Best CRM for B2B startups

When you're growing a B2B startup, managing client relationships and keeping your sales pipeline on track can quickly get out of hand. That’s where the right sales stack comes in. A strong CRM helps you centralize contacts, automate follow-ups, and track every deal in one place—so you can stay focused on what matters: growth. In this post, we’ll break down the best CRM for B2B startups, highlighting tools that help you streamline your sales process, strengthen client communication, and scale with confidence.

Why you need a CRM

In a busy B2B startup team, staying organized and efficient is crucial – but can be a challenge. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can be the game-changer you need to scale your business.

Challenges without a CRM

Managing a B2B startup without a CRM can lead to several challenges that hinder your growth and efficiency. Chances are, you might already be experiencing these challenges.

• Disorganization: Without a centralized system, information gets scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and notes.
• Missed opportunities: Lack of follow-up and tracking can result in losing potential clients and deals.
• Inefficient Processes: Manual data entry and fragmented workflows slow down operations.
• Lack of insight: Inadequate data analysis makes it hard to make informed decisions.
• Inconsistent communication: Poor coordination leads to mixed messages and a lack of unified customer experience.

Benefits of a CRM

Fortunately, having the right CRM in your tech stack can help you address these challenges, and bring a lot of added benefits.

• Centralized information: All customer data is stored in one place, making it easily accessible.
• Enhanced efficiency: Automated processes reduce manual work and save time.
• Improved customer relationships: Better tracking and follow-ups lead to higher customer satisfaction.
• Better decision-making: Data-driven insights help you make strategic choices.
• Increased sales: Streamlined sales processes and better lead management boost revenue.
• Consistent communication: Ensure uniform messaging and a cohesive customer experience.
  
  

How to boost your B2B startup's efficiency with a CRM

There are a few ways a CRM can help you streamline your workflow and boost your efficiency. Below we've put together some popular use cases of a CRM in B2B.

1. Map your process

Defining and tracking the stages of your process is crucial for B2B startups. Start by identifying key stages such as lead generation, qualification, outreach, and follow-up. Use your CRM to create a visual pipeline that mirrors your sales process. This helps in monitoring progress and identifying bottlenecks, ensuring that every lead is properly managed and moved through the sales funnel efficiently.

2. Lead qualification

Assessing and qualifying leads is essential for B2B startups to focus on high-potential opportunities. Implement scoring criteria within your CRM based on factors like company size, industry, and engagement level. Use automated tools to gather data and score leads, allowing your sales team to prioritize their efforts on the most promising prospects. Regularly review and adjust your qualification criteria to align with your evolving business goals.

3. Outreach and follow-up

Automated email and LinkedIn campaigns can significantly enhance your outreach efforts. Set up personalized email sequences within your CRM to nurture leads and keep them engaged. Use LinkedIn integration to connect and follow up with prospects, investors, and customers. Schedule follow-up reminders to ensure timely communication, increasing the chances of converting leads into customers. Leverage CRM analytics to track the effectiveness of your campaigns and optimize your strategies accordingly.

4. Nurture existing business relationships

Upselling and cross-selling are vital strategies for maximizing revenue from existing relationships. You can use your CRM to segment your contacts and tailor your communication based on their previous interactions and purchase history. Create targeted campaigns to introduce new products or services that complement their current solutions. Regularly engage with your existing leads, investors, and customers through personalized content and offers, fostering long-term relationships and driving repeat business.

How to evaluate and choose a CRM

With a lot of CRMs on the market to go through, it can be overwhelming to figure out which CRM platform is right for your business goals. To help you out with your decision making process, we've put together some tips. We suggest using this as a foundation, and adding or taking away things according to your needs.

1. Define your requirements

Before diving into the sea of CRM options, it's crucial for B2B startups to identify the key features that align with their business needs. Consider functionalities like lead management, sales automation, customer segmentation, and integration capabilities with other tools you already use. Tailoring your CRM to your specific workflow can streamline operations and enhance productivity.

Key features of a CRM for B2B startups

• Automated processes: Streamlines tasks by automating repetitive workflows. This is crucial for B2B startups looking to maximize efficiency and reduce manual labor.
• Contact enrichment: Automatically finds Leads, Investors, Customers, and Investment opportunities' email addresses and contact information, enhancing efficiency and ensuring you have the most up-to-date data.
• Structured pipeline: Tracks Leads, Investors, Customers, and Investment opportunities through defined stages, ensuring process clarity and effectiveness. This helps in managing your sales funnel more efficiently.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Increases communication efficiency with follow-up templates and automated sequences. This feature is particularly useful for nurturing leads and maintaining relationships without manual intervention.
• Social media integration: Seamlessly imports leads, investors, customers, and investment opportunities from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, X and more. Tracks contacts within the CRM for you to leverage your social selling. This integration is invaluable for startups leveraging LinkedIn for networking and growth.
• Analytics: Provides essential data analysis and predictive insights for better planning. Accurate reporting and forecasting help in making informed decisions and strategizing for future growth.

