CRM overview for 20–50 person investment banking teams

As an investment banker in a growing firm of 20-50 professionals, managing complex client relationships, deal pipelines, and investor communications is essential to your team's success. A powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system tailored for investment banking can help you streamline these tasks by organizing client data, tracking deal progress, and automating follow-ups—all in one platform. With the right CRM, your mid-size team can improve efficiency, enhance client engagement, and ensure no opportunity is missed while maintaining the agility that sets you apart from larger institutions.

In this blog post, we'll explore the best CRM options for investment banking teams of 20-50 people, highlighting tools that will help you manage client relationships, track deals, and grow your portfolio effectively while scaling your operations efficiently.

Why you need a CRM

For investment banking teams of 20-50 professionals, managing client relationships and deals without the right tools creates significant bottlenecks that can limit growth. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can streamline your processes and enhance your firm's performance at this critical growth stage.

Challenges without a CRM

Mid-size investment banking teams face several challenges when managing their operations without a CRM that can scale with their growth.

• Disorganization across team members: Information scattered across multiple platforms makes it difficult for 20-50 team members to track client interactions and deal progress consistently.
• Missed opportunities in a competitive market: Without a centralized system accessible to your entire team, important follow-ups and potential deals can slip through the cracks, costing significant revenue.
• Inefficient processes that don't scale: Manual data entry and fragmented systems slow down your workflow, reducing overall team efficiency as you grow beyond startup size.
• Lack of insight for strategic decisions: Without integrated data accessible to department heads and senior bankers, making informed decisions becomes challenging, impacting your strategic planning.
• Inconsistent communication across teams: Disjointed communication channels between different team members lead to misunderstandings and weakened client relationships.

Benefits of a CRM

Fortunately, having the right CRM in your tech stack addresses these challenges and brings numerous benefits specifically valuable for growing investment banking teams of 20-50 professionals.

• Centralized information for team collaboration: All client and deal information is stored in one place accessible to your entire team, making it easily manageable across departments.
• Enhanced efficiency at scale: Automation of routine tasks frees up time for more strategic activities, boosting productivity across your 20-50 person team.
• Improved customer relationships through consistency: Better tracking of client interactions across team members leads to personalized service and stronger relationships.
• Better decision-making with team insights: Comprehensive data analytics provide insights that help senior bankers and team leads make informed strategic decisions.
• Increased sales through team coordination: Streamlined processes and better client management across your growing team lead to more closed deals and higher revenue.
• Consistent communication across departments: Integrated communication tools ensure that all 20-50 team members are on the same page, enhancing collaboration and client satisfaction.

How to evaluate and choose a CRM

With numerous CRMs in the market, it can be challenging to distinguish which one is the right fit for your 20-50 person investment banking team and your business goals. To help you with your decision-making process, we've put together key tips specifically relevant for growing teams like yours.

1. Define your requirements

Before you get started with that shortlist, make sure you clarify what your mid-size team's requirements are. Use this as a chance to identify the key features needed for 20-50 professionals. Look for CRM solutions that offer robust client management, deal tracking, compliance management, and detailed analytics. Features such as integration with financial data sources, custom reporting, secure communication channels, and team collaboration tools are essential for maintaining client trust and operational efficiency across your growing organization.

Key features of a CRM for investment banking

• Automated processes: Streamlines tasks by automating repetitive workflows across your team, saving time and reducing human error while ensuring consistency.
• Contact enrichment: Automatically finds leads, investors, customers, and investment opportunities' email addresses and contact information, enhancing efficiency for your 20-50 person team and ensuring everyone has up-to-date information.
• Structured pipeline: Tracks leads, investors, customers, and investment opportunities through defined stages accessible to your entire team, ensuring process clarity and effectiveness across departments.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Increases communication efficiency and consistency with follow-up templates and automated sequences, ensuring timely and consistent engagement with clients across your growing team.
• LinkedIn connection: Seamlessly imports leads, investors, customers, and investment opportunities from LinkedIn and tracks conversations within the CRM, allowing team members to collaborate effectively on prospects.
• Analytics: Provides essential data analysis and predictive insights for better planning across departments, allowing senior team members to make informed decisions based on real-time data from your entire 20-50 person operation.

