Best CRM Tools for Small Businesses in 2024

Introduction

The lifeblood of any business is moving a lead to a paying customer. In this article, we'll define a "lead" as anyone who is aware of your business's services but has not committed to any buying action.

This is not a mechanical process, but a relationship that unfolds over time.

How much time that takes depends on many factors, and most of those factors are out of your control.

The best way to close more sales is to take a gardening approach to cultivating relationships, "watering" them with touchpoints and connections throughout the process until the fruit (sale) is ready to harvest.

To do this well, it can be helpful to invest in a software tool that makes it easy to track where a relationship stands and also automates some follow up activities.

This is especially helpful as you or your sales team start to increase the number of relationships you are keeping track of.

Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) tools can be a valuable investment in any business, no matter what stage of growth it is in.

This article will explore what it means to select a good CRM tool, some of the best options currently on the market, and how custom software fits into the decision making process if existing tools don't meet your needs.

What is a Customer Relationship Manager?

A customer relationship manager is a software tool that enables you to keep track of all relationships that can lead to a completed sale in your business.

Different software tools offer different features, but most commonly have ways to enter contacts, information about their businesses, notes on interactions you've already had, and ways to track the "stages" a deal is currently in.

Other features may include data analytics to spot trends, marketing integrations, and built in texting/emailing/phone call features to make touchpoints simpler.

Why is having a CRM tool important?

With everything on a business owner's plate, it can be challenging to keep track of all the different "lines in the water" your business has to land more clients and take care of existing clients.

This is especially true as the business grows. There is more risk of losing track of where different deals stand, and this holds especially true the longer a sales cycle takes.

In many ways, a CRM can be one of the most important tools your business invests in, since all business is fueled by the relationships you build.

Now, you can start your CRM journey with a simple spreadsheet in a tool like Google Sheets. That will get you going and help you focus more on the activities needed to build the business instead of getting caught up in the tools.

Once you’ve built up a team of people, though, it becomes wise to consider the investment in a tool that meets the needs of your growing business.

What are the top 5 tools?

This list is not exhaustive and reflects our own opinions, research, and experience. There are many other great tools out there, but these tend to be the most popular and therefore have the most information available about them.

The tools we selected to compare are Hubspot, Monday.com, Zendesk, Salesforce, and Zoho.

We’ll start with a feature comparison.

Here's the Markdown table converted into a bulleted list format:

• HubSpot

  • Core CRM Features: Contact management, Email tracking, Sales pipeline, Reporting
  • Ease of Use: High - Intuitive interface, user-friendly
  • Customization: Moderate - Customizable dashboards, limited workflows
  • Integration: Extensive - Integrates with many third-party apps
  • Pricing: Free tier available, paid plans start at $20/user/month
  • Customer Support: Good - Comprehensive support including chat, email, and knowledge base
  • Reporting & Analytics: Good - Basic reporting and analytics, customizable dashboards

• Monday.com

  • Core CRM Features: Contact management, Sales tracking, Task management, Custom workflows
  • Ease of Use: High - Visual project management, easy customization
  • Customization: High - Flexible board views, custom workflows
  • Integration: Extensive - Supports various integrations
  • Pricing: Starts at $8/user/month, can become costly with add-ons
  • Customer Support: Good - Support via chat and email
  • Reporting & Analytics: Moderate - Basic reporting, can be expanded with integrations

• Zendesk

  • Core CRM Features: Ticketing system, Customer support, Knowledge base, Reporting
  • Ease of Use: Moderate - User-friendly but more focused on support
  • Customization: Moderate - Limited customization, focused on support
  • Integration: Moderate - Integrates well with support tools
  • Pricing: Pricing varies, typically starts around $5/agent/month
  • Customer Support: Excellent - Robust support options including chat, email, and phone
  • Reporting & Analytics: Good - Detailed support analytics

