The Best CRM For Your Business in 2023

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Choosing the right CRM is essential for your business. With so many options available on the market in 2023, it is critical to understand the features of each CRM and how they will ultimately improve your sales cycle. Before deciding which CRM is the right fit for your business, you must have a plan in place that outlines your entire sales process from start to finish. The plan should also include how you will support the customer afterward.

I wouldn’t recommend jumping into any CRM blindly as this could be frustrating and overwhelming, especially if you build up a significant database. Migrating out will be time-consuming, and you may even run into errors when exporting all the data. Instead, spend some time evaluating each CRM. Most reputable CRM companies will give you a long enough trial to determine if the CRM is the right fit for your business.

When evaluating each CRM, compare each feature with that of your sales process and organizational requirements to determine which of the CRM’s will meet the most. It’s important to understand that it is unlikely you will find one CRM that can meet all your requirements. Perhaps you need SMS capabilities, Microsoft Exchange compatibility, website integration, or even AI. These are custom features, and you will need to make sure the CRM can be customized out-of-the-box or have apps to support the extra features.

The CRM you choose will likely need to be customized for your organization to get the most out of it and integrate with existing software you are currently using. There are likely additional costs related to expert developers who can help you customize your CRM to meet all your needs or get as close to it as possible. In the long run, it may be a wise investment if it means things will run smoothly.

Most CRMs are cloud-based. However, if you need an on-premise solution, some CRMs can be hosted on your own server. You can find these at the end of the list.

Sales Force

Salesforce is one of the most popular CRMs in the world. There are numerous features and the ability to integrate with software such as Slack and e-commerce products. This is just scratching the surface. They have come a long way and can outperform many CRMs. There are plans starting at $25 per user with a minimum of five users. The plans are billed annually, which may be a bit costly for smaller businesses just starting out. If you are looking to scale and expect to have many users, I would recommend Salesforce because of this.

It is unlikely that you will experience any performance issues when scaling because they have the infrastructure to support millions of businesses. Recently, they have included an artificial intelligence feature named Einstein GPT, which looks to improve overall workflow and customer service. Einstein GPT will improve sales tasks and make it easier to do things like compose emails and schedule business meetings. Servicing clients, marketing, and developers will also benefit from Einstein GPT. For more information, you can read about the features here: https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2023/03/07/einstein-generative-ai/?d=cta-header-179

Overall, Salesforce is a powerhouse that can help with overall automation and can be customized to your organizational needs.

Zoho CRM

Another product which, in my opinion, is underrated is Zoho CRM. Zoho CRM is an affordable product that is perfect for solopreneurs, but can also scale if needed. It offers many useful features, including Zoho subscriptions, Zoho Sign, and helpdesk. I have personally used Zoho for many years in different industries and find it to be a great product. The nice part about Zoho CRM is that you don’t need to leave the interface and log into third-party software to finish a certain task. For example, if I need a client to sign a document, I can use Zoho Sign within the CRM without needing to use a third-party software like DocuSign. This greatly improves productivity and overall workflow, and also reduces costs.

The downside is that there are a lot of moving pieces and you will need to get familiar with the ones you plan on using the most. If you accept subscriptions from your clients, you can manage payments using Zoho Subscriptions. One of the benefits is the ability to create a white-labeled portal for your clients to log in and manage their subscription. This will help with overall automation and eliminate the need to use third-party portal services. Keep in mind that the portal is basic, mostly allowing for canceling or upgrading; however, Zoho is constantly improving the product based on customer feedback. You are also able to integrate services such as Stripe and PayPal.

The best part of Zoho, in my opinion, is that you are able to customize the CRM with your domain, allowing your customers to see your domain on products like subscription portals or a portal for uploading documents through Zoho Work Drive, which will make customers feel safer and allow you to build trust.

The cost for the Zoho One product, which includes all of the apps, starts as low as $45 per month with a 1 user minimum. You can also save by choosing the annual plan. They also offer a free trial, which will help you evaluate the product in-depth. The customer service is great, and they usually get back within a day. I have communicated with them by phone and email.

HubSpot

Another great CRM that has gained a lot of popularity is HubSpot. I would place HubSpot up there with Salesforce as it has a lot of great features and can also be customized and integrated with a variety of applications.

They also offer monthly and annual plans for smaller businesses and larger organizations. I’m not particularly a fan of the layout; however, I’m sure you are able to customize it to fit your needs. Importing data is pretty simple and you can bring over databases with ease. You also have the ability to register a phone number so you can keep your calls within the system. Another great feature is the ability to create a website and integrate it with the CRM, and you can do this all within HubSpot.

Custom websites and landing pages, all integrated with your CRM, will help you stay organized and prioritize leads coming through your different sales channels. Their ticketing system is probably one of the best around. It has a clean layout and makes it easy to keep track of client requests. Prices start around $30/month, and they also have Enterprise CRM solutions for around $5000 per month, which includes 10 users and many other features.

 

On-Premise CRM

If you are looking for on-premise solutions, you can check out Sugar CRM. It is an open-source CRM capable of managing all aspects of selling activities and will help you organize leads, opportunities, contacts, customers, quotes, and interactions. It also automates certain processes, provides insight with customizable reporting, and is compatible with mobile devices. Sugar CRM has been around for a long time and would likely be my go-to for on-premise solutions. Pricing starts at $85/month with a 3 user minimum.

Microsoft Dynamics offers great features to help you automate processes. If you are a Windows user, the benefit is that it will integrate with your office and Microsoft products and technologies. Although there are certainly benefits to having an on-premise CRM, such as control, you will find cloud solutions are a dime a dozen. Microsoft Dynamics is also available in the cloud, and you could expect to pay around $50 per user per month depending on the features you need. You can learn more about pricing here: https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/.

There are obviously many choices when it comes to CRMs. It would be a disservice to discuss each one in this article without having used them. I have personally used the products mentioned in this article and found them very useful in different industries, such as IT, Oil and Gas, and Marketing Agencies. I’m sure there are other industries they would work well for. If there are other CRMs you are interested in not on this list, I would recommend taking advantage of the free trial and using it to conduct business. By doing this, you will get to experience the software in real-time and will be able to gauge what it does or doesn’t do well.

Ultimately, the goal for any CRM is to improve the flow of your business while you focus on generating sales and managing the entire process. Otherwise, what is the point? Excel does a pretty good job at organizing too. The point is a CRM should make your life easier and your business run smoother. If you are looking for more custom solutions, feel free to reach out to me, and I can give you some recommendations.

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