Best CRM for B2B SaaS

In B2B SaaS, building and maintaining strong customer relationships is essential for long term growth and retention. A powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a key tool for managing leads, nurturing prospects, and understanding customer behavior to drive sales and improve customer satisfaction. The best CRMs for B2B SaaS companies offer features tailored to the unique needs of the industry, including advanced analytics, automated workflows, and seamless integrations with other software tools.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the top CRM solutions for B2B SaaS businesses, focusing on those that help teams maximize their sales efforts, improve customer relationships, and scale efficiently in a competitive market.

Why you need a CRM

With the fast paced nature of any B2B SaaS business, a CRM is essential for staying organized and optimizing customer relationships.

1. Challenges without a CRM

With a lot of projects to stay on top of and customer relationships from multiple channels to manage, busy teams in the fast paced world of B2B SaaS have a few challenges they often contend with, including the following.

• Disorganization: Scattered data across multiple platforms makes it difficult to manage customer information efficiently.
• Missed Opportunities: Without a centralized system, potential leads and upsell opportunities can easily slip through the cracks.
• Inefficient Processes: Manual data entry and fragmented workflows slow down operations and reduce productivity.
• Lack of Insight: Inadequate reporting and analytics hinder the ability to make informed business decisions.
• Inconsistent Communication: Disjointed communication channels lead to fragmented customer interactions and a poor customer experience.

2. Benefits of a CRM

It wouldn't be fair of us to mention the challenges of life without a good CRM, without mentioning the benefits a good CRM platform can bring as well. Below are a few typical reasons why busy teams decide to invest in one.

• A place to create one source of truth: A CRM consolidates all customer data into one accessible platform, ensuring nothing gets lost.
• Enhanced efficiency: Automated workflows and data entry streamline processes, saving time and reducing errors.
• Improved customer relationships: Comprehensive customer profiles enable personalized interactions and better service.
• Better decision-making: Advanced analytics and reporting provide actionable insights to drive strategic decisions.
• Increased sales: Effective lead management and follow-up processes boost conversion rates and revenue.
• Consistent communication: Integrated communication tools ensure seamless and professional customer interactions.

3. Key features of a CRM you need for B2B SaaS

With a lot of CRMs in the market for you to consider, it can feel like you're shooting in the dark without knowing what kind of features you should expect from a good CRM. Below are a few features you should be aware of, and why.

• Automated processes: Streamlines tasks by automating repetitive workflows.
• Contact enrichment: Automatically finds Leads, Customers email addresses and contact information, enhancing efficiency.
• Structured pipeline: Tracks Leads, Customers through defined stages, ensuring process clarity and effectiveness.
• Email sequences: Increases communication efficiency with follow-up templates and automated sequences.
• LinkedIn connection: Seamlessly imports Leads, Customers from LinkedIn and tracks conversations within the CRM.
• Analytics: Provides essential data analysis and predictive insights for better planning.

How to evaluate and choose a CRM platform

There are a few things you need to keep in mind once you're ready to explore the CRMs out there. From being clear about your requirements to budget considerations – there's a lot to consider if you're keen to get it right the first time.

1. Define your requirements

Identifying the key features needed for your B2B SaaS business is crucial. Consider functionalities like lead management, sales automation, customer support, and integration capabilities with other tools you use. For B2B SaaS founders, it's essential to have a CRM that can handle complex sales cycles, track customer interactions, and provide robust analytics to measure performance.

2. Budget considerations

Balancing cost and return on investment (ROI) is vital when selecting a CRM for B2B SaaS. Look for a solution that offers a good mix of essential features and scalability without breaking the bank. Affordable CRM options can still provide significant value, especially if they help streamline operations and enhance customer relationships.

3. Shortlist process

Researching and choosing the right CRM vendor involves several steps. Start by reading reviews and case studies specific to B2B SaaS companies. Attend webinars to get a hands-on feel of the platform. Check if the vendor offers excellent customer support and has a track record of successful implementations in the B2B SaaS sector.

4. Book some demos

Before committing to a CRM, it's crucial to understand its features and how it can benefit your B2B SaaS company. Scheduling a demo allows you to see the CRM in action, ask specific questions, and evaluate whether it aligns with your business needs. A demo can provide valuable insights into the CRM's user interface, customization options, and integration capabilities. To get a demo of folk, you can contact their sales team here.