• Salesforce

  • Core CRM Features: Contact management, Sales automation, Custom reports, Lead management
  • Ease of Use: Low - Complex with a steep learning curve
  • Customization: High - Extensive customization options
  • Integration: Extensive - Wide range of third-party integrations
  • Pricing: Starts at $25/user/month, can get expensive
  • Customer Support: Excellent - Extensive support including phone and email
  • Reporting & Analytics: Excellent - Advanced reporting and analytics capabilities

• Zoho

  • Core CRM Features: Contact management, Sales automation, Analytics, Custom workflows
  • Ease of Use: Moderate - Versatile but can be overwhelming
  • Customization: High - Custom workflows, reports, and dashboards
  • Integration: Extensive - Broad integration options
  • Pricing: Free tier available, paid plans start at $14/user/month
  • Customer Support: Good - Support via chat, email, and phone
  • Reporting & Analytics: Good - Customizable reports and dashboards

Now, let’s take a look at the pros and cons for each tool. The focus here is on how these tools apply towards smaller businesses.

Pros and Cons

Here's the table converted into a bulleted list format:

• HubSpot

  • Pros:
    • Free tier available
    • User-friendly
    • Extensive integrations
  • Cons:
    • Limited advanced features in free tier
    • Can become expensive as you scale

• Monday.com

  • Pros:
    • Highly customizable
    • Visual project management
    • Flexible workflows
  • Cons:
    • May be overkill for purely CRM needs
    • Costs can add up with additional features

• Zendesk

  • Pros:
    • Excellent for support and ticketing
    • Robust help desk features
    • Good analytics
  • Cons:
    • Not as strong in sales and marketing features
    • Can be expensive

• Salesforce

  • Pros:
    • Extremely customizable
    • Powerful analytics
    • Extensive integrations
  • Cons:
    • Steep learning curve
    • High cost, especially for small businesses

• Zoho

  • Pros:
    • Affordable pricing
    • Good feature set for the price
    • High customization
  • Cons:
    • User interface can be complex
    • Learning curve for new users

Our Recommendations for Small Businesses

• HubSpot: Best for small businesses looking for a user-friendly CRM with a free tier and strong integration options, particularly if they need basic CRM functionality and marketing tools.
• Monday.com: Ideal for businesses that need a highly visual, customizable solution that can double as both a CRM and project management tool, though it may be overkill if you only need CRM features.
• Zendesk: Perfect for businesses that prioritize customer support and ticketing over sales automation, and are willing to invest in a robust support system.
• Salesforce: Best suited for small businesses that are prepared for a higher investment and are looking for extensive customization and advanced features.
• Zoho: Great for small businesses seeking a cost-effective, versatile CRM with a broad range of features and good customization options, though it may have a steeper learning curve.

What if an existing tool doesn't have all of the features you need?

We’ve already written extensively about the differences between packaged software, which is featured in this article, and custom software in this article. However, it’s worth mentioning that as your business grows, it may make sense to consider a custom software route. This is especially true if you feel that your packaged option is missing features you need, or that you are paying too much for features that you don’t use.

There are other advantages to custom software, as well. With the right shop building your tool, your people will have much more buy-in about the final solution since they will be involved in the process of designing it. One of the biggest issues we see with packaged solutions is the learning curve and the resistance to taking on a new tool that employees did not take part in selecting for their work.

That said, custom software is more expensive up front and comes with other challenges, like support and long term maintenance. As always, every path forward comes with trade offs. Ultimately, you get to decide what makes the most sense for you and your business.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article helps you move in the right direction as you discern the best tools to help you manage client relationships moving forward.

Here are some key takeaways:

• Start lightweight but look to the future as your business grows
• This means you need to have a gameplan for how you plan to develop and scale your business in order to understand what your business needs may be
• It's good to start with a tool like Hubspot that has a generous free plan and enough features to get you moving
• As you grow, it may make sense to stick with it or look towards an investment in custom software if it makes sense for your business.
• Bear in mind the possibilities of change resistance from your staff as you implement a course of action

Good luck, and happy growing!