2. Budget considerations

Balance between cost and return on investment when selecting a CRM for your 20-50 person investment banking team. While a higher-priced CRM might offer advanced features, ensure that these align with your firm's specific needs and will provide substantial value across your growing team. Consider total cost of ownership, including implementation, training for 20-50 users, and ongoing support.

3. Selection process

The shortlisting process can be tricky for growing teams. We suggest looking into reviews on G2 and Product Hunt, checking out client testimonials from similar-sized firms, and looking for vendors who offer customizable solutions tailored to investment banking teams of 20-50 people and who have a proven track record with growing financial services organizations.

4. Get a demo

Before committing to a CRM solution, it's crucial to get a demo to understand its features and how it aligns with your mid-size investment banking team's needs. A demo allows you to see the software in action with multiple users, ask specific questions about scaling to 20-50 team members, and evaluate its user interface for your growing organization. This step ensures that the CRM will meet your firm's requirements and streamline your processes effectively across all departments. Get started with a demo of folk to see how it can enhance your investment banking operations for teams of 20-50 professionals.

👉🏼 Try folk now to see folk in action and streamline deal tracking for your 20–50 person investment banking team

3 tips for implementing a CRM

To make the most of your implementation process for your 20-50 person team, we suggest keeping the following three tips front of mind.

1. Import your data in your new CRM

Transitioning to a new CRM involves migrating your existing data across your entire team. Export your data as CSV files from your current CRM or spreadsheets. This step ensures that all your valuable client information, notes, and other critical data from across your 20-50 person organization are seamlessly transferred to your new CRM, minimizing disruptions and maintaining continuity for all team members.

2. Create your first pipeline

Set up your initial pipeline with statuses tailored to the investment banking process and accessible to your entire team. This might include stages such as "Prospecting," "Due Diligence," "Negotiation," and "Closed Deal." Customizing your pipeline to reflect your specific workflow helps different departments within your 20-50 person team track the progress of deals and manage client relationships more effectively.

3. Onboard your team

Successful CRM implementation hinges on your entire team's adoption across all 20-50 members. Provide comprehensive training sessions to ensure that everyone understands how to use the CRM effectively, from junior analysts to senior bankers. Highlight features that will benefit their daily tasks and address any concerns different departments might have. Continuous support and feedback loops will foster a smooth transition and maximize the CRM's benefits for your growing investment banking firm.

The 5 best CRMs for investment banking

1. folk

folk is the ideal CRM solution for investment banking teams of 20-50 people, offering a perfect balance of simplicity and powerful features. This modern platform excels at managing contacts, workflows, and relationships with customizable pipelines, AI-driven tools, and seamless integrations that enhance deal management and prospecting for growing teams.

Key features

• Contact enrichment: Automatically enriches contact details by finding emails and LinkedIn URLs, enabling efficient outreach across your 20-50 person team 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 across departments.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Full email sync compatible with Gmail and Outlook, with access to templates and tracking features, enabling all team members to manage communications directly from the CRM.
• AI-powered features: AI tools assist your growing team in managing contacts and relationships, automating routine tasks, and suggesting actions to improve productivity across all departments.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing your 20-50 person team to centralize workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Pros

• Perfect for 20-50 person teams: folk's intuitive interface makes it accessible to all team members with quick onboarding and minimal learning curve, ideal for growing organizations.
• All-in-one solution for growing teams: folk streamlines workflow by allowing team members to import contacts from LinkedIn, automatically find emails, reach out through customizable sequences, and track interactions in pipelines, eliminating multiple tools and reducing costs.
• Full personalization for departments: Custom fields, pipelines, and workflows can be tailored to different functions within your 20-50 person organization.
• Team permissions control: Choose which team members can access specific data and functions, crucial for growing investment banking teams.
• Seamless integrations: folk integrates with over 6,000 apps, allowing your entire team to centralize workflow without disrupting existing processes.

