Best CRM Software Of 2024 – Forbes Advisor

The best CRM software includes all the core sales pipeline management features you’d expect as well as key advanced features for a reasonable price. When choosing the right CRM provider for your specific needs, make sure you not only assess essential, advanced and industry-relevant features but also pricing, ease of use and customer support. Let’s now take a look at how to choose the best CRM software for you:

Essential Features

Essential features are core CRM features that all providers offer. When choosing your CRM software, make sure that it includes the following as a baseline:

• Contact management: All CRM software should help you manage your sales and marketing contacts with basic contact records and customizable contact fields.
• Pipeline management: Visual sales pipelines with individual pipeline stages that mirror your specific sales process are core to all CRM software.
• Customizable dashboards: Your CRM tool should offer dashboards with pre-built templates and the ability to customize your dashboard layout and content to fit your unique needs.
• Reporting and analytics tools: All CRM providers include some level of reporting and analytics tools. Some offer basic reporting with report templates, while others offer customizable reporting dashboards that let you track your key performance indicators.
• Document management library: Your CRM should include the ability to manage important documents such as proposals. Some even offer e-signature capabilities to track and manage contracts from directly within your CRM.
• Third-party integrations: Does your CRM software include third-party integrations with important tools such as email applications including Outlook or Gmail?
• VoIP or mobile telephony: Many of the leading CRM systems offer mobile or VoIP telephony systems so you can make and receive business calls directly from within the platform. Some will also include features such as autodialing and call recording.
• Workflow automations: Top CRM software include workflow features that help you automate repetitive tasks and manage ongoing projects. These workflow automations are offered both natively and through third-party integrations.
• Supports international businesses: If you have a business that deals in international currency, many CRM providers can help manage multiple currencies.

Related: 10-Step Guide To Implementing a CRM

Advanced Features

In addition the the core CRM features offered by most providers, it’s also important to assess available advanced features to ensure that your chosen CRM tool meets your specific needs, such as the following:

• Team collaboration: Some CRM software excel at collaboration between team members. This includes both team members within the sales team as well as the collaboration between the sales and marketing teams.
• Generate quotes and estimates: Advanced CRMs also give you the ability to generate quotes and estimates based on things such as price books and more. This is especially useful if you offer multiple products or custom solutions.
• Sales territory management: If your sales team is assigned to specific territories, some CRM software can help with sales territory management.
• Client portals: These portals are secure areas within your CRM where a customer or agent can log in to their own account and pay bills, see upcoming appointments, track important documents and more. This is particularly useful for businesses with account management needs.
• Account and client management: In addition to client portals, some CRM providers offer advanced account management features to help with ongoing client management.
• Sales forecasting projections: CRMs with advanced reporting features allow you to make detailed sales forecasts based on real data tracked within your CRM platform.
• Lead scoring: Some CRM software include lead qualification features such as lead scoring that allow you to automatically score inbound or outbound leads based on pre-defined benchmarks. This is especially good for businesses that generate inbound marketing leads.
• Deal management: Leading CRM systems provide functionalities to help you with full-cycle deal management, including the tracking, maintaining and prioritization of deals in your sales pipeline.

Industry-Specific Features

There are industry-specific CRMs available for those in niche-specific industries that require a unique set of features. Common industry CRMs include tools for call centers, financial advisors, real estate agents, mortgage providers and more. It’s important to assess the available industry features when choosing a CRM to ensure that your specific needs are adequately met.

For example, some CRM software offer call routing and call queue features perfect for contact centers with a lot of live telephone agents. Other CRM software focus on the financial industry with the ability to send quotes and estimates, integrate with major financial tools, extra data protection, loan referral tracking, loan transaction tracking and more. Finally, some CRM systems help real estate agents manage both their listings and sales pipeline.

When choosing the right CRM for you, it’s important to assess your industry-specific needs and see if there are specific CRMs built to meet those needs. However, some more general CRMs can also offer advanced features that can work for your specific industry requirements. Ultimately, it’s important to assess all features offered so you can select the best CRM software.

Pricing

Make sure that the CRM software you choose fits within your budget. Most CRM software offer tiered pricing structures with a range of available features. Some CRMs include a free tier while others typically offer a free trial to test out the platform before you commit to purchasing. When assessing CRM software options, look at the available tiers and ensure the one you choose includes the features you need for a reasonable price. See our CRM pricing guide for more details.

Ease of Use

The right CRM software for you should be easy to use relative to its price and feature set. Some CRM providers offer intuitive user interfaces and robust knowledge bases that help you and your team become expert users more quickly. On the other hand, some CRMs are harder to use and require more support but may offer more advanced functionality. It’s important to test the product before you commit to purchasing to ensure it’s intuitive enough for you and your team.

Related: Best Simple CRMs

Customer Support

All CRM providers offer a combination of customer support that includes email support, live chat, a customer service phone number as well as a knowledge base or blog. When choosing your CRM software, make sure that it has the necessary customer support to help you take full advantage of the product.

Explore Our CRM Software Guides

Many CRM solutions are designed to meet the demands of specific use cases and niches. To help you find the best solution for your needs, we’ve created guides to the best CRM software in a variety of categories: