What is a Sales CRM?

In simple terms, CRM is an abbreviation of Customer Relationship Management- Software that enables you better manage customer relationships.

Is CRM pivotal for a small business?

Absolutely Yes!

The sales CRM provides the Sales teams a better way to manage the leads in place of complex and unfriendly spreadsheets. Moreover, Sales CRM software can help your teams with the below:

- Contact Management: To store and manage the contacts

- Lead Management: The status of leads can be tracked, which makes it easy to filter

- Deals Management: Management of deals and shifting them to a stage in the pipeline based on the activity

- Reports & Analytics: Helps you with the complete reports and analytics from all ends, right data at the right time

- Sales Process Automation: Many of the repetitive tasks can be automated

- 3rd Party Integration: It integrates with your Email and other mediums to track the client responses

… and many more. Hence, for busy sales professionals, CRM can be an asset.

Let us look at some statistics and the benefits of a Sales CRM:

Important Statistics to note:

1. The data by CMO Council suggests that the productivity loss and improper management of leads cost $1 Trillion every year to the companies.

2. According to data by Salesforce, CRM software can increase sales productivity by up to 34% and sales by up to 29%.

3. According to Nucleus Research, the average ROI for every $1 spent on CRM is $8.71.

4. 74% of the businesses using CRM systems mentioned that they have improved customer relationships. [Source: IBM]

5. 65% of the surveyed businesses said that they have increased their sales quotas. [Source: IBM]

6. According to a study by SuperOffice, 92% of the surveyed businesses mentioned that a CRM Tool is crucial to achieving their revenue goals.

What are the benefits of CRM?

Improve Efficiency:

A Sales CRM improves the efficiency of the process of sales with features like Lead Management and the creation of deals pipeline.

Increase Sales:

It provides a visual of the sales pipeline to increases the focus of the sales team. It helps prioritize the communications with hot leads thereby, increasing the conversions.

Gives you a 360 Degree View:

Sales CRM software provides you with complete analytics of the data from all ends, enabling you to have a 360-degree view of the entire process. It also helps you understand the customer preferences and needs, facilitates the reports on the conversion of campaigns, and provides you with a record of customer interactions for your analysis. It thus enables you to increase the sales performance of your organization.

Improves Customer Service & Satisfaction:

The historical data of the communications and conversations with the clients enables your team to anticipate their needs and resolve their issues faster. It thereby improves customer satisfaction and increases their trust in your organization.

Best Sales CRMs for a small business:

If you are a small business, you might not have high budgets to invest in technology, but CRM software can be pivotal for your sales teams to improve their productivity and increase the conversions of your organizations. Hence, here is a list of 5 Free & Cost-effective CRMs for Sales professionals of your small business:

Hubspot:



If you are looking for a free or cost-effective CRM Software for your small business, Hubspot would be among the top recommendations. It is one of the best in the market of CRMs. Hubspot comes in both Free and Paid versions, which you could choose as per the requirements of your business. It provides numerous free tools & features including Contact Management, Deal Pipelines, Meetings Scheduler, Document Sharing, Calling over VoIP, Email Tracking, Email Templates, Reports & Analytics, Unlimited Contacts storage, and many more in the free version. Hubspot is also available as an app on the App Store of Apple and Android versions.

If you are looking for advanced functionalities like automation, Live chat, Team Collaboration, Sales Forecasting, etc., you could opt for any of its paid plans that start with $45/month for two users for the basic plan. The Professional plan with access to five users starts at $450/month and the Enterprise (Advanced) Plan with access to 10 users at $1200/month. Hubspot is being used by more than 100,000 businesses worldwide.

Zoho CRM:



The name of Zoho needs no introduction when it comes to business processes. Among the multitudes of business solutions in its portfolio, Zoho provides a Sales CRM that is one of the most reckoned. It is being used by more than 150,000 businesses worldwide.

Zoho CRM offers the best features required to grow your small business. It offers Sales Automation, Lead Management & deal pipeline, collects data from various sources like Email, Live Chat, Social media, and other channels, and brings them to one place for quick and efficient action. You can automate the workflows and manage the deals shifting the stages of the same in the pipeline. It also provides storage space for unlimited contacts. The Free version is available for up to 3 users. Advanced features like Sales Forecasting, Email Insights, Custom Reports in the paid versions that start with $12/user/month for a Standard plan, $20/user/month for Professional plan, $35/user/month for Enterprise plan, and $38/user/month for Ultimate (Advanced) plan.

Pipedrive:



A CRM software used by more than 90,000 companies from 179 countries globally is Pipedrive. Pipedrive has helped close deals worth $24bn, and its clients include the companies like Amazon, Tnw, Vimeo. It helps you with a visual of the sales pipeline and provides you with the data of the leads that need communication on priority. It enables you to integrate your Chats, creation of Chatbot, Contacts management, Email Tracking, and automation, VoIP calls from the software, Appointment scheduling & Calendar management, and many more that can help you skyrocket your sales.

It is a paid subscription that starts with as minimal as $9.90/user/month for the Essential (basic) package. The Advanced package costs $19.90/user/month, the pricing of the Professional package is $39.90/user/month, and the Enterprise package at $79/user/month.

EngageBay:



EngageBay markets itself as an alternative to Hubspot. Much like Hubspot, EngageBay provides you with the features like Contact Management, Deal Management, Email Tracking, Appointment Scheduling, Conversational inbox of prospective enquiries and communication, Live Chat, etc. It also provides sales automation features, Email Analytics, 3rd Party integration, etc. with the paid versions.

In the free version, you can store up to 1000 contacts and 100 Branded Emails. The paid packages start from $7.79/user/month for 10,000 contacts and branded emails, $14.99/user/month for 20,000 contacts and branded emails, and $29.99/user/month for 30,000 contacts and branded emails apart from other advanced features including custom reporting.

Really Simple Systems:



As the name suggests, Really Simple Systems is simple & easy to use. It provides you with all the features your business might need for boosting sales. It includes sales & marketing automation, pipeline management, Sales stages, Tasks Management, Document storage, Email integration, Sales Forecasting & Reports, and much more.

If you are a small business, the Free version provides you with all the above-mentioned features you might need to grow your business. Once you outgrow the free version, you can opt for the paid packages with advanced features. The Starter package for small teams is available for $14/user/month, the Professional package for $30/user/month, and the Enterprise package with advanced features for $46/user/month.

The paid versions come with features that include Telephonic support, creation of custom forms/charts, adding Geolocations of clients, Email Integration, and Marketing automation options.

Conclusion:

Sales are the backbone for all types of businesses, and a CRM system could help boost the performance multifold if implemented well. The CRM can save the time spent on lead qualification, managing complex spreadsheets and reports, and follow-up on the right sales opportunities that could help them reach the sales targets faster.

With these, there are no reasons why every small business shouldn’t adopt sales CRM. If you are a small business looking to enhance the productivity of your organization; CRM software for your sales teams would be the key to achieving the same. It can help you put your organization on the road to fast-track growth.

What are your thoughts on Sales CRM Software?

Have you already used any among the ones mentioned in this list? How has your experience been? Do let us know in the comments below.