In today’s fast paced, competitive world, Customer Relationship Management is key. This process begins right from when you identify a lead and continues. But keeping track of all your leads / clients and the hard work you’ve put into nurturing them takes time and very rarely makes it to the top of anyone’s to do list! What if there was a way to make the process of cataloguing your leads + clients and monitoring all the activities much easier and time efficient? Let me introduce you to a very good friend of mine - Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. CRMs make life a lot easier for sales professionals and anyone who is working on growing a business! Globally, 91% of businesses with over 11 or more employees use a CRM. But less than 50% of businesses with under 10 employees invest in this tool. 45% of businesses that use CRMS say their use of CRM software increased sales revenue and customer retention rate. In fact, according to Zippia, the average ROI for CRM spending is $8.71 for every dollar spent. The best part, according to Thrive My Way, when a company implements CRM, it's used by sales teams (80%), marketing (46%), and by customer service departments (45%). As a result, breaking down silos, streamlining workflows and introducing efficiency across the business. While thousands of CRMs are available (quite literally!), we’ve carefully chosen a handful of cloud-based CRMs that we use across our client base, oftentimes helping clients transition from old age spreadsheets to modern, productivity boosting software. But one size doesn’t fit all and CRMs have varying capabilities which are weighed up for the specific business. Here’s 4 of the most common CRMs we recommend and use with clients: Hubspot Hubspot has been a long-time favourite of small and medium business, thanks to its free stripped-down version. Hubspot can begin to get costly as you hit maximum contact thresholds, but if you are using the CRM in its entirety, Hubspot proves to be an effective investment as the system provides great sales and marketing features. With calling integration and an easy to use interface, we also love that the marketing side of Hubspot has AI powered tools – Content Assistant and Chatspot.ai . Zoho & Bigin by Zoho Another CRM gaining traction quite rapidly is Zoho (for Enterprise level) and Bigin by Zoho (for Small Business). While the Enterprise level CRM, Zoho, doesn’t provide any free versions, if you are a small business, you’re in luck, as Bigin by Zoho has a free version for upto 500 contacts. An onboarding service is included for all customers and when the time comes, upgrading is pretty cost effective and seamless. Zoho also provides you with your own AI sales assistant, Zia, powered by ChatGPT. If you’re in the ANZ region and keen to learn more about Zoho or Bigin, reach out to Onion CRM . ActiveCampaign If you’re looking to combine e-mail marketing and sales activities in one CRM, ActiveCampaign is one of the easiest CRMs to use. While it has all the standard features that a sales team will need, it also has excellent tools and enablers for marketing. The Beta version of their AI tool was launched in May and is being constantly improved. Our friends at Conversologie can tell you more about ActiveCampaign. Salesforce Salesforce is the CRM I like most, but it is definitely better suited for large and enterprise level businesses, especially if your sales teams are located in multiple countries working on the same accounts and marketing teams located across the world working on global, national & local campaigns. In 2023, 150 000 companies use Salesforce at a global scale. Most Salesforce customers (62%) come from the United States. Salesforce is highly powered by AI, with Salesforce Einstein and AI Cloud taking the lead. Sales Dialler is a great call integration feature that this CRM has. Salesforce also has a fantastic version of the CRM available for Not For Profits. If you’re actively growing your business and don’t use a CRM yet, take this as the sign to convert. Our team at Ri-Think is well versed in the CRMs listed above and will be happy to help select one that’s appropriate for your business needs. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to have a chat.