Best CRM for sales reps

The role of a sales representatives continues to evolve, demanding tools that not only streamline workflows but also enhance productivity and customer engagement. The need to build a strong personal brand to get the right customers engaging is stronger. With a lot to manage, a powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is essential for sales reps to track leads, manage pipelines, and close deals across multiple platforms effectively. However, not all CRMs are intuitive to use. But choosing the right one can make a significant difference in a sales rep's success. In this blog post, we will dive into the best CRMs for sales reps, exploring the best user-friendly platforms and unpack all their pros and cons.

Why you need a CRM

As a busy sales rep in a sales-driven startup, leveraging a CRM can transform your sales process and drive growth. From becoming a more collaborative team, to staying on top of your deals across multiple projects, there's a lot of benefits to look forward to.

Challenges without a CRM

Below are some common challenges faced by a sales rep when managing sales without a CRM.

• Disorganization: Sales data scattered across spreadsheets and emails.
• Missed opportunities: Leads fall through the cracks due to lack of follow-up.
• Inefficient processes: Time-consuming manual data entry and tracking.
• Lack of insight: Inability to analyze sales performance and trends.
• Inconsistent communication: Miscommunication between sales reps and clients.

Benefits of a CRM

On the other side of the coin, a CRM can help improve your business performance. Below are some ways it can help you achieve better outcomes.

• Centralized information: All customer data in one place for easy access.
• Enhanced efficiency: Automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows.
• Improved customer relationships: Track interactions and personalize communication.
• Better decision-making: Real-time analytics and reporting for strategic insights.
• Increased sales: Identify and act on high-potential leads promptly.
• Consistent communication: Ensure uniform messaging and follow-ups with clients.
  

Key features of a CRM for sales reps

Knowing what features can help you automate your process can be a game-changer when it's finally time for you to invest in a CRM. Below are some key features you should look for that will help your sales reps.

• Automated processes: Streamlines tasks by automating repetitive workflows, freeing up your sales reps to focus on what they do best—selling.
• Contact enrichment: Automatically finds leads and customer email addresses and contact information, enhancing efficiency and ensuring your database is always up-to-date.
• Structured pipeline: Tracks leads and customers through defined stages, ensuring process clarity and effectiveness, and helping your team stay organized.
• Email sequences: Increases communication efficiency with follow-up templates and automated sequences, ensuring timely and consistent outreach.
• LinkedIn connection: Seamlessly imports leads and customers from LinkedIn and tracks conversations within the CRM, making it easier to manage social selling efforts.
• Reporting & forecasting: Provides essential data analysis and predictive insights for better planning, helping you make informed decisions and set realistic targets.

Investing in a CRM that offers these features can significantly boost your sales team's productivity and efficiency. As you explore your options, keep in mind the specific pain points you face.

How to evaluate and choose a CRM platform

1. Define your requirements

Identify the key features needed for your business: Before diving into the search for the best CRM for sales reps, start by listing out the specific needs of your sales team. Do you require robust sales pipeline management, seamless integration with existing tools, or advanced sales forecasting capabilities? Understanding these requirements will help you narrow down your options and choose a CRM that directly addresses your team's pain points.

2. Budget considerations

While high-end CRMs come with a lot of features, they might also come with hefty price tags. Look for a solution that fits within your budget while providing essential features that can enhance sales productivity and drive revenue growth.

3. Shortlist process

Start by researching the top CRM vendors that cater specifically to sales teams. Read reviews, compare features, and check out user testimonials. Consider reaching out to vendors for a demo or a trial period to get a firsthand experience of the platform. Additionally, evaluate the vendor's customer support and training resources, as these can be critical for smooth onboarding and ongoing usage.

4. Build a business case

Once you have shortlisted a few CRM platforms, take advantage of free trials or demo versions to test their usability and effectiveness. Involve your team in the evaluation process to gather their feedback on the user interface, ease of use, and feature set. Compare the performance of each CRM against your defined requirements and budget considerations to make an informed decision that will empower everyone to achieve their targets.

3 tips for implementing a CRM

1. Import your data in your new CRM

Transitioning to a new CRM is smoother when you can easily import your existing data. This ensures that all your customer information, sales history, and pipeline stages are seamlessly transferred to your new CRM.

2. Create a first pipeline

Once your data is imported, it's time to set up your first sales pipeline. Tailor the pipeline stages to match your sales process, from initial contact to closing the deal. This customization helps your sales reps track their progress and stay organized, ensuring no opportunity slips through the cracks.

3. Onboard your team

Effective onboarding is key to maximizing the benefits of your new CRM. Schedule training sessions to familiarize your sales reps with the system's features and functionalities. Encourage them to explore and utilize the CRM regularly, which will enhance their productivity and streamline your sales operations.

The 5 best CRMs for sales reps

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 leads and customers, 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.some text

• 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.
• Sales Hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting.
• Service Hub: Offers customer service tools like ticketing, live chat, and knowledge bases.
• Operations Hub: Syncs and automates business processes across different systems.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring to improve sales efficiency.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: HubSpot is known for its intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible for sales reps of all skill levels.
• Comprehensive free plan: Offers a robust free version that includes essential CRM features, making it ideal for small sales teams and startups.
• Seamless integration with marketing tools: HubSpot integrates smoothly with its marketing, sales, and service hubs, creating a unified platform for managing leads and customers.
• Automation capabilities: Provides powerful automation tools for tasks like email marketing, lead nurturing, and sales workflows, helping sales reps save time and improve efficiency.
• Extensive learning resources: HubSpot Academy offers a wealth of free courses, certifications, and resources to help sales reps get the most out of the platform.

