5 Best CRM for Entrepreneurs
So you want answers, and you want em’ fast. Here they are:
Quick links for the Best CRM Software
1) Best Overall 🏆
Monday.com
Customize your workflows to track all aspects of the sales cycle, from lead gen to post-sale support.
2) Good Plugins🥈
Hubspot
Hubspot is the undisputed king of full-stack marketing software. With solid CRM features.
3) Most Features 🥉
PipeDrive
A sales-focused CRM that uses AI to automate repetitive tasks and manage leads and sales.
So, you are in the market for a CRM that suits entrepreneurs.
Ideal, because in this article we have our compilation list for our top picks, and we compare the features and pricing for you.
If you just want the best choice, we’ve added that right at the top of the article as this was what is most requested by our customers. So, that’ll be the “can’t go wrong” option.
Otherwise, feel free to explore all the options we’ve reviewed on the market to find something that might fit you a little better.
Enjoy the list!
What CRM would you recommend?
In short, It’s Monday.com CRM
It’s very well rounded, well priced, feature-rich with a large community of support and a very top-notch set of tutorials for every use case. You can’t go wrong with Monday.com. It’s the software we use with our clients at our ad agency.
“🚀Try Monday.com CRM For Free, It’s my favorite webinar software to use and recommend.” -Scott Max
Monday.com is a user-friendly CRM platform that provides advanced solutions with its robust marketing tools. It allows larger companies with complex workflows to perform efficiently and produce nifty results. Monday.com has you covered for your: Service, Sales, CMS, Operations, and Marketing needs.
For more details, read our Monday.com Review.
The Best CRM specifically for Entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur, you have to devise strategies for the betterment and growth of your entire business. You may not have the required workforce to complete objectives. So it’s essential to have a CRM that boosts the productivity of your employees and empowers them with customer data. Have a look at the products below to choose the best CRM for Entrepreneurs:
1. HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the best known CRM tools in the world, and one of the undisputed references in the field of inbound marketing. Hubspot’s CRM functionality allows you to manage all marketing and sales activities as you see fit. For example, it allows us to group by campaigns that generate detailed reports of metrics on the real return on investment in the entire conversion funnel experienced.
In addition, it is a complete CRM tool that is completely free of charge. 56,500 customers in more than 100 countries trust HubSpot for their growth.
Hubspot Features
Hubspot is a user-friendly CRM platform that provides advanced solutions with its robust marketing tools. It allows larger companies with complex workflows to perform efficiently and produce nifty results. Hubspot has five modules: Service, Sales, CMS, Operations, and Marketing, so you can include them in the package as per your business requirements.
Here are some impressive features available on Hubspot:
- SEO Tools: Hubspot is one of the few CRM services that provide SEO-related analysis for your website’s content. Once you integrate your business website with Hubspot, it automatically scans it and recommends better optimization. Alternatively, you can paste your website’s URL and get an SEO report.
- Content creation tools: You can create new blog posts for your website and edit the existing ones by simply integrating the website with CRM. Hubspot records all comments and edits made to the original content, so you are always in touch with the changes. Moreover, you can use the editor to start a new blog and add relevant images.
- CPQ Functionality: Every business needs to create quotations for products or services to assist sales reps in negotiations. Hubspot allows you to do it inside the CRM with its “Quotes Tool”. You can add unit price, discount offers, conditions, regulations terms, or any other information that will benefit the buyer and sales process.
- Campaigns Tools: Hubspot has several relevant automation tools that enable smooth interaction with clients and organize workflow. You can make posts on social media, send customized emails and run paid search campaigns to get leads on potential customers. It is one of a kind collection with all the necessary marketing tools and a great addition for larger businesses.
- Contact Attribution Reporting: Hubspot can help your management team understand the latest trend related to customers’ sales processes and identify the sources that influenced their decision. You can customize the attribution parameters to get different insights into your business and recognize the market-making activities.
