Best Sales CRM For All Team Sizes

Sales is based on building a relationship with customers and potential customers. As those relationships move online, it can be more challenging for salespeople to keep track of customer information. That’s where a CRM comes in.

The best sales CRM enables salespeople to house and access detailed information about clients. From knowing what products and services the customer generally purchases to keeping notes on personal details about the customer, a CRM serves as a relationship tool. 

But the tool also helps automate some recurring customer communication to ease the burden on salespeople. From automated follow-up emails after sales calls to regular customer check-ins, a CRM is an outstanding tool for managing relationships with ease. 

Salespeople who use a CRM enjoy improved time management, simpler account planning and the ease of being able to access customer information from anywhere securely. 

Get started with our guide to everything you need to know about choosing the best sales CRM for your business.

What to Look for in a Sales CRM?

The features and tools available in your sales CRM will have a direct bearing on the usefulness of the software. Here are the important aspects that make a sales CRM an extremely valuable tool.

Accessibility: Salespeople are often on-the-go. They need to have access to the software from anywhere and on any device. Most modern cloud-based applications have an outstanding mobile experience through your web browser. But a native application can help with alerts and keep you logged in to save valuable time. Ensure that your sales CRM is easily accessible based on your devices and operating systems. 

Integration: Choosing a CRM that’s compatible with other systems and software within your business will make it even more valuable. For example, integration with accounting software can help speed up the process for sales to hand off an account to the finance team for payment. This can help sales manage the relationship but allow accounting to complete the necessary paperwork and processes to set up billing information. Integration with marketing software can also save time and improve productivity for salespeople through triggering email messages and communication to the customer as needed.

Customer reports: Analytics and reporting can tell a sales team more about where customers are at in the pipeline and how the team is tracking toward monthly, quarterly and annual goals. Reports can also show customers based on product lines to help you understand where your greatest successes are and where you have areas of opportunity. Or use reports to find cross-sell opportunities. The more granular your reporting functions are within your CRM, the more value you can draw from them.

Usability: Some CRM interfaces are easier to use than others. A CRM that’s designed to meet the needs of an entire organization and not just sales has many benefits. But all the added features can make it challenging to navigate to the tools you really need. You’ll have to balance your organization’s need for features with your need for fast, easy use and sales training.

Customer support: For teams unfamiliar with using a CRM, customer support is extremely beneficial in onboarding salespeople and getting the greatest value out of the software. A few years after purchasing the software, you might have a specific need for a unique report or software customization to accommodate new sales processes. You want to know that you’ll have resources available to help with such changes when you need them.

Automation: Removing the need for repetitive tasks from a salesperson’s day is one of the greatest benefits of a CRM. Your sales team can enjoy improved productivity while your customers feel cared for and important. Instead of spending the first hour of your day prepping email responses, contacting accounting about new accounts and scheduling product demos, you can focus on preparing for customer interactions that day because these tasks are automated. From online scheduling software that integrates with your calendar to process flow for new accounts to be transferred for payment, automation is one of the greatest values a CRM offers. 

The Best Sales CRM 

Provide your sales team with the best CRM tools to increase productivity while further solidifying customer relationships. Here’s a look at the top CRM sales tools on the market.

1. Best for Enterprise Sales Teams: Salesforce CRM

Without a doubt, Salesforce CRM is the leading sales tool available. Because it’s such a robust tool, make sure you consider investing time in staff training and onboarding. 

And if you’re transitioning out of an existing software resource, create a clear implementation plan as customizing Salesforce to meet your needs will take some time. But once all of that is in place, you’ll have the most feature-rich CRM software designed for sales teams.

Pricing: Monthly subscription prices start at $25 per user, per month. Just know that the lower subscription tiers exclude some valuable tools, like rule-based lead scoring, calendering, sales forecasting and more. Take time to compare the features offering for each tier before subscribing.

Bundles: Large organizations can negotiate for bulk pricing based on the total number of subscribers. Before signing up, be sure to talk to the sales team to negotiate your needs and pricing. If you’re looking to add other Salesforce tools, such as Marketing Cloud, consider discussing these tools with sales all at once to increase your bargaining power.

2. Best for Paid Marketing Lead Generation: HubSpot

HubSpot has made major strides since its inception and now offers

Set up clear sales funnels and move customers through the customer buying journey on their way to purchasing. The CRM functionality is outstanding, but so are the analytics capabilities. Sales leaders will especially appreciate the in-depth knowledge and insights they can gather from the tool.

Pricing: Starting at $50 a month you can get the marketing, sales, and service integrations. However, the starter package does limit what you can do with automation and workflows. You can still get around some of the limitations triggering certain sequences, but it can be a bit cumbersome to figure out all of the moving parts.  Still you may be limited by the number of contacts within the starter plan. If you want automation built in, and have a large amount or sales and marketing contacts consider a bundle — although this comes with a significantly higher price point.

Bundles: There are bundles available right out of the box, and you can even create your own bundles. If you go above the starter package, HubSpot is an investment that you should be prepared to utilize efficiently if you are going to justify the price point.

