In today’s market, small businesses need a reliable CRM to manage customer interactions and growth.

Yet, with so many options, selecting the right CRM for your small business can be overwhelming.

This article aims to guide you through the process of choosing the best CRM for your small business.

We have developed a complete guide that takes you into choosing the best CRM for your small business.

In this blog, we have covered:

• The types of CRM,
• Factors and features to consider,
• A comparison chart on the top 7 best CRM for small businesses,
• And much more.

So, stay tuned till the end of this blog to make the most out of it.

What is a CRM?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a technique used by businesses to track, manage and get insights from customers and potential customer interactions.

We can improve and retain customer relationships throughout the lifecycle, to improve sales.

Does your Small Business Need CRM software?

In short, Yes.

CRM software comes up with a list of benefits, which we’ll discuss in this section. 

The following insights and information can improve the quality of relationships with your customers:

The One-Stop For All Customer Details

CRM software is the hub for storing customer data such as contact details, sale history, past interactions, and product details.

This becomes crucial when the volume of customer data levels up.

Communication and Collaboration Made Easy 

Life becomes easier for the sales teams, marketing teams, and customer support teams, who are in constant interaction with the customers.

This helps you reduce duplication of work, and increase efficiency and consistency.

Takes Care of Sales and Leads Management

Using CRM software we can automate Lead generation, lead qualification, and lead tracking.

It becomes easier to manage sales campaigns, rank leads, and close deals.

Track your Customer Behavior

Insights such as customer buying behaviors, likes, and trends can help make data-driven decisions.

This would help your small business focus on its marketing strategies, sales, and customer retention.

Don’t buy CRM Software for Your Small Business Before Considering These Factors!

Before diving into the world of CRM, you should figure out the unique needs of your small business.

Identifying your needs before selecting a CRM makes a big difference.

This section will cover the key factors to consider when evaluating your CRM needs.

CRMs can sometimes be expensive and your small business might have limited financial resources.

So, you need to choose a CRM that is affordable and provides the necessary features for your business.

How Big is Your Small Business?

The size of your business needs to become taken into account.

You also need to foresee the growth of your small business as it could be difficult for the CRM to handle large amounts of data.

For example, Your small business might need to manage and automate plenty of processes and integrate tools for each customer.

So, you should consider both factors and select a CRM that is scalable to your growth and expansion.

It should also be possible for your user to make the most out of the software.

You don’t want to be paying for features that you won’t be able to utilize for your business, especially if you have budget constraints.

Whom Do You Serve?

The target market becomes crucial because it determines the features of CRM software.

For example, let’s say you own a B2B company. Then your CRM software should manage complexity and a higher volume of contacts.

It should be flexible to integrate with other business software.

A B2C company would need CRM software that can handle plenty of customer interactions and provide customer analytics.

How are You Planning to Reach Them?

CRM software should be able to customize sales pipelines and effective lead management features.

For example, a sales pipeline should have lead generation and initial and closing stages.

And lead management features should include lead tracking, lead nurturing and lead closing.

You can check your needs by figuring out your goals and analyzing the current sales processes.

You should make use of free trials and demos offered by CRM software to get figure out if the features they provide match your objectives.

Customer Support

Sometimes, amidst all the features and factors we shouldn’t forget the customer support the CRM software provides.

Make sure to check if the CRM software provides ticketing systems, chatbots, and/or self-service portals.

All CRMs aren’t the Same.

There are three types of CRMs available in the market. In this section, we’ll briefly discuss these types, their pros and cons, and which type suits you the best.

1. Operational CRMs

This type helps you automate and simplify your day-to-day sales, marketing, and customer activities.

You can manage interactions through phone, email, and social media with this CRM.

This CRM would best suit small businesses that have customer interactions and wants to automate their sales and customer service.

2. Analytical CRMs

This type helps you with advanced analytical and reporting features that can feed information to your customer base.

This CRM allows you to view buying behaviors, preferences, trends, and patterns.

This CRM would best suit small businesses that have a large customer base and looks to improve their business through a data-driven approach.

3. Collaborative CRMs

This type allows many users to access and work together on customer accounts.

Improves collaboration and efficiency between many teams as it unites customer data in a database that’s accessible to all.

