Top 10+ Best Small Business CRM Software 2023 (Free & Paid)

Do you think CRM software would be expensive for small businesses? If so, the cost depends on the time, effort, and features they add to the CRM software. Hence, a CRM is not only for large companies. Today, you will find that even an individual or a sole proprietorship uses the best CRM software for small businesses as a secret sauce for transforming them into strong, vibrant, and fast-growing companies. The best CRMs for small business offer simple and scalable customer management and enables effective sales, simple and affordable infrastructure, creating social media awareness, customer service, flexible growth, organized customer information, effective interaction with customers, effortless coordination with the team members, seamless integration with other software, optimization of marketing strategies, and automated sales tasks. If you have considered going in for CRM software for rapid business growth, you will come across a list of top CRM software for small businesses when you surf online.

best-crm-for-small-business

Our Score98/100
  • Pipedrive
  • United Kingdom
  • $14.90/month/user
  • Yes

Visit Website

Our Score98/100
  • HubSpot
  • United States
  • Not provided by vendor
  • Yes

Visit Website

Our Score98/100
  • Salesforce
  • United States
  • Not provided by vendor
  • Yes

Visit Website

» Our score is based on user satisfaction (reviews & ratings), social media buzz, online presence, and other relevant information. If your software is part of this list, use this badge on your website and social media to let your readers know about your success.

List of Top CRM Software for Small Businesses Reviews

Pipedrive-best-crm-logo

1. Pipedrive – Best CRM solutions for small business

Our Score 98/100

About Pipedrive: Pipedrive is the best CRM software for any sized business. With a clear dashboard, easy-to-use features, and an expansive library of integrations with other apps, it’s the perfect CRM for anyone who wants to be more productive with their business strategies. Pipedrive provides the easiest way to manage your business and customer relationships. With its intuitive interface, advanced filtering tools, and powerful reporting capabilities, this CRM eliminates a lot of the hassles that come with keeping up with current opportunities.

Pipedrive Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“Using Pipedrive’s CRM is one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. We’ve seen our annual revenue explode, and the outlook just keeps getting sunnier” – Mitchell Workman

Pipedrive Reviews

Pipedrive

United Kingdom

501 – 1000

2010

$14.90/month/user

Yes

4.5

2400+ Reviews

4.2

1500+ Reviews

HubSpot CRM - Best Small Business CRM

2. HubSpot CRM – Grow your small business faster with HubSpot CRM

Our Score 98/100

About HubSpot CRM: HubSpot CRM is a software application that primarily focuses on managing your business’s online presence and online marketing practices. The HubSpot CRM software is the backbone of every company’s website; it allows for managing and monitoring web traffic, tracking analytics, creating content for social media, and measuring success. Having access to HubSpot CRM can give you more insight into your customer’s behavior and customer relationship, which ultimately can help improve your company’s bottom line.

HubSpot CRM Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“One of the most dangerous things a software company can do is remain static, HubSpot does a great job of listening to its customers and keeping up with the shifting world of technology. It’s a trustworthy platform that will keep pace with whatever the future brings.” – Haley Irwin

HubSpot CRM Reviews

HubSpot

United States

1001 – 5000

2012

Not provided by vendor

Yes

4.5

3400+ Reviews

4.4

9500+ Reviews

Salesforce CRM - Best CRM Software For Small Business

3. Salesforce CRM – Grow your customer relationships.

Our Score 98/100

About Salesforce CRM: Salesforce CRM is a software company that offers cloud-based customer relationship management solutions for small, medium and large businesses. Salesforce CRM manages the company’s relationships with current customers as well as potential customers and partners. Salesforce offers a range of features including phone, email, chat, social media monitoring and enterprise content management. The solution is available in numerous languages and offers thousands of plugins, including those that extend the system’s functionality beyond basic CRM to business analytics, email management and marketing.

