephony, messaging, events and meetings, quote management, document signing, lead management, marketing automation, social media, storage and more. Integrations include G Suite, Office 365, Slack, Shopify, Mailchimp, Facebook Ads, QuickBooks, GoToWebinar, DocuSign, Dropbox and Zapier.
Security: Store critical business data in secure vaults, choose where you want your data stored (U.S. and EU data centers) and encrypt data fields. Use audit logs to track activity, enable two-factor authentication and designate which IP addresses users can use to log in. Real-time backups on multiple servers ensure you won’t lose data due to a system-based or natural disaster.

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Salesforce Sales Cloud

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^$25

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Why We Picked Salesforce Sales Cloud

Based on our research and user feedback, Salesforce Sales Cloud turned out to be a powerful and flexible CRM solution, capable of accommodating businesses of any size.

Its AI-powered features, especially Einstein, truly set it apart. This tool provides predictive analytics, lead scoring, opportunity scoring and sentiment analysis to improve sales efficiency.

We found the mobile app to be feature-rich, offering full functionality for sales teams on the move, including forecasting and account management.

Yet, some users reported a learning curve for advanced features. While the basic functionalities are user-friendly, leveraging the full potential of Sales Cloud may require proper training. Additionally, smaller organizations might find the pricing structure challenging, as costs can accumulate quickly with add-ons and advanced features.

Integration capabilities are generally strong, but we observed that some key functionalities, such as event tracking and eCommerce integrations, rely on third-party providers. This could add complexity and cost for businesses requiring these features.

Overall, Salesforce Sales Cloud is well-suited for organizations seeking a reliable, AI-enhanced CRM with extensive customization options and analytical capabilities. It's particularly valuable for businesses expecting growth, as the platform can scale effectively. However, potential users should carefully consider their budget, required features and available resources for implementation and management when assessing this CRM.

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Pros & Cons

Easy To Use: Many users report that Salesforce has a user-friendly and intuitive interface, making it accessible to both beginners and experienced users.
Good Vendor Support: Salesforce offers quality support. Users often mention that the company treats them more like partners than just customers.
Highly Customizable: Developers find that the level of customization provided by Sales Cloud helps them extend Salesforce's features effectively.
Scalability: Salesforce is suitable for companies of all sizes. It's a long-term solution that can adapt to evolving organizational needs.

Learning Curve: While the interface is user-friendly, users need proper training to use Salesforce efficiently, especially for more advanced features.
Cost: Several users, particularly from smaller organizations, point out that the overall price can be a concern for businesses with limited budgets.
Resource Intensive: While Salesforce can do almost anything, it often requires a dedicated team and skilled resources to manage it effectively.

Key Features

Sales Forecasting: You can build accurate sales projections and custom forecast types based on various data points, measures and dates to get a clear picture of your future sales performance.
Lead Management: With Sales Cloud, it’s easy to capture leads, manage campaigns and convert opportunities into sales. You can create forms on your website, use LinkedIn ads or have AI chatbots talk to potential customers.
- AI-based Lead Conversion: The Einstein Lead Scoring tool analyzes past conversion patterns to predict which current leads are most likely to convert, helping you prioritize the most promising prospects.
Integration Capabilities: Connect Salesforce with your favorite tools and platforms. A wide range of plugins is available, enabling you to create a smooth workflow across all your applications.
Reporting and Analytics: While the reporting system is user-friendly, quick and can generate real-time reports, it also offers flexibility for more advanced users who want to customize their reports. You can also create reports for territories and collaborative forecasts.
Mobile App: Salesforce’s mobile app lets you create, edit and view records for accounts, campaigns, cases, contacts, forecasts and leads. Additionally, you can use Salesforce Chatter to see feeds, groups and people. What data you can access depends on your organization's settings.

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Pricing

License/Subscription Cost	Based on a recurring subscription-based model: per user, per month (billed annually) All products require an annual contract Cost varies depending on the package selected — Lightning Essentials, Lightning Professional, Lightning Enterprise or Lightning Unlimited (refer to the pricing section for details)
Maintenance Cost	Included in the subscription cost Users aren’t required to pay server fees or annual maintenance charges Provides technical support and Help Center to resolve issues. Streamlines the implementation process through videos, training and certification, a customer community, documentation, interactive tutorials, and webinars
Installation/Implementation Cost	The cost is over and above the subscription cost Salesforce implementation can cost anywhere between $2,000 and $20,000, delivered within 2-3 weeks or 2 months Salesforce implementation partners/contractors handle implementation, charging anywhere from $16/hour to over $190/hour
Customization Cost	Cost varies depending on the selected plan and any functional requirements added to the basic business requirements Add-on charges include $50/user/month for knowledge base access and $250/GB/month for additional data storage capacity
Data Migration Cost/Change Management/Upfront Switching Cost	Cost varies depending on the amount of CRM data to be migrated, such as opportunities, cases, activities, contracts, orders, invoices, data duplication, data archiving and restoration
Recurring/Renewal Costs	Renewal cost is included in the subscription fee Users may incur additional costs for premium support services, application administration, data archiving and restoration services chosen, if any

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HubSpot Sales

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^$15

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Why We Picked HubSpot Sales

After getting our hands on HubSpot Sales Hub, we found it extremely easy to use, thanks to the helpful guides and support materials. We believe the Sales Hub is the best part of HubSpot overall.

One big plus is how much you can automate with HubSpot. Setting up automatic emails, follow-ups and task updates is effortless, saving significant time compared to manual processes.

Another benefit is that HubSpot has everything in one place. You don't need to add a bunch of other tools or plugins to make it work well.

However, there are some downsides. The main one is the cost. While HubSpot offers a free version that many find useful, it can get expensive quickly if you need more advanced features. We found that it can end up costing more than similar tools when you add all the extras you need.

Another consideration is that while HubSpot has most of the features you'd want in a sales tool, some common ones are only available in the more expensive plans. This can be challenging for small businesses.

Overall, HubSpot Sales Hub offers significant advantages for medium to large enterprises. We advise you to think carefully about what features you need and how much you're willing to spend before committing.

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Pros & Cons

Ease of Use: Users praised the platform's straightforward navigation and user-friendly features.
Customer Support: Reviewers appreciated the prompt and helpful assistance available when issues arise.
Learning Resources: An active community and extensive support materials, including tutorials, guides and forums, aid users in mastering the platform.
Team Collaboration: Sales Hub promotes seamless communication and information sharing among team members with its collaborative features.

Cost: Many users found HubSpot Sales Hub's pricing structure challenging, especially for smaller businesses. The need for paid add-ons to access certain features can increase overall costs.
Initial Setup: Despite its user-friendly interface, the initial setup process can be complex.
Forecasting: Some users mentioned that the forecasting feature could be more advanced or customizable.