2. Budget considerations

For B2B startups, balancing cost and return on investment is essential. While some CRM solutions might offer extensive features, they can also come with hefty price tags. Look for affordable CRM for B2B startups that provide a good mix of essential features without breaking the bank. Remember, the best CRM tools for B2B startups should offer scalability to grow with your business, ensuring long-term value.

3. Selection process

Choosing the right CRM vendor involves thorough research. Start by reading reviews and case studies to understand the experiences of other B2B startups. Engage in demo sessions and ask for references. Evaluate the vendor's customer support, as this can be a critical factor in your CRM's success. The top CRM for new B2B companies often comes from vendors who understand the unique challenges faced by startups.

4. Get a demo

Once you've shortlisted potential CRM platforms, it's time to try and compare them. Take advantage of free trials to explore each platform's usability and effectiveness. Pay attention to how well the CRM integrates with your existing tools and processes. Make a decision based on which CRM solution offers the best combination of features, ease of use, and scalability for your B2B startup. Get started with a demo of folk to understand how it can help with your needs.

3 tips for implementing a CRM

At this stage – it's time to get excited. To help you make the most of it, we've put together some tips that will help you introduce your new CRM to your team.

1. Import your data in your new CRM

Transitioning to a new CRM requires importing your existing data. Export your data as a CSV file from your current CRM so that you can avoid adding contacts manually. Proper data migration ensures a smooth transition and minimizes disruptions.

2. Create your first pipeline

Setting up your first sales pipeline is crucial. For B2B startups, this pipeline should reflect your specific sales process stages, such as Lead Qualification, Proposal Sent, Negotiation, and Closed Deal. Tailoring the pipeline to your business model ensures better tracking and management of potential deals.

3. Onboard your team

Once your CRM is set up, it's time to get your team on board. Provide comprehensive training sessions to familiarize them with the new system. This includes demonstrating how to input data, track customer interactions, and utilize the CRM’s features effectively. Proper onboarding ensures that your team can leverage the CRM to its fullest potential, driving growth and efficiency for your B2B startup.

The 5 best CRMs for B2B startups

1. folk

folk is a modern CRM platform for managing contacts, workflows, and relationships, offering customizable pipelines, AI-driven tools, and integrations to enhance deal management and prospecting.

Key features

• Contact enrichment: Automatically enriches contact details by finding emails and LinkedIn URLs, enabling efficient outreach without manual data entry or additional costs for email services.
• LinkedIn integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn, track conversations within folk, and use templates for quicker, streamlined communication.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• AI-powered features: AI tools assist in managing contacts and relationships, automating routine tasks, and suggesting actions to improve productivity.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Pros

• Ease of use: folk is praised for its intuitive interface, making it accessible even to non-technical users with quick onboarding and a minimal learning curve.
• All-in-one: folk streamlines your workflow by allowing you to import contacts from LinkedIn, automatically find their emails, reach out through customizable email sequences, and track interactions in a pipeline, eliminating the need for multiple tools and saving time and money.
• LinkedIn integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn, track conversations within folk, and use templates for quicker, streamlined communication.
• Customizability: Custom fields, pipelines, and workflows.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Cons

• Reporting: Currently lacks reporting features, but there are plans for future implementation.
  

Price and plans

You can try folk for free with a 14-day free trial. After that, a monthly or annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $60 per user, per month.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot CRM is a user-friendly, scalable platform offering integrated tools for managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations efficiently.

Key features

• Marketing Hub: Includes email marketing, ad tracking, landing pages, and lead generation tools, crucial for attracting and nurturing leads.
• Sales Hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting, essential for managing B2B sales cycles effectively.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring to improve sales efficiency and focus efforts on high-potential opportunities.
• Operations Hub: Syncs and automates business processes across different systems, streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity.
• Service Hub: Offers customer service tools like ticketing, live chat, and knowledge bases, ensuring excellent post-sale support and customer satisfaction.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: HubSpot is known for its intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible for users of all skill levels.
• Comprehensive free plan: Offers a robust free version that includes essential CRM features, making it ideal for small businesses and startups.
• Seamless integration with marketing tools: HubSpot integrates smoothly with its marketing, sales, and service hubs, creating a unified platform for inbound marketing and customer management.
• Automation capabilities: Provides powerful automation tools for tasks like email marketing, lead nurturing, and sales workflows, helping businesses save time and improve efficiency.
• Scalability: The platform is highly scalable, offering different tiers that cater to growing businesses, from small startups to large enterprises.

