A small business looking to grow and expand can always do with more customers. Yet, while attracting many customers and potential leads is advantageous and even necessary, tracking and managing all of their contact information can be a logistical nightmare. Fortunately, CRMs for small businesses can help make the process easy and profitable.
A Customer Resource Management (CRM) system is software designed to ease and automate the management of your small business’s interactions and relationships with existing and potential customers. Overall, CRMs have become invaluable tools for small businesses in recent years, as they help organize customer data into one centralized platform, provide insights through analytics, and automate repetitive tasks to improve efficiency. For small businesses with limited resources, finding the right CRM at the right price is crucial. Choosing a reliable CRM that accommodates your business’s needs and preferences is important. In this article, we’ll take a close look at the top-rated CRM platforms designed for small businesses. Learn what a CRM system can do for your small business today.
What Can CRMs Do for Small Businesses?
CRMs have dozens of benefits to offer a small business, and their goal is simple: to help improve your customer relationships to grow your small business. The fact that companies worldwide will spend more than $114 billion on CRM systems by 2027 proves CRM’s efficiency and benefits. A CRM system has many uses and applications, but its primary purpose is to automatically track a business’s contacts and record their interactions with the company throughout its customer lifecycle. Interactions such as the customer visiting the business’s website or requesting a quote are tracked and recorded. In a nutshell, a CRM system puts all of your current and potential customers’ information in one central database.
The system also organizes this information to help improve the business’s interactions with its customers. Its end goals are to turn leads into customers and keep the existing customers coming back.
Below, we break down some of the other most notable uses and benefits of a CRM system.
CRMs Allow Small Businesses to Know Their Customers Better
A CRM collects and records customers’ contact information, including their names, phone numbers, email addresses, and social media accounts. It also collects and records other relevant information such as their occupation, age, sex, language, and more. This data helps businesses know their customers better and develop personalized, more appealing approaches to how they interact with them. Anticipating Customers’ Needs More Effectively
A CRM records customers’ interactions with the business throughout their customer lifecycle. For example, you can see which pages a customer has visited on your website, the articles they have read on your blog, and the products or services they have viewed or bought. This information is useful for anticipating customers’ needs better and meeting them halfway.
CRMs Improve Communication for Small Businesses
A CRM system improves communication with customers in several ways. Most notably, the business can develop templates for different kinds of messages and automate instant replies to customers’ messages. The system also collects each customer’s messages from various channels on one panel, enabling customer reps to easily track every message. Improving Customer Retention & Lead Conversion
Overall, a CRM system helps improve the customer’s experience. For example, the business understands the customer to better anticipate and fulfill their needs. Customers appreciate a good experience, which is crucial in lead conversion and customer retention.
Increasing Sales
Eliminating Silos
A silo refers to an entity within your business that operates independently of the other entities, such as the marketing department operating independently of the sales department. Silos are counterproductive, and a CRM system can help eliminate silos by making it easier for the different departments within your business to integrate and coordinate their operations. For example, the marketing, sales, HR, customer service, and other departments can operate from one CRM system. Choosing the Best CRM For Your Needs
When comparing your CRM options, first take stock of your budget and team size to narrow down choices based on pricing. Next, make a list of must-have features tied directly to your biggest pain points and areas for business growth. Do you need to consolidate messy sales data? Deliver more personalized marketing? Streamline your customer support system?
Top CRMs for Small Businesses
While there are dozens (possibly hundreds) of CRM systems, it is advisable to find one that suits your business’s unique needs and preferences. Here is an overview of the best CRMs for small businesses.
1. Monday CRM
Monday CRM has an appealing, intuitive user interface that is easy to use (it doesn’t require coding). Some of its most notable features and uses include:
- Sales Pipeline Management
Monday CRM will meet most or all of your small business’s needs and is especially effective for connecting the different departments in your company.
2. Keap CRM
Keap is specifically built for small businesses, including e-commerce and home-run businesses. Some of its most notable features and benefits include:
- Automated Lead Follow-Ups
Keap’s most impressive feature is its ability to integrate with almost all business tools. It is also worth noting that Keap also offers an all-in-one Client Management System (CMS).