Key Features

Lead Scoring: You can evaluate and score leads based on demographic data and prospect actions, helping prioritize those most likely to convert.
- Lead Deduplication: The system can automatically identify and merge duplicate leads or contacts within the CRM by comparing various identifiers such as names, email addresses, domain names and phone numbers.
- Lead Distribution: Set up custom workflow rules to automatically assign leads to salespeople or teams based on criteria, such as geographic location, industry, product interest, department, lead source and even budget size.
Custom Reports: You can create tailored reports by extracting data from multiple areas of the CRM platform, meeting unique business requirements.
- Pre-Built Reports: Access pre-built report templates for quick insights into sales performance and milestones, with options for saved searches and filters.
- Report Scheduling and Exporting: Export reports in PDF, XLS or CSV formats or schedule them for recurring email delivery.
Email Communication: The platform offers a standard email configuration, allowing you to send and receive emails directly within the CRM system.
- Email Scheduling: Schedule emails for future delivery at specific dates and times. The system provides pre-selected time options or allows for custom scheduling.
- Email Status: Real-time notifications alert users when prospects open emails and the system helps you set follow-up reminders.
- Email Templates: HubSpot offers pre-built email templates for various purposes, streamlining communication for lead nurturing, follow-ups and customer engagement.
Native iOS and Android Apps: The mobile app allows you to access and update CRM data, schedule meetings and collaborate with team members while on the go.
Data Visualizations: You can generate interactive, drill-down visualizations in various formats, including bar, line, funnel, table, column, donut and pie charts.
Appointment Scheduling: HubSpot Sales Hub enables seamless appointment booking through schedulers or calendar links. You can effortlessly capture essential details like location, customer name and time.

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Oracle Sales Cloud

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^$65

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Why We Picked Oracle Sales Cloud

While getting hands-on with Oracle Sales Cloud, I was very impressed by its complete feature set. The automation tools were particularly helpful, simplifying workflow from lead management to opportunity tracking. Users also agree they find themselves spending less time on administrative tasks and more time engaging with potential clients.

The B2B Service Center turned out to be essential for cross-team collaboration. Having a 360-degree customer view makes it easy to address client needs promptly. I also appreciate the milestone and SLA tracking features, which help to stay on top of critical deadlines without breaking a sweat.

Even though the platform's comprehensive nature initially felt overwhelming, I soon learned the capacity of its AI capabilities. The adaptive intelligence feature can become a go-to for identifying high-potential opportunities, and predictive analytics helps tailor your approach to each client's unique needs.

In a time where subscription-based models are becoming increasingly prevalent, having built-in tools like Oracle’s subscription management can be a significant advantage. While I didn't have the chance to explore all of them, Oracle's industry-specific solutions and their tailored approach for different sectors like healthcare and financial services showed me how versatile the platform could be.

Yet, I did encounter a few hurdles. The learning curve was steeper than I anticipated. Also, its high cost and complexity may be a barrier for some users. Despite these challenges, the benefits of Oracle Sales Cloud far outweigh its drawbacks. The platform's scalability and integration with other Oracle products make it a solid choice for businesses looking to future-proof their CRM solution.

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Pros & Cons

Streamlined Sales Process: Users state that Oracle Sales helps them automate their sales process, from lead generation to opportunity management and closing deals.
Better Sales Visibility: Oracle Sales provides a comprehensive view of your sales pipeline, allowing you to track your progress and identify areas for improvement.
Improved Customer Relationships: Users often mention the platform helps them build stronger relationships with their customers by providing them with a personalized experience.
Scalability: Oracle Sales is a scalable and flexible solution that can grow with your business.

Cost and Complexity: The platform can be expensive to implement and maintain, especially for small businesses. The initial cost of the software can be high, and there are ongoing maintenance costs. Additionally, Oracle Sales can be complex to implement and use, which can require significant training for your sales team.
Steep Learning Curve: It has a steep learning curve, which can be challenging for new users. The interface is not as intuitive as some other solutions.
Limited Customization: Oracle Sales is not as customizable as some other CRMs. You may not be able to configure the software to meet your specific needs.
Integrations: It does not integrate with many third-party applications, making it difficult to integrate with other tools that you use.

Key Features

Sales Force Automation: Oracle lets you automate the sales process using mobile access, artificial intelligence, email integration, sales-focused digital assistants and elastic search. It also provides contextual insights, recommendations and predictive outcomes and effectively manages leads, accounts, contacts, opportunities, assets, activities and assessments.
B2B Service Center: You can streamline interactions and enable collaboration between multiple teams with a 360-degree customer view, which provides:
- Milestones, entitlements and SLA tracking for managing critical dates and contractual obligations.
- Integrated sales and service capabilities on a single platform.
- A combination of sales automation, service request management, knowledge management and digital customer service.
Sales Planning and Performance Management: The platform hosts advanced incentive compensation, compensation dashboards, and territory and quota management tools with what-if capabilities. Sales reps can access automated sales methodologies using connected data powered by AI.
Partner Portal: Available out-of-the-box, it streamlines partner activities from recruitment and lead management to MDF disbursement. It also offers automated lead distribution, sales training materials, qualification and conversion tools, and an integrated configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution.
Oracle CPQ: This feature supports sales representatives with tools for subscription orders, multiple price books, discretionary discounting, deal management intelligence, and dynamic workflows. It includes quote management features like a document designer, contract management and electronic signatures. This integrates with CRM and ERP systems, web services, and B2B commerce platforms.
Subscription Lifecycle Management: You can integrate front- and back-office processes on one platform. This provides consumption-based billing, fixed and recurring orders, revenue recognition, and a 360-degree view of customer subscriptions. You can also track KPIs, monthly recurring revenue, total contract value, average revenue per user, churn rate and customer lifetime value.
B2B Commerce: This omnichannel feature extends self-service and digital experiences with the flexibility to customize to meet the needs of an organization. Features include guided search, merchandising, personalization, promotions, native A/B testing, a single admin interface for managing multiple stores, integrated commerce and CPQ, and more.
Customer Data Management: Oracle Sales Cloud offers data cleansing and integrated business intelligence views. These capabilities provide B2B and B2C firms with personalization, cost management, account-based marketing campaigns and campaign segmentation.
Dynamic Dashboards: Gain real-time insights into customers, teams and business metrics, such as seasonality, recurring sales and the overlay of sales teams. You can drill down for more granular analysis.
Sales Management: Oracle’s mobile app provides a fully customizable experience for sales teams on the go, available for Android and iOS devices. Cached views of customers and accounts are available offline.
Sales Strategy Optimization: With intelligent guided selling, you can analyze the probability of lead conversion, get recommendations for next-best actions, determine account prioritization, track market signals and more.

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Dynamics 365 Sales

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^$65

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Why We Picked Dynamics 365 Sales

User reviews of Dynamics 365 Sales paint a picture of a powerful CRM with potential drawbacks. Fans praise its comprehensive features, from in-depth sales pipeline management to robust analytics. The seamless integration with other Microsoft products like Teams and Office 365 is a major draw for organizations already invested in the ecosystem. This unified experience boosts productivity and simplifies workflows, especially for sales teams accustomed to Microsoft tools. However, the complexity of Dynamics 365 Sales also presents a hurdle. The learning curve can be steep for new users, and some features lack the flexibility for deep customization compared to competitors like Salesforce. Additionally, the price tag scales with user licenses and features, potentially making it cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses or those with simpler sales needs. Ultimately, user reviews suggest Dynamics 365 Sales shines for mid-sized to larger organizations with complex sales pipelines and a commitment to the Microsoft ecosystem. Its strengths in data analysis, reporting, and integration outweigh the learning curve and cost concerns for many users. However, those seeking a more user-friendly or budget-friendly option may find alternative CRMs more suitable.

