Having the best CRM software is essential to running a successful startup. With the right tools, you’ll be able to effectively manage your current and potential clients while working smarter and increasing your revenue. This post will briefly go over the best CRMs for startups in terms of price, features, and support. It doesn’t matter whether you are looking for free CRM software or cost-effective options. Our aim is to find the perfect tool for your needs.
Why Should a Startup Use CRM?
Now that you have your product concept and have successfully launched your startup, it’s time to look for CRM software. Ideally, your business will be generating leads that’ll allow you to rank among thousands of competitors in the market. You will also need to get your potential customers signed up with your lead magnet by getting them on phone calls and emails. All of these tasks can be managed easily if you have a CRM system in hand.
In addition to lead generation and management, CRM software can automate other startup processes, like:
- It channels all the data towards a single central platform through integrations with social media, email, and other data sources.
- It brings together customer contacts, sales and marketing activities, and support initiatives, all in one place for easy access.
- It allows you to set up teams and assign them responsibilities to improve visibility and organizational transparency.
- It allows your team to access real-time information about clients and divide tasks, projects, and workloads among themselves.
- It enables you to concentrate on fostering customer relationships and generating more revenue by automating startup operations and task management.
Features of the Best CRM for Startups
While investing in a CRM system, here are some features that must be considered by a startup:
● Sales Forecasting
You must look for a sales CRM with automated sales forecasting features. It estimates the potential value of your deals, prompting you to concentrate your operational efforts on key clients. Additionally, it calculates the probability of closing a deal with a specific client. As a result, you’ll be able to obtain realistic sales projections.
● Sales Automation and Sales Reporting
These features in a CRM create a successful sales cycle by:
- Specifying key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Intelligently allocating priority tasks for your employees
- Sending follow-up reminders
- Automating sales communications
- Specifying Lead Qualification Standards
- Determining the precise activities the sales representatives must do at each transaction step
- Tracking information like the number of deals closed or the number of emails sent to the customers
● Team Communication
The in-app chat features save your team members’ time by cutting down on lengthy in-person meetings. These features allow real-time communication by leaving comments for one another on the platform, which is visible to your entire workforce. Moreover, any team member can access the necessary business documents from one place.
● Contacts Management
Contact management tools in a CRM gather contact information from a variety of sources, including forums, business websites, social media, live chats with customers, or their purchase data. These then combine all of this data into a single contact record for your startup’s ecosystem.
● Marketing Campaign Management
The CRM you choose must be able to manage your startup’s marketing activities and boost telesales. It must provide the leads’ contact data and send emails to each of the relevant leads. A CRM should also be able to manage your startup’s social media marketing campaigns in addition to email campaigns.
Our 10 Best CRM for Startups
Is your startup looking for a CRM? You’re not alone – there are many businesses seeking out the best CRM software to help them manage their customer data, sales pipeline, and more. That’s why we’ve put together this list of 10 of the best CRM for startups to help you get started.
1. Salesforce
The Salesforce CRM with small business solutions is the world’s leading CRM for all startups out there. This scalable platform helps you grow your business by driving more sales. Some important features of Salesforce CRM are:
- Salesforce Customer 360: a centralized dashboard for easy access to all features
- Integration with AI tools and top-of-the-line apps
- Better management of customer data
- The efficient sales tracking feature
- Integration with other tools like ActiveCampaign, Zapier, and Docusign
- Customizable, flexible, and scalable
- User-friendly interface
- Solutions for all sizes of companies
- Has helped meet the ROI expectations for 96% of the customers
Pricing (Billed annually):
Free trial available
- Essentials: $25/month
- Sales Professional or Service Professional: $75/month
- Pardot Growth: $1250/month
2. HubSpot
The HubSpot CRM is a collection of distinct tools designed to assist you in managing various facets of your startup. From sales automation to marketing campaigns and customer support, it is an all-in-one CRM solution for your business needs. The features that make it a no-regret option for startups are:
- Flexible price plans
- Discounts for eligible startups of up to 90% in the first year
- Hands-on training and support
- An effective workflow management system
- Works with both Google Workplace and Microsoft Office
- Customization options are also available
- Integration with Zapier: easy sharing of information across apps like Google Sheets, Slack, etc.
- A free plan is available that supports features like contact management, email marketing tools, live chat, onscreen calling, deal tracking, and much more.