3 tips for implementing a CRM

To make your implementation as smooth as possible – don't forget to do these three things.

1. Import your data in your new CRM

Transitioning to a new CRM involves importing your existing data smoothly. Most CRMs allow data import through CSV files, ensuring you don't lose valuable information. This ensures consistency and helps in leveraging historical data for better decision-making.

2. Create a first pipeline

Setting up your first pipeline is a critical step in implementing your new CRM. For B2B SaaS companies, this involves creating stages that reflect your sales process, such as Lead Qualification, Product Demo, Proposal Sent, Negotiation, and Closed-Won. Clearly defined stages help in tracking progress and identifying bottlenecks, enabling your sales team to focus on high-priority tasks and move deals through the pipeline efficiently.

3. Onboard your team

Effective CRM implementation requires team buy-in and proper training. Organize onboarding sessions to familiarize your team with the CRM's features and best practices. Provide resources and continuous support to ensure they can leverage the CRM to its full potential. Engaged and well-trained team members are crucial for maximizing the benefits of your CRM investment, leading to improved productivity and better customer relationships.

The 5 best CRMs for B2B SaaS

1. folk

folk is a modern CRM platform for managing contacts, workflows, and relationships, offering customizable pipelines, AI-driven tools, and integrations to enhance deal management and prospecting.

Key features

• Contact enrichment: Automatically enriches contact details by finding emails and LinkedIn URLs, enabling efficient outreach without manual data entry or additional costs for email services.
• LinkedIn integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn, track conversations within folk, and use templates for quicker, streamlined communication.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• AI-powered features: AI tools assist in managing contacts and relationships, automating routine tasks, and suggesting actions to improve productivity.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Pros

• Ease of use: folk is praised for its intuitive interface, making it accessible even to non-technical users with quick onboarding and a minimal learning curve.
• All-in-one: folk streamlines your workflow by allowing you to import contacts from LinkedIn, automatically find their emails, reach out through customizable email sequences, and track interactions in a pipeline, eliminating the need for multiple tools and saving time and money.
• LinkedIn integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn, track conversations within folk, and use templates for quicker, streamlined communication.
• Customizability: Custom fields, pipelines, and workflows.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Cons

• Reporting: Currently lacks reporting features, but there are plans for future implementation.

Price and plans

You can try folk for free with a 14-day free trial. After that, a monthly or annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month
• Premium: $40 per user, per month
• Custom: Starts from $60 per user, per month

2. HubSpot

Hubspot CRM is a user-friendly, scalable platform offering integrated tools for managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations efficiently.

Key features

• Marketing Hub: Includes email marketing, ad tracking, landing pages, and lead generation tools, essential for capturing and nurturing leads in B2B SaaS.
• Sales Hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting, crucial for managing customer relationships and sales processes.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring to improve sales efficiency, helping your team focus on high-potential prospects.
• Operations Hub: Syncs and automates business processes across different systems, ensuring seamless integration and data flow.
• Service Hub: Offers customer service tools like ticketing, live chat, and knowledge bases, essential for maintaining high customer satisfaction and retention.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: HubSpot is known for its intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible for users of all skill levels.
• Seamless integration with marketing tools: HubSpot integrates smoothly with its marketing, sales, and service hubs, creating a unified platform for inbound marketing and customer management.
• Automation capabilities: Provides powerful automation tools for tasks like email marketing, lead nurturing, and sales workflows, helping businesses save time and improve efficiency.
• Customizable dashboard and reports: Allows users to create customized dashboards and reports to track metrics and gain insights into business performance.
• Scalability: The platform is highly scalable, offering different tiers that cater to growing businesses, from small startups to large enterprises.

Cons

• High cost at higher tiers: HubSpot’s pricing can become expensive as you move to higher tiers, which may be prohibitive for small businesses as they scale.
• Limited customization in free plan: The free plan and lower tiers have limited customization options, which can restrict flexibility for growing businesses.
• Complexity in advanced features: Some advanced features, such as custom reporting and workflows, have a steep learning curve and may require additional training.
• Email marketing limits: Email marketing functionality in the free plan is restricted by limits on the number of emails you can send, which can be a drawback for businesses with larger lists.
• Additional costs for add-ons: Many useful features, like advanced CRM capabilities and integrations, come as paid add-ons, increasing the overall cost.