Salesforce CRM Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“With Salesforce, we’re building a unified information source to help us reimagine collaboration across our entire platform. This will enable NBCUniversal to continue delivering the highest level of transparency, insights, and results for our customers.” – Linda Yaccarino

Salesforce CRM Reviews

Salesforce

United States

10000+

2003

Not provided by vendor

Yes

4.4

17000+ Reviews

4.3

12900+ Reviews

monday.com - Best CRM Software for Small Businesses

4. monday.com – Simple CRM Software for small businesses

Our Score 97/100

About monday.com: monday.com offers businesses an opportunity to save money on the cost of a dedicated tech team and system administrators by building their own CRM system around their company’s existing services. monday.com markets itself as a fully customizable CRM platform, making it easy for business owners to build and expand their own businesses without having to invest in dedicated staff, or extreme computer skills. monday’s software is designed to be highly intuitive and user-friendly, making it possible for the average business owner to set up a system in one day.

monday.com Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“monday.com CRM has opened countless doors of opportunities that we never had before. We were able to customize the CRM on top of monday.com Work OS to fit the needs of our day-to-day activities.” – Kyle Dorman | Operations Manager at Ray White

monday.com Reviews

monday.com

Israel

1001 – 5000

2014

$10 /seat /month

Yes

4.6

2800+ Reviews

4.6

500+ Reviews

Zoho CRM - Best CRM for Small Business

5. Zoho CRM – The Best CRM Software for Small Businesses

Our Score 97/100

About Zoho CRM: Zoho CRM is a cloud-based platform that helps you organize your business and track your projects. It comes with a variety of features; this CRM has made it possible for anyone, regardless of their experience or level in their field, to manage their business effectively without having to worry about anything else. Zoho CRM offers numerous features to manage sales and business where you can find process management, sales enablement, sales forecasting, marketing automation, customization, team collaboration, etc.

Zoho CRM Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“With Zoho CRM, we experienced a 65% increase in our sales pipeline. We also managed to reduce our lead to real prospect time by 60%, which is huge. I would definitely recommend Zoho CRM to companies that are experiencing complexity with sales and marketing and witnessing rapid growth.” – K.C Watson

Zoho CRM Reviews

Zoho

United States

5001 – 10000

1996

Not provided by vendor

Yes

4.3

5900+ Reviews

4.0

2200+ Reviews

Act! - Best Simple CRM for Small Business

6. Act! – Economical and flexible Cloud-based CRM for small businesses

Our Score 97/100

About Act!: Act! is one of the best CRM Software for marketing automation and is perfect for small and medium-sized companies. Through the ACT! CRM system, your business can quickly generate leads, enhance market efficiency, and improvise sales. The CRM has dozens of features, including customer management, sales pipeline management, activity management, etc. With the help of the ACT! CRM tool, your business can customize campaigns and reduce tedious tasks. ACT! provides flexibility to work and is one of the best CRM for attractive marketing.

Act! Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“I wouldn’t consider any CRM supplier other than Act!. In our case, this system has been fine-tuned to create a whole range of interfaces between databases that used to operate separately in the past” – Ruurd Schut

Act! Reviews

Act!

United States

51 – 200

1987

$30.00 /month

Yes

3.7

600+ Reviews

3.9

380+ Reviews

Zendesk CRM - Best Small Business CRM Software

7. Zendesk CRM – Best Small Business CRM Software Platforms

Our Score 97/100

About Zendesk CRM: Zendesk is a leading provider of customer service software and offers the best CRM solutions. Its social media management capabilities centralize all of the customer feedback that is received through third-party sites like Facebook or Twitter to drive faster resolutions for customers across every channel where they need it. Through its intelligent automation engine, Zendesk guides agents through every conversation while also drawing on machine learning and artificial intelligence to get smarter over time by understanding patterns in millions of past conversations, so agents know what to do without having to be told.

Zendesk CRM Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“We are using Zendesk Sell and Support to give our sales and support teams everything they need in one platform. They are able to effectively and efficiently collaborate and improve the customer experience.” – Bonni Poch

Zendesk CRM Reviews

Zendesk

United States

1001 – 5000

2007

$49.00 /month

Yes

4.4

3100+ Reviews

4.2

450+ Reviews

Really Simple Systems - Best CRM for Your Small Business

8. Really Simple Systems CRM – The Powerful CRM software for SMBs

Our Score 97/100

About Really Simple Systems CRM: Really Simple Systems CRM is designed for small businesses. It allows you to collect customer information and track sales and marketing campaigns from one central point. With this CRM, making marketing campaigns, updates to your pricing plans, or extensions of your service is as easy as a few clicks in the CRM app. This CRM is one of the best and can be implemented in any industry, as it has plenty of features.