- Data Quality Automation: It allows you to automate properties like; time, date and add new automation to manage the incoming leads swiftly. Hubspot will follow all the pre-entered instructions and give a reminder every it finds a promising opportunity.
Hubspot Pricing
Hubspot offers you the option to create a customized subscription plan by adding the required services. Alternatively, you can choose from the existing bundles and get a general subscription. The “Starter” plan costs $45/month and offers fundamental marketing and sales features. The “Professional” plan starts at $1600/month with advanced marketing tools and customer service software. The “Enterprise” plan offers all available features of Hubspot and is priced: at $4000/ month, with the price set to go up to $5000/month From December 1, 2021.
2. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is a free CRM full of customer management tools, support and marketing automation features. Available in the cloud and locally, for mobile devices and desktops. Includes all essential tools: sales funnels, channel management, sales reporting, 360 degree customer view, repeat sales support and sales automation.
In addition, it comes with dozens of available integrations, and you can also create your own applications using its REST API.
Bitrix24 Features
In the corporate world, most of the marketing-related work is done collectively, and using different software for each task can be costly as well as inefficient. Bitrix24 offers all necessary tools for businesses within a single platform and makes it easier to collaborate with your team members. Bitrix24 has its virtual ecosystem where you can tackle every task with ease on an interface.
Here are some exclusive features of Bitrix24:
- Activity stream: It is the most happening place inside the Bitrix24 and is a perfect tool for communicating the project details with your employees. Think of it as a social media platform; where you can post project updates, create polls, follow relevant tags, and comment on posts.
- Virtual workspace: It is a great collaborative tool that helps you connect with the employees through video conferencing. Each call can have up to 48 members, and you can invite participants who don’t use Bitrix24. Moreover, you can track each employee’s work hours and progress through a Virtual workspace.
- Project Management: Bitrix24 offers the ability to create workgroups based on projects and assign tasks in several ways. You can approach each project differently, sort them according to the deadlines, and cumulate reports.
- Bitrix24.Drive: You can use the virtual drive inside the Bitrix24 to keep all your business-related files organized inside the system. Moreover, you can decide who gets access to each file and create new documents.
- CRM Space: It is your one-stop for all sales and marketing-related activities. You can customize the existing process templates or create a new one with the “Smart Process automation” without programming. CRM Space is designed: specifically to help you organize leads and lucidly automate processes.
- Sales Intelligence: Here, you can manage the traffic sources and see the ROI for each platform. It’s a perfect tool to assess your marketing strategy and see which sources generate more traffic. Users can connect their business website and get information on every lead through Sales Intelligence.
- Bitrix24.Sites: Bitrix24 has an inbuilt website creation tool that is easy to access and offers several templates to choose from. You can browse through the layouts according to your business niche or use an empty template to design a website from scratch.
- Marketing Campaigns: Bitrix24 allows you to target a specific audience through social media, Phone and E-mail. CRM marketing tool will identify genuine clients and help you connect with potential customers.
Bitrix24 Pricing
Bitrix24 currently offers 4 pricing options for users interested in getting the most out of CRM services.
The “Free” plan is best for the new users who want to get accustomed to CRM software and costs absolutely nothing.
The “Basic” plan is priced at €49/month and offers customer support service along with some simple collaboration tools.
The “Standard” plan offers advanced collaboration tools and an increase in user capacity. It is priced: at €99/month.
The “Professional” plan is worth €199/month and unlocks all features of Bitrix24. You can add unlimited users, which makes it suitable for established businesses.
3. amoCRM
The specialization, and the detail that makes it peculiar, of amoCRM is the messaging. Thanks to its technology it adds a complete set of messaging applications to its arsenal, allowing it to respond quickly to potential customers and generate more sales. You can identify the progress of each potential customer, get a preview of the task status and get an overview of the overall sales status. It also has a mobile app.
amoCRM Features
amoCRM stores contact information regarding potential customers and leads, allowing businesses to increase their clientele base. It offers a plethora of options to simplify the tasks related to sales and marketing; while also providing analytical tools to keep track of every lead.
