5 Best CRM for Manufacturing

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.

Read Review

2) Good Plugins🥈

Hubspot

Hubspot is the undisputed king of full-stack marketing software. With solid CRM features.

Read Review

3) Most Features 🥉

PipeDrive

A sales-focused CRM that uses AI to automate repetitive tasks and manage leads and sales.

Read Review


So, you are in the market for a CRM that suits manufacturing

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 Manufacturing

Manufacturing business involves maintaining production, tracking assets, building relations with suppliers and storing every information, whether it’s about your product, client or manufacturing process. A CRM that automates data entry procedures, constantly follows up on every lead, and gives deep insight into operations is a perfect match. Have a look at the products below to choose the best CRM for the Manufacturing business:

1. 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.

Get Started with FreshSales🔥

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.

2. Pipedrive 

The Pipedrive CRM tool is intuitive and easy to use, providing a wealth of data of interest and future forecast for your customers and their interactions. It is a tool very focused on the sales area, not so much on marketing, and has a paid subscription. Currently, some of your customers are Amazon, Skyscanner or Vimeo. We have tested it to make an educational video on Youtube and have raised a special offer for readers of Marketing4eCommerce 1 month free trial (usually 14 days) and 25% discount on the first purchase. You can take advantage of it at this link.

Get Started with Pipedrive🔥

Pipedrive Features

Pipedrive makes sales-related tasks easier by fetching leads 24/7 and emphasizes the right opportunity so you can convert it into a deal from the sales pipeline. Pipedrive has a flexible and user-friendly interface that simplifies the transition to the CRM tool for businesses, lessening the workload of the sales team.

Here are some features offered by Pipedrive:

  • Lead Management: Pipedrive offers an unsophisticated sales pipeline with several functionalities that provide a fully visual sales experience to improve efficiency and close deals faster. Users can track opportunities through all stages of the sales funnel and customize the dashboard to move all leads at one place for smoother interaction and prioritization. Moreover, Pipedrive provides users with an AI-powered sales mentor for personalized insights.
  • Communication Tracking: Pipedrive allows businesses to manage contacts and group them into “People” and “Organization” so the sales representative knows the clients’ role in the company and approaches them accordingly. Pipedrive provides a visual representation of call history and other modes of communication with the client giving a cutting edge to your business in negotiations. You can also make outbound phone calls within the Pipedrive and auto-link them with the relevant contacts.
  • Sales Automation System: Pipedrive allows users to automate every sales process and take their business to the next level. You will be notified: at the earliest about any changes to the lead phases and account settings to prevent misuse of your CRM. Pipedrive’s Automation sends customized notifications to the clients at the right time to increase the chances of getting engagement and successfully closing a deal.
  • Insights and Reports: You can create customizable fields for analytical reports regarding deals, leads, revenue, activities and add them to the dashboard for quick access. Pipedrive also offers employee management services to create goals for teams and individuals. It helps in evaluating the performances and assigning the tasks based on merit, which increases the chances of getting a positive outcome for every sales opportunity.
  • Privacy and Security: Pipedrive offers a dedicated security dashboard to give users complete control and transparency over user permissions and privacy settings. You can see how many users are logged in to the Pipedrive account and prevent mischievous entities from getting hold of your data. Moreover, you can see how recently the password has been altered, devices using your account and whether there has been any attempt to change the admin settings.

Pipedrive Pricing

Pipedrive has 4 pricing options for users to choose between depending on their requirements.

The “Essential” plan is priced at $15/month, giving users access to pipeline management, customer support, and data importation.

The “Advanced” plan is priced at $29/month, providing all features of “Essential” plus email scheduling, click tracking, and workflow creation.

The “Professional” plan is priced at $59/month, providing all features of “Advanced” plus call tracking, document creation, and revenue forecasting.

The “Enterprise” plan is priced at $119/month and gives access to all features of Pipedrive.

You can get add-ons to get the most out of the Pipedrive CRM subscription.

