Customer relationship management (CRM) is a way to manage a company’s interaction with current customers and potential leads. Often times, CRM systems are used for improving business relationships with customers based on data analysis.
Many of these systems pull in details of a relationship with a customer including interactions by phone, email, help desk, and social media. And selecting the right CRM software can drastically impact the bottom line of an organization. Businesses can’t just use spreadsheets and word processing software anymore.
In terms of cost, CRM software tools generally use a per user and per month price point. And many of these companies offer a free trial period.
To help you decide which CRM system fits your needs, here is an overview of the best CRM software companies and platforms.
Salesforce CRM
Company: Salesforce
Founders: Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez
Product: Salesforce CRM
Salesforce is used by businesses to automate their tasks and make data-driven decisions in order to grow faster.
The Salesforce CRM features include partner relationship, contact and account management, task management, marketing automation, campaign management, forecasting tools, and manage workflows.
HubSpot CRM
Company: HubSpot
Founders: Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
Product: HubSpot CRM
HubSpot is a flexible and intuitive solution for managing prospects and the sales pipeline. The core CRM functionality of HubSpot CRM is free for everyone. And HubSpot sells premium features within its Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and HubSpot CMS.
Freshsales
Company: Freshworks
Founders: Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy
Product: Freshsales
Freshsales is a full-fledged Sales CRM platform with features like lead scoring, auto profile enrichment, territories, auto lead assignment, smart forms, etc.
Pipedrive
Company: Pipedrive
Founders: Martin Henk, Martin Tajur, Ragnar Sass, Timo Rein, and Urmas Purde
Product: Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a cloud-based sales software company that enables users to gain more qualified leads and grow their business. Pipedrive also includes pipeline management, email integration, and activities, sales reporting, sales forecasting, and goals.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 For Sales
Company: Microsoft
Founders: Bill Gates and Paul Allen
Product: Microsoft Dynamics 365 For Sales
Microsoft Dynamics 365 For Sales enables users to go beyond sales automation to better understand customer needs, engage more effectively, and win deals. With Microsoft Dynamics 365 For Sales also enables smarter selling with contextual AI and empowers sellers to build relationships. Plus you can boost sales productivity with seamless tools and improve coaching and sales performance.
Nimble CRM
Company: Nimble
Founders: Jon Ferrara and Gilles Marchand
Product: Nimble CRM
With Nimble CRM, you can unify contact data, set up actionable contact records, segment contacts into lists, set up reminders, and manage team to-do lists. And with the Smart Contacts browser extension, you can utilize the benefits of your CRM from your inbox and social platforms.
Zendesk Sell
Company: Zendesk
Founders: Mikkel Svane, Morten Primdahl, and Alexander Aghassipour
Product: Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell features include activity tracking, calendar integration, custom forms, email tracking, document storage, employee management, call reporting, etc.
Asana
Company: Asana
Founders: Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein
Product: Asana
Asana is a web and mobile app that is used to help teams organize and manage work. Some of the features include tasks, timelines, list/board/calendar views, team collaboration, and third-party app integration
Monday.com
Company: Monday.com
Founders: Roy Mann and Eran Zinman
Product: Monday.com
Monday.com includes a recruitment tracker, team project management, production order management, and third-party app integration
Copper
Company: Copper
Founders: Chris Cheng and Jon Lee
Product: Copper
Copper scrapes and captures all of your contacts, emails, and crucial account details in order to provide actionable insights. Copper looks almost exactly like the G Suite tools that you use so it should be intuitive for most people.
Nutshell
Company: Nutshell
Founders: Guy Suter, Ian Berry, Andy Fowler, Lindsay Snider
Product: Nutshell CRM
Nutshell CRM features sales automation, reporting and performance tracking, team collaboration, pipeline management, contact management, and free customer support.
Oracle E-Business Suite CRM
Company: Oracle
Founders: Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates
Product: Oracle E-Business Suite CRM
The Oracle E-Business Suite CRM (known as Oracle EBS CRM) has features like contact management, partner relationships, and customer engagement management.
Membrain
Company: Membrain
Founder: George Brontén
Product: Membrain
Membrain is a complete Sales Enablement CRM that can replace or complement your existing CRM and it makes it easy to execute on your sales strategy and enables your sales teams to grow with each deal. Plus Membrain equips managers to coach to higher performance and optimize your sales strategy to gain competitive advantage.
SAP CRM
Company: SAP
Founders: Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira and Claus Wellenreuther
Product: SAP CRM
The SAP CRM platform includes lead management, sales force automation, contact management, document management, sales reports, time tracking, pipeline management, etc.
Zoho CRM
Company: Zoho
Founders: Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas
Product: Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM enables users to connect in real-time with customers and prospects across all channels. It also offers access to Zia artificial intelligence, analytics, forecasting, module customization, pipeline management, team collaboration, and process management.