Best CRM Software to Increase Sales in 2022

In business, the goal is raking in sales consistently. While it's great to focus on offering quality, converting the services or products you offer into actual sales is important. As a rule, you shouldn't negotiate to offer quality. Customers genuinely look for quality rather than intrusive sales ads with no real value. So technically, you should rake in thanks to its Feed First feature, customers without messing up the quality of your products or services. However, sales aren't all about offering quality products or services. Another aspect of offering quality in business is a major player in increasing sales. It's all about customer relationship management (CRM).

The average customer spends time asking questions about a product before buying. What's more, they feel appreciated whenever they're sought after for a review. Now, imagine if there's no customer support team ready to handle their inquiries or complaints. If there's anything customers hate apart from intrusive ads, it has to deal with unresponsive customer support. Instead, customers would opt for someone better rather than wait in the call line for hours with unending ads. This means that your competitor next door with better customer support would easily win over your customers.

So, what do you do? If you're looking at increasing sales in 2022, then you really should look into your customer relationship management strategy. While you can have a team dedicated to customer relationship management (CRM), you can use CRM-based software.

What Is the Best CRM Software to Help Increase Sales?

There's an old saying that "the farmer is only as good as his tools." Offering the best quality in customer relationship management largely depends on tools. Your CRM tools are what make the difference between retaining or losing customers. While there are a ton of CRM software in the market today, not all are perfect. So, what is the best CRM software to help increase sales?

Introduction to CRM Software

CRM software is peculiar to different business niches. No all-in-one CRM strategy or software suits every business. Determining the best CRM software to increase sales in 2022 requires researching existing CRM software and your business needs. This way, businesses engage in different digital marketing strategies unique to their business niche, products, or services. Although researching CRM software would help you make an informed decision, you might have to test some first. You need to practically experience using a few software before making your final pick. Remember that you have to balance reviews and personal experience with the software. Reviews are essential, as personal experiences are important when deciding on what CRM software to use. In an age where reviews are often dishonest and misleading, your decision would be better informed by your personal experience.

Here's a deal for you; below, you'll find a list of top-rated CRM software. Each software is peculiar to a business type and should guide your choice.

Best CRM Software for Different-Sized Businesses

In business, growth, and sustenance are two different phases. Just as a baby's primary focus is to grow, startups or small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are primarily driven by growth. But adults and large businesses aren't as focused on growth. It's often in adulthood that topics like living healthy become more emphasized. In the same vein, a business's focus shifts from growth to sustaining its current level. Although growth is not utterly out of the equation for large businesses, the focus is a little different. When it comes to customer relationship management, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often require less intensive tools than larger businesses.

Best CRM for Small Companies

Due to the nature of small businesses, their customer base is small and doesn't require intensive management. A startup could invest in a single person or a two-person team to handle customer support. Why? One or two persons can conveniently control the influx of customer inquiries. As such, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) might not require complex CRM software. Thankfully, being a small business comes with an added advantage - you can opt for free CRM software. Rather than using paid software with extensive CRM features, small businesses can easily use free CRM software with generic features. This free CRM software can also execute customer support and relationship management functions easily and efficiently. In the same vein, small businesses can opt for smaller paid plans for top-notch CRM software. Some CRM software offer discounted payment plans with extra features perfect for small businesses.

Here's a list of the best 3 CRM software for small companies in 2022

Freshsales CRM

Standing out as one of the best CRM software for small businesses, Freshsales offers free trials and cost-effective paid plans perfect for small businesses. Although its paid plans offer extensive CRM features, its free features are sufficient for small businesses. The basic features of Freshsales CRM include;

1. Customer support via phone call, email, and live chat.

2. Tracking CRM activity and creating CRM analytics reports.

3. User data management.

4. Multi-level integration.

5. Importing and exporting CRM data across CRM platforms.

Zoho CRM

Known for its excellent data analytics and reporting features. It supports a vast range of data import and management, converting it into a comprehensive analytical report. The beauty of Zoho CRM is that it is an efficient CRM tool perfect for both small and large businesses. Some of its basic features are;

1. Real-time response to customer queries via live chat, phone call, and email channels

2. User interaction analytics and reporting

3. User data management

4. Customizable and easy-to-use CRM dashboard

5. Webform creation and management

HubSpot

A constant name in CRM thanks to its perfect features for reaching and converting customers. HubSpot is a free CRM software that offers excellent features. Thanks to its extensive user base of over a million contacts, it's the go-to software for lead generation and marketing. About 64% of startups, and small and medium-sized enterprises use HubSpot for their CRM needs. Its basic features include:

1. Built-in social media integration

2. Activity tracking and analytics

3. Swift response integration via email, live chat, and phone call

4. AI assistant for marketing campaigns and personalization

5. Data importing, exporting, and segmentation

6. Data importing, exporting, and segmentation

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Best CRM for Large Companies

As businesses grow, their customer base increases too. While this draws in massive sales, it also comes with an intensive responsibility - customer relationship management. Unlike small businesses that can easily handle their CRM needs, large businesses require more intensive CRM tools. Thankfully, large businesses have the funds to purchase full subscriptions to CRM tools and pay for full customer support services.