LeadBooster add-on starts at $32.5/month upon annual billing and helps large businesses to engage with leads more frequently.

Web Visitors add-on starts at $41/month upon annual billing and helps you recognize how your clients found out about services that can improve your marketing strategy.

3. TeamLeader

TeamLeader is an all-in-one software that will allow you to easily simplify your work. In a main dashboard you will find all the tasks, meetings and calls that you must follow up on a daily basis to make your relationship with your clients and potential clients grow. It also has processes that seek to simplify and automate all possible processes, such as: automating invoices and making them look totally professional.

Get Started with TeamLeader🔥

Teamleader Features

Teamleader was founded in 2012 with the idea to make following up on administrative and sales processes facile. It is a cloud-based software that makes it readily accessible from anywhere. Teamleader continuously rolls out new features according to the latest market requirements and customer needs. Businesses of any size can benefit from Teamleader as it provides a complete professional package that takes care of your sales, billing, and management tasks.

Here are some features offered by Teamleader that can truly revolutionize your business:

  • Project Planning: Teamleader ensures that your project colleagues and clients are in sync with the latest advancements. You can share the progress directly with the client through Teamleader orbit to avoid missing out on deadlines. Moreover, it automatically copies the creation date, price quote, and expected completion time from the accepted quotation; so that you don’t omit crucial elements.
  • Schedule Planning: As a project manager, you can view the schedule of all available employees to see who is yet to receive a project and distribute tasks accordingly for quick execution. You can also see how much workforce should be deployed: on a project to avoid overexerting your employees.
  • Time Tracking: Teamleader simplifies tracking work hours for both employees and project managers. Whenever you start a task, drag it to the agenda, and Teamleader will accurately clock the time spent on the project. Moreover, you’ll get billed directly according to your work hours to ensure transparency on both sides. Teamleader generates an invoice and takes into account both billable and non-billable hours.
  • Comprehensive Reporting: Teamleader provides users with inbuilt report creation tools. You can set each parameter according to your preference and generate analytical data to share the company’s progress with employees. Teamleader also generates insight reports that give a statistical analysis of various attributes. You can edit these pre-made reports by altering the framework and creating endless possibilities.
  • Retainers: Teamleader allows users to create milestone payments and retainers to avoid delays in tasks. You can reach an agreement with the client and decide the payment mode. Moreover, you can track how much time has been spent working on the project and release funds accordingly.
  • Exceptional support service: Teamleader provides quick access to the client inquiries and centralizes all complaints from a ticket. You can see how long a ticket has been sitting still and the urgency level of the raised issue. Teamleader tracks all complaints to ensure customer issues are solved: at the earliest.

Teamleader Pricing

Teamleader provides a subscription plan based on your CRM requirements.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs can opt for “Teamleader focus”, whose subscription plans are listed below:

The “Go” plan is priced at €60/month for 2 users, excluding VAT and an extra €30 for every user.

The “Move” plan is priced at €70/month for 2 users, excluding VAT and an extra €35 for every user.

The “Boost” plan is priced at €90/month for 2 users, excluding VAT and an extra €46 for every user.

Large organizations can opt for the “Teamleader Orbit Suite”, priced at €50/month with a minimum of 10 seats. You can get setup and training for an additional €1.500,00.

4. 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.

Get Started with AmoCRM🔥

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.

5. SugarCRM

Another highlight is SugarCRM, with clients such as IBM, Audi or Zurich, which has a simple user interface and an intuitive personalisation platform, and has two types of CRM adapted to each user: a CRM for SMEs and a business CRM for large companies or multinationals.

Get Started with SugarCRM🔥

SugarCRM Features

SugarCRM is a user-friendly platform built on open-source technologies like JavaScript and PHP to enable mobile computing solutions. It helps businesses build better professional relationships, work more efficiently and integrate with the complete customer lifecycle. SugarCRM has cloud portability, which allows you to switch data between public and private clouds depending on market conditions with minimal disruption.

