One of the major challenges for startups and small businesses is smoother business management. The growth of the company is largely determined by the company’s revenue and workflow management.
In today’s tech-driven world, businesses need to consider integrating the business and management-related software that could automate the basic to complex manual jobs. One such popular automated business solution largely preferred by various small-scale firms is CRM i.e. Customer Relationship Management.
CRM ensures smoother management of your customer’s data. This data organizer tool makes your job a whole lot easier by allowing you to focus on productivity and growth while the solution takes care of the management part.
Things to Look for in a CRM Software for Small Businesses
The cloud-based CRM helps keep track of sales, employees, inventory, accounting and the overall performance of the business. Tracking your business growth and staying up-to-date with your business operations can help streamline your management.
CRM helps with customer segmentation such as classifying customers into different categories to personalize their experience with your brand. With a variety of applications and perks, CRM becomes an important management tool for all kinds of small businesses out there.
Let’s check out the factors you need to consider when choosing the right CRM tool for your business.
- Cost-effective: As you are starting small, you may want to pick a cost-effective CRM solution that could fit your budget and preference.
- Easy-to-learn: Unlike IT companies, small businesses do not have special in-house IT experts who can understand the complex software quickly. So, you need to invest in a tool featuring a simple user interface and easy-to-learn features.
- Customizable: Try to look for a solution that’s open to customization. You might not need a range of modules recently, but as your firm grows and your user-base expands, you will need advanced software that is capable of handling a large amount of data.
- Integrates with Other Software: The CRM solution must be compatible with third-party apps and software. For instance, you should be able to link an accounting-based app to the CRM system to record the daily transactions in both modules.
The top Customer Relationship Management tools for small businesses are:
- Hubspot
Hubspot has come up with a CRM software for small firms. The system comes loaded with the basic management functionalities such as tracking customer and employee details, managing the assigned jobs, handling business operations through a smart and robust dashboard. You can also create an employee account and allow them to access specific modules of the software.
The best part is that Hubspot is compatible with multiple third-party apps. You can integrate the tool with Shopify, SalesForce, and other advanced marketing and business solutions. As of now, the tool is available for free.
- Zoho
Being an ideal software for enterprise-grade companies, Zoho is mainly preferred by large-scale organizations for smoother business operations. Zoho is one of the versatile CRM systems. With an extensive range of modules and great functionalities, the software can fit your small business management requirements as well.
Unlike other small business automated tools, Zoho focuses more on the sales and marketing aspects of a firm. It helps you with visitor tracking, leads, sales signals, and other marketing-related operations. Though the free version is available for SMEs, you will need to buy the monthly subscription for advanced features.
The Professional plan comes at $12/mo while the Enterprise solution costs $20/mo.
- SalesForce
SalesForce is one of the most famous and most-used customer relationship management tools. Fortunately, you can claim the basic version of the tool at $25 per month. Its basic edition is available for small businesses that need important marketing management features.
The Lightning Essentials help people with email integration. It also manages the email reminders. The solution is flexible enough for customization and third-party app integration. You could integrate the module with additional management tools for better operations.
- Agile CRM
Small firms can automate a plethora of their regular marketing and business management activities by integrating this advanced SME solution. A few interesting options the Agile CRM offers include custom appointments, sending reports via email, and more.
The software is versatile and has a huge library of advanced plugins. Additionally, it supports apps integrations. Head over to the official website to claim your free version. However, the free edition comes with only a limited set of features. You should rather choose the starter package that costs only $14.99 per month.
- Freshsales
Now, managing your website visitors is no longer a challenging task with Freshsales. The tool allows firms to track their website visitors and divide them into different groups according to their engagement rate with your company. Consider each visitor as your lead and assign these prospects to the right sales and marketing team.
This makes it possible for firms to come up with a personalized marketing plan that could satisfy the requirements of each individual. This will grow your chances of landing more leads and turning most of your website visitors into your regular customers. Freshsales is available for $25 per month. The advanced marketing features offered by this tool are definitely worth this price.
Now that you have a broad range of automated business management solutions, you can make a smart choice. Pick the one that fits your budget and requirements.