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Pros & Cons

Streamlined Workflow: Intuitive interface and automation features save time and effort, boosting productivity.
Forecast Accuracy: Powerful analytics and reporting tools provide clear insights into pipeline health and sales performance.
360° Customer View: Centralized data and comprehensive customer profiles enable personalized interactions and stronger relationships.
Unified Ecosystem: Integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft tools like Outlook and Teams, streamlining workflows and boosting efficiency.
Adaptable to Growth: Scales to meet the needs of growing businesses and allows for customization to fit specific workflows.

Learning Curve: Initial setup and user adoption can require significant training and support.
Costly for Large Deployments: Pricing scales with user licenses and features, potentially reaching enterprise-level costs for extensive use.
Performance Glitches: Users report occasional lag or bugs, especially with large datasets or complex configurations.
Customization Constraints: Some features offer less flexibility for customization compared to other CRM solutions.
Data Migration Challenges: Migrating data from existing systems can be complex and require technical expertise.

Key Features

Lead Management: Reps can connect with customers, create and define leads, and work with business process flows to manage them throughout their lifecycle. It also provides information about qualifying and disqualifying the leads.
Opportunity Management: Create, use and manage opportunities to convert more leads. Shows options for creating opportunities and their relationships with other records.
Interactive Dashboards: Get an overview of actionable business data, collected from views, lists and charts, viewable across the organization. Available in multi-stream and single stream format, catering to different levels of complexity and number of data sources. Offers global and timeframe filters, along with interactive charts to provide relevant records count, such as cases by priority or by status.
Sales Playbook: Guides team members on how to respond to events when a decision-maker of an ongoing deal leaves an organization. Provides repeatable, winning sales techniques, and contextual reference materials.
Power Apps: Generate, customize, share and run mobile apps with little or no code. Apps can be shared with the other users in the organization.
Power BI Integration: Identify opportunities on a single dashboard, analyze the pipeline and view sales across a variety of metrics to gain actionable insights. Connect to hundreds of data sources like Excel spreadsheets, on-premise systems, big data, streaming data, cloud services and more.
Partner Relationship Management: Recruit, onboard and strengthen partner channels so that partners can have a quick view of interactions across opportunities, cases and other relevant information.
Collaboration: Sales teams can collaborate on deals across functions and geography, with customer information and document sharing directly from Microsoft Teams. The system integrates with Microsoft Office and libraries on SharePoint, enabling quick and easy quotes, RFPs and email sharing.

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Creatio

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^$25

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Why We Picked Creatio

After testing Creatio, I've discovered it's much more than just another CRM platform. It's an advanced Business Process Management (BPM) system with CRM capabilities baked in. The recent Freedom UI update has given it a modern, next-generation feel that makes it stand out.

From a customization standpoint, I found the no-code tools surprisingly intuitive. I was able to learn how to customize the solution myself without constantly needing technical support, which was a huge plus. That said, for more complex applications, you'll still want an IT team on standby.

Creatio Developer Pranshu Basak said:

Evaluating Creatio as a whole, it stands out as more than just a CRM. Its pros are its best-in-class business process management capabilities and its extensive configuration options. Creatio offers detailed settings for design, actions, customization and user experience.

However, one con is the steep learning curve, especially for developers, due to its depth of functionality and customization features. Also, it has very little to no UI options.”

The system's flexibility is visible in how it handles business processes. I was impressed with the campaign features — even complex marketing campaigns were surprisingly manageable. The bi-weekly updates from the vendor kept things running smoothly, quickly addressing the few minor bugs I encountered along the way.

However, I did face some challenges worth noting. Load times were occasionally frustrating, with some pages taking longer than expected. I also ran into some reliability issues with the scheduled emails feature, which sometimes failed to send as planned. These might not be deal-breakers for many, but they're worth keeping in mind.

The platform's depth is a striking aspect. While everyday users might pick up the basic interface quickly, I found myself occasionally overwhelmed by the sheer number of features and customization options available. The tools are incredibly useful but potentially daunting if you're new to it.

Creatio's commitment to user feedback is commendable. Their continuous platform improvements based on user suggestions show how they're serious about evolving with their customers' needs. The extensive third-party integration options were impressive, though I noticed most of them required additional providers to set up.

In general, Creatio is a strong yet flexible platform that might be overkill for simple CRM needs but really shines when you need comprehensive business process management with CRM capabilities. While there's definitely a learning curve, the payoff in terms of functionality and customization options makes it worth considering for organizations ready to invest the time.

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Pros & Cons

Intuitive Design: The clean, intuitive interface makes daily tasks simple and helps users quickly find what they need.
Easy Customization: Creatio's drag-and-drop customization tools let you tailor the system to match your business needs without technical expertise.
Responsive Customer Support: The support team provides comprehensive assistance through multiple channels whenever you need help.
Low-Code Platform: Creatio Studio enables you to create custom workflows and apps without extensive programming knowledge.

Not Beginner-Friendly: The extensive feature set can overwhelm new users who might need extra time to learn and understand all available tools.
Performance Issues: Pages and functions can take longer to load compared to simpler CRM systems, which might slow down your work pace.

Key Features

Comprehensive Knowledge Base: Build an electronic library that stores all your important company documents, from FAQs to document templates and advertising materials. Your team can easily add files by dragging and dropping them into the system and even link specific articles to customer cases for quick problem-solving.
Mobile Access: Stay connected to your customer data through native iOS and Android apps. You can view and edit records, make calls directly from the app and even access customer information when you're offline.
Opportunity Management: You can track deals from initial interest to final closure, with automated opportunity creation from converted leads. The system fills in important details like contact information and product lists while also allowing the manual creation of opportunities when needed.
Product Management: Keep track of all your products and services in one central location, complete with photos, codes and pricing details. Creatio calculates total contract values when products are added to opportunities, making it easier to forecast potential revenue.
Sales Documentation: You can manage all your sales paperwork, from quotes to contracts and invoices, in one place and generate invoice numbers. The platform lets you track every document related to your sales deals, making it simple to keep everything organized.
Workflow Management: You can create multiple automated workflows using simple drag-and-drop tools without needing technical expertise. The CRM lets you set up specific rules that automatically respond to events or data changes, keeping your business processes running smoothly.
Caller Identification: Track and recognize phone numbers for both incoming and outgoing calls on mobile devices. When someone calls or is called, Creatio automatically displays their name if they're in your database. If a number is linked to multiple contacts, you'll see a clear list of all possible matches.
Self-Service Portal: Customers Give your customers control through a comprehensive self-service portal. They can search the knowledge base for answers, submit and monitor support cases, and maintain direct communication with your support team through the portal's feed feature.

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monday sales CRM

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^$12

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Why We Picked monday sales CRM

monday.com sales CRM is a user-friendly CRM solution for small and medium businesses. Key strengths include an intuitive interface, custom workflows and automations and real-time data dashboards. Its customization capabilities mean it caters to an array of industries and offers features like lead management, activity tracking, email integration, and multiple pipeline deal views. During our free trial, we appreciated the no-code automation builder, easy contact creation and simple board creation.

