Best CRM for coaches

Who this guide is for: 20–50 person coaching teams

As a coaching team of 20-50 people, managing your collective client base, tracking progress across multiple coaches, and keeping your business operations organized can become overwhelming as your practice scales. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system designed for growing coaching organizations can help your team stay on top of client relationships, coordinate scheduling across coaches, track team goals, and automate follow-ups—all in one centralized platform. The right CRM allows your coaching team to focus more on delivering valuable coaching sessions while keeping your expanding business running smoothly and efficiently.

In this blog post, we'll explore the best CRM options for coaching teams like yours, highlighting tools that will help you manage your growing client base effectively and scale your coaching practice with seamless team collaboration.

Why you need a CRM

The right CRM system can have a transformative impact on how your coaching team of 20-50 people manages client relationships, streamlines processes, and drives coordinated growth. One of the biggest challenges facing growing coaching teams is creating a single source of truth for the thousands of contacts spread across multiple team members, platforms, and touchpoints. Without centralized contact management, your coaches constantly lose valuable time switching contexts, searching for client notes across different systems, and verifying if contact information is current. A robust CRM designed for mid-sized teams can provide real-time contact synchronization across your entire coaching staff, bringing together everyone from email inboxes to social media platforms into one unified system.

Challenges without a CRM

Managing a growing coaching team without a CRM creates significant bottlenecks that hinder your business's efficiency and scalable growth. In fact – your 20-50 person team might already be experiencing these critical challenges.

• Team disorganization: Coordinating client interactions and coaching schedules across multiple team members becomes chaotic without centralized systems.
• Missed opportunities: Without unified lead management, potential clients can fall through the cracks between different coaches and departments.
• Inefficient team processes: Manual data entry and fragmented task management consume valuable time that could be spent on high-value coaching activities.
• Lack of team insights: Difficulty tracking performance metrics and client progress across your entire coaching organization.
• Inconsistent team communication: Managing communication across multiple coaches and platforms leads to client confusion and internal misalignment.

Benefits of a CRM

With the right CRM integrated into your coaching team's workflow, there are substantial advantages you can expect that will drive efficiency improvements across your 20-50 person organization, from individual coach productivity to streamlined operational management.

• Centralized team information: All client and coach data is stored in one accessible platform, enabling seamless collaboration across your entire team.
• Enhanced team efficiency: Automate routine tasks across your coaching staff, freeing up time for strategic client-focused activities.
• Improved client relationships: Track client interactions across multiple coaches and personalize communication to boost satisfaction and retention.
• Better team decision-making: Gain comprehensive insights from team analytics to make informed decisions about resource allocation and growth strategies.
• Increased team sales: Streamline your sales process across coaches and follow up on leads more effectively with coordinated team efforts.
• Consistent team communication: Ensure all 20-50 team members are aligned with integrated communication tools and shared visibility.

How to boost your coaching efficiency with a CRM

There are several strategic ways your coaching team of 20-50 people can leverage a CRM to boost operational efficiency and drive coordinated growth. Below is a comprehensive overview of how your mid-sized coaching organization can implement CRM best practices. You may find that there are elements here that align with your current team processes, or strategies you may want to adapt or build upon.

1. Map your process

Defining and tracking the stages of your team's coaching process is crucial for streamlining operations across 20-50 coaches. A robust CRM can help your team map out each phase, from initial client inquiry to final coaching session completion, ensuring consistency across all team members. By visualizing your collective workflow, your coaching organization can identify bottlenecks, optimize each step for team efficiency, and ensure a smooth client experience regardless of which coach they work with.

2. Lead qualification

Assessing and qualifying leads effectively across your coaching team is essential for maximizing your organization's potential and ensuring optimal resource allocation. Use your CRM to score leads based on criteria such as engagement level, readiness to commit, and specific coaching needs, then intelligently distribute qualified prospects among your 20-50 team members. This helps your coaching staff prioritize high-potential clients and ensures each coach can tailor their approach to clients' unique requirements.

3. Outreach and follow-up

Coordinated automated email and LinkedIn campaigns can significantly enhance your team's outreach efforts while maintaining consistency across your 20-50 person organization. Set up personalized email sequences for new leads, automated follow-up reminders for ongoing clients, and re-engagement campaigns for inactive contacts that work seamlessly across your entire coaching staff. This ensures consistent communication standards and helps your team maintain strong relationships with clients regardless of individual coach availability.

