Running a successful business can be like having an enormous fan base that you need to manage effectively. Paper can only go so far; so, to stay on top of all these clients you need a Customer Relationship Management solution to assist in staying organized.

Assume simplicity when selecting the ideal CRM for start-ups. There are now numerous CRMs with intuitive user interfaces and quick access to information. Your entire team will use it more productively if its design allows quick navigation of data.

Sales automation, forecasting and campaign management should all be featured in an effective CRM for start-ups. Customizable features allow for CRM development services to meet specific business requirements. This is particularly advantageous when working in unfamiliar territory as you'll have the flexibility to adjust contact and opportunity fields as well as other components quickly.

CRM software was designed to assist businesses in effectively managing customers and potential customers while simultaneously focusing on other strategic aspects of running a business. Here, we explore some top CRM examples for your consideration.

CRM Examples for Your Business in 2024

Here is the list of Customer Relationship Management examples:

#1: Zoho CRM Plus

Zoho CRM Plus provides small businesses with an all-in-one solution, offering sales, marketing, help desk, social, projects and other channels in one platform. In addition, they offer inexpensive add-on suites such as Finance, Custom CRM Apps and Forms for seamless integration.

Zoho CRM already allows for considerable personalization, but with Canvas, you can take it a step further by customizing its appearance to create your ideal user interface (UI). Access it from Setup, choose which module (e.g. contacts) you wish to redesign and start customizing from either scratch or selecting an existing template. Then, drag-and-drop data fields, elements and styles onto a WYSIWYG editor page to bring life and style!

Select which team will have access to the new design. You can create individual module designs or clone them so they all look similar, or customize the main menu by renaming, reordering and choosing which modules will be visible.

Your employees will love having a fuller view of every contact. Each record contains all activities and touchpoints associated with that individual - site visits, sales calls, social interactions, help cases, emails, meetings, campaigns, etc. This will provide a fuller picture when making decisions by your employees.

The leads module (vs. contacts) allows reps to focus on qualifying those they meet at trade shows, campaigns and similar sources. When viewing leads using SalesIQ's leads view, reps get a large image of each person followed by contact details they can click on (phone or email) to start conversations immediately. On the left is also a column of filters, so it's easy to narrow down who you want to target. Once your list is created, you can then click any desired ones and send emails, create tasks, or add to campaigns.

Campaigns provide everything you need to create marketing automation campaigns with email, social media, text, and an integrated eCommerce store. In addition, you can manage lead scoring, contact lists, segments, and manage lead scoring from here. Once you experiment with various campaign steps, it becomes fairly straightforward to achieve what you desire - although not as sophisticated automation, this may suffice for most small businesses.

Zoho CRM stands out among CRMs by having one of the most extensive reporting features. A multitude of pre-made reports (Sales, Desk and Projects) can be configured to display different views such as charts, tables or tabular formats - all customizable by you! For added interactivity, there is also the comments section where conversations about any report may ensue. Campaigns and social have their own reports section. At the same time, motivators can gamify sales with contests for KPIs like leads converted, deals won, and emails sent!

#2: Salesforce Sales Cloud

Companies looking for maximum customization options in their CRM application development should seriously consider Salesforce Sales Cloud. Between its customizable features & access to both the internal ecosystem and AppExchange resources, it can create almost limitless possibilities for tailor-made solutions.

You can create custom process management automation using the Flow Builder. Go into Settings, click on "Flows," and choose your type of flow. For instance, record-triggered flow before designing what happens after one record (like contacts) is created. Using visual builder conditions, all contacts created during certain dates are sent follow-up emails automatically.

Salesforce allows you to control who has access to view and edit fields at a page level, giving you greater control over who can see or edit fields that don't fall under their roles. For security and integrity purposes, restricting employees may help avoid editing fields that don't pertain to them directly. It also prevents employees who may need more specific knowledge from making edits that violate internal policy.

Field-level help texts provide additional clarity into each field's meaning. For example, with respect to discount fields, an explanation could state: This maximum discount limit allowed is for this account type, and manager approval will be needed for anything above that figure. These instructions serve as helpful reminders, particularly for newer employees.

To edit a page such as contacts, click on the Setup wheel in the top-right corner and then Edit object. From there, you can customize all aspects of the page, such as fields and layout. Use Analyze in the top-right corner to see your page loading speed & gain tips to increase performance further.

Or, if you want to visualize how all of your objects (contacts, leads and opportunities) fit together visually, Schema Builder provides a visual data flow. A moveable screen layout shows all related objects with lines running between them. You can even add new ones and custom fields as needed!

