Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process that simplifies sales and strengthens the relation between involving parties. The involved parties are businessmen, vendors, customers, and suppliers.

What is a customer relationship management tool?

A customer relationship management tool makes your job 10x easier. It stores the customer’s data in one place. It further picks out sales opportunities and manages marketing campaigns for you. These lines explain how badly you need a CRM tool for your business. All the big companies rely on CRM tools, and the technology benefits them vastly. Big names like Apple, Coca-cola, Amazon, and Tesco use CRM for their business. These tools provide them logical stats, and they make rational decisions based on those statistics. 

Different CRM tools provide various features. Similarly, some businesses have unique requirements. You must be careful while choosing a CRM tool. Here are certain factors that you must consider:

Establish clear goals

Gather your team and work out some fundamental goals and aims that you want from your CRM tool. It is a crucial step because you will analyze which CRM tool is suitable for you. You will ask yourself, is this tool fulfilling our business requirements? If not, then you reject it. It is as simple as that.

Installation (On-Premise versus Cloud-based)

You can choose among these according to your requirements and budget. Businesses dealing with sensitive customer information often choose an on-premise type of installation. It is safer, and you can customize it according to your needs. Meanwhile, cloud-based installation disconnects without an internet connection. Cloud-based software is budget-friendly as compared to the on-premise one. Businesses with less budget often prefer cloud-based software. 

Make sure your tool has everything you want

An ideal customer relationship management software must have these features, 

• Contact storage
• Lead generation and management
• Sales generation
• Pipeline management
• Email management
• Data storage
• Data analysis and report generation.

If your tool lacks any one of these, you should not invest in that one. These are the basics of every CRM tool, and you should never compromise on these.

Request a free trial

It is better to see for yourself than depend on others’ opinions. CRM tools don’t proceed directly with payment options. You can avail free trial and see the impact for yourself. In this way, you will see the results and decide which tool works best for your business. 

Check if the software is user-friendly

You must consider the user interface before you select your CRM tool. Everything must be clear and concise. After all, we are looking for efficiency rather than perplexity. You may find your perfect software, but if it isn’t user-friendly, it’s no use. Your team must know how to use your software to its fullest. You must train your staff so that they can work with your CRM tool. 

Check the reporting features

The important thing we look for while choosing the tools is the reports. We don’t look after the whole process, the data collection, the working, etc. Your CRM tool looks after the process, and we look at the reports. We only check if the numbers are correct, and we make decisions based on that report. Therefore, your CRM tool must have a coherent reporting system.

Keep these things in mind as they will help you in your CRM tool selection. You should try different tools as long as you find your perfect one.

Most famous CRM tools

Hubspot CRM

Customer relationship management HubSpot is a beneficial tool for startup businesses or anyone who wants to try it for free. It has all the features to be a good CRM tool. Moreover, it is free for a million contacts. It can track your contacts, generate leads, and communicate with your prospects.

Fresh Sales

Fresh Sales tracks the whole process from the lead generation till the end of the sale. It has a mobile option as well, so you can track your progress anywhere. You can start with $18 per month.

MailChimp

It is a good CRM tool for individual workers, startup businesses, and freelancers. It provides different features for sales and marketing. The free plan is up to 2000 contacts, and the paid plan starts from $9 per month.