Top 10 CRM tools for small and medium businesses

Now is a good time to start considering whether you need new tech tools for next year. Are you already using a CRM? If not, is this something you’d benefit from?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, which are usually web or phone-based apps, are essential in the sales process. Once you’ve got a few dozen customers, and an active pipeline, you need a way of keeping track of them and keeping on top of every interaction.

CRMs represent a global multi-billion dollar market, with market leaders such as Salesforce large enough to build skyscrapers in San Francisco and buy up Slack, for $28 billion. It’s a huge market, with a wide range of players, from tech giants, and even more established ones, such as Microsoft, to scrappy startups providing more affordable, and some would say, easier to use alternatives, such as Salseflare.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 CRM solutions for small and medium businesses.

Top 10 CRM solutions for small and medium businesses

#1: Salesflare

Salseflare, as far as we are concerned, are one of the good guys, and they are the CRM we use ourselves. They make managing a CRM easy, which means small and medium businesses can spend more time focusing on prospects and looking after them than updating the system.

Salesflare is a “a simple yet powerful CRM for small businesses selling B2B.”

It thankfully works well with a range of systems you can easily integrate with too, such as Gmail, Office365, Exchange, iCloud, PieSync, and Zapier (which means you can integrate with even more, if you need). Salesflare makes it easier for your team to work together, to never miss an appointment, and to spend less time inputting data and more speaking with prospects.

#2: Freshworks CRM

Another described as one of the “next generation” of CRMs, compared to the likes of Salesforce and Microsoft, and others in the same category. It’s designed to “break internal silos”, and deliver “personalized experiences across marketing and sales.” It also includes AI capabilities and processes that are fairly easy-to-use for most professionals in sales and marketing. #6: Pipedrive

Described as a “sales management tool for small teams with big ambitions. It visualises your sales pipeline and helps to make sure important activities and conversations won’t get dropped.”

Freshworks comes with a range of integrations, is easy-to-use, and it comes with built-in forecasting.

#3: HubSpot Sales Hub

You can use this as a standalone product, or integrated with other HubSpot services, which includes a suite of marketing solutions. HubSpot promotes this the following way:

“Supercharge your sales process with Sales Hub, a powerful and easy-to-use sales CRM that includes sales engagement tools, configure-price-quote (CPQ) functionality, and robust sales analytics for growing teams. Sales Hub is built on the HubSpot CRM platform, where customer data, tools, and teams come together to create a single source-of-truth.”

It’s relatively easy-to-use, and you can track the value of deals through the pipeline. It’s also free. However, if you want to use it alongside other HubSpot services, they do come with a cost. You can also consider more sophisticated HubSpot alternatives as your customers increase or your needs change.

#4: Salesforce CRM

Known for being one of the market leaders, Salesforce is ideal for larger businesses. Partly due to the cost of getting it set-up, and then the monthly operating costs. Although they do have lighter, less complicated and often mobile versions, and a wide range of products and services for smaller businesses, they focus more on the Enterprise market.

Salesforce CRM comes with the following features: “Lead & Contact Management - Sales Opportunity Management - Workflow Rules & Automation - Customizable Reports & Dashboards - Mobile Application”, according to G2.

#5: Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is part of a group of easier-to-use and more cost-effective CRM apps than market incumbents, such as Salesforce.

Over 150,000 businesses, many of them small and medium, trust Zoho with their sales and customer relationship data. It’s a highly-rated app, has won awards, and you can even benefit from Zia, an AI-powered sales assistant.

Pricing starts off at €18 and goes up to €55, per user, billed monthly. Depending on what you need, of course.

#6: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Aimed more at mid-size to larger businesses, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales is part of a suite of tools designed for business customers.

Described as an “adaptive selling solution that helps your sales team navigate the realities of modern selling. At the centre of the solution is an adaptive, intelligent system—prebuilt and ready to go—that actively monitors myriad signals and distills them into actionable insights.”

#7: Pipedrive

Described as a “sales management tool for small teams with big ambitions. It visualises your sales pipeline and helps to make sure important activities and conversations won’t get dropped.”

Pipedrive comes with a range of integrations, is easy-to-use, and it comes with built-in forecasting.

#8: ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s Customer Experience Automation (CXA) Platform helps over 120,000 businesses work more easily with their customers.

Included within the platform is a series of pre-built automations that combine email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, and machine learning for powerful segmentation and personalization across social, email, messaging, chat, and text.

#9: Zendesk Sell

Formerly known as Base, Zendesk Sell “is sales force automation software to enhance productivity, processes, and pipeline visibility for sales teams.” It’s a powerful system designed to make it easier to sell for small and medium businesses, getting around a lot of the unnecessary complexities of legacy CRM systems.

#10: Less Annoying CRM

And finally, Less Annoying CRM offers what it says on the tin, it’s “a simple CRM built from the ground up for small businesses. Manage your contacts, leads, notes, calendar, to-do’s and more, all from one simple web app. Our product is founded on three core principles: simplicity, affordability, and outstanding customer service.”

Pricing is equally simple and transparent, at $15/user/month, starting with a 30 day free trial.

Of course, we know there are dozens of others, and some of you may have already had experience with a CRM. You may already have a preference. But if not, or if you are looking around for something new, we hope this list has helped.

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