The AppExchange offers thousands of paid and free third-party integration options from numerous third-party developers, spanning both professional and enterprise software editions as well as categories, prices, ratings and languages. Search options allow for easy scouting for available apps based on edition type (professional/enterprise, etc), price/rating combination or language support.

One key consideration when integrating any app with Salesforce editions is compatibility. Integration with the D&B Hoovers Prospecting App requires enterprise or above, while ZoomInfo requires a Professional edition at minimum.

Salesforce allows you to collect any customer data point and then generate reports for it. There are pre-built reports for deals, activities, top accounts, win ratios and conversion rates to help measure anything that matters. Reps not updating their deals is a constant source of frustration among sales managers. With the Login Wall of Shame, you will know which reps have yet to bother logging in, much less making updates!

#3: HubSpot

HubSpot is now more capable than ever with sales add-ons, integrations and optional Hubs that enhance service, marketing and other functions. Furthermore, their pricing model was recently modified, making HubSpot an economical way to get started. All these reasons make HubSpot the go-to CRM when scaling a business.

HubSpot CRM's look and feel have mostly stayed the same since its debut a decade ago. The menu runs vertically along the top with lots of dropdown menus and an easy search box (filterable by object). Contact records display everything at a glance: contact info on the left, activities in the middle, deals, invoices, and payments on the right - including deals, quotes, tickets & invoices you may need quickly across your screen with just one click. Add them instantly via one-click deals, quotes, tickets & invoices or add deals by making one more click to send emails, call, and log meetings, among many other things!

HubSpot CRM is free for unlimited users and one million contacts for more advanced sales features. However, the Sales Hub add-on (starting at $45/month for two users) must be purchased. These tools will help you sell more efficiently while tracking all interactions between contacts.

For example, an email signature includes a calendar link linked to the Outlook calendar that allows contacts to schedule calls easily without sending back-and-forth emails. After scheduling, track email opens and site visits, record calls and view page views while sending sales deck. Target Accounts is an account-based marketing (ABM) tool that helps identify your ideal customers while showing details like open deals, last touch dates and filter options.

HubSpot began as a marketing platform and continues to excel in this regard. Your website can act as a lead generator with content offers, run advertising campaigns, nurture contacts via multichannel automation and more. When building campaigns, you have the option of choosing from pre-built campaigns or building your own from scratch.

HubSpot allows you to quickly enrol contacts, companies, and other elements, filtering down by properties until you find the exact profile you're searching for. Once enrolled, select actions such as emailing, texting, calling or adding the contact to an ads audience list.

HubSpot will appeal to growth businesses due to its extensive app marketplace, featuring more than 1000 third-party apps available for integration. Filtering makes it simple to locate suitable apps that align with your plan before seamlessly adding them to your HubSpot account.

#4: Pipedrive

Pipedrive CRM software offers easy sales CRM functionality with few distractions or marketing features to distract salespeople from selling. While its main goal is sales enablement, you will find few marketing or service features here that may get in the way.

Pipedrive's interface is straightforward, with menu items organized on the left-hand side and an easily searchable search box at the top. Each page also offers an expandable menu for quickly adding deals, activities, leads, etc. One menu item serves as your mailbox. Once connected with an email provider, you can email from within either contact records or directly through Pipedrive itself. Tracking opens and history with ease.

Your Outlook or Google Calendars can also be synced, meeting availability managed within the app, and links created for sending to contacts. In addition, smart Contact Data pulls together known social and work data about them instantly!

To use the app to call, you will first need to purchase blocks of call credits (you have five free hours each month), which go toward paying your by-the-minute charges accumulated each month. Calls can be placed from People lists as well as individual records. Once complete, click "Outcome from list" before moving on. All activities regarding calls, including recording, will be noted on a contact's timeline and can also be recorded.

Pipedrive offers two sales-related add-ons: LeadBooster and Web Visitors. LeadBooster enables live chat, chatbot, forms, prospecting capabilities and prospector data that allows reps to connect with potential customers easily. Prospector allows reps to search companies and contacts by size, industry, keyword or any other attribute pertinent to their target buyers.

Web Visitors is a real-time data tracking solution, using tracker code pasted into your website's code to provide real-time data on which companies visit and the pages they browse. Additionally, it will identify any visitors already present in your system. In addition, Sales Assistant uses AI technology to make suggestions on what should be prioritized throughout your day. At the same time, automation includes pre-made templates for sales tasks like follow-up emails and tasks.

Automation may include activities being created automatically when a deal advances to a new stage, sending Slack messages to sales managers or scheduling calls. Pipedrive recently updated its Automation feature that acts as marketing automation software, allowing for triggers and events triggered by actions such as clicking links in emails.