However, user reviews mentioned occasional lag times, a learning curve for full utilization, and limited API integration capabilities. Overall, monday.com Sales CRM is an excellent starter CRM for businesses thanks to its ease of use, customization options and affordability.

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Pros & Cons

Easy-To-Use: Users mentioned the solution was user friendly and easy to deploy and set up.
Customization: Creating customizable workflows and automations that are adaptable as the business grows was a plus for users.
Dashboard and Reports: Reviewers appreciated teh real time updates to customizable dashboards and simple reporting.

Lags: Users mentioned that the system would occasionally lag and load slowly.
Learning Curve: To fully utilize the system, reviewers mentioned a need for time and program knowledge.
Integrations: According to reviewers the APIs needed needed finetuning and doesn’t integrate with some products.

Key Features

Activity Management: Store customer-related activities like phone calls, meetings, notes and other interactions. Monitor staff’s upcoming or pending tasks for easy planning. Meet deadlines by setting dependencies on projects. Follow-up at the right time by keeping track of post-sales activities.
Email: Manage email communications within the system by syncing with Gmail and Outlook.
- Set up automated alerts to receive notifications when a prospect opens or replies to emails.
- Personalize interactions by accessing customizable templates. Automatically fill fields according to customer information.
- Automatically save all emails as drafts to prevent data loss.
Dashboards: Create custom dashboards to visualize data like sales reps’ performance, team goals, pipelines, budget and sales figures. Monitor metrics such as total wins, conversion probability and quota reached per team or employee.
Lead Management: Capture leads from multiple sources and qualify them in a centralized location. Set up custom criteria to assign scores to leads. Manually add leads into the system.
Automation: Reduce manual dependency by configuring no-code automation workflows from scratch or by modifying templates.
- Set up automated reminders for upcoming deadlines.
- Automatically route leads to the right sales rep.
- Instantly receive notifications after task completion.
- Automatically send emails on the due date.
Integrations: Access integrations with third-party solutions, including Dropbox, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, LinkedIn, Zapier, Mailchimp, SurveyMonkey and GitHub.
Collaboration: Coordinate with team members, share files and finalize decisions in a centralized space.
- Communicate directly on files and tasks to speed up work and avoid constant back and forth.
- Automatically add new versions of a file and store them in a logical way. Sync updates to files in real time.
- Secure data by setting up user access and permissions.
- Automate project workflows to keep everyone in the loop.
- Plan projects and centralize communication via kanban boards and Gantt charts.
Deal Management: Use the drag-and-drop functionality to move deals to different stages. Customize sales pipelines, calculate funnel coverage and view deal results.

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Best for Document Management

Best for Mobile Capabilities

Best for Opportunity Management

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Best for Quotes, Orders, and Contracts Management

Sugar Sell

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^$50

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Why We Picked Sugar Sell

Suitable for small, medium and large businesses, Sugar Sell helps automate sales, email and marketing. It excels in capabilities such as customization, tracking, data visualization, follow up and reminders. It also provides robust dashboards and reporting tools.

However, it takes a lot of time to run in certain instances, as noted by many reviewers. The solution’s interface looks outdated and needs an update. It also has too many features, which makes finding certain workflows and processes difficult. That said, it's a popular sales tool that facilitates complete customer lifecycle management, making it a good investment.

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Pros & Cons

Customizability: 74% of the reviewers referring to this feature felt the system is highly customizable.
Tracking: It’s easy to track leads, meetings and prospects, as observed by every reviewer who talked about this feature.
Data Visualization: The software has robust data visualization and reporting capabilities, as noted by every user who reviewed this aspect.
Integrations: 63% of the reviews on integrations mentioned they were adequate and helpful.
Follow-up: Every user who reviewed this element liked follow-up features and reminders.

Workflows: 67% of the reviewers who mentioned this feature noted that it’s difficult to locate certain workflows and processes.
Slow Performance: The tool becomes slow when downloading data, updating files or performing other heavy tasks, as observed by every reviewer who discussed this aspect.
Interface: 80% of the reviews about this feature indicated that the interface looks outdated and needs improvement.
Too Many Features: 83% of the reviewers who referenced this aspect noted the solution has a lot of unnecessary features.

Key Features

Contact Management: Store customer data in a centralized and unified platform. View accounts, opportunities, deals, engagement, interactions, tickets and activities in a visual, comprehensible manner.
Call Management: Assign contacts to representatives, take notes in a call pop-up window and record important calls for future reference. Schedule calls, set call reminders, send alerts for missed calls and assign tags to sort them into categories.
Email Management: Send mass personalized emails using pre-built email templates. Get real-time notifications when a prospect opens a mail and follow up with reminders. Directly email from the platform and integrate with popular apps like Gmail and Outlook.
Dashboards: Visualize customer data and measure sales teams’ performance. Generate interactive charts, create customized reports and apply filters to narrow down information. Use pre-built dashboards and share them in PDF format with team members.
Customer Journey Management: Drive better customer experiences with industry-specific templates that provide the most relevant journeys.
- Include a progression of activities in each stage, which can be calls, meetings or tasks.
- journeys for any object — leads, contacts, custom modules and more.
Configuration and Customization: Tailor layouts, modules and plugins to match business needs.
- Create custom branded emails, landing pages and live support that incorporate the company logo, default colors and other information.
- Configure the Sugar homepage to display multiple dashlets, which provide a view of the most important metrics in several visual formats.
Sales Forecasting: Businesses can:
- Use past revenue to determine best-case and worst-case sales predictions.
- View sales quotas across multiple levels, including individuals, teams or the entire organization.
- Customize options to handle complex sales cycles and situations like staggered or recurring purchases.
Native Mobile App: Work on phones or tablets when out of the office. Engage customers with click-to-call, click-to-text, filters, dynamic search and GPS mapping. Access key data without a network connection using offline sync features.
Third-Party Integrations: Integrate with many popular Google apps (including Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Contacts and Drive) as well as social media channels. Connect with accounting, eCommerce, ERP, helpdesk, marketing automation and Microsoft Office 365 platforms for additional functionalities.
Sugar BPM: Build and apply automated business processes with a workflow engine based on BPMN standards.
- Easily design workflow routes and approvals of any complexity with a visual interface.
- Quickly troubleshoot problems via audit and process monitoring tools.
- Save snapshots of tasks and workflows using dashboards.

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SAP Sales Cloud

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Why We Picked SAP Sales Cloud

Having spent considerable time evaluating SAP Sales Cloud, I want to share my honest experience with the platform.

My journey began with the basic free trial, which only scratches the surface of what the platform can do. While this limited preview was helpful, it didn't give me the full picture of the advanced features I'd later discover.

The initial setup was quite tricky. I found myself deep in configurations and customizations, which took more time than I expected. However, I noticed that if your company already uses other SAP products, the implementation becomes significantly smoother. The platform works well alongside SAP ERP and other SAP tools, creating a connected ecosystem.