Here are some unparalleled features offered by SugarCRM:

  • Sugar Market: SugarCRM provides an all-in-one marketing automation tool that automatically prioritizes incoming leads based on client engagement. It also recognizes repetitive tasks and avoids them to ensure maximum work is done: in minimal time. 
  • Revenue Generation: SugarCRM generates revenue for each marketing campaign to let you know where your funds are being used and whether they are yielding desired results.
  • Google Ads integration: Users can access Google Ads management tools within the Sugar Market and create shrewd campaigns to target a new clientele base while maintaining the stronghold over existing customers.
  • Ease of Use: SugarCRM is exceedingly easy to customize because of multi-API accessibility. Users can switch from their existing CRM service to SugarCRM by connecting the API’s, which leads to a high adoption rate. It allows users to personalize the menu bar and homepage for quick response to the incoming queries.
  • Asset Library: SugarCRM simplifies the process of uploading, managing and storing assets to leverage within the emails, business website and other marketing documentation with the asset library. It supports various file types like images, documents, audios, gifs and CSS. Users can integrate SugarCRM with other content management systems with pre-built templates to get a more robust library.
  • Sales Automation: SugarCRM’s sales tool offers accurate predictions on the possibility of closing a deal with its AI-powered tools. You can change your marketing patterns and sales process accordingly to attract more clients. Moreover, SugarCRM also provides automated operations to follow-up on potential customers during off-hours till a sales rep is assigned; to the task. You can use SugarBPM to review price quotations by comparing your services to other businesses and getting a fair evaluation of your product.
  • Customer support platform: SugarCRM enables businesses to emphasize customer complaints and rectify the situation quickly. It provides a knowledge-based platform: that can be customized to help clients solve minor problems themselves. SugarCRM’s service platform automatically assigns cases to the most qualified representative by analyzing past work.

SugarCRM Pricing

SugarCRM offers 4 pricing options depending upon the products you pick.

The “Sugar Market” marketing tool is priced at $1000/month and can be accessed; by unlimited users.

The “Sugar Sell” sales automation tool is priced at $80/month/user and offers 60 GB storage along with phone support.

The “Sugar Serve” customer service tool is priced at $80/month/user and helps you smoothly assist clients.

The “Sugar Enterprise” offers a generalized subscription plan and is priced; at $85/month/user. It offers SQL-based reporting and SugarBPM.

The “Sugar Professional” plan is priced at $52/month/user and offers a CRM solution for small businesses.

Key Features of Manufacturing CRMs

When selecting a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system tailored for the manufacturing sector, it’s crucial to consider features that facilitate efficient operations and foster strong customer relationships. Here are the essential features that a robust manufacturing CRM should offer:

Comprehensive Customer Data Management:

A manufacturing CRM should centralize all customer information, including contact details, purchase history, and communication logs. This 360-degree view enables manufacturers to understand customer needs better and tailor their offerings accordingly.

Lead and Opportunity Management:

Effective lead tracking is critical in manufacturing, where sales cycles can be lengthy. A quality CRM should facilitate tracking leads from initial contact through to conversion, offering tools to prioritize leads and monitor progress throughout the sales funnel.

Quoting and Estimating Tools:

Customizing quotes and estimates is a common requirement in manufacturing due to product variations and specific customer needs. A manufacturing CRM should provide built-in quoting functionality that allows sales teams to create, modify, and send quotes with ease.

Integration with ERP Systems:

The ability to integrate seamlessly with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is vital. This integration ensures that sales, inventory, and production data are synchronized, allowing for accurate forecasting, order management, and inventory control.

Project Management Capabilities:

Manufacturing often involves complex projects with multiple stakeholders and timelines. A CRM with project management features can help teams coordinate tasks, set deadlines, and monitor project progress, ensuring that projects are delivered on time and within budget.