Reports include forecasting, deal duration, conversion, won and average value, while goals focus on activities and revenue each week. Customizable reporting allows you to add conditions from each data field so you can create as detailed a report as you'd like. There are even standard and customizable dashboards for monitoring all this! Pipedrive's marketplace boasts about 300 third-party native integrations such as Zoom, Slack, Trello & QuickBooks available as third-party native connections.

#5: Nimble

Nimble helps prospecting sales teams stay organized and efficient by offering its Prospector engine, contact action lists and social tracking feature. While at the same time, its playful interface makes using it enjoyable!

Nimble provides lots of guidance when you first sign up, making it hard to avoid getting underway and finding success with its features quickly. The dashboard offers an excellent high-level overview of key daily reports such as deals, tasks, activities, email tracking and social engagement called Signals. Its menu offers this same set of items when ready.

Though Nimble recently introduced several reports, reporting still needs to improve. These reports cover forecasted deals and revenue, won/lost deals, progress on funnel conversion, opportunities by stage, and funnel conversion statistics. Furthermore, custom reports could track specific activities or business types of collected data.

The contact screen's menu presents action-oriented lists in various stages of contact: recently viewed, added, and contacted; marked important; and stay in touch. These provide a quick way of seeing who needs contacting or taking action throughout your day.

If your sales manager just collected contacts from yesterday's webinar, visit the Recently Added tab and use that list to segment into more targeted lists. Lists based on title, city, keywords, influence groups or any other attribute help to identify those most closely fitting your buyer personas.

Nimble will suggest possible LinkedIn and Twitter accounts for each contact you add, asking you to choose from multiple options if there are multiple choices. It then gathers all related data about them - such as their work experience. All of this is then presented in an easily navigable summary, giving a thorough view of your contact's bio, work experience and areas of influence. Furthermore, it includes general interests, which could come in handy when trying to break the ice with someone new.

Their social feeds will be integrated directly into their record, enabling you to monitor and interact without ever leaving the screen. To view all your activities on Twitter and Facebook streams for yourself and contacts alike, including comments, mentions, likes, pending posts you've scheduled, etc. Additionally, newly added lead fields include rating (1-5 score), source, status and type, which allow you to filter when creating contact lists.

Once clicked, the Prospector extension provides details about companies and contacts in a sidebar when browsing websites. You'll see contact details as well as insights (size, year founded, industries and keywords) about both the Twitter and Facebook profiles of companies you visit. With just a single click, you can add new companies. Also, any current contacts linked with software development company may be displayed within their record, as will all social activities associated with that record.

Nimble's latest feature addition, Workflows, are automations that allow you to send messages, schedule activities, log notes and complete other functions automatically.

#6: Nutshell

Nutshell CRM is designed specifically to facilitate sales managers and their reps' productivity. It offers features such as highly tailored customizations to address how and to whom you sell, team/territory management options and reporting capabilities to analyze any data point.

As a manager, you have complete control of the many notifications (e.g., new leads, watched leads, activities, tasks and mentions) so that you stay apprised of your team's work. Customized pipelines enable you to set confidence percentages, days overdue in deal stages and automatic closings of overdue deals automatically. Other company-specific features, such as fields for competitors, industries and markets, provide added assistance.

Territories allow your team to organize leads geographically. Territories may include area codes, cities, states and postal codes. Lead distribution also works well within industries, markets and sources.

Nutshell makes adding contacts easy: when adding them, it will look for their LinkedIn profile and link to it and other social accounts. Additionally, it will automatically pull in information such as employer details and job profiles for you - with plans providing unlimited contacts and storage capabilities!

If your business offers multiple lines (products, services or resellers), creating different sales pipelines for each line can help streamline sales processes and keep deals organized and on track with sales representatives. Automatically assigning leads based on territory or market can keep deals moving efficiently as deals get assigned directly. At each stage of a pipeline's lifecycle, you can set tasks as part of its sales process while automating emails as part of follow-up processes.

Stock reporting includes sales value, average value, losses and new leads, among others. Each can be easily pulled back by territory, assignee or source. There are also forecasting capabilities available with pipeline sales forecasting, quota sales projection and projected sales pipeline forecasting available as pre-built reports. For data that doesn't fit these templates, there are custom reports that provide nearly limitless combinations of filters gathered from fields completed by your team.

