


The best CRM for small business and startups
In the early days of a business, managing information about your contacts and customers isn�t difficult. However, as your business grows, you get more customers and hire more employees, information about contacts gets dispersed across spreadsheets, notepads, sticky notes, and memories. Business growth is a great thing and with it comes the need to organize your information. That�s where a CRM -- a Customer Relationship Management solution -- is useful. However, there are hundreds of CRM solutions and they range from free to thousands of dollars a month. To help you choose the best CRM, we�ve compiled the most recommended CRMs for small businesses and startups. We�ve collected reviews, highlights, and comparative features of each to help you evaluate the best CRM that suits your business needs.What are the benefits of a CRM system?
The five major benefits of a CRM system are:- Contact data organization. CRM helps you organize information about all your contacts. This allows your team to keep track of who a customer has spoken to and what they discussed. In sales, this information gets your team on the same page to run your sales process smoothly.
- Sales reporting. Track quota attainment and metrics such as emails sent, calls made, meetings booked, and deals closed to understand what your team is doing well and what to improve.
- Accurate sales forecasting. Don�t rely on complicated Excel formulas or back-of-the-napkin math. A good CRM system generates an accurate sales funnel for you, making it easier to forecast sales and manage your team�s pipeline.
- Customer segmentation. Segment your contacts by properties such as location, deal size, or close date, to find the warmest leads to focus on.
- Scaling a sales process. A repeatable sales process is key to testing new sales motions and strategies. The data you keep in a CRM system will help you spot effective and ineffective patterns in sales behaviors. This knowledge will help you grow your business effectively.