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Published on
November 23, 2020
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Updated on
November 24, 2020
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Read time
12 minutes
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Whenever it comes to adopting a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, Salesforce is most likely on top of the list for many. This is because it helps companies to study their customers’ behavior and optimize their outreach to fit those behavioral patterns.
However, although Salesforce has tons of powerful features, it is heavy on the pocket, and not every business can afford it. Aside from that, maintaining your Salesforce CRM will also incur additional charges.
Here is why many companies chose Salesforce in the first place:
Also, here is why many SMBs and large companies are looking for alternatives:
Are you also looking for an alternative to Salesforce? If so, you’re in the right place.
We’ve created a list of some of the best Salesforce alternatives that are more affordable and have similar enough capabilities to help you manage your sales and marketing. But before we dive into that, we will be walking you through some of the factors you should consider when choosing a Salesforce alternative.
Choosing the right CRM for your business is a big project. You have to make sure you ask the right questions before making a decision that will potentially impact your business for at least another year. While this article doesn’t aim to cover all aspects of purchasing a CRM, I do however want to make sure it highlights the most important aspects to look for in a Salesforce alternative. Based on the users’ feedback available online, here are the aspects that you should consider:
One major factor you should consider when picking out a CRM is how easy it is to use. Does it have an intuitive user interface? Can you navigate it on your own or would you be needing the help of an IT specialist?
Your CRM platform must allow you to effectively organize leads, visualize deals, and manage your sales process. Also, you need to consider a software solution that is scalable as your business expands.
Cost is another important factor that you should consider when choosing a CRM tool. You should consider something that is within your budget. Additionally, you should look into the additional costs that customization, support, and using add-ons for your CRM may incur.
Best Salesforce Alternatives for 2021
Here are the top Salesforce Alternatives you can choose to use:
HubSpot Sales is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform with Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and CMS Hub software applications that help scaling companies grow better. HubSpot is our top choice for a Salesforce alternative because it combines power and ease-of-use.
HubSpot is, at core, an all-in-one CRM that is designed to adapt and grow, as the business grows. HubSpot CRM starts with a free version (freemium plan) that includes up to 1,000,000 contacts and a number of essential features for startups and small businesses: email marketing, live chat (and a chatbot builder), forms, landing pages, and meeting scheduler software.
For growing businesses and enterprise-level companies, that need more complex features, HubSpot includes sales custom objects, engagement software, CPQ tools, and powerful sales analytics.
One other important benefit of HubSpot is that, overall, has a lower total cost of ownership. While Salesforce charges for every user and requires paid add-ons for essential features, HubSpot includes all the features in its advertised price, and customers only pay for additional revenue-generating sales seats.
HubSpot Sales offers three main plans:
Compared to Salesforce, HubSpot has a simple user-interface thereby making it easy to deploy. Additionally, the total cost of ownership of HubSpot is cheaper compared to Salesforce.
Pipedrive is a sales CRM and pipeline management solution that allows you to customize sales processes that fit your buyers’ journey. You can create a comprehensive buyer profile and add important details like their contact information, deal sizes, timelines, and how long it took to make a purchase.
Not only that, Pipedrive has a drag-and-drop feature that makes it pretty easy to add new prospects to your lead cards and move them through each buyer stage.
Pipedrive has four main plans:
Pipedrive is a great fit for small and mid-sized companies. It is easy to navigate and more affordable compared to Salesforce.
Zoho is an end-to-end CRM solution that allows you to create multi-channel communication with leads. The platform allows you to communicate with leads via live chats, email, and webinars. On top of that, you can discover the best time and channel to communicate with leads.
Zoho has an AI-powered predictive score that allows you to qualify leads that are most likely to convert. Additionally, the CRM has a Zoho’s key performance dashboard that provides a deep insight into your sales process and how you can improve conversion and revenue.
Zoho CRM comes in four different pricing tiers:
Zoho CRM has a smooth interface and allows you to integrate with third-party applications at no additional cost.
Looking for Zoho Alternatives? Check this out:
Insightly makes it very easy to align both marketing and sales under a unified platform. You can track the most relevant lead information and monitor their activity to gauge their level of interest in your products/services.
