A CRM is software dedicated to managing client relationships with the company, specifically at a commercial level.
It helps manage these relationships throughout the sales process.
How does it do it?
By centralizing all information regarding the following in a single place:
- Prospects
- Business opportunities
- Interactions (calls, sent emails, etc.)
This way, all client information, their history, and progress in the sales cycle are in one single place.
In short, a sales CRM acts as an intelligent database.
This way, your sales team can see the status of every opportunity at a glance.
Plus, they will know exactly what actions to take next.
Because the team can see which stage of the sales funnel each potential client is in.
Of course, it is also possible to schedule follow-up reminders, send quotes, or log meeting notes.
When you use a good CRM, the sales process will become more effective.
Why does your business need a sales CRM?
We can derive the importance of a CRM directly from its benefits.
· Centralized information:
All customer data is unified in one place, accessible to everyone.
This allows all departments (sales, marketing, and customer service) to work together with updated information.
· Opportunity tracking:
Since all information is available, it is easy to track every sales opportunity.
Schedule tasks and reminders to follow up with the client.
This way, you avoid losing opportunities due to a lack of follow-up.
· Automation of routine tasks:
Many repetitive tasks (like sending welcome emails, assigning leads, or logging activities) can be automated with a CRM.
As a result, your sales team can focus on selling, rather than on bureaucratic tasks that can be automated.
· Better understanding of the sales process:
The CRM provides reporting and analysis tools.
You will be able to see which clients are in each phase of the funnel, the conversion rate, sales volume, etc.
The interesting thing about all this is that you can see if there are bottlenecks in your sales funnel, and thus eliminate them or optimize the process as much as possible.
· Personalization of the customer relationship:
When you have the history of interactions and preferences for each client, you can adapt your communication and offers to their needs.
You can see which products they are most interested in.
What they bought last, when, and what messages they have received.
Key features of a good sales CRM
Now let’s look at the key features a good CRM should include.
Of course, you will have to consider the ones that are most important for your business.
You might only need some of them, so it wouldn’t make sense to pay for them all.
· Ease of use and adoption
If the CRM is too complex or difficult to use, it is very likely that the sales team won’t use it effectively.
That is why it is important to look for a system that is easy to use.
Even if the tool offers training, which is good, having a CRM that is inherently easy to use is a very attractive feature.
· Adaptability to your sales process
Every business has its own unique sales process.
Therefore, you should look for software that allows you to customize the sales funnel stages and customer information fields, for example:
- Company
- Main contact name
- Job title
- Industry
- Company size
- Lead source
And that allows you to create automations or filters based on different criteria.
· Automation of repetitive tasks
It is necessary that certain tasks can be automated, such as:
- Sending follow-up emails
- Creating call reminders
- Moving leads between stages
Automating these actions is important because this way sales opportunities are not lost.
Nothing is overlooked.
So the sales team can focus on selling instead of other management actions.
· Real-time analysis and reporting
Of course, you need the sales CRM to offer reports on a dashboard of key performance indicators (KPIs).
Otherwise, how could you make decisions?
You need to be able to see the sales funnel, how many leads there are in total, how many in each phase, conversion statistics, etc.
That is how you will be able to optimize your sales process.
· Integrations with other tools
Ideally, the CRM can integrate with other tools you have.
For example, through an API.
Or through an integration service like Make.com.
What could you do if you use this integration?
For instance, you could synchronize CRM contacts with an emailing tool like Mailrelay to nurture leads via newsletters and automated emails.
· Technical support
Of course, at some point, you will need help and support.
Always look for tools and software that offer support that can help you.
How to choose the best sales CRM for your company?
We have seen that there are many things to keep in mind when choosing a CRM that is truly useful for what your company needs.
It can be a bit complex.
That is why we are now going to look at the basic steps you could take to choose one.
We hope this helps you make the best decision.
· Define your needs and goals
It seems simple, but you have to be careful.
Before comparing CRM providers, detail what you really need.
For instance
- Do you want to improve lead tracking?
- Automate email sending and tasks?
- Get better sales reports?
Why do you have to be careful on this point?
Because you have to focus on the features you really need.
Without looking for a solution that has many extra functions you don’t actually need.
But at the same time, it is advisable to consider some features that, although you don’t need right now, you will foreseeably need in the near future.
Finding the balance is not easy.
And yet it is essential so that you don’t overspend, or end up without features you need.
· Prioritize key features
To better focus on the previous point, think about which features are critical to have, and which are simply add-ons you would like to include.
The CRM you choose must have the essentials for your business.
