11 Best CRM Platforms To Unlock Your Customer Relationships

CRM platforms are software solutions created to assist businesses in effectively managing their customer interactions and relationships. These platforms serve as a central hub where companies can store, arrange, and analyze customer data, enabling them to gain deeper insights into their customers’ preferences and requirements, thus enhancing their ability to meet those needs. In today’s article, you’ll explore CRM platforms.

CRM platforms provide diverse features and capabilities that empower businesses to enhance customer engagement, optimize sales and marketing workflows, and elevate overall customer satisfaction. In this article, you will learn everything about the CRM platforms.

CRM Platforms: Overview

CRM platforms, or Customer Relationship Management platforms, are software solutions specifically developed to assist businesses in effectively managing their interactions and relationships with customers.

Acting as centralized hubs, these platforms enable companies to store, arrange, and analyze customer data, leading to valuable insights regarding customer preferences, behaviors, and needs.

CRM platforms provide extensive tools and functionalities that empower businesses to elevate customer engagement, streamline sales and marketing processes, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

Businesses can efficiently monitor and manage customer interactions using CRM platforms, and nurture leads, stimulate sales growth, and cultivate enduring customer relationships.

CRM Platforms: Features

Here are the features of CRM platforms:

• Businesses can effectively monitor and handle leads throughout the sales pipeline using CRM platforms. This involves capturing leads, assigning them to sales representatives, and monitoring their progress until they are converted or closed.

• CRM platforms seamlessly integrate marketing automation tools to assist businesses in executing precise marketing campaigns. These tools encompass email marketing, lead nurturing, campaign tracking, and marketing performance analysis.

• Customer contact information, including names, phone numbers, and email addresses, can be easily stored and managed through CRM platforms. This centralized database ensures convenient access and organization of customer data.

• CRM platforms frequently provide automation features that streamline sales processes by automating repetitive tasks. These tasks may include sending follow-up emails, generating quotes or proposals, and managing sales orders.

• Integration capabilities are a common feature of CRM platforms, enabling them to harmoniously connect with other business systems like email clients, e-commerce platforms, and customer support software. This facilitates seamless data sharing and provides a comprehensive view of customer interactions.

• CRM platforms may incorporate features to manage customer service and support interactions effectively. These features often include ticketing systems, case management, knowledge bases, and tracking customer communication, all of which contribute to promptly and efficiently resolving customer issues.

• The availability of mobile applications is a common offering by many CRM platforms. These applications enable users to access and update customer data, manage tasks, and track interactions while on the move.

Things That Make The Best CRM Platforms

Here are the points to make the best CRM platforms:

• The specific terminology, data requirements, processes, and applications utilized by your company are unique to your operations. It is crucial that CRM software can adapt and cater to your company’s specific needs to the greatest extent possible.

• A wide range of third-party integrations is essential as they can connect various department functions and enhance customer data collection, resulting in a more comprehensive customer profile.

• Including in-app directions, definitions, and help articles is essential, particularly for the more advanced features of CRM software. Additionally, having readily available support and onboarding options contributes to a more productive user experience.

• Your CRM should be able to generate reports on any data point that can be collected. This includes sales by a representative, sales cycle, average value, reasons for lost sales, and many other metrics.

• Your CRM’s contact and sales management features should align with your target customer’s purchasing behavior. It is essential that the CRM software can effectively support and streamline your interactions with your ideal customers.

Factors To Consider While Choosing The Best CRM Platforms

Here are the factors to consider while choosing the best CRM platforms:

• It is essential to clearly define your business objectives and ascertain how a CRM platform can effectively support them. Whether you aim to enhance customer relationships, boost sales efficiency, or improve marketing efforts, clearly understanding your goals will guide your selection of a CRM platform.

• Evaluate the CRM platform’s scalability and customization options to ensure it can accommodate your business’s growth and adapt to evolving needs. Look for features that enable customization to align with your specific workflows and processes.

• Consider the user-friendliness of the CRM platform, including factors such as an intuitive interface, easy navigation, and a short learning curve for your team. Testing the user experience through demos or trials can help assess whether it meets your organization’s requirements.