Price and plans

Prices and plans on the CRM suite for an annual subscription are as follows.

• Starter: $15 per user, per month.
• Professional: $450 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $1,500 per user, per month.

3. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a CRM for small businesses, offering lead management, automation, email integration, and customizable pipelines to optimize sales.

Key features

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage customer data, interactions, and sales pipelines, helping teams act quickly on opportunities.
• Sales automation: Workflow automation to handle repetitive tasks, such as lead routing, follow-ups, and email sequences, allowing sales teams to focus on closing deals.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Real-time data analytics and custom reporting tools to track sales performance, forecast revenue, and gain actionable insights.
• Customization and security: Options to customize pipelines, fields, and user permissions, with robust security measures to protect data.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: The intuitive and visually appealing interface makes it easy for users to navigate and manage their sales pipelines.
• Sales pipeline focus: Designed specifically for managing sales pipelines, offering a visual approach that helps sales teams track deals and activities effectively.
• Customization: Allows for a high degree of customization, enabling users to tailor the platform to their specific sales processes with custom fields and workflows.
• Automation features: Includes automation tools that help streamline repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails and moving deals through the pipeline, saving time and boosting productivity.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Lacks some of the more advanced CRM features, such as extensive marketing automation and AI capabilities, which are available in other platforms.
• Basic reporting in lower tiers: The reporting and analytics features in the basic plans are somewhat limited, requiring upgrades to access more in-depth insights.
• No built-in email marketing: Does not include built-in email marketing features, requiring users to integrate with third-party email tools for such functionality.
• Price increases with add-ons: The cost can increase quickly when additional features or integrations are added, making it less cost-effective for businesses with growing needs.
• No free plan: Unlike some other CRM platforms, does not offer a free version, which may be a barrier for very small businesses or startups with limited budgets.

Price and plans

An annual subscription plan basis is as follows.

• Essential plan: Starts from $24 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $44 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $79 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

4. Salesforce

Salesforce is a robust CRM platform for large enterprises, offering tools for sales, marketing, service, and analytics, with extensive scalability.

Key features

• Comprehensive ecosystem: A unified platform offering CRM, marketing automation, and custom app development, ideal for managing leads and customers in B2B SaaS.
• Customization and scalability: Highly customizable and scalable, allowing B2B SaaS companies to tailor the platform to their specific workflows and growth needs.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration: Salesforce Einstein provides AI-driven insights and automation, helping B2B SaaS businesses optimize lead conversion and customer retention strategies.
• Extensive integration capabilities: Integrates with a wide range of third-party applications, ensuring seamless operation across different business systems crucial for B2B SaaS.
• Enterprise-grade security and compliance: Robust security measures and compliance features, essential for handling sensitive customer data in B2B SaaS environments.

Pros

• Comprehensive feature set: Covers sales, service, and marketing, making it a powerful tool for managing all aspects of customer relationships in B2B SaaS.
• Highly customizable: Allows businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs with custom fields, objects, and workflows, crucial for B2B SaaS.
• Extensive integration capabilities: Integrates with a vast array of third-party applications, enabling seamless data flow across platforms.
• Scalability: Suitable for businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises, with the ability to grow with your B2B SaaS business.
• Advanced analytics and reporting: Provides powerful analytics and reporting tools, allowing B2B SaaS businesses to gain deep insights and make informed decisions.

Cons

• High cost: Can be expensive, especially for small to medium-sized B2B SaaS businesses, with high licensing fees and additional costs for add-ons and customization.
• Steep learning curve: Extensive feature set and complexity often require significant time and training for users to become proficient.
• Complex setup and customization: Initial setup and customization can be challenging and often require expert help or certified consultants, adding to the overall cost.
• User interface: Some users find the interface to be outdated and not as intuitive as other modern CRM platforms, which can hinder usability.
• Overwhelming for small teams: Robust features may be overkill for smaller teams or businesses, leading to underutilization of the platform’s capabilities.

