Essential CRM software buying information
Customer relationship management (CRM) software enables customer interaction, support, and relationship management via features such as contact management, interaction tracking, and lead management.
Sales and marketing professionals use CRM software to capture and organize customer data, streamline their sales pipelines, and optimize outreach. Industry-specific CRM systems are also available.
Most CRM software solutions on the market are priced on a “per month” basis, and a typical entry-level pricing plan is around $1,292 per month. Subscriptions for premium and advanced systems, which include additional features such as unlimited users and advanced reporting, commonly cost about $17,664 per month.1
If you’re a first-time buyer, begin your software search with your budget, number of users, specific use cases, and necessary integrations in mind. Additionally, consult with stakeholders on a list of critical questions to ask providers to determine if an option fits your needs, such as:
Which customer management and sales tasks can this system automate?
How can we use this tool’s dashboards to better visualize and track the movement of leads?
How easy is it to add customizable fields to internal databases and/or customer-facing pages such as lead capture forms?
What level of technical support will I get from the CRM provider?
Does this software use artificial intelligence to deliver personalized customer experiences and/or predict sales? If so, how?
What level of technical support will I get from the CRM provider?
Pro tip: customer support considerations
Shep Hyken,2 a customer service thought leader and consultant, says his own CRM buying experience taught him that user-generated content about how to use a system is often just as valuable as vendor-created resources.
“I asked the salesperson how they support customers when they have questions. To my surprise, they told me to use Google. Within seconds, I had video tutorials from not only the company but from other customers who wanted to jump in and show others how they resolved similar issues.
Once I started using the software, I didn't even have to call the company to resolve my questions about the CRM. As a result, I felt really positive about having chosen their product.”
What are the most reviewed CRM systems?
Capterra Shortlist identifies the top CRM systems based on a proprietary blend of user ratings and popularity, helping small businesses efficiently find the most effective CRM solution for their needs.3 Here are the five most reviewed products in our Capterra Shortlist for this category:
These rankings are determined by combining verified user ratings and publicly available web search popularity data:
Ratings score: Relative score of the software based on ratings given by users on Capterra, normalized for number and recency of reviews.
Popularity score: Relative popularity of the software based on web search trends and products’ web presence.
What is a CRM system?
A CRM system enables businesses to manage interactions with current and potential customers. It provides a centralized platform where businesses can store, organize, and access customer data and interactions. It also automates lead management, opportunity tracking, and sales forecasting processes.
CRM software solutions typically provide reporting and analytics capabilities to generate insights into customer behavior, sales performance, and marketing effectiveness. They are related to contact management systems and are often deployed via the cloud.
Gartner expects the CRM market to reach $200 billion by 2027, with about 15% growth each year.4
Capterra covers 2,013 CRM products—more than any other category of software we cover—with 14,859 reviews published in the past year.5
CRM pricing
Most CRM software solutions on the market are priced on a “per month” basis, and a typical entry-level pricing plan is around $1,292 per month. Premium and advanced system subscriptions commonly cost about $17,664 per month.1
Entry-level CRM systems include the core functionality of contact database, lead management, and interaction tracking.
Premium or advanced products that are priced higher typically include additional features such as unlimited users, advanced reporting, advanced customer and lead tracking, and sales funnel creation.
First-time buyers should be aware that:
Initial setup, training, and data migration are common upfront costs.
Maintenance and customer support are common recurring costs.
Most (71%) of the CRM software buyers our advisors spoke to in the last 2 years are budgeting $35 to $105 per month.6
Free trials are often offered by CRM software providers, and some systems offer free versions.
CRM features rated by users
All CRM software tools include contact database, interaction tracking, and lead management features, and most share a variety of common features such as task and email management.
Core CRM features
Contact management: Maintain a centralized database of customers and their contact information. 90% rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Lead management: Store information about leads and contacts and track them through the sales process. 82% rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Interaction tracking: Track the interaction history by documenting conversations with customers and contacts. 80% rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Highly rated common CRM features
Sales pipeline management: Use the pipeline view to visualize, track, and manage the leads in your pipeline. 81% rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Email management: Integrate with email services such as Gmail and Outlook. 80% rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Workflow management: Create, design and manage workflows for repetitive tasks. 78% rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Task management: Create tasks, track their progress status or completion percentage, and view any associated notes or comments. 77% rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Data import/export: Import and export data to and from software applications. 77% rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Reporting/analytics: Collect and analyze data to generate reports, track pertinent metrics, and identify trends or patterns. 76% rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Lead capture: Automatically identify and save contact information for potential customers. 73% rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Top CRM benefits identified by users
Facilitates easier team collaboration: CRM systems give teams a 360-view of tasks and workflows through features like activity dashboards and workflow management.
“It was easy to see what our team was working on, completing or planning to complete.”
–Victoria V., HRIS specialist, newspapers
Empowers sales reps: CRM tools provide sales professionals with powerful analytics capabilities that help them track KPIs and identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.
