Business means customers, and customers mean data. Today, a manager who wants to manage their company and improve their sales team’s performance can no longer ignore CRM. The need for robust customer management software is not up for debate; however, figuring out which CRM is best suited to your company’s needs can be more complicated.
In this article, we’ve gathered four prominent CRMs (in our opinion) currently available on the market. The objective? To give you a brief overview of each tool so that you have the right information on hand when you make your decision.
SalesForce: The Heavyweight
While the CRM landscape has expanded in recent years, Salesforce is still one of the heavyweights in the industry. With several advanced features, it remains a very attractive SaaS solution for large companies or businesses with specific challenges. In addition, it has a simple interface and its operation is fairly intuitive. In terms of budget, the entry point is $25 per user per month. That said, the features in this version are very limited, and you’ll quickly need to move up to the higher tiers, starting at $75 and going up to $300 per user per month, in order to really take full advantage of the software.
Also note that the variety of features offered by Salesforce is rarely relevant for small and medium-sized businesses. They generate additional costs that are often unnecessary, given the number of modules that may not even be used, even though the base rates are already relatively high.
Microsoft Dynamics: For Specialists
This CRM offered by Microsoft is part of Office 365, and its connectivity to other Microsoft programs, like Excel, for example, can be quite useful. Regularly updated, Microsoft Dynamics provides a very good user experience and a wide range of features. However, this variety comes at a cost, since Microsoft's starting price for the "Sales" module alone is $65 per month per user. Any other available modules (marketing, customer service, etc.) are considered add-ons and are billed separately.
It should also be noted that the tool is rather hard to learn and can take weeks - even months - to master. Combined with prices that are higher than average compared to competitors, this solution is better suited to large organizations with in-house specialists.
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Zoho CRM: For Limited Budgets
Zoho CRM is very easy to access and is designed to be usable by as many people as possible. While the standard plan at $18 per month per user quickly shows its limits, the $45 per month plan offers many more options and will generally meet the needs of a small or medium-sized business. With its aggressive pricing, Zoho CRM is aimed at smaller companies or managers who do not want to invest large amounts of money in a CRM.
Zoho’s integration with other tools is quite tricky, however, and the customer service is not well regarded by customers. The interface, although outdated in terms of design, remains quite functional.
Odoo: The Challenger
Unlike the other solutions discussed above, Odoo is first and foremost an ERP and an open-source software that offers a free plan. However, it has a full-fledged CRM module that offers more or less advanced features according to the needs of each company. Other ERP applications within the Odoo ERP (starting at as low as $8.50 per module) can be added (marketing, e-commerce or sales) to complete the basic CRM.
This "à la carte" approach ensures that each company will only pay for the features it actually needs and uses. Finally, Odoo can be hosted in the cloud or directly on the company's servers, which adds greatly to its usability.
Do you need to choose between Cloud ERP and SaaS ERP? Read our article to help you decide.
Captivea Odoo Gold Partner
We have extensive experience working with business management software such as CRM, and being an Odoo Gold Partner makes us a top choice for your next integration project.