So you've had it with messy client interactions and decided to get CRM software. You're off to a great start.
Of course, this decision leads to another critical juncture: choosing the right CRM software for your business. Today's CRM market is filled with options—each flaunting unique features and capabilities. It can be overwhelming.
However, understanding the use cases of each CRM software can help you make sense of things and choose right. The outcome? You unlock your team's fullest potential and drive successful customer relationships with ease.
This article unpacks 9 CRM software examples and their use cases to help inform your selection. But first, a refresher if you need it…
What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software?
CRM software is a tool designed to help businesses manage all interactions with customers and prospects. Practically speaking, CRM software helps you:
- Track the customer journey in your sales pipeline—from first contact to close.
- Organize data from every relevant touchpoint, from emails and text messages to social media and support tickets.
- Automate routine sales activities like email outreach, lead scoring, follow-ups, and so on.
To support these activities, CRM software includes features that streamline everything from lead nurturing and pipeline management to marketing automation and analytics.
Ultimately, your CRM software works to keep your sales team organized, efficient, and laser-focused on closing deals.
Choosing Your Perfect CRM: A Feature Checklist
Choosing the right CRM software is an underrated driver of sales performance.
For the best results, consider whether these features are present in your CRM software before making a choice:
- Core CRM Functionalities: We're talking contact management, sales tracking, pipeline management, reporting capabilities, etc. Basically, ensure the CRM is equipped to handle core sales activities.
- Scalability and Integrations: Consider your future growth and current tech stack. Can the CRM adapt as your business scales? And can it integrate seamlessly with your existing business apps for a unified workflow?
- Ease of Use: A user-friendly CRM helps your team adapt quickly and use the software effectively. So prioritize user-friendliness CRM to avoid disrupting your team's operations.
- Automation and Analytics: Automation helps you knock out tedious tasks quickly. And analytics provides data-driven insights to inform your strategy. Both are essential features of any decent CRM software.
- Security and Data Privacy: Customer data security is paramount today. For this reason, you want a CRM software that offers data encryption and adheres to industry best practices.
- Customer Support: Fast, reliable support saves you and your team a lot of headaches. You want a CRM provider that prioritizes excellent customer service and support.
9 CRM Software Examples and Their Use Cases
From feature-rich giants to innovative newcomers, the list below looks at nine CRM software examples to suit your specific business needs.
Instantly.ai: Best CRM for Sales Engagement and Lead Intelligence
G2 Rating: 4.9/5 ⭐ from 2,688 reviews
If sales engagement and/or lead intelligence is your biggest concern, then Instantly Dealflow is your holy grail. And that’s not an empty promise. More than just a CRM, Dealflow is an intelligent sales companion.
Thanks to AI-powered workflows, Instantly Dealflow takes tedious tasks off your hands, keeps your team in perfect sync, and automates your every effort—all without losing the human touch.
Dealflow is especially useful in keeping the sales engagement process airtight and hyper-efficient. This means leads never slip through the cracks and your team operates like a well-oiled selling engine.
Last but not least, Dealflow is perfect for sales teams that rely on high-volume email campaigns and need precise tracking to optimize their efforts. Try it out for free today!
Key Features
- Unibox for exceptional response times
- Automated outreach via email, calls, and SMS
- AI-powered workflows and personalized messaging
- Intuitive B2B lead finder with over 160 million verified contacts
- Unlimited seats for your entire sales team on a single monthly subscription
Pricing
Instantly offers a free trial along with flexible monthly and yearly pricing plans. The monthly paid pricing plans are as follows:
- Growth: $37/month
- Hypergrowth: $97/month
- Light Speed: $358/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
To top it all off, you enjoy a 20% discount on all Instantly pricing tiers by choosing the yearly option.
Salesforce: Best CRM for Enterprises and Complex Sales Processes
G2 Rating: 4.3/5 ⭐ from 20,329 reviews
As one of the very first CRM software, Salesforce CRM is considered a leader in the industry. Not only that, but Salesforce also boasts the largest share of the CRM market today at 19.5%.