Cons

• High cost at higher tiers: HubSpot’s pricing can become expensive as you move to higher tiers, which may be prohibitive for small businesses as they scale.
• Limited customization in free plan: The free plan and lower tiers have limited customization options, which can restrict flexibility for growing businesses.
• Complexity in advanced features: Some advanced features, such as custom reporting and workflows, have a steep learning curve and may require additional training.
• Email marketing limits: Email marketing functionality in the free plan is restricted by limits on the number of emails you can send, which can be a drawback for businesses with larger lists.
• Additional costs for add-ons: Many useful features, like advanced CRM capabilities and integrations, come as paid add-ons, increasing the overall cost.

Price and plans

HubSpot's CRM suite is available as an annual subscription plan.

• Starter: $15 per user, per month.
• Professional: $450 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $1,500 per user, per month.
  

3. Capsule CRM

Capsule CRM is a user-friendly customer relationship management platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers a clean, intuitive interface that helps users manage customer relationships, track sales pipelines, and organize tasks and communications efficiently.

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Key features

• 1 sales pipeline,
• 50 custom fields,
• 30,000 contacts,
• Key integrations,
• Workflow automation.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: Capsule CRM offers a clean and intuitive design, making it easy for users to navigate and quickly access important features. This simplicity reduces the learning curve, making it an excellent choice for B2B startups and teams without extensive CRM experience.
• Contact and sales management: The platform provides robust tools for managing leads, investors, customers, and investment opportunities. This helps startups maintain a clear view of their relationships and sales pipeline.
• Customization options: Capsule CRM allows users to customize fields, tags, and pipelines to fit their specific business needs, offering flexibility in how they manage data and processes.
• Integration capabilities: Capsule integrates with various popular third-party applications, including G Suite, Microsoft 365, Mailchimp, and QuickBooks, allowing users to create a seamless workflow across their business tools.
• Affordability: Capsule CRM offers competitive pricing with a free plan for basic needs and affordable premium options, making it accessible for B2B startups.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Compared to some of its competitors, Capsule CRM lacks more advanced features such as in-depth analytics, comprehensive automation, and complex reporting capabilities. This can be a limitation for larger businesses or those with more complex CRM needs.
• Basic email marketing capabilities: While Capsule integrates with email marketing tools like Mailchimp, its built-in email marketing capabilities are relatively basic. Users seeking more advanced email marketing features may need to rely on third-party integrations.
• Limited customer support: Capsule CRM primarily offers support through email and an online help center. The lack of live chat or phone support might be a downside for users who prefer immediate assistance or more direct support options.
• No built-in phone or SMS integration: Unlike some other CRMs, Capsule does not have built-in phone or SMS functionality, which could be a disadvantage for businesses that rely heavily on direct communication with clients through these channels.
• Scalability concerns: While Capsule CRM is great for small to medium-sized businesses, companies that are rapidly growing or have more complex CRM requirements might find the platform less scalable as they expand.
  

Price and plans

Capsule's annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Starter plan: Starts from $21 per user, per month.
• Growth plan: Starts from $38 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $60 per user, per month.
• Ultimate plan: Starts from $75 per user, per month.

4. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a web-based CRM for small businesses, offering lead management, automation, email integration, and customizable pipelines to optimize sales.

Key features

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage leads, investors, customers, and investment opportunities, helping teams act quickly on new prospects.
• Sales automation: Workflow automation to handle repetitive tasks like lead routing, follow-ups, and email sequences, allowing sales teams to focus on closing deals and nurturing investor relationships.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM, ensuring no lead or investor communication is missed.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Real-time data analytics and custom reporting tools to track sales performance, forecast revenue, and gain actionable insights into lead conversion and investor engagement.
• Customization and security: Options to customize pipelines, fields, and user permissions, with robust security measures to protect sensitive data related to leads, customers, and investors.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: The intuitive and visually appealing interface makes it easy for users to navigate and manage their sales pipelines, crucial for startups with limited time and resources.
• Sales pipeline focus: Designed specifically for managing sales pipelines, offering a visual approach that helps sales teams track deals, investor interactions, and activities effectively.
• Customization: Allows for a high degree of customization, enabling users to tailor the platform to their specific sales processes with custom fields and workflows, beneficial for adapting to unique startup needs.
• Affordability: Offers competitive pricing, making it accessible to startups without sacrificing essential CRM features, ensuring a good return on investment.
• Automation features: Includes automation tools that streamline repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails and moving deals through the pipeline, saving time and boosting productivity for startup teams.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Lacks some of the more advanced CRM features, such as extensive marketing automation and AI capabilities, which may be available in other platforms but are often not essential for early-stage startups.
• Basic reporting in lower tiers: The reporting and analytics features in the basic plans are somewhat limited, requiring upgrades to access more in-depth insights, which can be a drawback for data-driven startups.
• No built-in email marketing: Does not include built-in email marketing features, requiring users to integrate with third-party email tools for such functionality, adding to the complexity for startups.
• Limited customer support hours: Customer support is not available 24/7, which can be inconvenient for startups operating in different time zones or needing immediate assistance during critical times.
• Price increases with add-ons: The cost can increase quickly when additional features or integrations are added, making it less cost-effective for startups with growing needs and limited budgets.
  