Really Simple Systems CRM Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“I love your quick, superior and responsive customer support and response. I have been and still am impressed with the amazing customer service you give across the board. It has been consistent from the start.” – Leslie Roan

Really Simple Systems CRM Reviews

Really Simple Systems

United Kingdom

11 – 50

2006

Not provided by vendor

Yes

4.4

350+ Reviews

4.4

140+ Reviews

Freshsales - Best Small Business CRM Software

9. Freshsales – Grow your business with an affordable CRM software for small business

Our Score 96/100

About Freshsales: Freshsales CRM is a sales CRM designed to be used with Gmail and Google Calendar. It helps you keep in touch with your prospects and manage your meetings from Gmail. Freshsales CRM is integrated perfectly into Gmail, which means you can use all the features of Gmail without having to switch to an additional window or program when checking emails. You can also manage your contact details and create sales campaigns and reminders with the help of Gmail and Google Calendar.

Freshsales Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“As soon as we were given a demo of Freshsales, we knew it would resolve some of our most pressing sales challenges, to begin with. In fact, after a short set-up period and minimal training, we were able to hit the ground running from Day 1. And it hasn’t disappointed till today.” – Jean-Philippe Thiery

Freshsales Reviews

Freshworks

United States

1001 – 5000

2011

Not provided by vendor

Yes

4.6

500+ Reviews

4.6

900+ Reviews

Bitrix24 - Best Small Business CRM Software Platform

10. Bitrix24 – Free CRM Software for SMBs

Our Score 96/100

About Bitrix24: Bitrix24 CRM is a web-based CRM software marketed as an all-inclusive solution that can be used by small and large enterprises. It can customize its interface to specific business needs. Bitrix24’s users have access to a suite of powerful CRM tools and other publishing and collaboration options for personal and business use. It features social media & email marketing technology that enables users to build trusting relationships and track their interactions.

Bitrix24 Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“Bitrix24 CRM is an excellent tool for improving interaction with your customers, as it includes instruments for creating reports and analyzing sales and marketing campaigns, so that you can gain a clear insight into your company’s results and know whether or not your efforts are paying off.” – Üwen Ergün

Bitrix24 Reviews

Bitrix

United States

51 – 200

1998

$61.00 /month

Yes

4.1

500+ Reviews

4.1

470+ Reviews

Salesflare - Best CRM for Small Businesse

11. Salesflare – A simple yet powerful CRM for small and medium-sized businesses

Our Score 96/100

About Salesflare: Salesflare specializes as a small business CRM software selling B2B. It gets done all manual and time-consuming tasks like data input and organization automatically works right through individual email inboxes and brings everyone together, tracks customer activity, and follows up automatically. Exchanging data from CRM to ERP or other customer channels is easy with Salesflare’s REST API. Salesflare is powered by Zapier which enables integration with 3000+ other apps.

Salesflare Features: Contact Management, Account Management, Customer Database, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Lead Management, Campaign Management, Social Media Management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Document Management, Mobile CRM, Workflow Automation, Third-party Integration, Reports & Analytics

“If you want an intuitive, automated, and intelligent sales CRM, I have seen nothing that comes close to Salesflare.” – Colin Lernell

Salesflare Reviews

Salesflare

Belgium

02 – 10

2014

$29.00 /month/ user

Yes

4.7

130+ Reviews

4.8

210+ Reviews

Small Business CRM Software Buyer’s Guide

Now is a thriving time for small businesses around the world to exist - from a small bakery down the road to a departmental store to a home-based clothing business to a technology start-up.

It is exciting to be a small business owner in this era due to the plethora of opportunities, options, and exposure. However, it is also exhausting, given the multiple hats, one has to wear. Whether it is marketing, sales, or customer support, too much is going on every step of the way. While managing these aspects, in the beginning, is pretty much easier, things get complicated as you grow.

So, what do you do?

Simple. Shift to CRM software for small businesses.

» What is CRM Software?

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, the software is a system businesses use to establish, organize and nurture their relationship with current and prospective clientele. Think of it as a systematic way of connecting with your consumers.

The motive at the core is to maintain & enhance relationships within and outside your organization. Thus, you can expect the software to help manage your customers, as well as your workforce, stakeholders, and vendors.