4. Nurture existing business relationships

Effective nurturing strategies implemented across your coaching team can lead to significant upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Use your CRM to segment your collective client base and coordinate targeted content delivery that addresses evolving needs across your 20-50 person organization. For example, systematically offer advanced coaching programs to existing clients or introduce complementary services that enhance their coaching experience through coordinated team efforts.

How to evaluate and choose a CRM

With numerous CRMs on the market designed for different team sizes and use cases – it's easy for growing coaching organizations to feel overwhelmed. To help your 20-50 person team with the decision-making process, we've put together essential evaluation criteria to ensure you find the right solution that scales with your coaching business.

1. Define your requirements

When selecting the best CRM for your coaching team of 20-50 people, it's crucial to identify key features that will support your growing organization's collaborative needs. Look for functionalities such as multi-user client management, team scheduling coordination, integrated communication tools, and comprehensive performance tracking across all coaches. These features will help streamline your team operations and enhance client interactions, ensuring your coaching staff can focus more on high-value activities and less on administrative coordination.

Key features of a CRM for coaches

• Automated team processes: Streamlines tasks by automating repetitive workflows across your 20-50 person coaching organization.
• Contact enrichment: Automatically finds leads, prospects, and clients' email addresses and contact information for your entire team, enhancing collective efficiency.
• Structured team pipeline: Tracks prospects and clients through defined stages with visibility across all coaches, ensuring process clarity and team effectiveness.
• Coordinated email sequences: Increases team communication efficiency with follow-up templates and automated sequences that work consistently across all coaches.
• LinkedIn team integration: Seamlessly imports prospects from LinkedIn for multiple team members and tracks conversations within the CRM across your coaching organization.
• Team reporting & forecasting: Provides essential data analysis and predictive insights across your 20-50 person team for better resource planning and growth strategies.

2. Budget considerations

Balancing cost and return on investment is vital when choosing a CRM for your 20-50 person coaching team. Assess your organizational budget and consider both initial setup costs and ongoing monthly expenses for your entire team. Look for CRM solutions that offer volume pricing or team discounts while providing robust features that justify the investment across your coaching staff. Remember, the right CRM can significantly improve your team's efficiency and client satisfaction, ultimately leading to higher revenue that more than offsets the monthly cost per user.

3. Selection process

Researching and selecting the right CRM vendor for your coaching team involves several critical steps. Start by reading reviews and testimonials from other mid-sized coaching organizations similar to your 20-50 person structure. Attend webinars or demos offered by CRM providers to get firsthand experience with features relevant to team collaboration and scalability. Additionally, evaluate the vendor's customer support capabilities and training resources, as these are crucial for smooth implementation and ongoing success across your coaching organization.

4. Get a demo

Make sure you thoroughly test the CRM platforms you've shortlisted with your coaching team's specific workflow requirements. Use this evaluation period to assess how well each CRM aligns with your 20-50 person team's needs, including multi-user functionality, collaboration features, and integration capabilities with tools your coaches already use. Pay attention to user interface consistency, team permission settings, and overall performance under the load of your team size. You can often get personalized demos focused on team use cases, so mention your specific coaching team requirements during the call. Get started with a demo of folk here, to see how it can help scale your 20-50 person coaching business.

👉🏼 Try folk now to organize your team's contacts and never miss a follow-up

3 tips for implementing a CRM

To ensure your new CRM integrates seamlessly with your 20-50 person coaching team's workflow from day one, we suggest keeping these three strategic tips front of mind during implementation.

1. Import your data in your new CRM

Transitioning your coaching team to a new CRM can be seamless if you start by consolidating and importing all existing client data from across your 20-50 person organization. Most enterprise-capable CRMs allow you to export data from multiple sources and team members as CSV files from your current systems. This approach ensures you won't need to manually import each coach's contact details individually – and you can leverage advanced contact enrichment features to fill in missing information across your entire client database.

2. Create your first pipeline

Once your team's consolidated data is imported, the next critical step is creating standardized pipelines that work across your 20-50 person coaching organization. For coaching teams, this should include consistent stages such as 'New Lead', 'Initial Team Consultation', 'Coach Assignment', 'Proposal Sent', 'Client Onboarding', and 'Active Coaching Relationship'. Tailoring these stages to your specific team coaching process will help you track and manage client interactions consistently across all coaches.