Nutshell's marketing platform makes it easy to design and send drip email campaigns targeted at specific audiences. Set an event trigger (e.g. leads lost), create an email, add goals (e.g. a link in email clicked) and set a time delay between email delivery. All campaign emails tracked through engagement are tracked for opens, clicks and bounces, as well as tracking website visits, which are then tied back into each contact record for further tracking and display purposes.

#7: Close

Inside sales teams spend much of their time sorting through contacts, making phone calls, and sending email follow-ups. To maximize productivity, Close offers intuitive CRM services that makes communication straightforward while making choosing who to reach out to as simple as clicking a button.

Close plans feature built-in phones with free monthly calling credits, texting capabilities, and email-sending capabilities available through their web app. All plans except Starter offer unlimited contacts and custom fields for easy management. Phone plans are through Twilio. However, Setup and billing are done through Close to keep things straightforward.

Rent phone numbers ($1.15/month/number), then pay outbound/inbound call rates of 0.014/min and $0.0085/min for outgoing/incoming calls, respectively or port an existing number into an existing plan. SMS messaging rates start from just $0.01 for both outgoing and incoming messages. You could even add an existing mobile number as an outgoing calling option!

Power Dialer allows for rapid lead calling by automatically going through Smart View lists and calling through them automatically. As each call begins, contact records are opened automatically just in case someone picks up. If there's no answer or when the conversation ends abruptly, it alerts you of another pending call starting up immediately. However, if you are making notes in their record, the dialer pauses as needed so you can catch up with note-taking!

Additional phone features include call recording, coaching calls and pre-recorded voicemail messages. Texting (separate rates apply) and emailing are just as effortless from within the record, with real-time tracking of communications and a timeline recording all communication in real-time. An inbox displays all incoming calls, texts, emails and tasks that you receive, which allows for quick responses based on done and future activities.

Close stands out by treating leads as companies instead of contacts, which means creating leads (companies) and associating contacts (people) within one step. To do this, click the + sign next to Leads in the menu, add company and contact names and click Create Lead Record - where you'll have more room to enter contact and company information.

Smart Views provides sales reps with lists that indicate who and when to follow up, including leads to call, leads never called, and those not communicating for over 30 days. According to Close, these lists exist so sales representatives do not have to waste time thinking:

Should I call this person?
What should I say?

Setting parameters for lists includes setting statuses (e.g., in a trial) as well as times and filters that only show relevant leads.

#8: NetHunt

NetHunt CRM was specifically created for Gmail users, making it the ideal CRM solution. You can manage contacts, deals, tasks, reports and email campaigns all from within Gmail - perfect for users who prefer not switching between separate applications for managing these things!

Signing up will grant you access to web CRM application development; for inbox mode, download the Gmail extension. With just a few clicks, your company's blue icon appears at the top-left of your Gmail inbox. Use this to manage settings, import data or integrate with other businesses.

From your settings, choose where NetHunt features will appear in navigation--either before or after your inbox. Here, you'll find a customizable dashboard displaying activities, tasks, deal progress and other functions. Additionally, a deals list, Kanban pipelines, contacts, companies, tasks, campaigns, and reports are displayed below this dashboard.

To create a contact record, click on the blue icon next to your email's name, click on the name that pops up, and that's it! For additional details, tasks, comments or deals creation, click again on their name to open their record. To add custom fields or folders, click on their settings wheel. Pipelines are also customizable, with stages, names, probabilities, and details appearing for each card. NetHunt also offers customizable web forms/pop-ups that capture leads automatically into nurturing campaigns that you design.

Workflows enable you to automate tasks such as creating tasks, making calls or sending Slack messages. Add an initial trigger before setting your action - for instance, sending emails out automatically after contacts fill out web forms. Set conditions like sending another follow-up email in three days if the contact clicks a specific link within an email or assigning a task for reps to call that contact.

NetHunt's LinkedIn prospecting extension makes creating contacts easy. Click to add contacts with details such as social, email, phone number, company and position details enriched in one step while browsing profiles. Companies can be added the same way.

Prospecting, each profile will display whether they're already part of your CRM contact list (blue icon) or not (white icon), with additional contact record details like emails and tasks displayed in a sidebar on each LinkedIn profile.

Conclusion

CRM helps make distributed and remote work more productive while helping you organize, expand, and streamline daily operations.

No matter what business your start-up is in, CRM tools designed for start-ups can provide essential features like contact management, lead management, sales pipeline management and marketing automation. These features can make daily work more manageable. Comparing tools available may take some time, but with our list, starting your research should be easy!

Closeloop is a software development company with clients from diverse industries. We have provided strategic digital transformation services to address our client's digital issues. Our dedicated developers boast extensive experience in web, software and mobile app development - reach out today and learn more!