The tedious tasks of identifying potential customers, converting them, and providing after-sale support and services are no longer complex. And you can retrieve, study, trace and track the journey of your leads or customers from a centralized place.

Not just that, CRMs are also designed to streamline business processes, which, in turn, helps improve your company’s profitability.

And it doesn’t stop there.

Using CRM software for small businesses benefits your business in more than one way. Let’s have a look.

» How CRM Helps Small Businesses?

Whether you are a tech firm, a service store, or a management consulting start-up, a small business CRM system can help strengthen the way you make and maintain customer relationships. For starters, the platform can simplify the lead generation process, which typically eats up a lot of time. It also allows you to segment, track and cater to your leads as per their distinct behavior. At the same time, you can manage the database of your existing customers without any hassles.

In both cases, though, the customer service and support shoot up big time. Since you have handy data on your client/prospect’s history and preferences, the communication becomes more direct, personalized, prompt, and smoother. Such a proactive problem-solving attitude makes a positive impression on your brand. And results in increased customer engagement, satisfaction, and retention.

Moreover, a CRM system helps you discover and make the most of business opportunities arising out of client referrals. It also simplifies process management for your employees and provides seamless communication, enhancing overall productivity. What’s more? The system promotes optimum resource utilization while reducing sales costs.

Now that you know how a small business CRM platform benefits you, it’s time to check out the features that make the system a must-have tool for small businesses.

» What are the Features of Small Business CRM Software?

While different CRM software would most probably offer a diverse range of features, the following are the common features to find in a top-rated CRM for small businesses:

› Lead management

An integral part of every best small business CRM tool, lead management empowers your sales teams to recognize the right leads with high chances of conversion they should focus on at the right time. The system uses multiple preset factors, such as prospect demography and previous interactions, to provide their accurate positioning in your sales lifecycle. Furthermore, you can manage these leads and assign them to your team members for distribution, persuasion, or re-engagement purposes accordingly.

› Contact management

The contact management feature of any CRM for a small business refers to the ability to manage the ever-growing list of contacts, categorize them into groups and serve them as per their needs and choices. Not only that, you can find any of your contacts, both business and individuals, in one place in a matter of mere seconds. That means no need to lose your time (and mind) over those thick diaries and strings of spreadsheets anymore!

› Campaign management

With the campaign management feature, you can run every campaign - right from the beginning till the end - from a single platform. Whether it is initial planning, resource allocation, scheduling, or analytics on ROI, a CRM system includes all the tools to make your campaigns more effective & successful. Also, most of these solutions provide you with complete control of defining user access controls.

› Marketing automation

Targeting the right prospects can be difficult at times, and that’s where marketing automation can help. It enables you to target the right audiences that may be actively looking for the services/products you offer with a more strategic and powerful approach. Moreover, the terms & control for which segments and aspects of your marketing efforts should undergo automation remain with you.

› Email management

A majority of small business CRM systems come with built-in email management capability so that you don’t miss any crucial emails or keep switching between different email clients. Such a function allows your team to organize and access their emails from a single place. There is usually a wide range of email templates available to help you get started right away. You can also merge it with your calendar to schedule a meeting with your prospects, clients, and suppliers.

› Sales forecasting

For any business to grow, it is critical to set goals and measure them from time to time. And sales forecasting allows you to do just that. You can use this capability to predict sales for the next quarter or a specific period realistically. This data then comes in handy to evaluate the actual results of your efforts and make necessary changes in your processes and approach in the future.

› Mobile CRM

As everyone is constantly on the move in this fast-paced tech era, it completely makes sense to handle your customer relationship management needs on the go. That’s why most of the best CRM software for small businesses offer mobile compatibility. From accessing vital alerts about your campaigns and sales goals to viewing and analyzing data for strategizing, you can do it all, no matter where you are.

› Social media management

Monitoring and managing your organization’s social media accounts have become a significant part of acquiring and maintaining customers today. And that’s the reason many leading small business CRMs come with built-in social media management. Using such a feature, you can create a more effective social media strategy, carry out social listening & posting duties, understand your target users, and respond to customers and inquiries promptly, in real-time. Besides, you can also track your brand mentions & traction easily.

