Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses
LinkedIn has evolved beyond a mere networking platform: It's now the largest battlefield for B2B sales.
Selecting the right CRM can be the deciding factor in whether you conquer your pipeline or get lost amid the competition. When comparing HubSpot and Close CRM, the key consideration isn't solely the features; it's about which platform provides the strategic advantage for cultivating relationships, monitoring engagement, and transforming LinkedIn interactions into successful deals.
While HubSpot and Close CRM are popular choices, if you're seeking a CRM tailored specifically for LinkedIn workflows, folk CRM frequently establishes new standards.
Why a LinkedIn-Focused CRM Is Essential for 2025
LinkedIn has transformed into the epicenter of B2B sales. By 2025, nearly every key decision-maker you aim to connect with will be active there, sharing insights, engaging with colleagues, and making real-time purchasing decisions. If your sales strategy isn't fine-tuned for LinkedIn, you're missing out on valuable opportunities. A CRM designed for LinkedIn is no longer a luxury; it's fundamental for effective prospecting, relationship-building, and pipeline expansion.
The strength of such a CRM lies in its ability to facilitate a multi-touch sales journey. Sending a single cold email and hoping for results is no longer sufficient. With the right CRM, you can effortlessly track, manage, and engage prospects across multiple channels:
- Initiate conversations on LinkedIn. Engage, comment, and foster familiarity where your buyers are already active.
- Follow up through email or calls. Your CRM maintains the context, ensuring each interaction feels personalized.
- Cultivate relationships over time. By synchronizing LinkedIn activity, you can determine the optimal moments to engage or close deals.
In 2025, the teams that succeed will be those that connect with prospects in their online environments. LinkedIn is where business interactions take place. Without a CRM designed to fully harness its capabilities, every outreach effort becomes slower, less focused, and more challenging to scale.
What is Hubspot?
HubSpot is a premier all-in-one CRM that consolidates marketing, sales, and service functionalities into one unified platform. Its user-friendly tools simplify contact management, pipeline tracking, and automated outreach. With built-in analytics and smooth integrations, teams can enhance performance and scale effortlessly.
What is Close CRM?
Close CRM is specifically designed for inside sales, integrating calling, email, and automation within a single platform. Its built-in power dialer and sequence workflows significantly enhance productivity and connection rates. With real-time reporting and customizable pipelines, Close empowers small teams to achieve consistent revenue growth.
Feature comparison of Hubspot and Close CRM
AI Follow-ups
HubSpot lacks native LinkedIn profile capture, meaning you can't seamlessly add a contact from LinkedIn to your CRM with a single click. Additionally, the HubSpot Chrome extension does not integrate with LinkedIn, leaving users to rely on third-party tools like Surfe or Leadjet to transfer LinkedIn profiles into HubSpot. This extra step can hinder efficiency for those conducting outbound prospecting on LinkedIn, as HubSpot is not designed to facilitate smooth data collection from the platform.
Similarly, Close CRM does not support native LinkedIn profile capture. When you identify a prospect on LinkedIn, you'll need to manually input their information into Close or use an external tool like Surfe or Leadjet. Furthermore, Close lacks a Chrome extension that interacts with LinkedIn or adds buttons directly on profiles, which can lead to additional steps for sales representatives who depend on LinkedIn for lead generation, particularly in outbound-focused workflows.
Automated Contact Enrichment
HubSpot does not enhance leads using LinkedIn data. Even with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration, you can only access LinkedIn profile information within HubSpot; syncing or enriching contact records is not possible. Any enrichment, such as email, phone numbers, or job titles, must come from other HubSpot sources like email tracking or integrated tools. If your main leads are sourced from LinkedIn, be prepared to manually update CRM fields or rely on a third-party enrichment layer.
Similarly, Close CRM does not enrich leads with LinkedIn data. There is no integration with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, nor is there an automatic sync for job titles or profile links. Although Close can connect with third-party data providers, none are directly linked to LinkedIn. Therefore, if you capture a lead from LinkedIn, you'll need to manually update the CRM fields or utilize enrichment tools outside of Close.
Smart Fields
HubSpot does not natively track LinkedIn activity. If you send an InMail or DM via LinkedIn, it won't show up in the contact timeline unless you log it manually. While the Sales Navigator integration provides insights on mutual connections and job changes, it lacks interaction history, leading teams to work in silos and making LinkedIn communications invisible to the CRM. This is a significant drawback when LinkedIn is a key component of your sales process.
Close does not offer message templates for LinkedIn DMs. Although you can create email and call scripts within the platform, these templates are not accessible when writing messages on LinkedIn profiles. To maintain consistent messaging in your LinkedIn outreach, you'll have to resort to manual copy-pasting, which not only slows down representatives but also leads to inconsistencies.