Senior SAP C4C Consultant Irshad Ichu said:

I would like to tell you about the lead to cash process in Sales Cloud. A salesperson can easily create a lead and can capture all the details within a beat. We have seamless integration with S4 or ECC systems. Also when compared to maintenance and cost with any other legacy system, no maintenance is required for Sales Cloud and licensing costs also would be less”

The analytical capabilities are very impressive and, thus, a user favorite. AI-powered forecasting tools help you make better decisions, while thorough reporting provides insights you probably hadn't been able to access before. The platform’s cloud-based nature allowed me to access these tools from anywhere, which is a huge plus for remote work.

But the platform occasionally runs slower than I'd like, especially when handling larger data sets. I also found that integrating with non-SAP systems required extra effort and technical expertise — something that might not be readily available in smaller organizations. During system updates, I experienced some minor disruptions, though these were usually temporary.

The learning curve was steeper than anticipated. While some team members may adapt quickly, others might struggle with the platform's complexity. In fact, many users I spoke with ended up hiring consultants just to get their systems configured properly, which added to the overall cost.

According to Azhar I, Team Lead at Accenture:

The CRM system helped me by streamlining customer interactions, allowing for better tracking of leads, sales and follow-ups. It made managing client data more efficient.

Talking about the challenges I faced — some customization options were a bit limited and data integration with other tools wasn’t always seamless, requiring manual updates at times. Still, the integrations are not as hard as they seem. These days business expectations are just sky high and they expect everything in a single press.”

My conclusion is that while SAP Sales Cloud offers customization options, it sometimes falls short for businesses with unique requirements. The platform works best for medium to large enterprises, particularly those already invested in the SAP ecosystem. For smaller businesses, the combination of high costs, technical requirements and implementation complexity might be overwhelming.

That said, once you get past the initial hurdles and have it properly set up, SAP Sales Cloud is a powerful tool. The key is having the right resources, budget and technical support to fully take advantage of its capabilities.

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Pros & Cons

Data Analysis: SAP Sales Cloud’s advanced analytics tools help you make data-driven decisions across your sales pipeline.
Customer Insights: Users like that they have a 360-degree view of each customer's journey, interactions and history in one place.
Automation: It helps you save time with automated workflows that handle repetitive sales tasks and documentation.

Complex Interface: The platform's extensive features can be overwhelming for new users, requiring significant training time.
Performance Issues: Users may experience slower loading times when handling large amounts of data or multiple processes.
Limited Integration Options: Connecting with non-SAP systems can be challenging and may require additional development work.

Key Features

Sales Forecasting: Known for its analytics capabilities, SAP lets you track sales performance with precision using the Forecast Tracker. It compares your submitted forecasts against targets and opportunity amounts. Run simulations to see how different scenarios impact your revenue estimates in real time and quickly identify discrepancies that need attention.
Dashboards & Reports: Scoring a 100 for this functionality, the CRM lets you build custom reports that match your business requirements by selecting specific data sources, time frames and key figures. Interactive visualizations like bubble charts and bar-line combinations bring your data to life, helping you spot trends and opportunities at a glance.
Document Management: Store and organize all your sales documents in a centralized library where you can create custom folder structures to keep everything organized. Share files securely with team members through links while maintaining control over access permissions for private folders and sensitive documents.
Lead Management: Capture leads from multiple sources, including phone inquiries and email campaign responses, and smoothly convert them into opportunities. Use Lead Intelligence to predict conversion likelihood through machine learning, which analyzes historical data points like lead dates, priorities and sources to give you accurate lead scores.
Contact Management: You can create detailed contact profiles linked to corporate accounts and track all their interactions across activities, orders and opportunities. Get a complete 360-degree view of your relationship with each contact, including their current status and all past interactions.
Mobile App: Manage your sales operations on the go with native apps for both Android and iOS devices. You can create opportunities, leads, tasks and sales quotes, log calls, view interactive charts, and manage your appointments.
AI-Based Coaching: Receive step-by-step guidance from AI-powered recommendations that help you win more business. Get prescriptive suggestions on your next best actions to progress opportunities through your sales pipeline effectively.

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Pricing Guide

See the Price/User for the top CRM systems… plus the most important considerations and questions to ask when shopping.

Buyer's Guide

CRM Software Is All About Managing the Customer Lifecycle

By Manogna Matta, Technical Content Writer at SelectHub

CRM Software Buyer's Guide

CRM software is a crucial element in managing your sales process and improving both conversion and retention rates. Customer relationship management systems do exactly what they sound like - manage your organization’s relationships with your customers. The most robust, all-in-one CRM platforms typically involve elements of marketing automation, sales force automation, client management and customer service

In this guide, we’ll start by going over what customer relationship management software is and help you choose the right platform for your business by providing a top CRM software list, requirements, pricing, features and more.

Executive Summary

Customer relationship management software helps streamline critical parts of the sales process like building relationships, managing leads, closing deals and supporting customers post-purchase.
The platform enables marketing teams to create targeted, personalized content at various stages in a customer’s journey.
Key features include contact management, lead management, sales force automation, campaign management, dashboards and reports.
CRM systems offer many benefits, such as better data organization, improved collaboration, and enhanced sales and marketing performance.
Be sure to consider requirements like mobile accessibility, scalability, type of CRM, integrations and user interface to find the right fit.
We recommend asking software providers targeted and specific questions about the system and vendor support before committing to a purchase.

What This Guide Covers:

What Is CRM?
Benefits
Basic Features & Functionality
Advanced Features & Functionality
How To Choose Software
How To Implement a CRM
Questions To Ask Yourself
Questions To Ask Vendors
FAQs
Next Steps
Product Comparisons
Additional Resources

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What Is CRM?

Customer relationship management (CRM) is the set of processes and practices a business uses during customer interactions. It includes anything related to client engagement — sales and service-related tasks, follow-ups, customer behavioral analysis, forecasting, and more.

Companies use customer relationship management strategies to connect with customers on various touch points like calls, texts, emails and social media. The ultimate goal is to create positive client experiences and enhance customer loyalty. Nowadays, the term “CRM” is more commonly used to refer to the technology systems that help businesses manage customer lifecycles, workflows, purchases and post-purchases.

What Is CRM Software?

CRM software is a system that helps sales, marketing and customer service teams optimize business processes. It acts as a contact database for prospect, lead and customer information. Sales and marketing teams can capture, analyze, store, track and act on data to increase lead conversions.

The system helps organize scattered data like customer details, sales notes, marketing campaigns and KPIs in a centralized platform. By providing accessible data in real time, CRM solutions facilitate smooth collaboration and coordination across several departments. It can improve pipeline visibility and analyze customer data to provide actionable insights for sales teams.

There’s a popular misconception that CRM platforms mostly cater to sales teams. But this dynamic system also provides capabilities like customer journey management, campaign management and next-best action to streamline marketing and customer service operations. Most CRM solutions also have built-in automation to automate processes like lead prioritization, customer interactions, event creation and follow-up reminders.

Companies in today’s hypercompetitive global marketplace need to be ahead of the curve and use industry-specific applications to boost their sales. CRM systems have become widely popular in the past few years and are an excellent choice for customer-facing firms.

According to Grand View Research, the CRM market size was valued at $58.82 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to grow to $163.16 billion by 2030. This begs the question — what’s so special about CRM solutions that everyone seems to be buying one?

