Are you looking for the best CRM software to help organise your sales, marketing and support efforts? There is an ever growing and ever improving range of CRM (customer relationship management) systems on the market, increasingly available via the cloud to make access on the go more convenient.
Below are some of the great CRM solutions that can help improve and align your customer service, sales and marketing lead management, and ongoing technical support:
Undoubtedly the most popular CRM solution with around 14% of the market using its cloud-based platform, Salesforce is suitable for any size of company, from SMBs up to the largest corporate giants. Pricing is based on a sliding scale with a monthly charge per user of between $5 and $300 depending on the size of the organisation and the desired features.
Run entirely in the cloud, with free updates and access from smartphones, tablets and desktops, Salesforce has set the bar high for ease of implementation, usability and simplicity of pricing, prompting many other developers to adapt their offerings accordingly.
With separate modules for sales, marketing, customer support, community engagement, business analytics and app development, Salesforce is a comprehensive solution. For anything extra, a range of custom add-ons and third party integrations add even more functionality to the CRM.
Oracle Sales Cloud
Challenging Salesforce with a market share of just above 11%, Oracle’s Sales Cloud is favoured by many larger organisations and costs between $100 and $200 per user per month, depending on the choice of edition (Standard, Enterprise or Premium).
Sales Cloud is the company’s second bite at the cherry following the poorly received On Demand CRM, and sports a much more user friendly interface along with mobile apps for Android and iOS.
The platform is built around four key modules, covering sales automation, sales performance management, partner relationship management and social collaboration, and offers extended functionality via tight integration with the other business software in the Oracle suite.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
In terms of user base, Microsoft Dynamics takes third place, with just under 7% of the market. One unique feature which will appeal to many businesses is seamless integration with the rest of the Microsoft family, including Office and Outlook.
Covering all the bases with modules for sales, customer service, marketing, social and enterprise resource planning, Microsoft’s key market for Dynamics is the corporate sector – while their website offers a range of small business case studies, the price point and complexity of the software lends itself better to larger organisations.
Mobile support is in place with apps for Android, iOS and, unsurprisingly, Windows 8 and 10, and pricing begins at around $65 per user per month for the cloud version, or $1,100 per user on site.