The Best CRM Platforms For Your Business

This week we'll take a look at some of what we'd consider to be the best CRM platforms for your business.

Customer relationships are a priority in any business deal because they are among the main factors that drive continuity and long-term patronage.

Having said this, it is essential for any business owner to consider investing in the best CRM platforms for their business.

What is a CRM platform?

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a tool that small businesses can use to manage customer data, sales processes, and sales forecasting. With CRM software, all of this information is conveniently stored in one place.

The best CRMs are highly customizable and include automation capabilities, messaging functionality, and email templates. Additionally, they offer lead generation, lead scoring, sales pipeline management, project management tools, and integrations with other top apps. We'll dive deeper into these features later.

For now, think of CRMs as highly advanced spreadsheets that allow you to track all customer interactions and use that data when needed.

Let's take a look at some of the best CRM platforms for your business.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive, though not the biggest CRM player, is still popular due to its user-friendly interface and effective features. The platform's visual nature allows users to view their entire sales funnel and modify pipelines via drag-and-drop functionality.

Pipedrive is a flexible tool that can be adapted to suit the needs of various startups. It enables users to create multiple pipelines, each with unique stages to match actual sales cycles.

Automation is also available to eliminate data entry and improve individual productivity. Additionally, Pipedrive has built-in email marketing tools to keep in touch with prospects. Customizable reports and visual dashboards make it easy to monitor team progress.

However, Pipedrive lacks a free plan, though it offers a free 14-day trial. Onboarding can be difficult as phone support is only available on top-tier plans. Pipedrive is best suited for sales, and those looking for a multi-use tool may not find it satisfactory.

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a top competitor in the CRM industry, offering user-friendly features and a powerful set of tools for startups.

This platform is customizable to fit a variety of unique needs and includes sales and marketing automation features that increase efficiency.

Zoho CRM also has a data porting feature and integrates with social media platforms for social selling.

However, although Zoho offers email marketing tools, individual messages can't be tracked. Additionally, some features are considered "Add-Ons" and can be quite costly.

Zendesk Sell

Initially developed as a help desk software, Zendesk has expanded its services to include CRM capabilities. The tight integration with Zendesk for Service makes it highly compatible for help desk functionality, which is more prominent than other CRMs.

Despite this, it is still a comprehensive CRM that can cater to any organization.

Zendesk Sell has excellent integration with its help desk software, useful reporting options through its Explorer feature, easy onboarding and team-creation features, and useful Smart Lists.

However, it can quickly get pricey beyond the lowest tier and has limited pipelines, even at the highest-priced tiers. Additionally, it offers only basic email and template editor features.

Hubspot

HubSpot is a well-known company in sales and marketing circles as they create tools for marketing, sales, and customer experience teams. Their CRM system is their main tool that offers contact management, email marketing, and sales automation features, among others.

HubSpot CRM provides sales managers and executives with a visual overview of their sales. The platform can be accessed on any device, including a mobile phone, and integrates with thousands of other tools through integration platforms such as Zapier and Pabbly.

Additionally, it includes features such as appointment scheduling, live chat, and payment, reducing the need for multiple apps.

However, the platform is not highly customizable, which may be an issue for some startups, and their free CRM is limited, requiring most startups to upgrade to a paid plan or a different service as they grow.

Salesforce

Salesforce is a highly popular CRM tool. This is primarily due to being the first SaaS CRM option available and having a broad range of features to cater to various business needs.

Among its benefits are dashboards to track team performance, a social feed for collaboration, automation tools to boost productivity, AI-based sales forecasting, and multiple add-ons for additional value. Salesforce also offers many integration capabilities with other tools.

However, the downside of this system is that it is quite complex and not very user-friendly, requiring a dedicated team member or consultant for setup and maintenance. Additionally, the pricing plans can be costly, with extra fees hidden in add-ons and upgrades.

ActiveCampaign Sales

ActiveCampaign is an excellent software with only a few minor drawbacks. Its automation campaign user interface is one of the best, making it effortless and pleasant to use

ActiveCampaign has 900+ integrations, including native integrations with CRMs and eCommerce platforms, providing a deeper integration than many other automation tools that rely solely on Zapier.

Automated split testing allows for testing entire sequences, not just individual emails. ActiveCampaign offers machine learning features for predictive sending, content, and lead scoring.

ActiveCampaign's marketing automation is strong due to its integrated CRM system. However, it is not as strong as dedicated platforms like PipeDrive or Salesforce. Nevertheless, we believe this is a fair exchange for ActiveCampaign's automation capabilities. The reporting is extensive, but it can be challenging to navigate due to its crowded layout.

Keap/Infusionsoft

Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, began as a high-level email marketing platform but has since grown to offer CRM features as well.

Keap offers startups access to a capable CRM system that includes contact management, sales pipeline, email and text marketing, automation features, and more.

Keap allows users to import contacts from various sources, making centralizing customer data easy. Automation is a big part of Keap, and users can use drag-and-drop functionality to create custom marketing campaigns and streamlined sales processes.

The email marketing features of Keap are advanced and include professional templates, A/B testing, and real-time reports. Additionally, users can build custom forms and embed them on their websites.

However, Keap does not offer a free plan, only a 14-day free trial, and it offers a vast array of marketing features that may not be necessary for sales teams, resulting in additional costs.

Engagebay Sales

Engagebay offers startup-friendly marketing, sales, customer support, and contact management tools that are easy to use and help companies grow.

It tracks various activities such as contact, web, email response, open and click rates, etc. Engagebay integrates with IMAP services like Gmail and Office 365, with two-way sync capabilities.

However, it doesn't have that many native integrations with third-party apps, and the email template options are limited and simplistic in style.

Freshsales

Freshsales is a CRM tool with several noteworthy advantages. Users can easily manage contacts, while customer data is automatically collected from emails, reducing data entry.

Freshsales also provides contextual data that can help users understand where prospects are in the sales process and accurately score them.

Freddy AI is another feature that helps users turn CRM data into insights, predictions, and recommendations.

Additionally, Freshsales offers a free plan with basic features. However, some of the features, such as sorting and filtering tasks, are not user-friendly.

Upgrading from the free plan can also be costly depending on the desired features. Therefore, if a user is looking for an intuitive and cost-effective CRM tool, Freshsales may not be the ideal option.

Agile CRM

Agile CRM offers several benefits to users, including a free plan for up to 10 users that includes appointment scheduling and lead scoring.

The platform also allows salespeople to create multiple deal tracks with customizable milestones, trigger automatic follow-ups, and analyze real-time metrics.

The upper-tier plans offer additional features such as contact management, marketing automation, real-time alerts and reporting, and social monitoring.

However, Agile CRM is not known for its ease of use, and some users find the CRM features to be powerful but cumbersome. Additionally, access to all features requires a significant investment, particularly for large sales teams.

Conclusion

Taking advantage of the best CRM platforms for your business will help you grow your leads and customers because it will allow you to nurture them better.

With the right CRM, not only will you make effective use of its every function, but you will also save money.

With that said, ACRR Solutions can help you not only pick the right CRM for your business, but we can also set up that CRM for you so all you have to do is to use it.