› Sales force automation

Automating your tedious sales process in part or full is something you can expect from a powerful CRM system for small businesses. Whether it is a follow-up response to a client/prospect, organizing data, or scheduling calls to vendors, the software offers everything to help up your sales figures. Moreover, it makes way for you to automate your routine tasks to save time and resources.

› Dashboard and reports

Every high-performing small business CRM tool comes in with a user-friendly, intuitive dashboard that provides an overview of your process quickly at a glance. From documents to campaigns to stats from the last marketing effort to internal groups & communication, all the key information is right in the front. Apart from that, CRMs provide you with accurate insights into your processes and KPIs in real time, along with customizable report generation functionality.

› Workflow, approvals, and tracking

Thanks to a customer relationship management system, your small business can streamline its workflow and bring together disparate teams hassle-freely. Since a single platform lets you collate, manage and access data whenever you need, as a team, you’re always aligned with robust collaborative tools. Plus, there is smoother, uninterrupted file sharing & communication internally and with external stakeholders, making way for faster work designation and approvals. Additionally, you can keep a tab on components, such as your contacts, leads, data, and sales funnel, to help improve your operations consistently.

› Third-party integrations

Being a small business, you might already be using other business tools for a variety of purposes, like accounting and human resources. Thus, leading CRMs to offer third-party integrations, eliminating your need to juggle between different software solutions while ensuring your business operations remain as efficient.

› Customizations

Since every business, small or large, has its own set of goals, processes, and limitations, there is no one-size-fits-all CRM solution. That’s why you will find enough options to customize the software as per your distinct requirements. From ready templates to access controls to dashboards and reporting tools, you can make the CRM adapt to your current workflow rather than the other way around.

» What are the Benefits of Small Business CRM Software?

Using a CRM system for your small business brings in a host of benefits. Let’s discover what those benefits are in detail:

› It becomes a centralized hub for your data

Whether it is previous client interactions or vendor details, the best small business CRM systems would keep all your information in one place. That way, all your teams, be it marketing, sales, or customer support, get to access the data they need instantly. The result? You are not only able to save time and resources but also improve your future marketing & sales strategies. At the same time, the customer gets a better experience all along.

› It enhances team collaboration

No matter the size of your business, you can only succeed if your different teams are aligned at all times. That requires seamless collaboration, which small business CRM apps offer you by default. Whether it is file sharing, keying in information about a particular client interaction, assigning work, or communicating with your teammates over chats, the software offers everything you need to function as a close-knit team.

› It increases overall productivity

Thanks to small business CRM tools, everyone in the organization is in line with what steps they need to take next. The dashboard provides precise status about your workflow at any given time. Tasks are always assigned to the right employee. And no deadline is missed. Such a balance in the operations enhances employee engagement and involvement, both at an individual and team level, which, in turn, increases the organization’s overall productivity.

› It helps scale your sales

With an efficient CRM system for small businesses, you can generate leads with high conversion potential. Besides, you get to focus on the right leads at the right time with the right information. This kind of strategic targeting, in a consistent manner, helps convert more leads into customers, which eventually results in increased sales revenues.

› It improves client support

From customer demographics and previous purchases to recent interests and communications, a CRM system gathers and keeps all this data from across channels in one place. That enables your disparate teams to promptly solve consumers’ problems and furnish the information they require faster. Moreover, it opens up avenues for seamless personalization, making the customers feel valued while taking your customer support efforts a notch higher at the same time.

› It boosts client satisfaction and retention

Through CRM, you can achieve the right blend of targeted contact outreach, sales pitches, and prompt customer support, all of which, together, help create a strong positive image of your brand in the consumers' minds. As a result, customer satisfaction shoots up, and they want to keep coming back to the products/services you are offering over and over.

› It automates routine tasks

CRM solutions for small businesses are developed to offer the latest technologies, such as automation, to ease the burden on your workforce. It allows you to automate your mundane, repetitive tasks, including data entry, task allocation, and report generation. While that ensures the absence of human errors from your records, it also frees up your employees’ time to concentrate on more critical tasks.

› It fosters effective decision-making

Using a small business CRM app, you can monitor your KPIs, performance, and goals in real time. Not just that but you get to generate accurate, customizable analytics and reports about your processes and pipelines. Access to such precise, real-time data aids your decision-making skills, which helps meet business objectives.