3. Best for Small Business Enterprises: Monday.com

Monday.com is one of the most popular CRMs on the market that allows businesses to manage internal operations, sales and customer relationships. You can start with a freemium version that you can use forever for personal use. Once you decide to use monday.com for your business, you will pay $10 per seat, per month.

You can create custom tables, custom workflows, assign tasks and onboard everyone in your organization onto this platform at any time. Plus, your staff can use the monday.com mobile app to access their workflows while on the move.

4. Best for Teams with Custom Sales Funnels: Sales Creatio

Streamline your sales processes using the highly-customizable software called Sales Creatio. 

Set up clear sales funnels and move customers through the customer buying journey on their way to purchasing. The CRM functionality is outstanding, but so are the analytics capabilities. Sales leaders will especially appreciate the in-depth knowledge and insights they can gather from the tool.

Pricing: $30 per month, per user gets you the basic features of Sales Creatio. You can get started with a 14-day free trial to see the platform and decide if it’s right for your team. 

Bundles: Get the marketing, sales and customer service tools as part of a bundle. This will enable you to connect all your teams on the same platform, but based on their unique needs. You’ll have to get in contact with the Sales Creatio team to learn more about pricing for the bundle.

5. Best for Deal-driven Sales Teams: Pipedrive

Pipedrive is an extremely easy-to-use sales CRM. The workflows within the software are specifically tailored to meet the needs of sales teams that are deal-driven. 

The functionality is somewhat limited when you look beyond the basic sales tools, but for teams really focused on connecting sales to customers, it’s a great choice. With an open API, you can connect other software to add value to Pipedrive.

Pricing: Prices are extremely affordable for Pipedrive. It starts at $12.50 per month, per user. You can get started with a 14-day free trial. You don’t even have to put in a credit card to get access to the trial. 

Bundles: You can add LeadBooster to any subscription tier for added functionality. LeadBooster includes a chatbot, live chat, web forms and prospector, which helps find leads in a global database. The add-on costs $32.50 per user, per month.

6. Best for Simplifying the Management Process: Nutshell

Nutshell is a powerful and dynamic online CRM that will simplify sales management. But salespeople will love the ease-of-use and excellent tools as well. 

Nutshell makes it easy for sales managers to create territories and run reports on salespeople, sales regions and more. The in-depth analytics will help your team earn more business and build lasting relationships that encourage repeat customers.

Pricing: Get started for $19 per month, per user. See if Nutshell is right for you with a 14-day free trial. You don’t need to submit any credit card information, and you can cancel at any time.

Bundles: Nutshell also offers a marketing tool to aid in pipeline management and communication. The company doesn’t advertise any special rates for purchasing both the sales and marketing tools. However, purchasing the marketing tools can further enhance your sales CRM.

7. Best for Heavy Prospecting: Nimble

Nimble is a great CRM that features social tracking along with all the features you expect from a sales CRM. 

Get organized as a team and improve your salesperson efficiency. The user interface is enjoyable and easy-to-use. You’ll also find that the software is fast and easy to configure so you can be up and running in no time. 

At login, each user gets a snapshot of deals, outstanding tasks, must-do activities and email tracking details. 

Pricing: Prices start at $25 per month, per user. You can try Nimble for free for 14 days to see if it’s the right tool for your organization.

Bundles: You can save on Nimble if you purchase an annual subscription. Prices then start at $19 per month, per user.

8. Best for Inside Sales Teams: Close

The job of an inside salesperson means evaluating tons of contacts each day and making many phone calls and sending email messages. Because the job of an inside salesperson is a little different from other salespeople, having a tool designed for the key functions of your team will prove beneficial. Close makes it easy for you to contact many people in one day with a simple button click. 

Pricing: The starter package starts at $21.25 if billed annually, but this is a very lightweight CRM tool with limited features. You’ll likely want to look at the basic tier for improved functionality. 

Bundles: Organizations with many users will need to purchase a larger pricing tier. The starter package is only for up to 3 users, and the basic is only for up to 30 users. Bundling your per-user pricing could be beneficial based on your needs. 

What are the Benefits of Using Sales CRM?

Using a sales CRM has many benefits from higher close rates to improved customer relationships. Here’s a look at some of the benefits you’ll experience with a CRM:

• Improved salesperson productivity
• Higher customer satisfaction rates due to improved relationships
• Increased customer insights to improve sales discussions
• Customer segmentation to create custom messaging
• Greater customer retention
• Ability to anticipate customer needs based on customer actions
• Faster and more regular communication thanks to automation
• Simpler collaboration between marketing, sales and customer service teams

Find Your Sales CRM Today

Before starting your search for the best sales CRM, evaluate your needs and sales processes. Having clear goals for your software will help you improve the outcomes you experience from adopting a CRM. 

Then weigh the cost, benefits and features of some of the top options on the market. You’ll find that just about any software will have a huge impact on achieving your sales goals.