Pricing:
- Free plan: $0
- Starter: $50/month
- Professional: $500/month
- Enterprise: $1,200/month
3. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is another reliable and full-fledged CRM that is suitable for startups. It offers all the features you’d anticipate from a customer relationship management platform. It is equipped with advanced lead generation tools and other tools for reporting, analytics, and automation. The noteworthy features of this fully customizable CRM are:
- Built-in lead generation tools
- Easy integration with 500+ third-party apps
- Advanced analytics tools: real-time measurement of business operations
- A unified inbox: you can read, manage, and respond to the messages of clients from all media in one place
- Canvas design studio: easy customization options with drag-and-drop editors
Pricing:
- Free plan: $0 (for 3 users)
- Standard: $20/user/month
- Professional: $35/user/month
- Enterprise: $50/user/month
- Ultimate: $65/user/month
4. SugarCRM
SugarCRM offers a complete customer relationship management solution that addresses marketing, sales, and customer care. The main focus of this system is the exchange of pertinent and valuable information between members of a team for the better growth of a business. The features which make it different from others are:
- Tools for mapping customers’ purchase journeys
- Automate complex startup operations like marketing campaigns
- Email and calendar integration
- Application marketplace: access to hundreds of add-ons
- Excellent customer support
- A large SugarCRM community: an opportunity to communicate with other startups
Pricing:
- Sell: $49/user/month
- Serve: $80/user/month
- Enterprise: $85/user/month
5. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a recent entrant in the customer relationship management industry. This CRM was created with startups in mind. This platform is designed to provide everything that a new business needs to grow. That is why it is adaptable, scalable, cost-effective, results-driven, and most of all, simple to use. The essential features of this software are:
- User-friendly interface: just the right design all startups need
- Customizable sales pipelines
- Built-in tools for email marketing
- Automatic reminders and alerts
- Sales forecasting feature
- Accurate analytics for improvement
- Team collaboration feature
- Detailed reporting on sales
Pricing:
(Free 14-day trial available)
- Essential: $11.90/user/month
- Advanced: $24.90/user/month
- Professional: $49.90/user/month
- Enterprise: $74.90/user/month
6. Streak
Streak CRM is a CRM system that is designed to integrate with Google Workplace apps, including Gmail. Due to its affordable price, it is the perfect CRM for startups, small businesses, and freelancers. If your startup utilizes Gmail, CRM solutions like Streak are a terrific way to speed up your business operations. The following are the important features of this CRM:
- Streak inbox: automatically converts the contact info in Gmail threads into CRM data
- Mail merging feature
- Easy follow-up of sales and marketing initiatives
- Customizable sales pipelines
- Task and asset management features
- Streak thread splitter: you can sort out falsely fused mails
- Centralized keeping of records
Pricing:
- Free: $0/user/month
- Solo: $15/user/month
- Pro: $49/user/month
- Enterprise: $129/user/month
7. Insightly
Insightly is a wonderful CRM option for startups whose main concern is automated project management. This CRM platform is associated with strong workflow management tools that can help you organize your work and save time and energy. The distinguishing features of the Insightly CRM are:
- Automated lead routing feature: assigns leads to the right sales representative
- Centralization of all the customers’ data
- Automating repetitive business tasks, for example, sending emails, updating records, generating leads, etc.
- Built-in email marketing features
- Integration with your daily apps
- Custom business reports for better tracking
- Excellent customer service
Pricing:
(Free trial available)
- Plus: $29/user/month
- Professional: $49/user/month
- Enterprise: $99/user/month
8. Freshsales
Freshsales has all the essential features that a sales CRM should have. It is equipped with all crucial management tools which a startup would need in the long run. This CRM is simple to get going with all-in-one specifications, like:
- Tools for lead management and sales pipeline management
- Automated email management tool: automatically collects and manages leads’ contact information from email threads
- Calculation of contact scoring criteria
- 360° view of your customers
- AI-powered Chatbots
- AI-based deal insights
- Customizable web forms to capture visitor information
- Slack integration
Pricing:
- Free: $0/user/month
- Growth: $18/user/month
- Pro: $47/user/month
- Enterprise: $83/user/month
9. ClickUp CRM
ClickUp CRM is another startup-friendly CRM option. ClickUp makes it simple to manage and expand your client circle by automating tasks, monitoring analytics, providing data visualizations, managing emails, and much more. Here are some distinguishing features of this CRM platform:
- Communication tools
- Sales pipelines management tools
- Organization of accounts in one place
- 50+ dashboard widgets for better customizability
- Integration of emails
- A complete customer database
- Orders tracking feature
- Calculation of deal sizes
Pricing:
- Free Forever: $0
- Unlimited: $9/user/month
- Business: $19/user/month
- Business Plus: $29/user/month
10. Keap
Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, is basically a startup-targeted CRM with all the essential features required by a growing business. Keap’s robust sales and marketing automation tools allow you to gather more leads. They then help you convert these leads into customers and turn those customers into fans. The important features of Keap CRM are:
- Tools for managing sales pipelines and customer contacts
- Tools for marketing campaigns
- Customizable and with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface
- Custom automation
- A centralized contact record, and much more
Pricing:
- Pro: $169/month
- Max: $249/month
Wrapping Up
It is important to select the best CRM for your startup so that you won’t have to shift to another platform later on. The basic requirements of a startup CRM are affordability and scalability. All of the CRM systems we described earlier are affordable and grow with the growth of your business. Almost all of these allow you to handle your important business operations automatically without requiring a large workforce.