“This transparency helps in making informed decisions and prioritizing efforts on high-impact activities, ultimately driving higher sales.”
–Olu D., CEO, e-learning
Easily integrates with your ecosystem of software: CRM systems are easy to integrate with other marketing tools, such as sales, social media, calendar, and email solutions, enabling seamless data sharing between systems.
“The tool is completely customizable and has very advanced marketing integrations within the cloud.”
–Sarah H., media director, marketing and advertising
Enables small-business growth: CRM software is specifically valuable for supporting and growing small businesses, especially all-in-one solutions that can serve as a foundation when businesses are just starting.
“I can customize fields, workflows, and dashboards to suit my business needs. Plus, it grows with my business; I can easily scale up and add more features as required.”
–Adnan A., owner, electrical/electronic manufacturing
Common challenges of CRM software identified by users
The learning curve involved with the implementation of CRM software is one of the most common challenges identified by CRM software users. This makes sense, according to sales professional Mike Aldrich, 7 who states that one of the biggest obstacles in using CRM software is the time it takes to maintain it.
“You have to put the time in,” he says. “Start your day by logging in and looking at your dashboard so you know which tasks to prioritize. It’ll show your progress toward your monthly, quarterly, or annual sales goals, and which deals you expect to close soon.”
Another common challenge identified by users is difficulty with payment plans. Such users might not be in a pricing tier that’s aligned with the functionality they need, suggests Capterra advisor manager Michael Ziemba. 8 “These systems often have tiered pricing depending on if they’re entry-level or premium. It's really important to get in there and see what functionality you need.”
To set yourself up for success, here are some questions you can ask CRM software vendors:
Is this software built with small businesses in mind?
What is the implementation process like?
How easy is it to integrate this new solution with tools I already have?
What type of ongoing customer support from the CRM vendor can we expect?
Are there any user minimums to meet?
Are there any important features locked behind premium price points?
What is CRM software used for?
We analyzed our extensive database of CRM software reviews and found that the most common use cases are:
Streamlining the sales pipeline: Businesses use CRM systems to organize incoming sales opportunities and prioritize them based on their behaviors and interactions.
Organizing clients and customers: CRM software helps maintain an organized database of client and customer data that can be sorted and grouped to simplify follow-up communications and plan the next actions.
Optimizing email marketing targeting and automation: CRM software can be used to build customer personas and segments for precise targeting, and then automate routine email marketing tasks or more advanced campaign actions.
Analyzing and tracking leads: CRM software users can capture potential leads and track their activities and interactions across touchpoints. They can also review the leads with detailed individual profiles or within a dashboard for a wider view with analytics.
CRM software can be categorized into the following four types:
Operational CRM software improves a business’s operational efficiency through automation.
Strategic CRM software focuses on customers and their interactions with a business.
Analytical CRM software organizes and analyzes customer data with a focus on metrics such as recurring revenue, top sales accounts, and customer retention rates.
Collaborative CRM software focuses on sharing customer information among internal teams.
Additionally, many CRM systems are designed to support specific industries:
Who uses CRM software?
Because of its versatility, CRM software is one of the most ubiquitous technologies for customer-facing businesses of all sizes and industries. These systems are typically geared toward one or several of these categories 9:
Marketing
Sales
Digital commerce
Customer service and contact centers
The CRM software market also includes providers that cater to specific sectors or industries, such as staffing and recruiting, telecommunications, and nonprofit.
While anyone related to the categories above likely uses a CRM, notes from our advisor calls reveal some of the most common kinds of users over the past year. 6 The top job titles include owners, agents, CEOS, presidents, and brokers. Common industries include consulting (15%), real estate (15%), and insurance (8%). Additionally, most callers are business owners at companies with less than $1 million in annual revenue and small teams—five or fewer employees or software users.
Common CRM integrations
We analyzed our extensive reviews database, and based on that, we determined the three software categories that most often integrate with CRM are:
Email marketing software: By integrating your CRM with an email marketing tool, you can capture a wealth of client data, such as interaction history and which emails they’ve opened.
Website builder software: Connecting your CRM to website builder software lets you collect and analyze customer data in real time, personalize the online experience, and improve customer engagement. It also helps you streamline your sales and marketing efforts by automating tasks such as lead generation and customer follow-ups.
Project management software: Integrating your CRM with project management software can help businesses manage projects more effectively, improve communication, and provide a better customer experience.
Recent trends in CRM software
Personalized messaging for buyers using customer intelligence: According to Gartner, 10 customizing value-driven narratives for buyers significantly enhances the buyer experience by providing personalized, relevant content that resonates with their specific needs and challenges. This approach, which AI tools are able to execute by pulling from CRM data, can improve engagement rates, fostering stronger relationships and potentially increasing conversion rates.
Learn more about how CRM software can help your business