Here’s a list of features that you can use inside amoCRM:
- Pipeline: It allows you to arrange leads based on how advanced the negotiations are. Whenever you create a new lead, it gets added to the “Initial Contact” section and can be moved; to further stages later on. Also, you can use the Digital pipeline to add lead sources like messaging applications, Email addresses, and Web forms, which will automatically move any inquires on the added source to the “Incoming Leads” section.
- Salesbot: It gives an automated response to all inquiries and is customizable so you can pre-enter the instructions. Salesbot is a great tool to engage with potential customers during off-hours and is accessible in every section of the Pipeline.
- Analytics: It provides a detailed assessment of all sales leads with an option to filter out the results you don’t want to see. You can check the Win-Loss record of every sales rep and generate client reports with the advanced filter options. Moreover, you can see what happens to negotiations at various stages and get a detailed analysis, which forecasts your future sales.
- Digital Pipeline: It saves you the trouble of cold-calling by automatically nurturing the client towards making a purchase and keeps you in touch with the latest advancements. You can add automated actions such as email responses or social media advertisements to every stage and set a reminder to call the client if the negotiations move swiftly.
- WebForms: You can create web forms on amoCRM without any programming knowledge and customize every detail; as per your company’s requirements. This webform will integrate amoCRM with your website and move every submission to the “Incoming leads” section.
- Business Card Scanner: It’s a great tool to automatically add client information to the leads: from business cards. All you need to do is click an image of the card, and the system will automatically add it to the “Leads” section after recognizing it.
- Collaboration: Some of your business partners or employees may not use amoCRM, so for such instances, you can communicate through Lead cards by sending mail. The receiver will get a link that redirects to the lead card and gives access to the amoCRM.
amoCRM Pricing
amoCRM has 3 pricing options available depending on your requirements: Base Plan, Advanced Plan and Enterprise Plan. The Base plan offers intrinsic features and is priced: at $15 per month; The Advanced subscription is worth $25 per month and offers added benefits like widget creation, whereas The Enterprise Plan allows you to use amoCRM to its maximum capabilities: and is worth $45 per month. All these prices are applicable only for a subscription period of 6 months or longer.
4. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a tool quite similar to Salesforce, integrated by different tools and functionalities that you can use according to the needs of your company. It has a number of free options and paid PRO versions, which you can evaluate according to your needs. One of its great advantages is that it can be integrated with a multitude of other tools that are not necessarily complementary to its use.
Zoho CRM Features
Zoho CRM is a robust software that fulfills all your business requirements, from closing the deal and managing company data to collaborating with your colleagues. It provides CRM solutions according to the niche and size of your organization for an ideal sales experience which makes it one of the most coveted CRM tools in the market. Zoho CRM thrives in solving unique business scenarios with a quick turnout time and produces compelling results.
Here’s a wide range of features offered by Zoho CRM:
- Canvas design studio: Every business has different requirements, so it’s weird why you should not be able to personalize your software experience. Zoho CRM allows users to makeover their homepage, tabs and menu bar with Canvas design studio. You can add aesthetic background to your CRM software and work efficiently by placing the frequently accessed; tabs on your homepage.
- Journey orchestration: Zoho CRM allows users; to create flowcharts that will determine the next step in the customer journey depending upon the response. Zoho Command Centre provides a unique interactive experience to potential clients and existing customers by analyzing the customer’s intentions.
- Omnichannel: Zoho CRM integrates all of your communications sources in one platform and smoothens proceedings with incoming leads. Moreover, you can hold web conferencing, set up service portals and live chat, collaborate with colleagues, and get real-time updates within the Omnichannel.
- Sales Enablement: Zoho CRM provides surfeit options for sales tools and lets you conduct every sales-related activity with comfort. It increases visibility into the client interactions and empowers your business portal by constantly adhering to the pre-entered commands. You can prioritize specific leads, get alerts regarding opportunities and build up a document library to assist the sales rep in negotiations.