Below you'll find a list of the top 3 CRM software for large businesses;

Bpm'online CRM

The ideal CRM tool for large businesses. It extensively covers all aspects of customer relationship management peculiar to large businesses. Its free trial allows you to test-run the software before opting for a full subscription which comes with even more efficient features. Some of its features include:

1. Built-in integration across multiple platforms such as Google Calendar and Microsoft Word

2. CRM best practices processes and recommendations

3. Data analytics, management, and comprehensive reporting

4. Easy-to-use software with dashboard personalization

5. Marketing campaign personalization and coordination

Salesforce CRM

Standing as one of the leading CRM software, Salesforce is strictly designed for large businesses. It offers real-time tracking of user data and activity for lead generation and conversion. A cloud-based CRM tool allows customer support teams to collaborate on-site or work from home. Customer support users can easily customize their Salesforce dashboard thanks to its Feed First feature. This is an important feature for accessing vital information and tools swiftly. Here are some of its features;

1. Lead management and conversion

2. Built-in integration with other CRM solutions such as Desk.com, Zendesk, Ambassador, Zuora, and FinancialForce ERP, among others

3. Extensive data analytics and market reporting

4. Cloud integration

CRM.io

A top-rated CRM software beneficial to small and large businesses. It's the perfect tool for customer support teams to execute CRM tasks effectively and quickly. It boasts a wide user base essential for lead generation and conversion as a CRM tool. What's more, it has an easy-to-use design interface that improves productivity. Some of its best features include:

1. Marketing analytics and reporting

2. Sales optimization

3. Built-in marketing and CRM integrations

4. Data analytics and segmentation

5. Affiliate management, call routing, and recording for analysis.

Best CRM Software for Growing a Business

With a 97% score on customer satisfaction on the G2 Top CRM ranking, the HubSpot CRM software is the best for scaling or growing a business. Its features are extensive and ensure productivity for small and large businesses looking to expand further. In addition, thanks to its wide reach to over a million customers, it is the perfect CRM solution for generating and converting leads. This aids in handling a massive amount of customer and user data efficiently.

A major selling point for HubSpot CRM is that it is free to use. Unlike other CRM solutions that offer a free trial with limited features, HubSpot offers advanced CRM features for free. Despite being a free-to-use CRM software, it does not compromise on quality in its processes. As a result, it is a constant top-rated name in the CRM world.

Best Easy-To-Use CRM Software

Categorizing CRM software based on ease of usage is quite tricky. Most of the top-rated CRM software is designed for ease of use and speed. While ease of use is a criterion for functionality among CRM software, it weighs lesser than other aspects such as automation, analytics, lead generation and conversion, storage, and the like. Some of the easiest and top-rated CRM software include; HubSpot, Zoho, Bpm'online, and Freshsales.

Other CRM software making waves for ease of usage compared to other functionality includes; Pipedrive, Insightly, Agile CRM, and Less Annoying CRM. They offer similar functions to other top-rated CRM software, and they also offer specialized functions.

Best Automated CRM Software

Process automation is a vital part of CRM tools. It helps to dedicate resources and attention to more sensitive processes. Certain processes or queries are easy to handle and would function better if automated. Depending on your choice of CRM software, you may or not access automated features for basic processes.

Some of the high-ranking CRM software with automated processes include; Pipedrive, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Freshsales, Agile, and Salesforce CRM.

Best CRM Software for Sales Automation

A rule of online marketing is that sales processes should be seamless and swift. Seeing as you're reaching a global audience, the possibility of you being actively online and tending to sales 24/7 is low. To not miss out on leads and sales opportunities, you have to automate your sales.

Sales automation is a unique feature available in several CRM software. Generally, CRM software offers automation for several marketing processes. As such, you can find sales automation features on CRM software such as; Freshsales CRM, Pipedrive, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zoho CRM.

How to Determine The Best CRM Software For You

Choosing the CRM software to use can be tricky as many CRM software in the market. What's more, this CRM software offers competitive features. Thus you can't entirely say that software is bad or another software is the best. However, there's a hack to choosing the best CRM software for your business.

First, you should understand that CRM software is designed to improve your marketing and handle customer relationship management. So, if the software doesn't align with your preferred marketing strategy or is too complex for your use, you know that you're searching for something better. Therefore, the first thing you need to understand in choosing a perfect CRM tool is to spell out your business needs. Identifying your core business needs is a foundational rule for determining what marketing strategy or management tools you should use. Think of it this way, a small business with a limited customer base would be wasting its time investing in a CRM tool designed to handle a large quantity of data. A large business would be frustrated and less productive in customer relationship management if it invests in tools designed for smaller businesses. The first question you should ask yourself in choosing CRM software is this; what are your business goals? If you're more concerned about sales, you need CRM software that helps with sales automation. To manage a large customer base, you need a CRM tool like HubSpot with unlimited storage and can reach over a million users. Suppose you need to improve your response time to customer queries and ensure customer satisfaction. In that case, you need a CRM tool that offers multiple customer support channels and integration with other customer platforms.

It all depends on your business needs. First, note that you have to understand the difference between paid and free CRM software. Generally, free CRM software offers basic CRM features. But if your business needs CRM-intensive features, you'll be better off using paid CRM software with extensive features.

Apart from using your business needs to guide your decision in what CRM software to use, there are certain CRM features that you should look out for. These CRM features are what marks out a great CRM software;

• Built-in Integration:- A major criterion for CRM software is the capacity to merge with other CRM channels. This is a function of integrating with other CRM channels, and not many CRM software offers this. Integration with communication channels such as email and social media platforms is also a useful feature of CRM software.

• Storage:- A must-have feature for CRM tools is the capacity to retain a massive amount of user data. It is wise to opt for a CRM tool that offers 2x the user data your business manages. This gives room for scaling your business.

• Customization:- To avoid being frustrated by a rigid system, choose flexible CRM software that you can customize to suit your business preference.

Conclusion

Having the perfect CRM software for your business is vital to increasing sales in 2022. Revise your business goals and needs, and let your CRM software reflect what you need.