What Does a CRM System Do?

Customer relationship management software primarily functions as a contact management system and helps manage customer details and interactions. You may think it sounds like a glorified spreadsheet or contact book, but CRM solutions go way beyond that. They give you dynamic and detailed customer information like — how often clients visit your site, when they open your emails, their buying behaviors, and how likely they’re to purchase again.

It captures and stores all this data automatically, while a spreadsheet is no good if you stop manually updating it. CRM platforms interpret rows of complex information and make data visualization easy and engaging. Here are some other things CRM systems excel at:

Scoring leads based on demographic and social data
Personalizing interactions
Automating task reminders
Providing deeper data insights
Creating a centralized and smooth flow of information

What Doesn't a CRM Do?

While CRM applications are valuable and make life easier, they’re unfortunately not genies that can do everything. CRM platforms are only as effective as you use them. They specialize in data management, but if sales teams don’t regularly use them to manage client interactions, systems have fewer data to work with, leading to inconsistent information.

Standalone CRM applications provides many useful features. However, for advanced capabilities like marketing or sales automation, project management, landing pages and invoicing, you need a more expensive all-in-one solution.

CRM solutions aren’t as helpful with backend operations like inventory, warehousing, production and shipping. While they save a ton of time with automation and templates, they alone can’t fix inefficient business processes. CRM systems can’t replicate the human touch, and excessively relying on them without human intervention can reduce sales.

CRM vs. ERP and Marketing Automation

Some ERP and CRM functionalities may overlap, such as automation and revenue generation, creating confusion between the two systems. But they do entirely different things for your business. While ERP is primarily concerned with financial data, customer relationship management software centers around managing and logging customer information.

On the other hand, marketing automation tools help streamline marketing campaigns and automate activities like campaign management, communication management and customer segmentation. These solutions focus on people at the top or middle of the sales funnel, like website visitors or email subscribers.

Does that mean you need separate customer relationship management and marketing automation software? The answer is as inconclusive as the ending of Inception. It mostly depends on you.

Most marketing automation systems allow you to sync data with CRM platforms, ensuring marketing and sales teams are on the same page. But if you’re not looking to invest in two different software, many CRM vendors offer marketing automation as an out-of-the-box functionality.

You can check out our articles on ERP vs. CRM and customer relationship management vs. marketing automation for a more in-depth comparison.

For a quick comparison of the top CRM software, watch the following video, otherwise, read on!

Expert recommendations and analysis on the top CRM applications

Primary Benefits

The right CRM systems brings a bevy of benefits. With a CRM platform deployed, your company can expect:

Benefits of CRM Software

Better Data Organization

CRM solutions let you store all relevant information like customers’ social, personal and demographic data in a unified single-view platform. The contact management capabilities aid in decision-making and eliminate clutter and data deduplication. You can also use views, tabs and dashboards to understand data in a visual, comprehensible manner.

Sales reps can easily learn about customer interests from previous interactions, allowing them to create relevant sales pitches and improve customer communication. They can also use filters, templates and tags and grant hierarchical data access to certain groups for better data distribution.

Enhanced Customer Experience (CX)

CRM software helps track customer interactions, including calls, texts, emails and website visits. With a central profile for each client, you can manage all customer data from any channel or device where the customer chooses to interact.

Salespeople can use this information to determine the appropriate way to contact and upsell or cross-sell opportunities. You can customize client engagements to cater to unique needs and preferences. According to a report, 49% of customers say they’ll become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience.

With marketing and sales automation, you can tailor communication and follow up at the right time based on a customer’s recent activity. Many CRM solutions also offer advanced email management capabilities that help track email deliverability, conduct surveys and assess customer feedback.

Improved Collaboration

When a business is large enough to establish separate departments, proper coordination often becomes difficult. A major advantage of CRM systems is that they help improve collaboration throughout the entire internal process. This prevents sales, marketing and service teams from operating in silos.

Users can communicate and leave notes and comments to help contextualize customer interactions. Cloud software gives the option to collaborate, update and access data offline, something beneficial for work-from-home and remote teams. You can also set reminders, arrange meetings, record customer data and track the team’s progress to boost collaboration and performance.

Greater Marketing Performance

CRM systems help improve your marketing game with the help of:

Segmentation. You can split your contacts into groups based on shared characteristics, which enables targeting when sending campaigns.
Workflows. This lets you create email sequences ranging from simple to complex.
Social Media Marketing. Integrating with networks like LinkedIn and Facebook allows you to closely monitor every aspect of your social media campaigns.
Campaign Management. This feature lets you oversee marketing campaigns across multiple channels and mediums. Analysis tools make it easy to track how each campaign performs.
Metrics. You can view and report on all critical KPIs to get a clear idea about sales cycles, where your teams excel and where they need to improve.

High-quality Sales Performance

Sales forecasting enables sales teams to make better business decisions. It helps analyze data stored in a CRM system to discover recurring patterns and insights into customers, products and competitors. Incorporating these insights to enhance product development, sales strategies and customer interactions translates to improved sales for your business.

You can identify and nurture quality leads from multiple sources. This means your sales reps won’t have to chase leads that are less likely to convert. It also reduces keystrokes, logically sequences process steps, triggers next steps or reminders, delivers alert notifications and offers simple desktop integration.

Workflow automation allows sales reps to focus more on converting leads, reduces human error, and saves time and resources. By automating routine, manual tasks, the platform facilitates higher efficiency, greater productivity and increased ROI in the long run.

Expert recommendations and analysis on the top CRM applications

Basic Features & Functionality

It’s important to do your research, as customer relationship management software has a wide range of capabilities, and the features will vary from provider to provider. However, here are some standard features found in the majority of products:

CRM Software Features

Contact Management	This is the entire point of customer relationship management software, so this requirement revolves around making sure the contact handling is sufficient for your current work processes. CRM applications may have email auto-response integration and follow-up reminders, along with the ability to display key information on each lead.
Lead Management	This is another critical function that allows your sales department to nurture leads, qualify leads and use a lead scoring system to determine the priority of contacts.
Sales Force Automation	Automate tasks like inventory control, sales processing, customer interaction monitoring, sales forecasts and performance analysis.
Sales Pipeline	Often represented in a visual layout, a sales pipeline makes it easy to view the progress and stage of each deal. Common functionality includes a drag-and-drop interface, data summaries, an organized format like a Kanban board and contact records.
Dashboards and Reports	If you want one source of truth for data, dashboards are non-negotiable. They break complex datasets down into visuals like charts and graphs so anyone can understand the trends and patterns. Similarly, reports provide detailed snapshots of performance based on specific metrics or timeframes. Export and share abilities facilitate strategy.
Mobile CRM	Mobile functionality has become standard, whether through a dedicated CRM application or via a mobile-responsive design. Click-to-call, pipeline and contact editing, scheduling, notes, and messaging are some of the useful features that support on-the-go work.
Campaign Management	With this feature, you can manage a wide array of marketing efforts and collect data to determine which campaigns work and which need improvement. Support for email and social media campaigns are the most common, while others include SMS, direct mail and additional avenues for reaching your audience.
Omnichannel Support	Orchestrate and track customer interactions across several channels like emails, messages, social media platforms and website engagement.

Expert recommendations and analysis on the top CRM applications

Advanced Features & Functionality

Depending on your needs, you may want to consider CRM platforms that offer advanced functionality. Some common features include:

Artificial Intelligence	With the growth of AI over the past several years, more and more CRM solutions are including these capabilities. AI can deliver intelligent chatbots, guided selling, image recognition, data analysis, workflow automation, next-step recommendations and more.
Marketing Automation	Acting as a central pillar of customer relationship management, marketing automation allows you to scale marketing activities through workflows and triggered actions. This means you can batch email a list of 1,000 subscribers at the click of a button and automate drip campaigns. Common features include email marketing, A/B testing and analytics. Marketing automation also incorporates website capabilities such as landing pages and signup forms for lead generation, which are synced to the CRM application database so form fills are automatically entered into the appropriate fields.
Territory Management	Best for large companies with extensive sales reach and complex requirements, this feature helps manage different sales territories. Functionalities include tailored reports, quota distribution, hierarchies and realignment modeling.
Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ)	A sales tool that can be integrated into a CRM solution or included as a module, CPQ facilitates the B2B selling process. It provides a product catalog, quote management and price controls to shorten the sales cycle, streamline processes, reduce errors and more.
Help Desk Tools	Whether incorporated directly into the customer relationship management software or as an integrated product, this feature lets you execute customer service with a unified view of a client’s entire relationship with your company. Case management, an online knowledge base, a call center and support chatbots are a few primary features.

Expert recommendations and analysis on the top CRM applications

How To Choose Software

Requirements

With so many vendors in the market, it can get overwhelming to decide what’s the best CRM software for you. Jumpstart your search by considering the following aspects:

Preferred Features: It’s vital to explore the “why” behind getting a CRM. Why exactly do you need it? What are the most common problems you face? Which features can help solve them? Your software options should excel in marketing automation, contact management, reporting and pipeline management.

They should also provide alerts, reminders, calendar integration, communication templates, tracking, opportunity and project management, quote/proposal management and lead scoring.

Mobile Platform: CRM applications that you can access anywhere, on any device you want, are especially beneficial if you have remote or hybrid teams. It’s a bonus if you can use the platform offline, something helpful in cases of spotty service.

Budget: You need to be honest about your budget and how much you can afford to spend. Thoroughly consider all variables like the number of users, hidden costs and maintenance fees before making a purchase.

Business Size: There are different CRM solutions available for businesses of all sizes. As small and midsize businesses (SMBs) generally manage a higher volume of interactions and activities for each customer, they need a feature-rich CRM system to facilitate the process. On the flip side, large-scale operations need more sophisticated security models, collaboration apps and platform functionalities.

Type of CRM: There are three main types of applications in the market — collaborative, operational and analytical.

Collaborative CRM is good for businesses with multiple locations and communication channels and allows teams to be on the same page. Operational CRM gives a high-level overview of customer lifecycles and helps keep customer-facing teams more organized and efficient. Analytical CRMs are for companies that have a lot of data and need assistance optimizing it.

For more information, check out our article, Types of CRM Software, which covers what each type of CRM system offers and how it can uniquely benefit a business.

Integrations: Your ideal solutions should integrate with your preferred apps, enabling you to streamline communication. Systems that sync with your calendar, eCommerce, webinars and other communication tools are handy.

Scalability and Customizations: What customizable features does the software offer? Does it come with any pre-built templates? What about scalability options?

David H. Deans, a technology and media consultant, said, “Assuming that the software has the basic features, the ability to customize the solution is essential because no two CRM systems use cases are totally identical.” Investing in a solution that can scale up is a good idea so your business doesn’t risk outgrowing its software capabilities.

Vendor Support: Does your vendor provide hands-on customer support? What data security and privacy measures do they have in place? What do their installation, onboarding and training processes look like? Choose CRM providers with industry-specific experience and expertise to meet your business requirements.

User Experience: “Instead of focusing on the depth and breadth of features, consider the software's ease of use. The way it benefits the users to do their job is most important” Dean said. CRMs that are intuitive and easy to use help save valuable time and money that would otherwise go into costly and time-consuming software training.

Deployment

Along with the above-stated requirements, the deployment method also greatly affects the type of CRM platform a business can use. Cloud CRMs and on-premise solutions are two such systems.

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud model provides many advantages for companies, including reduced upfront and maintenance costs, as well as automatic upgrades to the latest version. It also comes with greater flexibility, as users can access it from anywhere with an internet connection. Additionally, cloud systems have closed the security gap so that previous concerns over data security are now much less viable.

On-premise solutions, by contrast, don't rely on vendors and don’t require an internet connection. There are also vastly more customization options.

Generally, the type of deployment that’s best for you depends on your company size. Small and midsize businesses usually opt for cloud CRM applications, as they lack the IT resources and technical expertise required from on-premise software.

Large enterprises have more flexibility, and the best choice comes down to internal needs. For example, whether a cloud CRM system would integrate well with legacy on-premise software, such as ERP software.

Pricing Considerations

How you deploy the customer management software will have a significant impact on cost and how much you pay upfront versus over the long term. The biggest difference is the base cost of using the CRM platform.

With a cloud product, you pay an ongoing subscription fee, usually based on the number of users. On-premise software, by contrast, involves a license purchase - one-time or recurring depending on the provider. While most CRM vendors charge monthly or per person, organizations can also opt for annual payment plans (some vendors tend to reduce monthly costs if businesses opt for yearly billing).

For small businesses, low-cost CRMs that cost between $10-$20 per license per month are available. Additional capabilities with deeper integrations can range anywhere from $20 to $50 per month. These are best suited for SMBs.

For enterprises that require advanced capabilities and integrations to connect with their heavy tech stack, CRMs usually range from $50 to $80 per user per month. High-end solutions with advanced customizations, extensive implementation and migration support cost around $250+.

Beyond that, you need to also consider the total cost of ownership - every cost associated with operating the customer relationship management system. Common additional costs include:

Version upgrades
Add-on capabilities
Services such as data migration or customization
Training, particularly for large, complex software
Maintenance, more a concern for on-premise software where the vendor isn’t responsible for keeping the CRM application up and running
Implementation support

Price Guide for CRM Solutions

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How To Implement a CRM

Installing customer relationship management software with a poor or even no strategy, is the number one reason for lagging adoption, low CRM system utilization and overall project failure. After making a list of requirements and purchasing a CRM platform for your business, it’s time to finally set it up and use it. In order to maximize the effectiveness of a CRM system:

CRM Software Implementation

1. Assess the Costs and Benefits

Draw up a budget plan taking into account implementation steps like migration, training and onboarding. Keep in mind that your general expenses may increase due to various setting-up costs. Productivity and profits may dip a little during user adoption and as your teams get comfortable with new guidelines. Calculate the costs and benefits six months and twelve months after adoption to assess how useful the product has been.