- Performance management: Zoho CRM allows you to set targets for your employees to provide added motivation and track their performance with the SPM tool. You can also classify clients according to region, budget, and services required. Moreover, it lets you deal with multiple currencies and see exchange rates that can bolster your business.
- Developer platform: Zoho CRM’s developer platform helps you make custom solutions; for your business needs without much coding. You can integrate and unify your data from various applications, create automation, and run deluge codes to configure the CRM. It’s a perfect platform to help your developers get familiar with CRM services and build exciting products.
Zoho CRM Pricing
Zoho CRM offers subscription plans for every business, whether small, medium, or large.
The ” Standard” plan is priced: at ₹1300/month/user. It offers custom dashboards, multiple pipelines, and 1 canvas design creation.
The “Professional” plan is priced: at ₹2100/month/user. It offers SalesSignals, validation rules, and inventory management.
The “Enterprise” plan is priced: at ₹3000/month/user. It offers CommandCenter, a Multi-user portal, and advanced customization.
The “Ultimate” plan is priced: at ₹3200/month/user. It offers Enhanced feature limits, Zoho Analytics, and 25 customizable canvas designs.
Small businesses can opt for “Bigin” by Zoho, priced at ₹550/month/user.
There’s also a free edition of Zoho CRM which offers essential management tools.
5. FreshSales
FreshSales currently has more than 10,000 satisfied customers with its refreshing interface, which offers – at a glance – everything needed on the customer flow. You will be able to have information about conversations with customers, agreements, tasks and scheduled appointments with them, as well as find out how they have interacted with the website and the product, among many other functions. In addition, it allows you to control potential customers to know when it is the key moment to impact them.
Freshsales Features
Freshsales provides a modern-day sale engagement solution to users that want to expand their business and maximize their marketing efforts. Managing leads takes up a lot of effort and hours of scouring through various sources, but Freshsales eases that with a smooth transition of Incoming leads onto the next phase.
Here are some dedicated features of Freshsales:
- Marketing Automation: Freshsales lets you set conditions to see desired customer leads and automate the marketing tasks for prompt communication. Moreover, you can create alerts for the sales team whenever there is progress in negotiations or; the clients respond positively to marketing activity. You can set up chatbots to deal with incoming inquiries and reach out to the client via Whatsapp, Gmail or other network sources with Marketing automation.
- Deals Management: Freshsales lets you manage and visualize the sales process to convert potential leads into permanent clients. You can prioritize leads that are most likely to come to fruition and analyze the conversion rate to forecast sales for similar deals in the future.
- Workflow automation: Sales process involves many repetitive tasks that are essential to the working of the company. Workflow automation handles routine operations to reduce manual dependency and boosts sales efficiency by breaking complex processes into simple ones.
- Cloud Telephony: Calling is a vital part of the sales process: to update clients about the latest advancements and offers regarding new products. With Freshsales, users can get over 90 virtual phone numbers for employees: to connect with the customers over the computer. You can create notes and record a conversation to provide full context and reassign a task without any problem.
- Freddy AI: Freshsales identifies leads and organizes them to make sales tasks easier. You can set up instructions, and Freddy AI will cohere to them while processing client information. It provides you insight into the likelihood of closing the lead; so you know what the next step should be and approach the opportunity effortlessly.
- Product CPQ: You can maintain an updated product catalog on Freshscales to give clients and the sales team a reference about intrinsic features along with pricing details. Moreover, you can track individual unit sales and see which products are in demand and what audience you should target.
Freshsales Pricing
Freshsales has 4 pricing options available for businesses looking to expand their sales through CRM. The “Free” version provides basic management services free of cost. The “Growth” plan is a CRM tool with automation that can boost your sales and prevent respective tasks; It is priced at ₹999/user if billed annually. The “Pro” subscription will help you customize the tools to your liking and increase sales revenue; It costs ₹2799/user if billed annually. The “Enterprise” plan gives you the AI forecasting to know the shortcomings and modify the strategy accordingly; It is priced at ₹4999/user if billed annually.