But, of course, being a giant comes with its own sets of drawbacks. In Salesforce's case, its features work great for big teams and intricate environments, but it can quickly overwhelm smaller teams.
As a result, Salesforce CRM is really only ideal for complex sales processes and large enterprises.
Key Features
- Advanced reporting and analytics
- Highly customizable sales pipeline management
- Integrations with a vast ecosystem of business applications
Pricing
Salesforce offers a free trial along with flexible monthly and yearly pricing plans. The monthly paid pricing plans are as follows:
- Enterprise: $165/user/month
- Unlimited: $330/user/month
- Einstein 1 Sales: $500/user/month
HubSpot: Best CRM for Inbound Marketing
G2 Rating: 4.4/5 ⭐ from 11,356 reviews
HubSpot’s CRM easily makes any list of top CRM software out there. It’s a popular CRM known for its easy-to-use interface and features that help businesses attract, engage, and delight customers.
HubSpot CRM comes with a free forever plan that's great for startups and small businesses looking for a simple option to manage customer relationships at scale.
And despite being free, the CRM covers the essentials: contact management, deal tracking, and (basic) automation.
HubSpot CRM is especially renowned for its inbound marketing features. It lets you attract and nurture qualified leads organically through content marketing and SEO efforts.
Key Features
- Marketing automation for nurturing leads with targeted email campaigns
- SEO tools and website analytics to attract organic traffic
- Seamless integration with other HubSpot marketing and sales tools (paid plans)
Pricing
HubSpot offers a free forever plan along with flexible monthly and yearly pricing plans. The monthly paid pricing plans include:
- Starter Customer Platform: $15/month/seat
- Marketing Hub Professional: $800/month
- Marketing Hub Enterprise: $3,600/month
Zendesk: Best CRM for Customer Service Operations
G2 Rating: 4.2/5 ⭐ from 485 reviews
While traditionally considered a help desk solution, Zendesk has evolved into a powerful CRM for customer service operations.
It focuses on building strong customer relationships by providing a centralized platform for managing support tickets, live chat interactions, and customer feedback.
Zendesk particularly excels at streamlining communication and customer experience across all touchpoints. This makes it perfect for businesses that prioritize customer experience and need a CRM to manage their support operations.
Key Features
- Omnichannel ticketing system (email, phone, chat)
- Self-service knowledge base management
- Customer satisfaction surveys and reporting
- Integrations with popular communication tools
Pricing
Zendesk offers a 14-day evaluation trial along with flexible monthly and yearly pricing plans. The monthly paid pricing plans include:
- Sell Team: $19/agent/month
- Sell Growth: $55/agent/month
- Sell Professional: $115/agent/month
- Sell Enterprise: $169/user/month
Microsoft Dynamics 365: Best CRM for Enterprise Resource Planning
G2 Rating: 3.8/5 ⭐ from 1,587 reviews
Microsoft Dynamics 365 combines CRM and ERP capabilities to provide a unified solution for large enterprises. Beyond CRM features, Dynamics 365 offers a comprehensive suite of business applications that seamlessly integrate with existing Microsoft products.
For companies already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, Dynamics 365 offers a powerful CRM solution that integrates with finance, marketing, and customer service functions.
This tight integration allows for a holistic view of your business and streamlines data flow across departments.
Key Features
- Deep integration with Microsoft Office applications
- Scalable CRM functionalities for businesses of all sizes
- Inventory management and business intelligence tools
- Advanced reporting and analytics dashboards
Pricing
Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a forever free plan along with flexible monthly and yearly pricing plans. The monthly paid pricing plans are as follows:
- Dynamics 365 Sales Professional: $65/user/month
- Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise Edition: $95/user/month
- Dynamics 365 Sales Premium: $135/user/month
Zoho CRM: Best CRM for Customization and Small Businesses
G2 Rating: 4.1/5 ⭐ from 2,643 reviews
Zoho CRM is a popular choice among startups and smaller teams. This is because it offers a comprehensive suite of CRM features at a competitive price point.