3. Explore its integrations

To fully optimize your CRM for your coaching team's collaborative workflow, explore the available integrations that enhance team productivity. Features like Chrome web extensions mean your 20-50 coaches can capture client information directly into your shared CRM without leaving web pages they're working on, ensuring consistent data entry across your entire team.

The 5 best CRMs for coaches

1. folk

folk is a modern CRM platform specifically designed for managing contacts, workflows, and relationships in growing teams, offering customizable pipelines, AI-driven tools, and seamless integrations that make it ideal for coaching organizations of 20-50 people. folk CRM excels at scaling with mid-sized teams, providing the collaborative features and multi-user functionality that coaching businesses need as they grow from small practices to substantial organizations.

Key features

• Contact enrichment: Automatically enriches contact details across your entire coaching team by finding emails and LinkedIn URLs, enabling efficient outreach coordination without manual data entry or additional per-user costs for email services.
• Team contact management and sync: Consolidate all contacts from multiple coaches' inboxes and social media platforms into one unified system, organizing them into collaborative pipelines accessible by your entire 20-50 person team.
• Social media integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, X and more across your coaching team, track client interactions within folk CRM, and use standardized templates for consistent, streamlined communication.
• Team mail merge and email sequences: Full email sync compatible with Gmail and Outlook across all team members, access to shared templates and tracking features, enabling your coaching team to manage all communications from one centralized CRM.
• AI-powered team features: AI tools assist your coaching organization in managing contacts and relationships, automating routine tasks across team members, and suggesting coordinated actions to improve collective productivity.
• Comprehensive integrations: Beyond Zapier and Make, folk offers an open API and native integrations like Kaspr and Allo (call leads), Salesforge (LinkedIn and multichannel outreach), and PandaDoc (contracts and e-signatures), enabling connections to thousands of tools.
• Mobile and tablet team access: Enable your coaching team to take folk CRM on the go with full iOS and Android functionality, allowing coaches to find contacts instantly and view or take notes while working with clients remotely.

Pros

• Exceptional team usability: folk CRM is renowned for its intuitive interface that makes it accessible even to non-technical team members, with quick onboarding and minimal learning curve across your entire 20-50 person coaching organization.
• Complete team solution: folk CRM streamlines your coaching team's workflow by allowing coordinated contact imports from LinkedIn, automatic email discovery, collaborative outreach through customizable email sequences, and shared interaction tracking, eliminating the need for multiple tools and saving significant costs across your team.
• Full team customization: Make folk CRM work perfectly for your coaching organization through custom fields, collaborative pipelines, team dashboards, and coordinated automation workflows that scale with your 20-50 person team.
• Extensive team integrations: In addition to Zapier and Make, folk includes an open API and native integrations (Kaspr, Allo, Salesforge, PandaDoc), so teams can connect folk to virtually any platform and automate workflows end-to-end.

Cons

• Advanced reporting and analytics: folk provides pipeline and deal-stage analytics, revenue forecasting with weighted probabilities, and performance breakdowns by owner, channel, industry, region, or any custom field—giving leaders detailed team dashboards.

Price and plans

You can try folk CRM for your coaching team with a 14-day free trial. After evaluation, monthly or annual subscription plans for your 20-50 person organization are as follows.

• Standard: $20 per coach, per month.
• Premium: $40 per coach, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $60 per coach, per month with enterprise features for larger coaching teams.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot CRM is a comprehensive, scalable platform offering integrated tools for managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations, though it can become complex and expensive for mid-sized coaching teams.

Key features

• Marketing hub: Includes email marketing, ad tracking, landing pages, and lead generation tools, useful for attracting new coaching prospects and engaging current clients across team members.
• Sales hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting for coaching teams to manage client progress and conversion tracking across multiple coaches.
• Service Hub: Offers customer service tools like ticketing, live chat, and knowledge bases, though may be more complex than needed for most coaching team workflows.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize prospects with predictive scoring to improve team efficiency, allowing coaching organizations to focus collective resources on the most promising opportunities.
• Team dashboards and reports: Create dashboards and reports to track metrics across your coaching team, though this can become expensive as team size grows to 20-50 people.

