When small businesses realize they need some sort of CRM solution to manage their contacts and leads, the first question that comes to their mind is:
What’s the best small business CRM?
A quick search with the google keyword tool suggests there are 1600 global monthly searches for “best small business CRM” or variants like “best crm for small busineses”.
“best crm software” scores 6600 global monthly searches, while “best of crm” is top of the list with a whopping 33,100 monthly searches.
This is a common question people that just start the market research for a CRM solution have. It’s understandable everyone wants the best solution, the best software out there. No one really wants the second or third best.
It’s a question from people who want to find out who the market leader, the accepted CRM solution by the vast majority of users is and go for that.
There is a problem with this question though.
CRM is a mature market and like every mature markets, there are solution for various needs, various niches and they come with various degrees of customization and 3rd party tool integration and so on. In looking at mature markets, the question doesn’t work and that’s because there is no one-size-fits-all answer.
What’s the best car?
A similar question for a similarly mature market. And while some people settle on an answer to this question, it’s always a personal answer. After all, we’re all driving different makes…
So the question should be a more personal question: What’s the best CRM for me?
The key difference here is that you start by looking at your needs first: what are you after? what are your business processes? how do you intend to use the CRM system? how much complexity can you tolerate? how much customization will you need?
These questions are not easy, but they underline the main point I am trying to make here: there is no one-size-fits-all in mature markets and the answer is always a personal one.
Here at Clevertim we focus on google-like simplicity as we believe that will make small businesses more productive. We also use the latest technologies to make sure you take advantage of the cloud while making our app feel more like a desktop app.