If you’re in the business of selling to other businesses, you need to get a B2B CRM to make your life easier.
Running a business isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. A strong CRM system will make your business more efficient and successful. Through streamlining your customer data, to helping you run marketing campaigns, track key business metrics like lead generation and of course, keeping your customer relationships front-row-and-centre.
Of course, there are many effective CRM software options out there and some are suited for different types and sizes of businesses.
This article will cover what we at Soone Agency believe to be the 8 best B2B CRMs on the market in 2022.
Let’s get started!
So what actually is a B2B CRM?
Well, for starters, B2B CRM stands for Business to Business Customer Relationship Management. Essentially, it is a set of systems, strategies, technologies, and processes that help manage a B2B company's relationships with potential and existing customers. A B2B CRM helps to better understand B2B companies' customers’ needs.
Bit of a mouthful right?
Don’t stress, in their simplest form, CRMs are among the best marketing tools a company can use to further grow their business. Think of them as a sort of…customer success software.
It’s important to remember that although CRMs help market a business, they’re only a part of marketing, not the extent of it. Things like SEO, paid ads and branding still play a big part in any business’s marketing strategy.
Our picks for the top 8 B2B CRMs are:
HubSpot is one of the most recognised CRMs in existence. Next to the likes of Salesforce CRM, it’s one of the most used CRMs in the industry. Hubspot CRM features dozens of awesome tools—from accurate sales forecasting to CRM data that help you track team performance, sales lead and customer communications—there’s a reason this is one of the best B2B CRM tools in the game. Even in HubSpot's free plan, you’ve got features like a visual pipeline, shared inbox, automated task assignment, live chat, native reporting dashboards, and more. In premium options, you’re getting that and much more, including custom reporting, email sequencing, conversation routing, and more complex CRM systems that really help you to start firing on multiple pipelines.
Pricing: The following prices are based on annual fees for HubSpot CRM, but monthly plans are available
Free: Unlimited user allocation
Starter Sales Plan: $45 per month for two paid users
Professional Sales Plan: $450 per month for five paid users
Enterprise Sales Plan: $1,200 per month for 10 paid users
Free Trial Available? Yes, 14 days.
Salesforce is the world's leading CRM company. It’s a behemoth in the industry that offers advanced sales pipelines. You can have individual pipelines, track leads and opportunities, and enjoy contact records but this is only scratching the surface. Salesforce offers some more premium features like external and internal communication tools on higher-paid plans. The biggest downside to Salesforce is that they don’t offer any free tier as their competitors do.
Pricing:
Professional: $75 per user per month
Enterprise: $150 per user per month
Unlimited: $300 per user per month
Free Trial Available? Yes, for 30 days.
For a CRM that offers robust advanced marketing and sales pipelines sure to take your sales processes to the next level, you need to look at software like Zoho. While they’ve got a free tier, it’s slightly limited. Once you pay for features however, your sales managers can take full advantage of impressive digital marketing and sales pipeline tools. This all includes things like Google Ads manager, advanced reporting on sales performance and sales leads, inventory management, and more.
Pricing:
Free plan: Up to three sales reps
Standard: $14 per user per month
Professional: $23 per user per month
Enterprise: $40 per user per month
Ultimate: $52 per user per month
Free Trial Available? Yes, for 15 days.
For mid-sized companies looking to incorporate a B2B CRM, this might be the tool your marketing team needs. ActiveCampaign is a simple platform that offers all the necessary features of a CRM but in an extremely straightforward way. There are some subtle intricacies you need to learn but overall, it’s easy to use and very effective. With ActiveCampaign, you’re able to create custom reports and analytics, manage data effectively and enjoy lead scoring that measures customer conversion potential + much more.
Pricing: at a 1000 contacts
Lite: $29 per per month
Plus: $49 per per month
Professional: $149 per month
Enterprise: Has To Be Requested
Free Trial Available? Yes, for 14 days.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a great offering from Microsoft that’s easy to use and well-equipped to help you manage your business successfully. With powerful AI, you can personalise selling. By using this AI, it targets its selling methods to channel preferences helping to target potential customers more efficiently. This helps to improve efficiency in sales with customer information that’s contextual. This isn’t designed for small businesses and is perfect for enterprises.
