Best CRM software for small businesses in 2022
If you consider your business too small to use a specialized CRM program, it is probably time to reconsider. There are multiple options for customer relationship management (CRM) software specially designed to match the needs of small businesses and start-ups. Implementing such a CRM is often a game-changer that takes your business to the next level.
Before choosing the best CRM solution for your company, you must answer the question – “Why do I need a CRM system for my organization?” The obvious answer is that you want to structure and organize your data in the best possible way. And the tools you use are not sufficient anymore. The next step is to outline your business needs and focus on finding a CRM solution that matches those. In the end, you expect to have a tool that should assist you in managing your current and potential customers effectively while enabling your company/business to grow.
Read the article below to discover what the right CRM software can do for your company and how you can benefit from it. We have also reviewed the top customer relationship management programs for small businesses so that you can find the best solution for you.
How to choose the right CRM software for small companies?
When you are on the verge of choosing the CRM except for its functionalities, you should be looking for the best solution regarding ease of use, price options, and support from the solution’s provider. Multiple factors impact your decision on which customer relationship software to use. Among the most significant ones can be your core business goals, the industry you operate in, and your organization type.
Your business needs are a top priority when buying the best CRM explicitly built for smaller companies. Some business owners opt for a more cost-effective solution, while others look for easily customizable software that can be seamlessly integrated with their existing tools.
Why is the right CRM software important?
The right CRM system makes a difference in how effective your business is. For example, Salesforce is best suited for companies that can afford to pay more, as they expect higher personalization from their CRM programs. Respectively, such software has access to your business data and can provide comprehensive insights into your teams’ and customers’ behavior.
Hubspot offers some great features but may become overwhelmed if used by an enterprise-level company. Due mainly because the CRM lacks reporting options and integration capabilities that are flexible enough.
Streak CRM, on the other hand, is a simple yet powerful solution designed specifically for multiple touch points such as mobile devices (tablets, smartphones, laptops). That makes setting up and running the app quickly in different work environments easier.
When looking for a CRM solution, ease of use is an important factor to consider.
You do not want something that will be difficult and frustrating in the daily operations of your business. Then you are just wasting time on technical details when more important things like revenue numbers or customer satisfaction surveys need attention instead. When choosing CRM, you must consider the most beneficial features for your daily operations. That includes project management tools and lead generation capabilities that vary from program to program.
To go a step further, check if your business phone system integrates with your CRM solution.
How does CRM work?
CRM helps you manage your customer data most effectively. Taking your time and planning before implementing one into an already running business is important. Once it is integrated into your system, there are many benefits for your small business. A good way to think about the advantages of CRM would be like having an organized database for all customer information.
Thus you can access any piece needed without having multiple databases or spreadsheets that can get complicated quickly, which also helps ensure nothing gets lost. With CRM, you can get a complete picture of your company’s interactions with each customer regardless of the data gathered by sales, marketing, accounting, or purchasing departments. Therefore, you have faster reactions and more opportunities to be proactive in the sales process and customer service.
For instance, if customer support agents sense that a prospect or a lead is ready for upselling, they can add that information to the support ticket they handle. So it is not lost between other contact points like email or instant messages sent to their sales department. Thanks to the CRM functionalities, this data is automatically taken from the ticket, added to the CRM record of this particular prospect, and attributed to the pipeline so the sales agent can take action and try to convert the lead.
That type of automation is possible as customer service management software can seamlessly move data across systems and devices. Depending on the needs of your sales and customer support teams, the CRM data can be found either specially designed program interface, in an email, message, or on any compatible device.
Why is automation so important?
Because it enables you to access all the data you need, you can move it seamlessly where you need it. The data automation gathering in the CRM and integrating it into different devices allows you to build your sales funnel correctly. At the top, it is wide open with all possible data. At the bottom, it is structured into units that reach exactly the people who need them.