• Assess the CRM platform’s ability to seamlessly integrate with other crucial business systems, such as email, marketing automation, e-commerce, and customer support tools. Smooth integration ensures efficient data flow and enhances overall operational effectiveness.

• Consider whether the CRM platform offers mobile accessibility through dedicated apps or responsive web interfaces. Mobile access lets your team conveniently access and update customer data on the go, improving productivity and responsiveness.

• Consider the cost structure of the CRM platform, encompassing factors such as subscription fees, implementation costs, and any additional charges. Evaluate the potential return on investment by aligning the platform’s features and capabilities with your business goals, assessing how they can drive revenue growth or cost savings.

• Conduct thorough research into the reputation and user reviews of the CRM platform and its provider. Pay attention to feedback from other businesses in your industry or similar use cases, as this can provide valuable insights into the platform’s reliability, performance, and customer satisfaction.

Best CRM Platforms In The Market

Here are the best CRM platforms in the market:

1. Salesforce Sales Cloud

Salesforce Sales Cloud, provided by Salesforce, a prominent vendor of cloud-based business software solutions, is a robust customer relationship management platform that aims to optimize sales workflows, improve customer connections, and boost sales expansion for businesses.

Within Sales Cloud, an extensive array of features and tools are available to bolster sales teams at every stage of the sales process, from generating leads and managing opportunities to finalizing transactions and providing customer support after the sale.

By utilizing Sales Cloud, users can effectively capture and monitor leads, efficiently handle customer contacts, and establish a centralized repository of customer data. It empowers sales teams to arrange and prioritize leads, monitor communication history, and automate the assignment of leads.

With the assistance of the Flow Builder, you can design personalized automation for process management. Navigate to the Settings section, click on Flows, and choose the specific flow type you wish to generate.

Salesforce Sales Cloud provides powerful capabilities for overseeing sales opportunities. Sales representatives can generate and revise options, monitor sales stages, predict revenue, and collaborate with team members to handle deals efficiently.

Salesforce allows you to manage field viewing and editing permissions, granting you access control. Additionally, AppExchange offers an extensive selection of paid and free third-party integration options, providing a wide range of apps.

Sales Cloud promotes teamwork by offering a centralized platform where team members can exchange information, updates, and sales-related documents. It enables sales teams to communicate, share successful strategies, and collaborate to enhance the efficiency of closing deals.

Salesforce Sales Cloud equips users with tools to manage and inspire sales teams effectively. It encompasses performance tracking, goal setting, and incentive management to boost sales performance and motivate sales representatives.

Pricing

Starting at just $25 per month per user

2. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a well-liked CRM platform tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, empowering them to handle their sales processes efficiently. Its interface is user-friendly and intuitive, with a strong emphasis on pipeline management and sales activities.

The key functionality of Pipedrive revolves around the visualization and management of sales pipelines. Users have the flexibility to create personalized pipelines that align with their specific sales process stages, enabling them to monitor deals as they move through each stage.

With Pipedrive, users can generate and monitor deals across the entire sales cycle. Each deal can be linked to pertinent contact details, activities, documents, and notes, facilitating the maintenance of comprehensive records regarding interactions and progress for every customer or prospect.

Pipedrive offers a centralized repository for managing customer and prospect information effectively, ensuring that all crucial data is stored in one place.

Pipedrive presents a selection of sales-oriented add-ons, namely LeadBooster and Web Visitors. LeadBooster offers a range of features, including live chat, chatbot, forms, and prospecting capabilities, empowering sales representatives to engage with potential customers effectively.

The reporting functionality in Pipedrive is highly customizable, allowing you to incorporate specific conditions from each data field. This level of flexibility enables you to delve as deeply as desired to obtain granular insights.

Pricing

Prices start as low as $14.90 per month per user

3. Nimble

Nimble is a comprehensive customer relationship management platform that enables businesses to manage their contacts, leads, and sales processes efficiently. Its primary objective is to offer a consolidated perspective of customer interactions, empowering users to cultivate stronger relationships and propel sales growth.

