9 mins read
Running a SaaS business is exciting - until you're drowning in customer data, juggling leads, and struggling to keep users engaged. Spreadsheets won't cut it, and scattered tools are only making things worse.
That's where CRMs come in. The right software keeps your sales, marketing, and support teams in sync while helping you scale without the chaos.
Let's take a look at some of the best CRMs for SaaS businesses and how to pick the one that fits your needs.
SaaS customer relationship management (CRM) software is a tool designed for SaaS businesses to manage and track interactions with both current and potential customers.
It organizes important customer data like their contact information, purchase history, usage patterns, feedback, support tickets, and subscription details - which makes it easy to understand the clientele and meet their needs.
Before investing in a CRM, it's essential to determine if your SaaS business actually needs one or if it's just an unnecessary expense. Here are four key factors you should consider to help you decide:
Size of your customer base: If you only have a small number of customers, you might get by with spreadsheets. But as your customer list grows, managing interactions manually can become disorganized. In such cases, you need a CRM to keep everything structured and support customer retention efforts.
Type of data you collect: Not all businesses handle the same kind of customer data. If your SaaS company primarily deals with simple contact details, a CRM might not be necessary. However, if your business collects usage statistics, purchase history, customer feedback, or contract details, managing this manually becomes overwhelming.
Number and size of the teams: If you have a small team, tracking leads manually may work. However, as the team expands, collaboration becomes more complex. If you have a huge team or multiple teams, you might need a CRM to ensure everyone has access to the same information, thus preventing miscommunication.
Budget available: CRMs range from free basic plans to enterprise solutions with high costs. Assess whether the efficiency and revenue gains outweigh the subscription fees and setup effort you have available to understand if you can afford a CRM.
Below, we've explored 5 leading CRM software options and their standout features so you can get a clearer picture of what's available in the market:
As part of Zoho's broader portfolio, Zoho CRM is a sales-focused tool that helps businesses manage their customer relationships. It offers a powerful process management tool called Blueprint, which lets you visually map out each step of your sales cycle. You can define how deals should progress, set conditions, and assign tasks to team members.
Another exciting feature is Zia, Zoho CRM's AI assistant. Zia works quietly in the background and uses artificial intelligence to analyze sales data. When needed, you can interact with it through a chat window to receive instant responses on your sales performance.
Key features:
Scoring rules to assess and prioritize leads using positive and negative scoring.
Pre-defined workflow rules to assign leads to sales reps based on geography, product, or department.
Blueprint editor to let you connect your sales actions together through a drag-and-drop interface.
Zia's data enrichment capability to gather more information about leads based on existing details.
Validation rules to ensure that sales representatives input data that meets your defined standards.
Pricing:
Zoho CRM's pricing structure depends on the features businesses need and the number of users. There are four primary plans available, along with a free option:
| Plan | Price (annually) |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Standard | $14 per user/month |
| Professional | $23 per user/month |
| Enterprise | $40 per user/month |
| Ultimate | $52 per user/month |
Hubspot’s CRM itself is simple to navigate, but the entire platform can take some time to get the hang of, especially for teams that mainly deal with contact management. Still, the platform's all-in-one design is beneficial if you are looking to manage only one system for customer engagement and be efficient in the long run.
Key features:
Deal pipeline to visualise and track deals at each stage of the buying process.
Breeze co-pilot, an AI-powered assistant, to offer personalized insights and recommendations for leads and customers.
User management feature to add or remove users from your HubSpot account as well as assigning different roles and permissions.
List segmentation to create dynamic contact lists based on specific criteria from your HubSpot database.
CRM import to easily transfer data from other CRMs or spreadsheets into HubSpot.
Pricing:
Hubspot pricing is based on the number of seats. The pricing structure includes a free plan and 3 main paid tiers:
| Plans | Price (annually) |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Starter customer platform | |
| Professional customer platform | $1,170 per month |
| Enterprise customer platform | Starts at $4,300 per month |
Pipedrive CRM is focused on making the sales process simple and efficient. Its sales pipeline feature is easy to navigate and free from unnecessary buttons and distractions.
At the same time, it offers plenty of advanced customization - you can create multiple pipelines, adjust deal stages, and set rules for tracking inactive deals.
A major highlight of Pipedrive is its AI Sales Assistant, which helps predict a deal's win probability and recommends the next best actions. This AI-driven feature analyzes past sales data, market trends, and user behavior to offer smart suggestions that improve your chances of closing deals.
Key features:
Smart contact data to uncover detailed insights about leads using their email and publicly available data.
Lead distribution feature to automatically assign leads to the right salesperson based on predefined criteria.
Deal rotting alerts to notify users when a deal stays idle for too long, preventing opportunities from being overlooked.
Importing function to bulk-import leads and deals from spreadsheets or other CRMs.