Pros

• Comprehensive platform: Offers extensive features across marketing, sales, and service, suitable for coaching teams with complex operational needs.
• Robust free plan: Provides basic CRM features at no cost, though limitations become apparent as teams grow to 20-50 people.
• Integrated marketing tools: Seamless integration between sales and marketing functions, beneficial for coaching teams running complex campaigns.
• Advanced automation: Powerful automation capabilities for larger coaching organizations with complex workflows.
• Learning resources: HubSpot Academy offers extensive training materials, valuable for onboarding larger coaching teams.

Cons

• Prohibitive cost scaling: Pricing becomes extremely expensive for 20-50 person coaching teams, with professional tier costing $450 per month and enterprise at $1,500 monthly.
• Complexity overkill: Advanced features create unnecessary complexity for most coaching team workflows, requiring extensive training for team adoption.
• Feature limitations in affordable tiers: Essential customization and collaboration features require expensive upgrades, making it cost-prohibitive for mid-sized coaching teams.
• Steep learning curve: Complex interface and advanced features require significant time investment for team training and adoption.
• Add-on cost escalation: Many useful features come as expensive add-ons, quickly inflating costs beyond budget for growing coaching organizations.

Price and plans

Prices and plans on the CRM suite for annual subscriptions are as follows, making it expensive for 20-50 person coaching teams.

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

3. Streak

Streak is a customer relationship management tool that integrates directly with Gmail, designed for smaller teams but with limitations for coaching organizations of 20-50 people requiring more sophisticated collaboration and pipeline management capabilities.

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Key features

• Basic CRM functionality within Gmail,
• Limited shared pipelines for team collaboration,
• Email tracking and simple templates,
• Google Workspace integrations,
• Mobile access with reduced functionality.

Pros

• Gmail integration: Direct integration with Gmail can be convenient for coaching teams already heavily using Google Workspace.
• Simple interface: Easy to use for coaches familiar with Gmail, requiring minimal training for basic functions.
• Quick setup: Fast implementation for small coaching teams needing basic CRM functionality.
• Email tracking: Basic email tracking features help monitor client communication effectiveness.
• Collaboration features: Some team sharing capabilities, though limited for larger coaching organizations.

Cons

• Limited scalability: Insufficient advanced features for coaching teams of 20-50 people, lacking comprehensive analytics, detailed reporting, and robust pipeline management.
• Gmail dependency: Complete reliance on Gmail creates limitations for coaching teams using diverse email platforms or requiring standalone CRM functionality.
• Inadequate mobile experience: Mobile app offers limited functionality compared to desktop, problematic for coaching teams needing full CRM access while traveling or meeting clients.
• Integration constraints: Fewer integrations compared to dedicated CRM systems, limiting effectiveness for coaching businesses using multiple software tools.
• Email interface clutter: Managing large client databases within Gmail becomes unwieldy for 20-50 person coaching teams, leading to organization problems and reduced efficiency.

Price and plans

• Pro: Starts from $49 per user, per month.
• Pro +: Starts from $69 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

4. Capsule CRM

Capsule CRM is a user-friendly customer relationship management platform designed for small businesses, but with limitations for coaching teams of 20-50 people requiring more advanced collaboration features and comprehensive analytics.

Key features

• Contact management: Manage up to 30,000 contacts, suitable for mid-sized coaching teams but with basic collaboration features.
• Basic activity reporting: Track interactions and progress with clients, though analytics are limited for larger team insights.
• Task management: Organize and prioritize tasks across coaching team members, but lacks advanced workflow automation.
• Client milestone tracking: Monitor important milestones in clients' journeys, though reporting capabilities are basic for team-level analysis.
• Simple workflow automation: Basic automation for repetitive tasks, but insufficient for complex coaching team workflows.

Pros

• Clean interface: Intuitive design makes it accessible for coaching teams, though may lack advanced features needed for 20-50 person organizations.
• Contact management: Solid tools for managing client relationships, suitable for smaller coaching teams with basic collaboration needs.
• Customization options: Some ability to customize fields and pipelines, though limited compared to more robust CRM solutions.
• Integration capabilities: Integrates with popular applications like G Suite and Microsoft 365, providing basic workflow connectivity.
• Affordable entry point: Competitive pricing for smaller teams, though costs can escalate for larger coaching organizations.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Lacks comprehensive analytics, detailed reporting, and complex automation needed by coaching teams of 20-50 people for effective scaling and management.
• Basic team collaboration: Insufficient collaboration features for larger coaching organizations requiring sophisticated team coordination and shared visibility.
• Limited customer support: Primarily email-based support without live chat or phone assistance, problematic for coaching teams needing immediate technical help.
• No built-in communication: Lacks integrated phone or SMS functionality, requiring additional tools for coaching teams managing direct client communication.
• Scalability limitations: While suitable for small coaching businesses, becomes inadequate for rapidly growing teams requiring more comprehensive CRM capabilities and team management features.