Price and plans

• Starter Suite: $25/user/month provides basic CRM features for small businesses
• Pro Suite: $100/user/month includes advanced tools for growing businesses
• Enterprise Plan: $165/user/month offers extensive customization and automation for large companies
• Unlimited Plan: $330/user/month provides comprehensive features for large enterprises
• Einstein 1 Sales: $500/user/month provides AI-driven insights and advanced features for large enterprises

5. Zoho

Zoho is a CRM system with a strong sales focus. Its got features such as journey orchestration, sales process management and workflow automation. There's also something for marketing teams, including lead hurting, event management and customer segmentation.

Key features

• Sales automation: Automates sales tasks like lead management, deal tracking, and follow-up actions.
• Customizable dashboards and reports: Allows users to create and customize dashboards and reports for in-depth analytics.
• Lead and contact management: Manages customer information, tracks interactions, and segments contacts for targeted campaigns.
• Workflow automation: Automates routine tasks and processes to improve efficiency and reduce manual effort.
• AI-Powered sales assistant (Zia): Provides predictive analytics, task automation, and intelligent suggestions to enhance sales performance.

Pros

• Affordability: Zoho CRM offers competitive pricing with various tiers, making it accessible to small and medium-sized businesses as well as larger enterprises.
• Customization: Extensive customization options allow businesses to tailor the CRM to their specific needs, including custom fields, modules, and workflows.
• Integration with Zoho suite: Seamless integration with other Zoho products (like Zoho Books, Zoho Projects, and Zoho Campaigns) creates a comprehensive ecosystem for managing different business functions.
• AI-powered features: Zia, the AI assistant, provides intelligent insights, predictive analytics, and task automation, helping to improve sales and marketing efficiency.
• Scalability: The platform is highly scalable, making it suitable for growing businesses. It can support small teams and large enterprises alike, with features that scale with business needs.

Cons

• Steep learning curve: The extensive customization options can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a significant time investment to master the platform.
• Complex setup: Initial setup and configuration can be complex, particularly for businesses without technical expertise or dedicated IT resources.
• Limited third-party integrations: While Zoho integrates well with its own suite of products, integration with third-party applications can be limited or require additional effort.
• Inconsistent customer support: Customer support quality can be inconsistent, with some users reporting slow response times or unhelpful assistance.
• Feature limitations in lower tiers: The lower-priced plans may lack advanced features, pushing users to upgrade to more expensive tiers for essential functionality.

Price and plans

Free plan limited to three users suitable for small businesses. After that, an annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month
• Professional: $35 per user, per month
• Enterprise: $50 per user, per month

Conclusion

Choosing the best CRM for your B2B SaaS company is a critical decision that can significantly impact your business's efficiency, customer relationships, and overall growth. Each CRM platform discussed—folk, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zoho—offers unique features and benefits tailored to different needs and budgets. As a founder, it's essential to evaluate these options based on your specific requirements, budget, and long-term business goals. By leveraging the right CRM, you can streamline your processes, enhance customer interactions, and drive better business outcomes. Start your journey towards a more organized and productive workflow by test-driving folk for free here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do Founder of a B2B SaaS company use as a CRM?

Founders of B2B SaaS companies often use CRMs like folk, Hubspot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce. These platforms offer robust features tailored to streamline sales processes, manage customer relationships, and enhance productivity. Each CRM has unique strengths, making them suitable for different business needs and stages of growth.

Do I need a CRM?

Yes, a CRM is essential if your B2B SaaS company has a complex sales process. It helps in organizing customer data, automating workflows, and providing valuable insights, which are crucial for managing relationships and driving growth effectively.

How much does a CRM cost?

The cost of a CRM can vary widely, typically ranging from $15 to $500 per user per month. The price depends on the features, scalability, and customization options offered by the CRM platform. It's important to evaluate your business needs and budget to choose the right plan.

Does folk’s CRM respond to B2B SaaS needs?

Yes, folk’s CRM is well-suited for B2B SaaS needs. It offers ease of use, seamless LinkedIn integration, and customizable workflows, which are crucial for managing complex sales processes. Additionally, its AI-powered features and extensive app integrations streamline operations, making it a comprehensive solution for B2B SaaS companies.