Additionally, you can create multiple workflows that fit your business perfectly and also automate recurring tasks. Beyond that, you can track email delivery, open rates, and click statistics in real-time.
Insightly has four major plans:
Unlike Salesforce, Insightly allows you to automate everything from lead routing to task assignment to project management without the need for a high-level consultant. You can create custom workflows based on your user preferences all by yourself in less lead time.
If you’re running a small or medium business, Freshsales is a great option for you.
It provides you with everything you need to grow your revenue without juggling multiple software. With Freshsales, you can build a comprehensive customer profile using the information gathered via phone calls, emails, web forms, and live chats.
Also, the CRM makes use of AI-based lead scoring to qualify sales leads.
Freshsales has an intuitive user interface that allows you to call prospects, send emails, create proposals, and schedule appointments without any hassle.
SugarCRM is a robust enterprise-level CRM with an AI-driven feature that makes creating comprehensive and detailed customer profiles easier. The CRM does this by curating customers’ info from social media. After curation, it compiles all information into one place thereby making it easier to manage.
Sugar CRM is customizable and can be easily tailored to fit your business preferences. Also, it is very scalable thereby making it a perfect option for companies looking to advance in their sales over time.
Best of all, SugarCRM will notify you when there is any other opportunity to up-sell a contact to increase their customer’s lifetime value after conversion.
SugarCRM is more of an affordable option compared to Salesforce. Also, the software is powered by incredible machine learning features that make lead capturing and contact management easier.
Check out the best online sales tools:
Copper CRM is a powerful CRM specifically built for G Suite. It allows G Suite users to manage customers’ interactions without toggling between multiple software. Asides from integrating with Gmail, the CRM also integrates with other third-party applications like Slack, Intuit, and Zendesk.
Copper has an advanced reporting feature for sales forecasting. With this feature, you can pull data to get your sales team performance monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
Copper has a smooth and intuitive user interface. Not only that, they provide customer support to their users at no additional cost.
Microsoft Dynamic 365 is an enterprise-level CRM that provides data-driven insights that you can use to make smarter marketing and sales decisions, build strong customer relationships, and close more deals in less time.
Also, the software allows you to target leads using multi-channels to send personalized marketing campaigns to fill your sales funnel with quality leads.
It is affordable, has better support, and is easy to deploy without the help of any professionals.
Nutshell is another impressive option to consider if you want to build meaningful and strong connections with prospects.
One of Nutshell’s features that stood out is its reporting capabilities. This feature allows you to create customizable reports that will make measuring your sales performance quite easy.
Also, the CRM allows you to delegate tasks within your sales team and track the performance of each member.
Nutshell has two mains plans:
With Nutshell, you’ll enjoy unlimited bandwidth and free technical support.
Nimble is a very flexible CRM that allows you to segment your sales pipelines and schedule appointments with your contacts. You can track the deals you’ve won, lost and the ones that are yet to convert. Nimble gives you deep insight into sales deals and measures customer engagement.
Also, with Nimble, you can create personalized email templates, send them to leads, and track the performance of your email marketing in real-time. Additionally, it integrates with over 150 third-party applications making it easy to feed more data into your CRM.
Nimble’s onboarding process is easier compared to Salesforce’s. Also, it is relatively cheap, has a clean interface, and very easy to navigate.
ConvergeHub is a great alternative for small and medium companies. It has a clean and easily configurable dashboard. With this CRM, you can schedule meetings and close more deals without any hassle.
You can also launch and manage your email campaigns without having to pay for extra tools on the side.
Compared to Salesforce, ConvergeHub is cost-effective and easy to set up.
Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, is specifically built for service-based companies. The platform allows you to organize all your customer information all in one place for smooth customer data management. Also, it has a dashboard that makes it possible to visualize leads and move them from one stage to the other without any hassle.
The program has an API functionality that makes integration with other third-party software pretty easy.
The CRM has a simple user interface that allows you to nurture leads and create repeatable sales processes without any hassle or special training.
If you decide not to go with Salesforce or change your current plan, finding a perfect alternative can be quite overwhelming. However, the great news is there are affordable Salesforce CRM alternatives that you can explore.
Post by: Irina Nica
Senior Marketing Manager, Product Awareness at HubSpot
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