Nimble CRM distinguishes itself by prioritizing social media integration and relationship intelligence, emphasizing the importance of incorporating social channels and leveraging intelligent insights to enhance customer connections.

Nimble CRM consolidates contact information by unifying data from diverse sources, including email, social media profiles, and other business applications.

Employing intelligent algorithms, Nimble CRM generates valuable relationship insights. It collects data from multiple sources to furnish users with comprehensive background information, mutual connections, and engagement history associated with each contact.

Nimble CRM provides comprehensive tools for managing sales processes and monitoring deals as they progress through the sales pipeline.

A recent addition to Nimble is the introduction of Workflows, which enable users to automate various functions such as sending messages, scheduling activities, logging notes, and performing other essential tasks.

Pricing

Starting at $25 per month per user, you will also receive 25 prospector credits per month as part of the package

4. Freshsales CRM

Freshsales CRM is a cloud-based platform for customer relationship management, crafted to support businesses in effectively managing their sales processes and enhancing customer interactions. It provides diverse features and functionalities that streamline sales activities, track leads and deals, and boost overall sales effectiveness.

With Freshsales CRM, businesses can establish a centralized database of contacts, encompassing vital information such as contact details, communication history, and social media profiles. This enables users to search, segment, and organize contacts effortlessly, ensuring a comprehensive view of customer interactions.

Users of the platform can efficiently capture and monitor leads, thanks to the capabilities offered by Freshsales CRM. It equips businesses with tools for lead scoring, assignment, and nurturing, facilitating effective lead management processes.

Freshsales CRM aids businesses in managing their sales pipeline and tracking deals as they progress through different stages. This ensures clear visibility and effective monitoring of the sales pipeline for enhanced sales management.

Freshsales provides automation capabilities to streamline repetitive sales tasks. Users can automate email workflows, schedule follow-up reminders, and create task sequences, resulting in time savings, improved efficiency, and consistent execution of sales activities.

Freshsales is a reliable CRM solution that effectively serves as an excellent entry-level option for small to midsize businesses, catering to their needs.

Pricing

Includes a free plan or a paid plan of $15 per user per month

5. Apptivo

Apptivo is a cloud-based platform for business management, providing a comprehensive suite of applications to assist businesses in optimizing their operations and enhancing efficiency across multiple departments.

It encompasses diverse features and functionalities that facilitate managing customer relationships, projects, finances, and other essential aspects of business operations.

Apptivo presents a comprehensive CRM module that empowers businesses to manage customer interactions and monitor sales opportunities effectively.

This module encompasses a range of features, including contact management, lead tracking, opportunity management, and sales forecasting, enabling businesses to streamline their sales processes and optimize revenue generation.

Apptivo facilitates seamless integration with many third-party applications and services, enabling businesses to connect their existing tools and systems effortlessly.

Moreover, it offers robust customization options, empowering users to tailor the platform according to their business needs and workflows, ensuring a personalized and optimized experience.

Within the Apptivo platform, the Supply Chain suite allows you to incorporate suppliers easily, oversee orders and inventory, and efficiently process and track shipments.

Regarding orders, all necessary information, including shipping address, terms, contacts, and currency, is automatically populated based on the customer’s details, simplifying the order management process.

Apptivo offers a selection of pre-built sales reports covering crucial areas such as opportunities, funnels, contacts, activities, territories, and market analysis. Additionally, you can customize your reports to capture specific data points recorded within your fields.

In the financial suite, you can generate employee expense reports and track customer payments, receipts, and invoices. Moreover, it allows you to monitor revenue and taxes, ensuring comprehensive financial management capabilities within the platform.

Pricing

Available paid plans begin at an affordable rate of $8 per month per user

6. NetHunt CRM

NetHunt CRM is a customer relationship management platform that assists businesses in efficiently organizing and managing their customer data directly within Gmail. Through seamless integration with Gmail, users can utilize their email as a centralized hub for customer interactions, sales processes, and productivity.