The rest will just be spending money.
Sometimes, a simpler solution that covers your needs 100%, without excesses, will be the best choice.
· Test the tool with your team
Almost all sales CRMs offer free demos or trial periods.
Take advantage of these trial options to evaluate the software in a real-world setting, and see if it fits your needs and those of your team.
The list of stated features is not enough; if you can, try it out.
· Evaluate cost and scalability
CRM prices vary quite a bit.
Some charge per user per month, others by number of contacts or for extra features.
Calculate how much you could invest in the CRM and the potential benefit you could obtain.
In other words, don’t look only at the price, but at the benefit you will get from using the tool.
Sales CRM + Email marketing: the winning combination
For clients to advance in the sales funnel, more or less constant communication is necessary.
That is where email marketing plays a fundamental role.
The union between a sales CRM and an email marketing tool can drive this progress.
At Mailrelay, we offer the largest free account on the market.
It allows you to send up to 80,000 emails per month to up to 20,000 contacts for free.
This is much more than what most competitors offer.
Including dedicated technical support in all its plans, even the free account.
Remember that in other tools, support is usually reserved for advanced plans.
Mailrelay also incorporates advanced features that usually require paid plans on other platforms.
For example, it allows you to create automation flows (welcome sequences, drip emails, autoresponders) to nurture leads automatically based on different behaviors or segments.
It also includes A/B testing to optimize the content of your mailings.
You can use custom fields to segment your audience.
This way you can personalize each message according to your subscribers’ data.
· Another strong point of Mailrelay is the real-time statistics system
With click maps and heat maps that allow you to see which links in your emails generate the most interest.
These statistics will help you improve your campaigns to get the best possible results.
Most popular sales CRMs and their integration with Mailrelay
Below we will tell you about three of the most popular CRMs and what integration possibilities they have with Mailrelay.
· SumaCRM
SumaCRM is a simple CRM geared towards small businesses.
It is designed to facilitate contact management, sales, and communications.
It allows you to import contacts from Excel, Gmail, or Outlook and centralize all customer data in one place.
The tool synchronizes the entire team’s emails to archive them automatically in each client file, and offers comprehensive sales opportunity management with a simplified pipeline.
Users can create opportunities (deals) and follow them up in stages (open, won, lost), maintaining complete control over the commercial process with the help of dashboards and real-time reports.
Integration with Mailrelay:
SumaCRM doesn’t have a specific plugin, but it offers direct integration via SMTP to use Mailrelay for sending mass emails.
In practice, this is achieved by configuring the Mailrelay SMTP within SumaCRM, so that emailing campaigns created using the CRM are sent through Mailrelay.
· Pipedrive
Pipedrive es un CRM de ventas muy popular, enfocado en ayudar a los equipos comerciales a gestionar su embudo de ventas de forma visual y efectiva.
Pipedrive is a very popular sales CRM, focused on helping sales teams manage their sales funnel visually and effectively.
The platform offers tracking of all sales activities: users receive notifications and task reminders so that no opportunity is lost.
Integration with Mailrelay:
Pipedrive doesn’t offer a specific native integration with Mailrelay, but it is compatible via automation platforms like Make.com.
Leveraging these integration tools (iPaaS), it is possible to synchronize data between Pipedrive and Mailrelay to automate workflows.
For example, you can configure it so that when a new contact or potential client is created in Pipedrive, a new subscriber is automatically registered in a Mailrelay list.
In practice, this integration via Make ensures that the CRM contact base is synchronized with Mailrelay (for example, keeping subscriber lists updated) and that email marketing actions are coordinated with the stages of the sales process in Pipedrive, all without manual intervention.
· HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM is a complete and modular CRM platform (part of the HubSpot suite) designed to centralize and automate both sales and marketing for companies.
It was created to remove friction in the commercial process and offer a fluid experience to sales teams.
It includes a fully customizable visual sales pipeline, contact and company management, and powerful productivity tools supported by AI.
Integration with MailRelay
In the case of HubSpot, there is no official direct integration with Mailrelay within its predefined apps, but it is totally viable to connect both platforms via Make.com.
HubSpot’s powerful API and Mailrelay’s REST API facilitate this connection through code-free automated flows.
For example, using Make you can implement a scenario where every new contact created in HubSpot CRM automatically generates a new subscriber in Mailrelay.
To sum up
To choose the best CRM, you first have to see what options you need and identify your requirements.
And from there search, and if possible, test the tool that best fits those needs.
A suitable and well-implemented CRM will allow you to organize your sales cycle and get the most out of your marketing efforts.