AI-Powered Message & Sequence Generation
HubSpot lacks native tracking for LinkedIn activities. InMails or DMs sent through LinkedIn won’t show up in the contact timeline unless entered manually. While the Sales Navigator integration provides insights into mutual connections and job changes, it does not capture interaction history, leading to siloed operations where LinkedIn communications remain hidden from the CRM. This is a significant drawback for teams that rely on LinkedIn as part of their sales strategy.
Similarly, Close CRM does not track LinkedIn activities. Messages, connection requests, and DMs sent via LinkedIn are not included in the contact timeline, meaning that while Close excels in email and calling workflows, LinkedIn activity falls completely outside its tracking capabilities. Reps are required to log these interactions manually to gain a comprehensive view of prospect engagements. For businesses that consider LinkedIn a vital channel, this lack of visibility can be a considerable obstacle.
Next Best Action
The HubSpot Chrome extension is compatible with Gmail and Outlook, but not with LinkedIn. It won't appear or function when you're viewing LinkedIn profiles, and there are no features for capturing LinkedIn contacts, enriching data, or messaging through the extension. If you seek a seamless LinkedIn workflow directly in your browser, HubSpot lacks that capability, requiring you to use integrations or external tools instead.
Similarly, Close CRM does not offer a Chrome extension for LinkedIn. Its focus is primarily on emails, calls, and tasks rather than social prospecting. There’s no Close overlay for LinkedIn browsing, and you can't capture leads or interact with them directly from the browser. To enhance your workflow across both platforms, you'll need to use an external extension to bridge the gap.
folk CRM: The Best CRM Alternative for LinkedIn!
folk is the sales assistant that teams have eagerly anticipated. This CRM, designed to be simple, integrated, and proactive, handles repetitive tasks so your reps can concentrate on what truly matters: fostering genuine relationships on LinkedIn and beyond. With an impressive 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk stands out as one of the most reliable AI-powered CRMs for lean and ambitious teams.
Crafted specifically for startups, agencies, and sales-focused teams, folk makes AI practical, efficient, and easy to navigate. It assists you in swiftly turning LinkedIn connections into qualified opportunities while maintaining an effortless workflow.
1. Instant LinkedIn Prospect Capture with the folkX Extension
Prospecting on LinkedIn can be time-consuming, but folk simplifies the process. With the folkX Chrome extension, you can effortlessly capture leads from LinkedIn or Sales Navigator, adding them directly to your CRM with just one click. Whether saving a single profile or hundreds from a filtered search, all details—names, job titles, companies, and emails—are automatically captured in your database.
Say goodbye to copy-pasting and juggling multiple spreadsheets. Your entire prospect list is organized in one central location, fully synced with your workflows, allowing your team to accelerate their efforts and focus on converting connections into opportunities instead of wasting hours on manual data entry!
2. Smart Data Enrichment and Always-Clean Contact Profiles
Connecting with decision-makers is effective only when you possess accurate and complete data. folk streamlines this by automatically enriching your LinkedIn contacts with verified emails, company details, phone numbers, and roles. With a single click, you access everything needed to personalize your outreach and initiate meaningful conversations.
The platform employs intelligent deduplication to maintain a clean and reliable database, even with multiple team members adding the same contacts. Instead of wasting time on messy spreadsheets or trying to determine lead ownership, folk ensures your data remains organized and up-to-date, making every LinkedIn outreach relevant and impactful.
3. Personalized LinkedIn Outreach with AI-Generated Message Templates
folk revolutionizes your approach to LinkedIn prospects by providing AI-powered message templates directly in your LinkedIn inbox. Upon opening a conversation, you receive smart suggestions for connection requests, follow-ups, and outreach messages tailored to your prospect’s profile and context.
You can easily edit and personalize these messages before sending them manually, ensuring compliance with LinkedIn's policies. There's no risky automation or copy-pasting between tools—everything happens where the conversation begins, making your outreach faster, more relevant, and much more natural.
Summary: folk CRM's LinkedIn Features
- Capture leads instantly with the folkX Chrome extension, importing LinkedIn and Sales Navigator profiles in one click, with every detail automatically organized in your CRM.
- Effortlessly enrich contact data by retrieving verified emails, company details, and roles while maintaining a clean and accurate database through smart deduplication.
- Send smarter LinkedIn messages using AI-powered templates directly within the LinkedIn inbox, allowing faster personalization of outreach without the risks of automation!
Conclusion
Selecting the right CRM is crucial for maximizing your B2B sales efforts on LinkedIn. HubSpot excels in comprehensive marketing and sales features, while Close CRM focuses on enhancing inside sales productivity. However, for teams aiming to leverage LinkedIn's power, folk CRM stands out as a superior option. It offers instant lead capture, smart data enrichment, and AI-generated message templates, all designed to streamline LinkedIn outreach and foster meaningful connections.
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