This CRM would best suit a small business that has a large customer base and many departments and complex customer requirements.

Your CRM Software Should Have These Features!

Once you have identified your needs, the next step is to test the features that you should consider before choosing CRM for your small business. 

Let’s now discuss the features that your small business should consider before choosing a CRM:

Make Sure Your CRM is a Good Friend

A user-friendly CRM software saves plenty of time by avoiding or taking less time in training a resource.

This would provide your small business ample time to focus on the business instead of training.

You Don’t Want Your CRM to Be Stubborn

Flexibility is a crucial feature that a CRM. Your CRM should be able to customize fields, workflows, and reports.

This allows your teams to work in a tailor-fit workflow for your processes and thus improves productivity.

How outgoing is your CRM?

As we’ve mentioned earlier, you need to make sure that the CRM software should be able to integrate with other software that your small business uses.

This helps you save a lot of time that might otherwise be a hectic, time-consuming task to streamline data.

Your CRM Should be a Data Geek

A CRM should have robust analytics and reporting features.

This helps gain insights into customer behavior, sales pipeline, and marketing performance.

This helps your small business to upscale its performance in a data-driven approach.

How About Mobile Accessibility?

Your CRM software should be accessed from anywhere, at any time and that could be a huge benefit.

Cloud-based CRM software allows your team members to access the CRM from any device with an internet connection.

Let’s now discuss features that could be pivotal for your small business:

Lead Tracking and Management

This feature can help your small business manage its sales pipelines and improve its conversion rates.

Your small business can rank leads and deals, automate follow-ups, and track progress on your sales goals.

You can make sure no customer falls through the cracks.

Better Integration

CRM integration is a valuable feature that allows businesses to seamlessly connect their CRM system with other tools and platforms, such as email marketing software, social media platforms, and customer service tools. This integration enables businesses to streamline their processes, improve efficiency, and provide better customer experiences.

Marketing Automation

Automation of repetitive tasks such as email campaigns, social media posts, and lead nurturing campaigns can save time.

Such marketing automation features could be highly beneficial for your small business.

Collaboration Tools

A collaboration tool helps your small business to work together while staying organized.

Small businesses often have teams that work together.

So a tool that allows team messaging, file sharing, and task management could help them stay on track.

Top 7 CRM Software for Your Small Businesses

In this section, we will compare the top 7 CRM options for your small business.

We will provide an overview of each CRM’s key features, pricing, and pros and cons in this comparison.

Rank	CRM Brands	Description	Pricing (For every User/Month)	Pros	Cons
1.	Zoho CRM	A complete and extremely affordable cloud-based CRM solution for small businesses. Helps your small business to manage customer contacts, leads, deals, email marketing, and analytics.	Standard Plan – $14 Professional Plan – $23 Enterprise Plan – $40 Ultimate Plan – $100	Best suited for small businesses. A Complete package of features. Great automation and customization capabilities. Most affordable on the list.	Third-party integration can be challenging.
2.	Hubspot CRM	A cloud-based CRM software that has an intuitive interface and robust features. Contact management, deal tracking, marketing automation, and analytics are a few of its key features.	Starter Plan – $50/month Professional Plan – $1600/month Enterprise Plan – $5000/month	Free version available. User-friendly interface. Robust marketing automation capabilities.	The free version comes up with no integration abilities. Limited customization facilities. Limited reporting features.
3.	Salesforce CRM	A popular cloud-based CRM software for small businesses.  It is well known for its scalability, customization, and robust features. Helps your small business to manage customer relationships, automate workflows, and track sales performance.	Essentials Plan – $25 Professional Plan – $75 Enterprise Plan – $150 Ultimate Plan – $300	Customizable to business needs. Robust analytics and reporting capabilities. Integrates a wide range of third-party apps and tools.	Costlier option when compared to other CRMs. Provides a steep learning curve for beginners.
4.	Freshworks CRM	Is Suitable for small businesses looking for an affordable yet robust CRM solution. Contact management, lead scoring, deal management, email tracking, and analytics are a few of its key features.	Growth Plan – $29 Pro Plan – $69 Enterprise Plan – $125	User-friendly interface and easy setup. The affordable price range for small businesses. Best for Lead generation and management.	Limited third-party integration facilities. Basic reporting features.
5.	Pipeline CRM	If you’re a sales-focused small business whose main goal is managing leads and deals, then Pipeline CRM is the one for you. Helps your small business to manage pipelines, contacts, email integration, and reporting.	Start Plan – $25 Develop Plan – $33 Grow Plan – $49	User-friendly interface. Best mobile app for sales teams.	Limited marketing automation facilities. Not the best customer service support.
6.	Copper CRM	Small businesses that have extensive usage of Gmail and Google apps can have a seamless experience with Copper CRM. Helps your small business to manage contacts, forecast sales, email tracking, and analytics.	Basic Plan – $23 Professional Plan – $49 Business Plan – $99	Best for G suite. Good lead and deal management capabilities.	Limited marketing automation facilities. Limited customization feature.
7.	Agile CRM	A Cloud-based offering features like contact management, sales and marketing automation, and customer service. It is developed for small and medium businesses that require a wide range of third-party integrations.	Starter Plan – $8.99 Regular Plan – $29.99 Enterprise Plan – $47.99	Wide Range of features at an affordable price.

