Choosing a Simple CRM Software
When choosing a simple CRM software, ease of use isn't the only factor you're probably going to need to consider. There are plenty of other aspects of this kind of software that need to be compared and contrasted prior to purchase — and here are a few key ones to consider.
Before you do that though, work out if you need a top CRM for sales, marketing or customer service — not all providers are going to excel in all three areas.
Pricing factors
With so many businesses still feeling the squeeze from the economic turbulence of the last few years, pricing will naturally make its way to the forefront of many companies' decision-making processes. Importantly, it's all about whether you're getting bang for your buck — especially when it comes to contact database sizes, which vary widely from plan to plan but also from provider to provider.
Pipedrive, for instance, has an unlimited contact limit on all of its plans, as does monday.com. Freshales, on the other hand, limits how many contacts can be involved in marketing actions per month but puts no limit on the number that can be included in your database.
If your business is rapidly expanding and you need a CRM system to keep up with your levels of growth, investing in a plan with a contact database limit you're quickly going to outgrow will cost you more in the long run than investing in a slightly pricier plan now that has no cap.
Customer support
Customer support can make or break a provider — especially if usability is important to you. The last thing you want is to be waiting around for technical support — especially if, when you request it, it's not very good.
There's a surprising gulf between providers in terms of what customer support options they offer. Some providers do not offer onboarding assistance on all their plans, whilst others only on enterprise packages, and providers like Zoho only offer it if an additional fee is paid.
Customizability
Customizability is an incredibly important factor for some companies searching for the ideal CRM software, simply because a system that can adapt to your preferences is going to be eminently more useful than one you have to shoehorn yourself into. The reason monday.com is such a highly rated CRM software is the level of customization it provides – you can make endless changes to templates and custom fields until it fits like a glove.
Themanner of the customization is important too — again, another reason monday.com excels. It's really, really easy to sculpt the software to do what you want to do without delving into the system settings or getting lost in menus.
Features
Last but not least, naturally, choosing the right CRM software for your business will include assessing and comparing the features on offer. Some CRM software plans have better marketing features, whilst others focus on sales.
Take HubSpot for example — the company offers a free CRM that functions as a starting tier, and then offers specialized paid products (Sales Hub, Service Hub, and Marketing Hub) — all with different features. There are plenty more aspects to consider though, including integrations, security features, lead team management tools, reports, and much more.