3. Creatio CRM
Creatio is an advanced CRM system ideal for small businesses seeking to fuel their growth and expansion. Its most notable features include:
- Contact & Account Management
- Opportunity & Pipeline Management
- Customer Contract Management
- Product & Price List Management
- Lead Capturing & Management
- Customer Support & Knowledge Base
Creation CRM also doubles up as a Business Process Management (BPM) system. New users are guaranteed a two-week, unlimited-license free trial.
4. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a popular freemium CRM with a robust free plan perfect for early-stage startups. Key features of Zoho CRM include sales force automation, marketing automation, customer service and support, social media integration, and mobile optimization.
The free Zoho CRM plan supports up to 3 users and includes lead, account, and contact management, as well as workflow automation and Halley AI assistant. Their most affordable paid plan starts at just $12 per user/month billed annually. Zoho is an excellent budget-friendly option, especially if you’re just getting started with CRM software.
Best for: Very small teams that want a full-featured CRM solution at no cost.
5. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM grants users free access to robust contact and deal tracking tools, email integration, and powerful reporting. Like Zoho CRM, HubSpot offers a forever-free version, but with more advanced features reserved for paying subscribers.
Standout features exclusive to paid HubSpot plans include meeting scheduling, email marketing and automation tools, landing page and website builders, Sales Hub, Service Hub, full CMS hub, and more. Paid plans start at $45/month for the starter tier. Overall, HubSpot strikes the right balance of valuable free tools and premium upgrades.
Best for: Growing startups that need strong basic CRM features plus room to scale up.
6. Capsule CRM
Streamlined and intuitive, Capsule CRM was designed specifically for lean sales teams. It delivers core sales features like pipeline and lead management along with smart notifications and built-in calling through your CRM software.
Capsule CRM plans come with unlimited users and start at an affordable $19 per month per user when billed annually. All tiers include task automation, pipeline management, reporting, mobile access, and integration with popular apps like MailChimp and G Suite. For easy-to-use sales CRM software at a reasonable price, Capsule is tough to beat.
Best For: Startup sales teams that want an intuitive CRM focused purely on sales management vs. marketing features.
7. Insightly
Supporting small business growth for over a decade, Insightly remains a CRM industry leader. Top capabilities span project management, opportunity tracking, workflow automation, and reporting. Insightly also stands out for its user-friendly interface and robust integrations with over 1000 popular business apps.
Insightly pricing starts at $29 per user/month billed annually. There are four paid plans to upgrade to as your company’s needs evolve. For small companies that rely heavily on integrations for a unified tech stack, Insightly is a top choice to consider.
Best for: Growing businesses with lots of tool integrations and reliance on project management capabilities.
8. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a sales-first CRM designed for small sales teams who need to manage lengthy or complex sales cycles. Core features include lead scoring, deal forecasting, customizable pipelines tailored to your sales process, and granular visibility into every deal and lead. There are also native integrations with Google Workspace, Zapier, and Mailchimp.
While on the pricier end, Pipedrive plans start at $12.50 per user/month billed annually. Regular product updates and strong customer support help ensure you always get maximal value from the platform. For early-stage startups focused wholly on optimizing sales, Pipedrive is a go-to option.
Best for: Early-stage businesses that rely on sales versus marketing and want a CRM focused solely on complex sales workflows.
What Life Will Look Like When You Get a CRM System for Your Small Business
An ideal CRM can positively transform your business in dozens of ways. Here is a glimpse into what life would look like with the right CRM for your small business:
It will be easier and quicker to drive traffic to your website and capture new leads. You will spend less time and fewer resources tracking and recording your company’s interactions with existing and potential customers. It will be quicker and easier to convert leads interacting with your website and other digital platforms into paying customers and retain existing customers.
It will be easier for your company’s different departments and teams to work together. Overall, an efficient CRM system will make it easier and cheaper to run your small business. Most notably, it will help expedite your small business’s growth and expansion.
Time to Elevate Customer Management?
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