Price and plans

Pipedrive's annual subscription plan basis is as follows.

• Essential plan: Starts from $24 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $44 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $79 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

5. Zoho

Zoho is a CRM system with a strong sales focus. It has journey orchestration, sales process management, and workflow automation features. There's also something for marketing teams, including event management and customer segmentation.

Key features

• Sales automation: Automates sales tasks like lead management, deal tracking, and follow-up actions, crucial for managing leads and customers.
• Customizable dashboards and reports: Create and customize dashboards and reports for in-depth analytics, helping to track investment opportunities and sales performance.
• Lead and contact management: Manages customer information, tracks interactions, and segments contacts, essential for targeting leads, investors, and customers.
• Workflow automation: Automates routine tasks and processes to improve efficiency and reduce manual effort, ideal for startups with limited resources.
• AI-powered sales assistant (Zia): Provides predictive analytics, task automation, and intelligent suggestions to enhance sales performance and investor relations.

Pros

• Affordability: Competitive pricing with various tiers, making it accessible to B2B startups.
• Customization: Extensive customization options allow startups to tailor the CRM to their specific needs, including custom fields and workflows.
• Integration with Zoho suite: Seamless integration with other Zoho products creates a comprehensive ecosystem for managing different business functions.
• Multi-channel communication: Supports email, phone, social media, and live chat, enabling startups to manage all interactions from a single platform.
• AI-powered features: Zia provides intelligent insights, predictive analytics, and task automation, helping to improve sales and investor relations.

Cons

• Steep learning curve: Extensive customization options can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a significant time investment to master the platform.
• Complex setup: Initial setup and configuration can be complex, particularly for startups without technical expertise.
• Performance issues: Occasional reports of slow performance, especially with large datasets or complex operations, can hinder productivity.
• Limited third-party integrations: Integration with third-party applications can be limited or require additional effort, which may be a challenge for startups relying on various tools.
• Feature limitations in lower tiers: Lower-priced plans may lack advanced features, pushing startups to upgrade to more expensive tiers for essential functionality.
  

Price and plans

Free plan limited to three users suitable for small businesses. After that, an annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Professional: $35 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $50 per user, per month.

Conclusion

Choosing the best CRM for your B2B startup is a critical decision that can significantly impact your business's efficiency and growth. Each CRM platform offers unique features and benefits tailored to different needs and budgets. Whether you prioritize automation, contact management, or sales pipeline tracking, there is a CRM solution that fits your requirements. Folk stands out with its intuitive interface, LinkedIn integration, and AI-powered tools, making it an excellent choice for startups looking to streamline their operations and enhance their customer relationships. Remember, the right CRM will not only help you manage your current customers but also scale with your business as it grows. Don't hesitate to try folk for free here and see how it can transform your B2B startup.

Need a helping hand? Use our free tool to find your perfect CRM match.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What do B2B startups use as a CRM?

B2B startups often use CRM solutions like folk, Hubspot, Capsule CRM, Pipedrive, and Zoho to manage their customer relationships, streamline their sales processes, and enhance operational efficiency.

Do I need a CRM?

Yes, depending on the complexity of your process. A CRM can help you manage customer data, automate workflows, and improve communication, making it essential for scaling your B2B startup efficiently.

How much does a CRM cost?

The cost of a CRM varies widely, typically ranging from $20 to $129 per user per month. Prices depend on the features offered and the size of your team, so it's crucial to choose a plan that fits your budget and needs.

Does folk’s CRM respond to B2B startups needs?

Yes, folk’s CRM is well-suited for B2B startups. It offers ease of use, all-in-one functionality, LinkedIn integration, customizability, and seamless integration with over 6,000 apps, making it a comprehensive tool for managing contacts, workflows, and relationships efficiently.