Cons

• High cost at higher tiers: HubSpot’s pricing can become expensive as you move to higher tiers, which may be prohibitive for small sales-driven startups as they scale.
• Limited customization in free plan: The free plan and lower tiers have limited customization options, which can restrict flexibility for growing sales teams.
• Complexity in advanced features: Some advanced features, such as custom reporting and workflows, have a steep learning curve and may require additional training for sales reps.
• 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 sales teams with larger lists.
• Limited reporting capabilities in lower tiers: Detailed reporting and analytics features are often locked behind higher-priced plans, limiting insights for sales reps on lower tiers.
  

Price and plans

Price 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 sales focused CRM for small businesses, offering lead management, automation, email integration, and customizable pipelines to optimize sales.

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Key features

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage leads and customers, 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: Known for its intuitive and visually appealing interface, making it easy for sales reps to navigate and manage their sales pipelines.
• Sales pipeline focus: Specifically designed 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.
• Affordability: Offers competitive pricing, making it accessible to small and medium-sized businesses without sacrificing essential CRM features.
• 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.
• Limited customer support hours: Customer support is not available 24/7, which can be inconvenient for businesses operating in different time zones or needing immediate assistance.
• 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.
  

Price and plans

An annual subscription plan basis is as follows.

• Essential plan: Starts from $14 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $29 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $64 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $99 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.

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Key features

• Comprehensive ecosystem: A unified platform offering CRM, marketing automation, customer service, and custom app development, suitable for the varied needs of large enterprises.
• Customization and scalability: Salesforce is highly customizable and scalable, allowing large organizations to tailor the platform to complex workflows and manage significant growth.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) integration: Salesforce Einstein offers AI-driven analytics and automation, providing insights that help large businesses optimize their strategies.
• Extensive integration capabilities: With Salesforce's AppExchange, large companies can integrate the platform with a wide range of third-party applications, ensuring seamless operation across different business systems.
• Enterprise-grade security and compliance: Salesforce provides robust security measures and compliance features, critical for large organizations handling sensitive customer data.

Pros

• Comprehensive feature set: Salesforce offers an extensive range of features covering sales, service, marketing, and more, making it a powerful tool for managing all aspects of customer relationships.
• Highly customizable: Salesforce is highly customizable, allowing businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs with custom fields, objects, and workflows.
• Extensive integration capabilities: Salesforce integrates with a vast array of third-party applications, as well as its own ecosystem of tools, enabling seamless data flow across platforms.
• Scalability: Salesforce is highly scalable, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises, with the ability to grow with your business.
• Advanced analytics and reporting: Salesforce provides powerful analytics and reporting tools, allowing businesses to gain deep insights into their data and make informed decisions.

Cons

• High cost: Salesforce can be expensive, especially for small to medium-sized businesses, with high licensing fees and additional costs for add-ons and customization.
• Steep learning curve: Due to its extensive feature set and complexity, Salesforce often requires 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, which adds to the overall cost.
• User onterface: Some users find the Salesforce interface to be outdated and not as intuitive as other modern CRM platforms, which can hinder usability.
• Overwhelming for small teams: Salesforce’s 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

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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.
• Lead and Contact Management: Manages customer information, tracks interactions, and segments contacts for targeted campaigns.
• Multi-Channel Communication: Integrates with email, phone, social media, and live chat to manage customer interactions.
• Sales Pipeline Management: Visualizes and manages sales pipelines with drag-and-drop functionality.
• 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.
• Multi-Channel Communication: Zoho CRM supports email, phone, social media, and live chat, enabling businesses to manage all customer interactions from a single platform.
• AI-Powered Features: Zia, the AI assistant, provides intelligent insights, predictive analytics, and task automation, helping to improve sales and marketing efficiency.

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.
• User Interface: Some users find the interface to be outdated or cluttered compared to other modern CRM platforms, which can affect usability.
• Performance Issues: Occasional reports of slow performance, especially with large datasets or complex operations, can hinder productivity.
• 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.

Price and plans

There's a free plan limited to 3 users. After that, an annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $14 per user, per month.
• Professional: $23 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $40 per user, per month.

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Conclusion

Choosing the best CRM for sales reps in 2024 can significantly impact your startup's growth and efficiency. As we've explored, each CRM platform—folk, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zoho—offers unique features and benefits tailored to different business needs and budgets. By aligning a CRM's capabilities with your specific sales processes and goals, you can enhance your team's productivity, streamline workflows, and ultimately drive more sales. Take the next step toward optimizing your sales strategy by exploring these CRM options and finding the perfect fit for your team. Try folk for free here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a sales-driven startup use as a CRM?

Sales-driven startups often rely on CRMs like folk, Hubspot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce to streamline their sales processes, manage leads, and enhance productivity.

Do I need a CRM?

Yes, depending on the complexity of your sales process. A CRM can help organize your data, automate tasks, and provide valuable insights, making it essential for efficient sales management.

How much does a CRM cost?

CRM costs can vary widely, typically ranging from $15 to $500 per user per month, depending on the features and scalability required by your business.

Does folk’s CRM support a sales reps needs?

Yes, folk’s CRM is designed to meet sales reps' needs with its intuitive interface, LinkedIn integration, email sync, customizable pipelines, and AI-powered features, making it an all-in-one solution for managing contacts and workflows efficiently.