Pricing:
Professional: $65 per per month
Enterprise: $95 per per month
Premium: $135 per month
Free Trial Available? Yes, for 30 days.
If you’re looking for a simple, well-laid-out CRM for a smaller business and for someone unfamiliar with CRMs, Pipedrive is a great choice. Not only is Pipedrive intuitive, but it’s also loaded with a decent amount of features to make it perfect for getting your business started in the world of CRMs. As you grow, you might find the need to upgrade to a new CRM, but that depends on where you land with Pipedrive’s eventual limitations. Overall, this is a great CRM that does have a lot to offer.
Pricing:
Essential: $14.90 per user per month (purchase Smart Docs as an add-on)
Advanced: $24.90 per user per month (purchase Smart Docs as an add-on)
Professional: $49.90 per user per month (includes Smart Docs)
Enterprise: $99 per user, per month (includes Smart Docs)
Free Trial: 14 days
Free Trial Available? Yes, for 14 days.
If you’re looking for an intuitive B2B sales pipeline CRM, then you should take a serious look at Freshsales. It’s a robust platform that’s easy to use and offers many features even on its free tier. You’ve got features like live chat, web forms, email, etc. Some of the more expensive tiers offer features like Ai-powered automation, multiple custom deal pipelines, custom reporting, and more.
Pricing:
Free Plan: Supports unlimited users
Growth: $15 per user per month
Pro: $39 per user per month
Enterprise: $69 per user per month
Free trial: 21 days
Free Trial Available? Yes, for 21 days.
Nutshell seeks to bring marketing and sales teams together to greatly strengthen a business's reach and offerings. This easy-to-use CRM offers email marketing tools, sales automation, contact storage, unlimited data, great customer service, and more! It’s able to integrate with many necessary tools any business uses, like G Suite, Gmail, Outlook, Office 365, QuickBooks, MailChimp, and more. The aim is to simplify operations and maximise potential.
Pricing:
Nutshell: $16 per user a month
Nutshell Pro: $42 per user a month
Free Trial Available? Yes, for 14 days.
There are many things you need to consider when looking at various CRMs. For starters, you want to focus on the core functionality of the potential CRM you’re investigating. Look for sales automation, lead management, email tracking, case management, and self-service features. If these aren't very strong, it’s advised to move on to better B2B CRM software.
The next thing to consider is additional but essential features your CRM candidates might possess. This includes features like workflow automation, lead nurturing, integration, UX/Usability, and relationship intelligence. If the tool you’re looking at doesn’t have these features, it’s time to move on to other CRM platforms that do.
Another big factor many established B2B’s is ease of onboarding for your employees to get them up to date with the new tech and how simple the migration to this new platform will be shifting your existing data and workflows. All these platforms have comprehensive customer service/software teams and it’s advised to reach out with your unique requirements to determine the simplest changeover.
Finally, the requirements of the CRM. Look at the customisation and extension platform, its application hosting, security, compliance and pricing.
Hubspot is a comprehensive B2B CRM that outshines a lot of its competition. The incredible thing about Hubspot is that its free tier can surpass some of the other competitors' paid options. That’s what perhaps makes Hubspot so impressive. It’s also got an incredible amount of features on the list that make it all-rounded. UX and speed of product updates to compete with an ever-changing digital landscape is a big factor for us here at Soone and HubSpot ticks these boxes and beyond with an intuitive and robust interface and regular new features added to accommodate every part of the buying journey.
Many B2B CRMs offer great small business facilities to ensure everyone has a functioning CRM in their operations. However, for a small business, you should consider using Zoho CRM. Other great options include Freshsales and Salesforce. However, Zoho CRM is relatively well-priced and easily scalable. It offers everything you’d need to get started.
If you're looking for enterprise CRMs, you need a more complete CRM that offers a higher degree of automation. Therefore, you should consider using either Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365. Both are significant players in the B2B CRM space and are capable of facilitating enterprise business operations.
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