2. Assign a Team To Handle the Process

Dedicate a person or team to manage a smooth transition from your previous system to a new CRM platform. The team should ideally have one person from each department, including sales, marketing, service, project management and IT. They should be able to:

Handle any technical issues that may happen
Prepare CRM training and answer employee questions leading up to implementation
Make an implementation timeline with key dates for milestones
Create a list of implementation tasks and monitor their progress
Ensure all employees are on the same page whenever there’s a process update

3. Create an Implementation Timeline of Key Events

Some of the major tasks include:

Data Migration:s Make an action plan for how and when you’ll transfer and import files into your system. It’s a good idea to do a test run with a small data set to get the hang of the solution. Adjusting to new layout or data entry fields may take time, so don’t rush this step.
Platform Customization: If you’re a medium or enterprise business with many teams, it becomes essential to personalize the CRM system’s layout, dashboards and navigation to fit different needs. You also need to set up notifications, automation, custom fields and filters and give permissions for different types of data access.
Third-party Integrations: Connect the CRM system with the business apps you use. Assess how compatible they are with each other.
User Training: The vendor or an IT expert can give a detailed rundown of how the system operates. You can also conduct live sessions, create training videos for different modules and make FAQs that employees can refer to.

The most important implementation goal is, Deans said, “to get the intended users to adopt the CRM software, and then ensure they know how to use it to achieve their desired business outcome.” It’s critical to thoroughly complete this step as faulty training can lead to lost time, resources and data.
Test Drive: Make custom reports, tabs, templates and follow-ups to test the platform. Sales and service teams can do multiple rounds of testing, assess collaboration tools, and make trial video and audio calls from the system. Checking for errors will make operations smooth when the CRM platform goes live.

Deans advises to “Get your CRM platform users involved in the final selection process (demo and proof of concept testing)” because we need to research and assess the solution “from the end-user's perspective, not the sales manager's.”
Go Live:s This step should happen gradually in different phases. Whenever any issues arise, be sure to notify the implementation team to make the process more efficient.

4. Regularly Evaluate User Feedback

Monitoring and measuring the CRM platform implementation progress is vital. Take note of its benefits and rectify errors to reduce productivity issues. You can run into common implementation issues like poor adoption rate, insufficient training or technical troubles, so it’s useful to have a plan of action to solve these challenges.

Lastly, create an easy feedback loop and make it a point to assess it regularly. This is not a one-time thing but rather an ongoing process. It helps evaluate where the solution falls short and if it’s time for you to get a better platform.

Expert recommendations and analysis on the top CRM applications

Questions To Ask Yourself

Use these questions as a starting point for internal conversations:

How does my team communicate and collaborate?
What will help me better measure my team’s performance?
Which relationships and workflows do I need to manage?
What’s a more important requirement — cost-effectiveness or customizable advanced features?
Will a collaborative, analytical or operational CRM platform suit my needs better?
Will an out-of-the-box software do, or would I need a custom CRM platform?
What apps, integrations and extensions do I use on a daily basis?
Is on-premise or cloud-based deployment better for my organization?
Who’ll use the software consistently (managers, sales reps, marketers)?

Questions About Software

Questions To Ask Vendors

Use these questions as a starting point for conversations with vendors:

About the Software

What level of customization is available? What about templates? Do they cost extra?
Are marketing and help desk capabilities built in, offered as part of a larger product suite, or do they require third-party integrations?
How intuitive is the UI — navigation, wording, feature accessibility and screen layout?
Can the software help communicate with leads on multiple channels?
Does the platform offer alerts, follow-ups, reminders and calendar integration?

About the Vendor

How often are updates and enhancements offered, and do they occur automatically? Does this impact the software's accessibility?
How much customer support do you provide? Is there an existing knowledge base? Does it come at an extra charge?
How long do implementation and onboarding take?
Does your company have a proven track record of customer success?
What security and redundancy protocols are in place to protect data?

Expert recommendations and analysis on the top CRM applications

FAQs

Should I consider a free CRM platform?

While free CRMs seem affordable and risk-free, they’re not scalable and have reduced functionalities that may hinder your sales and customer service progress. They also don’t provide data privacy and consume a lot of time and resources.

If you’re a small business that can do with limited features, free CRM is a good option. However, if you’re looking for data privacy, support, core functionalities and customizations, paid solutions are better.

How do I know I need a CRM application?

You’re finding it hard to manage the lead flow.
You lack clarity as to what your sales teams are up to.
Your customer data is hard to locate and interpret.
Your customer service is falling short.
You don’t know which leads you should prioritize.

What are some examples of CRM software?

There are various CRM solutions available that offer dynamic functionalities like lead tracking, marketing automation, contact management and lead scoring. Zoho CRM, Salesforce Sales Cloud, HubSpot Sales, Dynamics 365 for Sales and SAP Sales Cloud are some of the top CRM platforms in the market.

What does a good CRM platform look like?

A good CRM is easy to use, provides remote access, integrates with your favorite business apps and optimizes your sales processes. Workflow automation, customization, lead management, tracking and reporting are other features to look out for.

Expert recommendations and analysis on the top CRM applications

Next Steps

CRM solutions streamline critical parts of your sales process, enabling you to stay on top of leads and follow-ups to build customer relationships more effectively. It allows marketing teams to create targeted, personalized content delivered at critical stages in a customer’s journey.

Customer relationship management software improves communication, collaboration, efficiency and overall effectiveness of marketing efforts. The right platform provides countless benefits, so it's important to do your due diligence and get the best CRM for your company.

If you need further help, check out our free comparison report for more information on the top CRM software vendors in the industry. Good luck!

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About The Contributors

The following expert team members are responsible for creating, reviewing, and fact checking the accuracy of this content.

By Manogna Chandrika Matta

Technical Content Writer

Manogna Matta was a Technical Content Writer at SelectHub who delivered content for CRM, mental health, marketing and fundraising. An alum of the University of Hyderabad, Manogna did Communication and Psychology courses in her B.A. and M.A. She's also an avid coin collector and a fashion enthusiast. When not typing away on the keyboard, Manogna plays mother hen to her tiny birds, watches sitcoms and makes bad-quality dad jokes.

Technical Research By Joan Akash

Senior Analyst

Joan Akash, a Senior Research Analyst at SelectHub, holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management with a specialization in Marketing. Her expertise as a researcher and reviewer spans diverse software categories, including Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, Live Chat, and Help Desk. Beyond her professional pursuits, Joan is spiritually driven, with a passion for teaching children and a penchant for reading biblical blogs and crafting poetry.

Technical Review By Manan Roy

Principal Analyst

Manan is a native of Tezpur, Assam (India), who currently lives in Kolkata, West Bengal (India). At SelectHub, he works on categories like CRM, HR, PPM, BI, and EHR. He has a Bachelor of Technology in CSE from The Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology, a Master of Technology from The Institute of Engineering and Management IT, and an MBA in Finance from St. Xavier's College. He's published two research papers, one in a conference and the other in a journal, during his Master of Technology.

Edited By Pooja Verma

Content Editor

Pooja Verma is a Content Editor and Senior Market Analyst at SelectHub, who writes and edits content for endpoint security, legal, CRM, fundraising software, eCommerce, and mental health software. She earned a literature degree from Miranda House, DU and also holds Master’s in Journalism from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication in India. In her free time, you can spot her reading a book or binge-watching the latest web series and movies.