What is the best CRM? There comes a time in every small business’s life when they have to abandon the beautifully crafted, but inefficient Excel spreadsheet and invest time and money into a ‘CRM’ system.
What is a CRM?
A CRM is a Customer Relationship Management System and effectively is a piece of software that stores data connected to your clients and the projects you are working on. But they are so much more. They include email systems, reminders, and task management and if you find the right one, it could change your working life.
You may have noticed that CRM is focussed on looking after customers, not prospects?!
Many CRM now have a prospect relationship management element to them (or what we term a PRM!). If you want to use your CRM to look after prospects, you need to think carefully about your sales process (such as in this example), when you want to bring ‘prospects’ into your ‘CRM’, and how easy it is to adapt the CRM to your process.
For example, do you import data very early or later in your pipeline? You will also need to agree on common terminology so that you set up the system correctly. Is your definition of a ‘prospect’ the same as the rest of your team?
A good CRM system should ensure that all your staff have access to up-to-date client and prospect information so that they are better able to provide customer service as well as make it easier for sales teams to close deals. A CRM will certainly make working life easier and more streamlined for your staff and your customers.
But which CRM is best for you?
When choosing a CRM system there is a lot of variety in function and cost, so you should have a clear idea of the minimum you want your CRM to do. Then compare the different CRM software packages available to see what would be at the right level for you and your business.
There are plenty of CRMs that start you off free and then charge as you expand and add more features. The best advice is to take out the trials on two or three that you like the look of. Test with 10-20 records before you buy. Take care to note the potential extra costs and commitments down the line before you commit.
Here is a very short list of some systems to get you started:
- Hubspot is popular at the moment. The CRM is free, has great online reach and you can expand to other marketing packages – be aware of the charges once you add packages.
- Monday a number of clients have also raved about it and it seems to be rated highly in online top 5s.
- CapsuleCRM is a simple one and one we are currently using. It includes the handy visual lead tracker.
- ZohoCRM is one that many of our clients are using. Again it is quite easy to use.
- Pipedrive has a focus on leads and automated sales interactions. It encourages the user to focus on the tasks leading to the sales such as calls, emails and other contacts, rather than the sales itself, and facilitates this with AI-generated workflow automation. This is the one a number of our clients and we are currently using.
- Callpro is a specialist CRM for when you are running multiple campaigns with multiple data sets – such as for telemarketing, telesales and lead generation and is essentially a call centre solution to help you increase the number of sales calls being made. It is an excellent system Su used when she ran her telemarketing agency.
- Salesforce is a more expensive, marketing leading system for every stage of your sales funnel and helps to track each customer’s sales journey as well as including an automated marketing tool, making contacting clients and maintaining relationships easier.
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 is another big all-singing and dancing solution – this is definitely heading down the bespoke route.
- Bespoke – If after scanning and comparing dozens of CRM systems there isn’t one which suits all the needs of your organisation there is also the option to have a bespoke system created, which will grow with your company.
It’s very difficult to say which is the best CRM for any individual business, as each business will have different requirements. Therefore the more clear you are about what you want the software to do, the easier it will make choosing the right system for you.
If your Excel spreadsheet is getting difficult to manage, or your team has outgrown a shared document it could be time to consider taking the plunge. If you’d like help mapping your sales process or choosing the right CRM for you, please email info@priddeymarketing.co.uk