Price and plans

• 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.

5. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a web-based CRM focused on sales pipeline management for small businesses, though it may lack some collaborative features needed by coaching teams of 20-50 people.

Key features

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools for managing prospects and clients, helping coaching teams track interactions though with limited team collaboration features.
• Sales automation: Automate routine tasks such as follow-ups and email sequences, though capabilities are more basic than needed for larger coaching teams.
• Email integration: Sync emails and use templates within the CRM, ensuring client interactions are tracked in one place across team members.
• Reporting and analytics: Real-time analytics and custom reports for tracking progress, though team-level insights may be limited for 20-50 person organizations.
• Customization and security: Customize pipelines and user permissions, though team management features may be insufficient for larger coaching organizations.

Pros

• Visual pipeline interface: Intuitive pipeline management that helps coaching teams track client progress, though team collaboration features are basic.
• Sales-focused approach: Strong emphasis on sales pipeline management, useful for coaching teams focused on client acquisition and conversion.
• Customization options: Ability to tailor pipelines and fields to specific coaching processes, though advanced team features may be limited.
• Integration capabilities: Connects with various third-party tools, providing some workflow connectivity for coaching teams.
• Automation features: Streamlines repetitive tasks like follow-up emails, though automation capabilities are more basic than enterprise solutions.

Cons

• Limited team collaboration: Insufficient collaboration features for coaching organizations of 20-50 people, lacking advanced team coordination and shared visibility capabilities.
• Basic reporting in lower tiers: Limited analytics and reporting features in affordable plans, requiring expensive upgrades for comprehensive team insights needed by larger coaching organizations.
• No integrated marketing tools: Lacks built-in email marketing and advanced outreach features, requiring additional tools for comprehensive coaching team operations.
• Limited customer support: Customer support availability is restricted, which can be problematic for coaching teams needing immediate assistance during business hours.
• Cost escalation with add-ons: Additional features and integrations quickly increase costs, making it expensive for 20-50 person coaching teams requiring comprehensive functionality.

Price and plans

Annual subscription plans are as follows, which can become expensive for larger coaching teams.

• 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.

Conclusion

Choosing the right CRM for your 20-50 person coaching team can dramatically enhance operational efficiency, client management capabilities, and coordinated growth across your organization. For coaching teams of this size, folk CRM stands out as the optimal choice, offering the perfect balance of collaborative features, intuitive usability, and cost-effective scaling that growing coaching businesses need. While HubSpot provides comprehensive features at a prohibitive cost, Streak lacks the advanced team functionality, Capsule CRM has limited scalability, and Pipedrive requires expensive add-ons for team features, folk CRM delivers everything your coaching organization needs in one affordable, user-friendly platform. By implementing folk CRM, your coaching team can streamline processes, improve client relationships, and drive coordinated growth that scales perfectly with your 20-50 person organization. Try folk for free here.

👉🏼 Try folk now to manage contact-based reminders with your coaching team

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FAQ

What is the best CRM for a 20–50 person coaching team?

The best fit balances collaboration, shared pipelines, email/LinkedIn sync, and analytics without high complexity. Popular options include folk, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Capsule, and Streak. For ease of use and value, consider folk.

Do coaching teams need a CRM?

Yes. A CRM centralizes contacts, notes, schedules, and pipelines across coaches, reducing duplicate work, preventing missed follow-ups, and improving retention and visibility as the organization scales.

What features should a coaching CRM include?

Multi-user contact management, shared pipelines, role-based permissions, email and LinkedIn integration, templates and sequences, reporting/forecasting, mobile access, and integrations for contracts and billing.

How much does a CRM cost for coaching teams?

Typically $20–$129 per user/month. Examples: folk from $20, Capsule from $21, Pipedrive from $24, Streak from $49; HubSpot can exceed $450 at pro tiers. Total cost varies by features, seats, add-ons, and billing term.