NetHunt CRM empowers users to transform their email platform into a robust CRM solution by operating entirely within the Gmail interface. They can easily access customer information, track interactions, and carry out various CRM activities without leaving their Gmail inbox.

NetHunt CRM offers a cohesive perspective of customer contacts, enabling users to securely store and effectively organize essential customer information, communication history, and other pertinent details. The platform provides flexibility in creating custom fields, tags, and categories to facilitate efficient segmentation and organization of contacts.

With NetHunt CRM, users can track vital email metrics, including opens, link clicks, and engagement data. The platform further enhances email communication by providing pre-built email templates and sequences, automating and streamlining the process. This saves time and ensures consistent messaging for effective customer engagement.

Within NetHunt CRM, users can effectively monitor and track sales deals and opportunities. The platform provides valuable features such as deal stages, probability tracking, and progress monitoring, offering clear visibility into the sales pipeline.

With the Workflows feature, users can automate various actions such as task creation, phone calls, or sending Slack messages, streamlining their workflow and saving time.

Additionally, NetHunt CRM enables users to create records directly from new spreadsheet rows, generate to-do list tasks based on comments within NetHunt, and offers many more customizable options to enhance productivity and collaboration.

Pricing

Starting at $24 per month for a single user

7. Zoho CRM Plus

Zoho CRM Plus, an all-encompassing customer relationship management suite provided by Zoho, a prominent vendor of cloud-based business software solutions, integrates multiple applications into a unified platform.

This comprehensive solution empowers businesses to effectively manage customer relationships, sales processes, marketing campaigns, customer support, and various other aspects of their operations in a cohesive manner.

While Zoho already offers considerable customization, the Canvas feature allows you to personalize your CRM’s appearance and user interface as if creating it from scratch.

Within Zoho CRM Plus, businesses benefit from a powerful CRM module that facilitates tracking and managing customer interactions, leads, and deals.

It encompasses many features, including contact management, lead management, opportunity tracking, sales forecasting, and pipeline management. With these capabilities, users can nurture leads, effectively manage customer relationships, and drive sales growth.

SalesSignals, an integral part of Zoho CRM Plus, is a real-time notification system that ensures users stay informed about important events and actions. It diligently monitors customer interactions across multiple channels, including website visits, email opens, and social media interactions.

This capability empowers users to respond promptly and engage with customers at opportune times.

Zoho CRM Plus provides automation tools that streamline marketing campaigns and automate repetitive tasks. It encompasses a range of features, including email marketing, campaign management, lead scoring, and marketing analytics.

With these tools, users can create targeted campaigns, nurture leads effectively, and track the return on investment of their marketing efforts.

Zoho offers a substantial level of customization, and the Canvas feature takes it even further by allowing you to personalize your CRM’s appearance and user interface as if you were starting from a blank canvas.

Pricing

The cost per month per user for this service is $57

8. HubSpot

HubSpot, provided by the renowned vendor HubSpot, is a customer relationship management platform that assists businesses in effectively managing customer interactions, tracking leads and deals, and streamlining sales processes.

It presents a diverse array of features and functionalities that contribute to enhancing customer relationships and driving sales growth.

Within HubSpot, users can access a centralized database that is a comprehensive solution for managing customer contacts. It enables users to securely store and efficiently organize contact details, communication history, and other pertinent information related to their interactions.

The platform facilitates segmentation, tagging, and seamless search and retrieval of contact records, ensuring easy access to valuable customer data.

HubSpot empowers users to monitor leads and deals at every stage of the sales process. Users can effortlessly create and manage deals, assign them to team members, & track their progress through various stages. The platform offers visibility into crucial deal metrics, including value, probability, and expected close dates.

HubSpot provides automation features designed to streamline sales workflows and enhance efficiency. Users can leverage functionalities such as creating email templates, automating email sequences, and setting up workflow automation to trigger actions on specific criteria.

This automation capability saves valuable time and ensures consistent and timely follow-ups, improving productivity and sales effectiveness.