In the end, if you want to be sure that you leverage your CRM capabilities, you should be able to transform its data into email marketing, sales calls, document creation, contract management, and handling daily activities from your team.
Connect your cloud phone system to all the business tools you need daily!
CRM challenges for larger and smaller businesses
A top challenge for larger companies implementing a CRM program is to adapt it smoothly to the specific needs of their extensive sales teams. Despite having dedicated IT employees who can help with training and support issues, the big sales teams still face many communication and collaboration issues related to CRM.
For smaller organizations, the CRM challenge is that they have limited options for getting know-how from an in-house IT team. Thus they usually require a longer time for software adoption and to learn how to use all its features. The evolution of CRM has brought the needs of small business users into focus. Brand-new products with specialized features have been designed to serve this group while also making it easy for big companies and star-tups alike by providing an upgrade path that can grow as your company grows.
A few years ago, little attention was paid to developing tools tailored specifically to businesses needs. However, over time more vendors began directly addressing these considerations to ensure they are not left behind during today’s digital transformation era.
Why does a small business need a CRM program?
The main purpose of CRM systems is to drive sales and growth to smaller companies. Implementing such a tool makes it easier for the organization to start and build trustful relationships with potential customers through CRM.
For any small business with a small database, beginning every customer interaction in the best possible way is vital. Later, those first steps will likely grow into long-term trusted client relations. The result will be higher sales, customer satisfaction, and loyal brand ambassadors. Your CRM ensures all your clients receive the products, services, and professional attention they need.
The customer relationship management solution supports your interactions with future clients and helps you build a trustworthy relationships with the existing ones. That allows small businesses to create repeat sales and retain customers, which has a higher ROI than acquiring new clients. With the right CRM, you can create a repeatable client-based sales system into your CRM solution. It allows you to keep the balance between your customer needs and your expertise, products, and services.
Integrating your CRM system with your existing systems enables you to achieve full automation of many business processes, which helps you grow as a company. Even as a start-up, you have already accumulated some clients’ databases, sales information, and other relevant data. The CRM tool brings all this together. Enhance your customer service and success through your CRM program. You can improve your customers’ satisfaction and retention rates with the right solution. CRM can be easily combined with your customer service, support, and success systems to help you manage every step of your customer journey.
The best CRM for small businesses for 2022
Salesforce
Salesforce is considered one of the top CRM solutions for advanced customization. Although it is best known for its enterprise-level CRM systems for large companies, Salesforce also has tools specifically designed as a small business solution.
With Small Business Pricing Solutions, Salesforce provides an all-inclusive solution to your sales, customer service, and marketing needs. You can customize features like dashboards or reports to match your specific needs. This software program has an intuitive and sales-focused interface, allowing great flexibility and a personalized user experience.
You can benefit from internal communication features like onscreen calls, organizing for your clients a helpful knowledge base, email templates, and integration with third-party apps that will streamline your business process.
Benefits
• Advanced customization
• Familiar and intuitive user interface
• Small business pricing is available
• Excellent mobile apps
• Great contact management tool (allows perfect capture of calendar and email)
• Long trial period
• Enables small businesses to organize effectively daily tasks
• Access to enhanced Salesforce tech stack
Challenges
• No free plan is available
• High starting price
• Limited reports
Pricing – starting at $25 per user per month
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is best for existing Zoho Suite users and sales pipelines. Zoho CRM is a powerful pipeline-based customer relationship management solution for small businesses that work equally well on PCs and mobile devices.
The cloud-based CRM software is an excellent customer management and leads generation tool. This platform is easy-to-use, and yet it does not compromise on capability. Among its top features, you can find the ability to search for contacts on social media and scan business cards. It assists sales teams by creating automated workflows. Other top features include website visitor segmentation, pipeline management, and organizing client contact and communications records.