Benefits of Implementing a CRM in Manufacturing

Implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in the manufacturing sector brings a multitude of benefits that can streamline operations, enhance customer relationships, and drive overall business growth. Here are some key advantages that manufacturers can leverage by adopting a CRM:

1. Centralized Data Management

A manufacturing CRM serves as a single source of truth for all customer-related information, orders, inventory, and production data. This centralization eliminates the chaos of fragmented data systems, reduces the likelihood of errors, and allows teams to access real-time information efficiently. With all relevant data at their fingertips, sales and customer service teams can provide accurate responses and service, improving customer satisfaction.

2. Enhanced Customer Insights

With robust data collection and analytics tools, a manufacturing CRM enables businesses to gain deeper insights into customer preferences, purchasing behaviors, and market trends. By understanding customer needs more effectively, manufacturers can tailor their marketing strategies, optimize product offerings, and enhance overall customer engagement.

3. Improved Communication and Collaboration

Manufacturing CRMs facilitate better communication across departments, ensuring that sales, marketing, production, and customer service teams are aligned. Features like shared dashboards, automated updates, and integrated communication tools help foster collaboration, leading to faster decision-making and more cohesive strategies.

4. Streamlined Sales Processes

CRMs enhance the sales process by automating routine tasks such as lead scoring, follow-up reminders, and reporting. This streamlining allows sales teams to focus on building relationships and closing deals rather than getting bogged down by administrative work. Additionally, customizable sales pipelines help track prospects through various stages, ensuring that no opportunity is missed.

5. Operational Efficiency

By automating workflows and processes, a CRM system can significantly reduce the time and resources spent on manual tasks. This operational efficiency not only improves productivity but also helps reduce production costs. Manufacturers can better manage their supply chain and procurement processes, resulting in smoother operations and optimized resource utilization.

Why use a CRM at all?

Every business faced challenges to maintain business operations adequately and follow up on leads or clients immediately. Going ahead with using several platforms for each operation and depending upon manually reaching out to the clients leads to redundancies, inefficiency and missing out on promising opportunities.

A CRM understands your business requirements and compiles all information regarding every department into a single platform. You can automate tasks to follow pre-entered commands and reduce them so your employees can focus on providing services to the clients. A CRM will simplify your work and provide you with a detailed analysis of every operation.

Why should a Manufacturing business use a CRM?

As a manufacturing company, you have a higher set of demands compared to a normal business. A product seller can easily deliver the product and know the payment of shipment. However, A manufacturer prepares the product from scratch and forwards it to the suppliers. There’s no contact whatsoever with the buyer.

It means you have to contact suppliers regarding product sales, keep a record of the raw materials needed for production and sometimes even estimate the project amount, which can lead to duplication and redundancies.

A CRM can help you manage all business operations, including acquiring exact quotations for the products and maintaining engagement with suppliers. It ensures your productivity does not suffer due to individual errors and provides a detailed analysis of production and sales. 

A CRM will simplify every operation and allow you to assess it to make changes accordingly. It ensures your company’s growth by maintaining organizational control and providing insights into every process. You can automate tasks and ensure every instruction is carried out: for an efficient work environment.

Manufacturers are just like any company that sells something, except they sometimes may not have direct contact with the buyer. It involves tracking various stages in the sales cycle due to its complexity. A CRM provides you with a holistic view of the customer. So you can approach each lead appropriately and manage the production.

You can access the CRM from anywhere and see how advanced are the discussions or production. A manufacturing business can save a lot of unnecessary costs with a CRM while increasing sales, leading to a revenue surge.

CRM for Manufacturing, A Summary

Manufacturing involves several minute technicalities, from ensuring the production stage is carried out perfectly to managing contracts with clients and suppliers. A CRM simplifies these operations and ensures perfect organizational functioning.

Freshsales provides an array of tools that can help you keep track of every relevant information regarding shipping, manufacturing process, clients and incoming leads. It is our suggested pick if you’re looking for a CRM that suits manufacturing companies. Visit the website to get started.