Although HubSpot initially emerged as a marketing platform, its strength in this domain has persisted. It offers many powerful marketing features that allow users to leverage their websites as lead generators through content offers, execute targeted ad campaigns, nurture contacts using multichannel automation and much more.

HubSpot remains dedicated to providing comprehensive marketing capabilities to drive successful business marketing strategies.

Pricing

Available for free with unlimited users. Additionally, for those interested in the Starter CRM Suite, it begins at a monthly cost of $30

9. Ontraport

Ontraport is an all-inclusive business automation and marketing platform that seamlessly integrates customer relationship management, email marketing, automation, and other influential features.

Within Ontraport, businesses gain access to a robust CRM system for effectively managing customer interactions, tracking leads, and nurturing relationships. The platform offers various features, including contact management, lead tracking, deal management, and comprehensive communication history.

These capabilities contribute to streamlining customer relationship management processes and enhancing overall business productivity.

Ontraport excels in delivering advanced marketing automation capabilities. Users can create and automate personalized email campaigns, segment contacts based on behavior and demographics, and effectively track customer engagement.

Ontraport’s robust email marketing platform allows users to create, send, and track email campaigns effortlessly. The platform offers many professional email templates for designing visually appealing emails.

Additionally, users can easily segment their email lists and gain valuable insights into campaign performance through comprehensive tracking and analytics features.

To capture customer attention, the marketing suite of Ontraport provides a range of pre-built and customizable automated campaigns. Using a user-friendly visual drag-and-drop editor, the builder empowers you to define triggers, actions, and filters with if/then branching logic, creating tailored customer experiences.

Ontraport enables comprehensive tracking of all your campaigns, allowing you to monitor essential statistics such as conversion rates, monthly recurring revenue, lifetime value, and the movement of contacts within the system.

Regarding sales reporting, Ontraport primarily focuses on eCommerce transactions, providing detailed insights and analytics related to your online sales activities.

Pricing

Starting at $84 per month per user

10. Nutshell

Nutshell CRM is a dedicated customer relationship management platform developed to assist businesses in efficiently managing their sales processes, monitoring leads and deals, and enhancing customer interactions.

With Nutshell CRM, users gain access to powerful contact management capabilities, enabling them to store and organize customer information within a centralized database.

Users can effortlessly track contact details, communication history, and associated activities, providing a comprehensive and holistic view of customer interactions.

The platform facilitates effective tracking of leads and deals. Users can create and manage leads, assign them to sales representatives, and monitor their progress.

Moreover, the deal management features enable users to track the status of deals, set appropriate deal stages, and forecast revenue accurately.

Nutshell CRM offers automation features designed to streamline sales processes and increase efficiency. Users can automate routine tasks such as email follow-ups, deal updates, and task assignments, allowing sales teams to allocate more time to high-value activities and enhancing overall productivity.

Additionally, Nutshell CRM provides comprehensive stock reporting for sales, encompassing metrics such as sales value, average value, losses, and new leads, among others. These reports offer valuable insights into sales performance and aid in making data-driven decisions.

Nutshell’s marketing platform empowers you to create and deploy drip email campaigns targeted at specific audiences. It enables you to effectively design and send automated email sequences to engage and nurture leads.

Furthermore, Nutshell offers convenient integrations, such as automatically creating Google Contacts from new Nutshell leads and seamlessly adding individuals to Nutshell from new form submissions. These streamlined processes enhance efficiency and ensure smooth data synchronization across platforms.

Pricing

At just $16 per month per user

11. Close

Close CRM is a powerful CRM platform tailored explicitly for sales teams. It offers a centralized database as a hub for storing and managing leads and contacts.

Users can effortlessly track and update contact information, communication history, and activities related to each lead or contact. It facilitates efficient lead tracking, segmentation, and organization, providing sales teams with the tools to optimize workflows and boost productivity.

Close CRM provides a visual pipeline view within the platform, enabling users to monitor deals effectively as they progress through different stages of sales. Users have the flexibility to create customized deal stages, set reminders, and assign tasks to team members. 