› It streamlines business operations

Most of the leading CRM systems for small businesses offer third-party integrations, for instance, human resources and accounting tools. That way, it becomes possible for you to optimize and streamline otherwise disparate business operations without losing your distinct processes, quality standards, or efficiency.

» How to Choose the Best Small Business CRM Software?

Choosing one solution out of the long list of solid CRM tools for small businesses is easier said than done. After all, it is either going to make or break your business. There are multiple things you need to consider. What those components are? Let’s take a deep dive.

Steps to choose the best small business CRM system:

› Understand your requirements

Every small business has its own set of requirements, processes, and goals. That’s why a CRM yielding great performance for one business may fail for the other. Hence, it is critical to first identify your distinct requirements and list out your expectations from the software. That greatly helps you narrow down your options.

› Analyze what you need: cloud-based CRM or an on-premise one?

A majority of customer relationship management software is available as a cloud-enabled system as well as on-premise solutions. For some small business organizations, going cloud can be too expensive, while for some it may be the perfect solution. So before buying a CRM, determine what type complements your current organizational structure.

› Explore your options

There are different types of CRM systems available in the market, for example, collaborative, analytical, and operational. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. To get the most out of your CRM software, you have to gauge which type of CRM will serve your purpose without altering your present business workflow.

› Study and compare the CRM features & functionalities

While surfing the internet to find your best-fit CRM tool for small businesses, you will come across multiple options. Each of those options offers a diverse range of features and functions. So, how do you choose? Simple. Take note of the features every system has on offer and compare them with the list of your business requirements. Keep eliminating the ones that do not fit your needs right away.

› Look for flexibility and scalability

A small business is not going to be small forever. There would be growth, regardless of the industry. In this case, it makes sense to opt for a system that can handle your growing CRM needs without compromising on processes or performance. At the same time, ensure that the CRM you choose is flexible enough to adapt to your unique business processes - not the other way around.

› Check the available integrations & customization options

Does the small business CRM system offer third-party integrations with other business tools? Is there enough room for personalization? Finding answers to these questions is crucial to select the ideal CRM for your small business success. Both of these factors come under a must-have list you should never compromise with.

› Enquire about post-sale support and training

Post-purchase support is as important as the software’s inherent features, if not more. The last thing you want is to get stuck using the system and have no means to rectify it in the middle of your conversion process! That’s why you must get clarity from the vendor about their after-sale support and services. Besides, don’t forget to ask the vendor about the learning curve and whether they conduct training sessions. And if both the support and training are covered under the CRM software cost.

› Don’t forget the cost

Like any other thing in the world, the cost of the software plays a key role in the software selection process. Some systems may be cheap but offer poor performance while some may provide great functions at a higher rate. Since every small business has its budget, it is wise to outline your budget and shortlist the systems that fit the buckets of both your price limitations and requirements.

› Opt for a free trial first

Nearly every CRM software for small businesses comes in with a free trial. The days of the free trial may vary from 7 to 14 to 30 days, depending upon the vendors. But since free trials and free versions are available, it is only apt to first see the system live in action before you shell out your hard-earned money.

› Gather vendor reviews before saying a “Yes”

What do the current and past customers of the CRM software you are planning to choose to have to say about the system and the vendor? Look up, gather and analyze the reviews and ratings from multiple sources before signing the check. There are many leading software review sites out there to help you make a wise decision.

» How Much Does Small Business CRM Software Cost?

The pricing of small business CRM software varies from vendor to vendor. You will find free small business CRM software, low-cost CRM software, and premium ones, too, on the market. Each of these packs in a unique bunch of offerings, performance capabilities, and limitations.

To give you a rough idea, a small business CRM tool can cost you as low as $10 a month per user or as high as thousands of dollars per month/per user. In the end, it all comes down to the features you want in the system and your business goals and requirements.

» Conclusion

Running a small business is both exciting and challenging. While you may be able to manage multiple operations on your own easily in the beginning, things get chaotic as you grow. Especially when you’ve multiple clients and teams to handle. That’s when a small business CRM software system can come to your rescue.

From getting your contacts, leads, and data organized in one place to providing instant access to information to improving your sales and marketing efforts to improving collaboration among your teams, the software streamlines processes in ways you never knew you needed. After exploring the features and benefits of CRM for a small business in this guide, it will become simpler for you to choose the best-fit one for your organization.