Pricing:
Pipedrive CRM pricing depends on the number of active seats (users) by the monthly or annual rate of the chosen plan. The pricing structure includes five main plans, including:
| Plans | Price (annually) |
|---|---|
| Essential | $14 per seat/ month |
| Advanced | $24 per seat/ month |
| Professional | $49 per seat/ month |
| Power | $59 per seat/ month |
| Enterprise | Starts at $79 per seat/ month |
Monday. com, once primarily known for its project management tools, has expanded its offerings to include a comprehensive CRM solution. True to Monday. com's design philosophy, the CRM user interface is vibrant and fully customizable, which makes it both enjoyable and intuitive to use.
One of the standout features of Monday CRM is the Sales Pipeline View, which lets you manage deals using a Kanban layout. You can easily move each deal through stages by dragging and dropping, making it simpler to adjust strategies and refine your sales approach.
Additionally, Monday CRM integrates activity tracking, which allows you to log key interactions such as calls, meetings, and notes within the platform. This centralization makes it easier to follow up and keep the sales process on track.
Key features:
Customizable dashboards to track every stage of your sales funnel and monitor your team's performance
Sales forecasting to compare forecasted vs. actual sales, with the ability to drill down by month, sales rep, and other metrics.
Call summaries to automatically summarize video conferencing calls and contact activity.
Lead capturing feature to easily integrate with your existing tools or forms of your website.
Contact management to manage and access your contacts across any platform, keeping communication seamless and organized.
Pricing:
Monday CRM pricing plans are structured around the number of users and the features required. It offers five plans, including:
| Plans | Price (billed annually) |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Basic | $12/user/month |
| Standard | $17 /user/month |
| Pro | $28/user/month |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing based on requirements |
Freshsales is the CRM tool from Freshworks, specifically built to help sales teams manage their leads and deals.
It stands out for its powerful lead management features, which include an AI-powered lead-scoring tool called contact scoring. This tool assigns a score to leads based on their likelihood to convert so the sales teams can prioritize their efforts and increase their chances of success.
Another of the best features of Freshsales is sales sequencing, which helps to automate outreach campaigns. You can set up workflows to automatically send emails or messages when certain actions happen, such as when a customer opens an email or clicks on a link.
Key features:
Custom fields to create specific fields like text boxes, checklists, and formulas for storing information that's unique to your business.
Contact scoring to prioritize leads by giving them scores based on past interactions, helping teams focus on the most valuable contacts.
Sales forecasting to predict sales by setting best-case estimates, allowing you to plan your next steps more accurately.
Auto-profile enrichment to automatically add social media and publicly available information to contact profiles.
Pricing:
Freshsales CRM pricing is based on a per-user, per-month model, with discounts available for annual payments. It offers four main pricing plans, including:
| Plan | Price (annually) |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Growth | $9 per user/month |
| Pro | $39 per user/month |
| Enterprise | $59 per user/month |
When investing in a CRM system for a SaaS business, the following features are must-haves to smoothen business operations and improve customer engagement:
Advanced pipeline management: A CRM system should make tracking each stage of the sales process simple and intuitive. You should be able to see where each lead is in the pipeline.
Automation capabilities: A CRM should automatically handle tasks like lead scoring, email follow-ups, and reporting, allowing your team to focus on higher-value work and drive better results.
Automated alerts, reminders, and notifications: When you're managing a sales pipeline, it's crucial that no lead slips through the cracks. Your CRM should come with customizable alerts and reminders, ensuring that your team never misses a follow-up, meeting, or deadline.
Email and calendar synchronization: The CRM must work seamlessly with your existing email and calendar platforms, allowing sales reps to schedule meetings, track correspondence, and manage appointments all from within the system.
Click-to-call tools: A CRM with built-in click-to-call functionality makes it simple for sales reps to call prospects directly from within the system.
A CRM focuses on tracking customer interactions, managing sales pipelines, and improving communication across teams.
On the other hand, a CDP focuses on collecting and analyzing customer data from various sources like websites, emails, and social media to deliver personalized experiences across different channels.
Implementing a CRM for a SaaS company comes with its own set of challenges. Here are some of the most common ones.
Data migration: Difficulty in transferring existing customer data from legacy systems to the new CRM.
User adoption: Overcoming resistance from employees and ensuring proper training for effective use.
Data quality: Maintaining clean and accurate data as it's gathered from multiple sources.
To protect customers' data, CRM software providers implement various security measures, including encryption, to safeguard data both in transit and at rest. Access controls are also put in place, ensuring that only authorized users can access specific data based on their roles.
Additionally, many CRM systems offer multi-factor authentication (MFA) to strengthen login security. Regular data backups and the use of secure cloud infrastructure further ensure that data is protected against potential loss or breaches.
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