This comprehensive view of the sales pipeline offered by Close CRM allows sales teams to prioritize deals, enhance sales forecasting, and make informed decisions to drive sales success.

Regardless of your Close plan, you can access a built-in phone system with free monthly calling credits and text messaging capabilities.

Close takes a unique approach by considering leads as companies rather than individual contacts. This means that when creating a lead, you can associate contacts with that lead in just a few simple steps.

Close offers Smart Views to assist sales representatives, providing valuable insights on which leads to calls and when to follow up, ensuring optimized sales engagement and productivity.

Pricing

With prices starting from $25 per month per user

CRM Platforms: Challenges

Here are the challenges with CRM platforms:

• Implementing a CRM platform can present complexities, particularly for large organizations with existing systems and data.

• The effectiveness of CRM platforms relies heavily on accurate and current data. Maintaining data integrity, preventing duplicates, and ensuring data consistency across systems can pose challenges.

• Encouraging broad adoption and providing adequate training for all users can be challenging.

• While CRM platforms often offer customization options to align with specific business processes, configuring the platform to meet unique requirements can be complex.

• Integrating a CRM platform with legacy systems such as ERP or accounting systems can involve complexities and technical hurdles.

• The scalability of CRM platforms becomes increasingly vital as businesses expand. Ensuring that the CRM platform can handle growing data volumes, user counts, and the evolving complexity of the business can present challenges.

• Budgetary constraints and achieving a positive return on investment (ROI) can be obstacles organizations encounter with CRM platforms.

CRM Platforms: Benefits

Here are the benefits of CRM platforms:

• CRM platforms empower businesses to forge robust and meaningful customer relationships.

• They optimize sales processes, allowing sales teams to handle leads, track opportunities, and automate tasks efficiently.

• CRM platforms seamlessly integrate marketing automation tools, enabling businesses to execute targeted and personalized marketing campaigns.

• They establish a centralized repository for storing and organizing customer data, ensuring easy access and management.

• CRM platforms foster collaboration and facilitate the exchange of information among team members.

• They provide essential features like ticketing systems, case management, and knowledge bases to deliver prompt, effective customer service and support.

CRM Platforms: Who Uses These Platforms

Here are the people who use CRM platforms:

• Sales teams depend heavily on CRM platforms to manage customer relationships, monitor sales opportunities, and streamline sales processes.

• CRM platforms are vital tools for sales managers as they provide oversight and guidance to their sales teams.

• Marketing professionals consider CRM platforms indispensable for creating targeted marketing campaigns, monitoring campaign performance, segmenting customer data, and analyzing customer behavior.

• CRM platforms are valuable resources for customer service teams as they enable efficient handling of customer inquiries, monitoring customer interactions, and delivering adequate support.

• Business owners and entrepreneurs find CRM platforms invaluable for comprehensively understanding customers, tracking business performance, and making well-informed decisions.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) On CRM Platforms

1. What are CRM platforms?

CRM platforms encompass an integrated collection of data-driven software solutions designed to efficiently manage, track, and store information about your company’s existing and prospective customers.

2. What is an example of a CRM platform?

Here are the examples of CRM platforms:

• Zendesk
• Microsoft Dynamics
• Salesforce
• HubSpot
• Freshworks
• BIGContacts

3. What are the 3 types of CRM?

The 3 types of CRM are operational, collaborative and analytical CRM.

Conclusion: CRM Platforms

CRM platforms serve as all-encompassing software solutions that assist businesses in effectively managing their interactions and relationships with customers. They establish a centralized hub where customer data can be stored, organized, and analyzed, granting businesses valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors.

CRM platforms enhance customer engagement, optimize sales and marketing processes, and elevate customer satisfaction through many features. These include contact management, lead tracking, sales automation, marketing automation, and customer service tools.

In addition, CRM platforms offer powerful reporting and analytics functionalities, empowering businesses to base their decisions on data and optimize their strategies. By leveraging CRM platforms, businesses can cultivate strong customer relationships, stimulate sales growth, and nurture long-term customer loyalty.

I hope today’s article on CRM platforms sounds helpful!