Several activities are included in a sales process like lead generation, lead conversion and creating good relationship with a prospect or actual customer. This entire process is quite challenging. Thus, companies opt for CRM tools which help them analyse prospective customers; with the tools, they can determine how to serve them appropriately. All of these are important for start-ups because they are in initial stages and are seeking to achieve a growth in terms of acquiring a greater number of customers and retaining them.

CRM systems help businesses to manage their customer relationships by increasing conversions and carrying out marketing campaigns effectively. They facilitate businesses in offering excellent customer support, organizing customer information, lead reporting, segmenting customers and lead nurturing.

The question arises which is the best CRM software for start-up businesses. The answer to this depends on the following factors: customization, ease of use, customer support, cost-efficiency and ability to integrate with other tools.

Salesforce is the best CRM for start-ups as it can be easily customized according to the specific requirements of a business. It has various CRM capabilities that can be used to create good relationships with customers and achieve a business growth. Salesforce offers robust automation of sales procedures, rapid lead searching and efficient internal customer management processes. In addition, Salesforce users can benefit from AppExchange, which is the biggest business application marketplace worldwide. It includes various apps that have been adapted for Salesforce. These apps can be integrated into Salesforce to enhance its capability. AppExchange is beneficial for start-ups because of its easy accessibility; it helps in expanding the functionalities of a platform simply by installing free apps from the marketplace.

Another benefit for start-ups is that it offers a basic edition called Lightning Essentials. This tool was developed specifically for start-ups and small businesses, making the adoption of a CRM-service setup for workflows simple. Salesforce Essentials has out-of-box tools that makes it easier to install the system. It also offers users’ access to “Trailhead”, which is a gamified online learning tool that helps them understand CRM, sales, services and other areas of a CRM platform in detail.

Some of the benefits of Salesforce CRM for start-ups are listed below:

• It can be customized to fulfil the needs and requirements of any kind of business.
• It enables seamless integration to facilitate business growth.
• It makes it possible to keep a track of the journey of the customer to offer personalized marketing campaigns to them.
• It has various capabilities for obtaining customer data.
• It functions as an effective email marketing tool
• It is possible to integrate it with other robust tools like Slack, Marketo, HubSpot, etc.
• It can also be integrated with third-party platforms like Google and Facebook.

When start-ups invest into a good CRM solution, they are able to manage customer data efficiently which enables them to grow and increase their customer base. Salesforce is one of the many CRM solutions available for small businesses. However, it is widely considered as the best because of its comprehensive solutions and ease to use interface that makes it simple for start-ups and small businesses to implement it.