Keeping on top of your customer relations is a constant struggle for many small business owners. Running the company is a huge task itself, let alone remembering about every smallest thing in relation to your clients and prospects.
However, it is extremely vital for any business to keep track of their client data, from all aspect of the sales process to customer support calls to simply their contact details. In other words you need to know what is going on with your prospects and clients and you should have access to that data no matter where you are.
I am a huge fan of web and mobile apps, mainly because I have few computers I work on, depending on where I am and today I want to show you 10 of, in my opinion of course, the best CRM web based solutions for a small business.
- Salesforce – Salesforce is possibly the best known CRM and sales management system available and this is not an accident. It seems to be the most advanced yet still user friendly system used by many small businesses. It comprises of various smaller apps creating together this extremely powerful CRM solution. Cost: depends on what applications you use, from $4 to $270 / mo
- Pipeline Deals – This is what I used in my company. Pipeline Deals is a powerful tool to track your entire sales process. It is incredibly simple and intuitive to use and offers a set of extremely advanced sales management and reporting tools. It now offers syncing with Google apps too which makes it even more powerful. Cost: $15 / mo
- Highrise – My choice of CRM software at present. Highrise doesn’t offer that many options as the majority of it’s competitors. It is ideal for tracking leads, contacts and deals but if you are looking for a tool with more advanced tools to track your sales channels then Highrise might not be for you. Cost: from free to $149 / mo depending on the options you choose
- ZohoCRM – ZohoCRM is a part of a number of online applications for businesses under the Zoho brand. The CRM offers all the major options to track your leads, contacts and sales and offers integration with many business suites and systems like MS Office, Outlook, Google Docs and more. Cost: from free to $25 / mo
- Sugar CRM – Sugar CRM offers a wide tools to manage customer integration on many levels, from tracking and automating your sales, marketing to customer service and support. SugarCRM comes in many editions so it is good to check their website to find out which one would suit you best. Cost: from free (self hosted) to $600 / year
- Dashboard – a relatively new player on the market. I watched dashboards development and I was impressed by what these guys did with the software. The app offers all that you would expect from a CRM solution but packed in a lovely, web2.0 interface. Cost: $14.95 / mo
- Tactile CRM – I only discovered Tactile CRM while preparing this article. This seems to be less complex CRM system bridging a gap between the simplicity of Highrise and more complex systems like Pipeline Deals for instance. It offers a clear, Highrise-alike interface but adds more sales management functions than 37Signals’ CRM product. Cost: from free to $18 / mo
- Batchbook – this is another new player on the market. Batchbook can not pride itself with the nicest looking interface however it offers one unique option of social networking monitoring, possibly making it on the run for a title of a CRM workhorse. Cost: from $9.95 to $99.95 / mo
- Commence – Commence claims to be one one single system for Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. This is one system I haven’t used for longer time but from what I could see so far it looks really promising for a small business. Cost: Quote based
<li><strong><a href="http://www.bigcontacts.com/" target="_blank">Big Contacts</a></strong> – I used BG only briefly as my first CRM app, mainly due to a free account they were offering at a time. BG offers quite advanced options for managing your client relations and sales process, however, it's interface makes the app quite tiresome to use for a longer time.
Cost: from $6 to $25 / mo depending on edition
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