Benefits of CRM for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs often wear multiple hats as they navigate the early stages of their business journey, making it crucial to adopt tools that enhance efficiency and drive growth. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can be a transformative asset for entrepreneurs, offering a range of benefits that support not just customer management but overall business success.
1. Centralized Customer Information
One of the most significant advantages of a CRM is the consolidation of customer data into a single, accessible platform. For entrepreneurs juggling various tasks, having a centralized repository for customer interactions, leads, and sales history can save valuable time and minimize the risk of data discrepancies. This single source of truth ensures that entrepreneurs can quickly access pertinent information, enhancing decision-making and responsiveness to customer needs.
2. Enhanced Customer Interactions
A CRM empowers entrepreneurs to personalize their communication with clients. By providing insights into customer preferences, purchase history, and previous interactions, CRMs enable tailored outreach that resonates with clients on a personal level. This personalization fosters stronger relationships and increases the likelihood of repeat business, a critical component for entrepreneurial success.
3. Improved Sales Management
For entrepreneurs, driving sales is often a top priority. A robust CRM system streamlines the sales process by automating lead tracking, follow-ups, and pipeline management. Entrepreneurs can monitor the status of leads in real time, prioritize high-value prospects, and close deals more efficiently. This not only accelerates the sales cycle but also boosts revenue, allowing entrepreneurs to reinvest in their growth.
4. Data-Driven Insights
CRMs provide entrepreneurs with powerful analytics and reporting tools. By analyzing customer behavior, sales patterns, and campaign performance, entrepreneurs can make informed decisions that fine-tune their strategies. These insights enable them to identify opportunities for growth, refine marketing efforts, and allocate resources more effectively—ensuring they remain competitive in the marketplace.
5. Increased Operational Efficiency
As small businesses often operate with limited resources, maximizing productivity is essential. A CRM system automates repetitive tasks such as data entry, calendar scheduling, and email marketing campaigns, freeing up entrepreneurs to focus on strategic initiatives. This boost in efficiency not only enhances day-to-day operations but also allows them to scale their efforts without a proportional increase in workload.
Why use a CRM at all?
Customer interaction is crucial for every business to retain clients and provide personalized services. CRM is primarily a sales-focused technology that optimizes your departments and allows your employees to make the best use of customer data. By leveraging CRM, you can improve the efficiency of your operations and develop a customer-centric approach.
CRM gives users access to a comprehensive database of customers, leads and other relevant business contacts, giving them a 360⁰ view. You can analyze the sales rep’s performance through lead management scores and ensure every prospect is nurtured properly before marking a lead as lost.
Why should Entrepreneurs use a CRM?
As an entrepreneur, you have to maintain scalable operations and efficiently manage your employees’ workload to get tasks completed on time. It’s crucial to have software that provides all the prerequisite tools to organize your client database and assists your salesperson during negotiations.
CRM is a software solution to manage client relationships, gain valuable insights into business processes and facilitate cooperation within a team.
Many young startups ignore CRM in the early stages, and that’s a huge error. While you focus on perfecting the product, you may leave the customer interaction process without attention.
The reality is, Entrepreneurs need automation tools more than others because their resources are not endless.
CRM allows your team to work in a single centralized system. You can easily track, plan and make informed decisions at every step of the customer journey.
Moreover, it enables you to provide an excellent customer experience, schedule timely responses and follow-ups, store every customer interaction with the sales team, synchronize marketing and sales activities, track important revenue metrics and manage the team across the globe.
CRM is essential for every business to scale and build strong relationships with clients. It helps you analyze your business operations and improve the overall functioning of your organization.
CRM for Entrepreneurs, A Summary
Entrepreneurs need to factor in their employees’ well-being, business growth and customer experience to swiftly grow as an organization. CRM solution helps you find the perfect balance between the three and takes your business to the next level.
Hubspot offers a special plan for entrepreneurs and startups with all necessary functionalities, helping them improve the efficiency of sales and marketing teams. It is our suggested pick for a CRM that suits Entrepreneurs. Visit the website to get started.