Which Business Applications Should Your CRM Integrate with?

Remember that your CRM software should be able to integrate with all or a few of the below-mentioned software that your small business might use.

Email Marketing Software – To track email engagement and email campaigns, your CRM must be in sync with your email marketing software.

Customer Support Software – Your CRM software should integrate with your customer support software to help you manage customer queries.

Accounting Software – Manage your invoices, financial reports, and payments by integrating your accounting software with CRM.

Project Management Software – Your CRM software should be robust to meet the needs of your project management software to track the tasks and projects of each customer.

Social Media Management Software – Also, make sure your CRM software supports your social media management software.

Conclusion

Choosing the best CRM for your small business can be a daunting task.

But by knowing your needs, evaluating options, and considering key factors, you can find your perfect match.

In this blog, we educate you on the following:

• What is a CRM?
• Benefits that CRM comes with.
• Factors to consider before choosing a CRM.
• Types of CRM.
• Features a CRM should have.
• A Comparison of Top 7 CRM.
• And the business applications your CRM should integrate with.

Here’s a bonus tip to conclude with.

Check for reviews and other users’ experiences before you finalize your CRM software.

And, remember to choose a scalable CRM, that integrates with your other tools, and provides a positive user experience.

With Zoho CRMs being the most preferable option for most small businesses, you don’t have to bang your head to get it all set up.

Contact Us now to hire a consultant.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CRM, and why is it important for small businesses?
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a software tool that helps businesses manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. It is essential for small businesses as it helps them to develop better relationships with their customers, increase customer satisfaction, and ultimately, drive sales growth.

What are the key features of a CRM system for small businesses?
The key features of a CRM system for small businesses include contact management, lead management, sales forecasting, marketing automation, analytics and reporting, and customer service management. These features help small businesses manage customer interactions, track sales, automate marketing campaigns, and improve customer service.

How can a small business choose the right CRM system?
Small businesses should consider several factors when choosing a CRM system, including the business’s size and budget, the features required, the ease of use, and the scalability of the system. Small businesses should also consider whether the CRM system can integrate with other business tools such as email marketing software, accounting software, and ecommerce platforms.

What are some benefits of using a CRM system for small businesses?
The benefits of using a CRM system for small businesses include improved customer relationships, increased efficiency and productivity, streamlined sales processes, enhanced marketing efforts, and better decision-making. Additionally, a CRM system can help small businesses identify new opportunities for growth and revenue.

How can small businesses get started with CRM implementation?
Small businesses can get started with CRM implementation by first defining their business goals and objectives. They should then research and select a CRM system that aligns with their needs and budget. Small businesses should also involve their teams in the implementation process, provide training and support, and ensure the system is regularly maintained and updated. It’s important to remember that successful CRM implementation is an ongoing process and requires continuous effort and dedication.

Techworks Talent is a highly skilled Zoho implementation partner that provides top-notch services to its clients. With their expertise in Zoho’s suite of products, they are able to help businesses streamline their processes and improve their overall efficiency. Their team of professionals are dedicated to ensuring that their clients receive the best possible solutions tailored to their specific needs. As a Zoho implementation partner, Techworks Talent is committed to delivering quality services that help businesses grow and succeed.