Zoho specifically excels at managing sales pipelines, tracking leads, and nurturing customer relationships. It also has decent automation capabilities, allowing you to streamline repetitive tasks and free up your sales team for more strategic activities.
On the user experience side, Zoho CRM stands out for its intuitive interface and ease of use, making it a great choice for teams that are new to CRM software.
Key Features
- Sales pipeline management with customizable stages and automation
- Built-in email marketing and social media management functionalities
- Integrations with a wide range of business applications
- Lead scoring and qualification tools
Pricing
There’s a 15-day free trial available. The paid pricing plans include:
- Standard: €20/user/month.
- Professional: €35/user/month.
- Enterprise: €50/user/month
- Ultimate: €65/user/month
ClickUp: Best CRM for Project Management Functions
G2 Rating: 4.7/5 ⭐ from 9,617 reviews
ClickUp does CRM functions well, but it really takes the cake when it comes to project management operations.
It specifically combines CRM features like pipeline visualization and deal tracking with project management functions like workload management and collaborative documents.
The result? A highly customizable CRM solution that fosters better team collaboration and customer-centric experience.
All in all, ClickUp is a great option for sales teams that work closely with project managers and need a unified platform for managing the sales pipeline and executing projects.
Key Features
- Built-in CRM functionalities for lead management and deal tracking
- Flexible project management tools (Gantt charts, Kanban boards)
- Automated workflows to streamline repetitive tasks
- Real-time collaboration and communication tools
Pricing
ClickUp offers a free forever plan along with monthly and yearly pricing plans. The monthly paid pricing plans include:
- Unlimited: $10/user/month
- Business: $19/user/month
- Enterprise: Contact sales
BIGContact: Best CRM for Contact Management
G2 Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐ from 77 reviews
As the name suggests, BIGContact excels in all things contact management. In other words, this CRM is ideal for businesses that rely heavily on building and maintaining large customer databases.
BIGContact's CRM offers everything from data segmentation to lead nurturing to email marketing campaigns. This makes it ideal for businesses that need a simple but effective solution to manage their contacts and improve customer relationships.
To sum up, if your sales strategy hinges on building relationships with large-scale contact management, BIGContact is certainly worth considering.
Key Features
- Advanced contact management with custom fields and segmentation
- Automated email campaigns and lead nurturing sequences
- Integrations with popular email marketing platforms
- Reporting and analytics on campaign performance
Pricing
BIGContact offers a free forever plan along with just one paid plan for businesses—set at $19.99/month/1000 contacts.
ActiveCampaign: Best CRM for Campaign Management
G2 Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐ from 13,223 reviews
ActiveCampaign is a CRM software with a strong focus on email and marketing automation. Beyond traditional CRM functionalities, ActiveCampaign works great for landing page creation and marketing attribution.
What truly sets this CRM apart is its unique blend of email marketing, automation, and sales CRM features. This makes it a great option for businesses looking to nurture leads through complex funnels.
Key Features
- Landing page creation and lead capture forms
- Marketing automation workflows and lead scoring
- Detailed reporting and analytics on marketing campaign performance
- Advanced email marketing automation with drag-and-drop email builder
Pricing
ActiveCampaign offers a free 14-day trial along with flexible monthly and yearly pricing plans. The monthly paid pricing plans are as follows:
- Starter: $15/month
- Plus: $49/month
- Pro: $79/month
- Enterprise: $145/month
Find Your Perfect Match CRM Software
Use cases aside, every CRM software ultimately serves to nurture relationships with customers, increase team efficiency, and drive sustainable business growth.
Here's a recap of key points for choosing the right CRM software for your use case:
- CRM software is designed to track and handle all customer interactions effectively to drive sales growth.
- Before choosing CRM software, consider its core CRM features, user-friendliness, analytics, automation, integration, scalability, and customer support.
- Top CRM software examples today include Instantly.ai, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Zoho CRM, ClickUp, BIGContact, and ActiveCampaign.
Interested in sales engagement and lead intelligence? Instantly.ai is your perfect match. Try it out for free today!