Benefits
• Simple to use CRM – rebuilt for mobile
• Great for lead generation
• Integrates advanced CRM features into an affordable plan
• Built-in business telephony options
• Rich integration options with other Zoho tools as well
• Customizable dashboards
• Helpful contextual data is easily available
Challenges
• The interface of the program can confuse traditional CRM users
• Paid plans can be pricey
• Difficult integration process
Pricing – Starting at $7 per user per month on an annual plan.
Pipedrive CRM
Pipedrive CRM stands out as a deal-driven solution focused on SMEs (small and medium enterprises). It can also work as an account-management tool supporting the whole marketing and sales process. With its proactive functionality, Pipedrive can automatically follow and organize business calls and emails to adjust employees’ schedules across devices.
A distinctive feature of the Pipedrive customer relationship management software is its ability to visualize the sales process from beginning to end. That makes it an effective tool that improves the team’s productivity. Some of its advanced capabilities include chatbot creation for websites, efficient reporting, and easy integrations with other business tools. Its limitations are related mainly to restricting email contact lists of up to 1000 names and the lack of more sophisticated marketing automation.
Benefits
• Assists small and medium business to optimize their entire sales and customer relationship process.
• Provides intuitive design and deal-driven workflow
• Calls, emails, and mobile apps synchronization
Challenges
• Limited features for the price package
• New leads and contacts are not separated
Pricing – starts at $12.50 per user per month.
Zendesk Sell CRM
Zendesk CRM is one of the best CRM software for accelerating your revenue. It is designed for sales teams, enabling you to make data-driven decisions. It streamlines your productivity and allows you to enhance your customers’ experience.
Zendesk customer relationship management focuses on daily sales activities and interactions. You can access built-in features like account management, lead generation, and activity tracking. Also, you can benefit from tools like lead enrichment, automated sequencing, and tasks player allows your sales reps to stay on top of the deals. That industry-leading mobile app encompasses email, text, and voice so that you can still engage with your clients across different channels via one unified platform. Zendesk Sell can be integrated with Zendesk Suite giving you a complete view of your prospects’, customers’, and partners’ data. Thus you can also access even more tools via third-party apps and Zendesk’s open APIs.
Benefits
• Offers a 14-day free trial
• Easy to use
• Minimal onboarding
• Strong reporting tools
Challenges
• Expensive beyond 3 users
• Limited features at the lowest plan
• Limited customer support
Pricing – starts at $19/user/month.
Odoo CRM
Odoo CRM is a powerful tool for sales teams to manage their top leads and opportunities. It allows you to customize the process, gain valuable insights, control forecasts, and automate your marketing campaigns, helping you improve your performance.
With Odoo CRM, sales teams can fully integrate email contacts into their lead analysis process. That provides a more comprehensive view of the quality and quantity for every customer segment, so they can make faster decisions about where best place future investments or what strategies will generate the most revenue from current resources without wasting time.
Odoo CRM Marketing System is an advanced marketing campaign system that automates lead acquisitions, follow-ups, and special offers. Users can also determine automated actions based on predefined rules, making it easy for entrepreneurs to focus on running their businesses instead of spending countless hours manually doing everything themselves.
Benefits
• Automated next actions
• Integrated Marketing Strategies
• User-friendly Interface
• A great community support
Challenges
• Not all localizations are included in the core
• Enterprise version is as expensive as other ERPs in the market
Pricing – starts at 24$ per app/ per user/ per month.
To be successful in business, you need more than good ideas and determination. You must also consider all aspects of your company’s operations, including customer relationships management (CRM). The best small businesses use CRMs to organize contacts with potential buyers or customers while providing them an easy way to communicate on sales/marketing activities from one central platform. They can automate certain tasks, which ultimately increases productivity. Team members can do their job better as they work smarter and not harder.
Businesses need CRM to stay competitive. The best way for your company’s marketing, sales, and customer support teams to work together seamlessly is by implementing a system that can integrate all data into one cohesive platform. So they are always aware of what each other is doing and can share information instantly across departments without effort.
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