Cons

• Reporting and analytics: folk provides advanced analytics, including pipeline and deal stage analytics, revenue forecasting with weighted probabilities, and performance breakdowns by owner, channel, industry, region, or any custom field.
  

Price and plans

You can try folk for free with a 14-day free trial, perfect for testing with your entire team. After that, monthly or annual subscription plans are cost-effective for 20-50 person teams.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month - ideal for growing teams.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month - perfect for 20-50 person investment banking teams.
• Custom: Starts from $60 per user, per month - for teams requiring advanced customization.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot CRM is a comprehensive platform that can work for larger teams, though it may be complex for mid-size investment banking teams of 20-50 people who need streamlined operations.

Key features

• Sales Hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting, though may be overwhelming for teams of 20-50 people seeking simplicity.
• Marketing Hub: Includes extensive email marketing, ad tracking, and lead generation tools that may exceed the needs of focused investment banking teams.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring, though this feature may be overly complex for streamlined investment banking operations.
• Operations Hub: Syncs and automates business processes, but requires significant setup time for mid-size teams.
• Customizable dashboard and reports: Offers comprehensive dashboards, though these may be more complex than needed for 20-50 person teams.

Pros

• Comprehensive platform: HubSpot offers extensive features for teams that need a full marketing and sales suite, though this may be excessive for focused investment banking operations.
• Integration capabilities: Integrates with many tools, though setup complexity can be challenging for 20-50 person teams.
• Automation tools: Provides powerful automation, but may require significant training for mid-size teams to utilize effectively.
• Reporting features: Offers detailed reporting, though complexity may overwhelm teams seeking straightforward analytics.
• Support options: Provides various support channels, though premium support can be costly for growing teams.

Cons

• Expensive for growing teams: HubSpot's pricing can quickly become prohibitive for 20-50 person investment banking teams as features are added.
• Complexity for mid-size teams: The extensive feature set can be overwhelming and unnecessary for focused investment banking operations.
• Learning curve: Requires significant training time that growing teams may not have available.
• Feature restrictions in lower tiers: Many useful features require expensive upgrades, making it costly for teams of 20-50 people.
• Setup complexity: Initial configuration requires considerable time investment from teams that need quick implementation.
  

3. Salesforce

Salesforce is a robust enterprise CRM platform that may be excessive for investment banking teams of 20-50 people, offering extensive scalability that most mid-size teams don't require.

Key features

• Enterprise ecosystem: Salesforce offers a comprehensive platform that may be overly complex for teams of 20-50 people who need focused functionality.
• Extensive customization: Highly customizable but requires significant technical expertise that mid-size investment banking teams may not have in-house.
• AI integration: Salesforce Einstein provides advanced AI features, though these may be unnecessary for straightforward investment banking operations.
• Integration capabilities: AppExchange offers numerous integrations, but setup complexity can overwhelm growing teams.
• Enterprise security: Robust security features designed for large enterprises, which may be excessive for 20-50 person teams.

Pros

• Comprehensive features: Offers extensive functionality, though most features exceed the needs of 20-50 person investment banking teams.
• Scalability: Can handle massive growth, though this level of scalability isn't necessary for mid-size teams.
• Integration options: Numerous third-party integrations available, but complexity may overwhelm growing teams.
• Advanced analytics: Powerful reporting tools that may be more complex than needed for straightforward investment banking operations.
• Support community: Large user community, though finding relevant advice for mid-size teams can be challenging.

Cons

• Prohibitive cost for growing teams: Salesforce's pricing is extremely expensive for 20-50 person investment banking teams, often exceeding budget constraints.
• Overwhelming complexity: The extensive feature set creates unnecessary complexity for teams that need streamlined operations.
• Requires technical expertise: Setup and customization often require dedicated IT resources or consultants, adding significant costs for mid-size teams.
• Long implementation time: Complex setup process can take months, delaying productivity for growing teams that need quick results.
• Overkill for mid-size operations: Most features are designed for enterprise use and remain unused by 20-50 person teams.
  

4. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a straightforward CRM that can work for smaller investment banking teams, though it lacks some advanced features that growing teams of 20-50 people typically need.

Key features

• Lead and deal management: Offers basic tools for managing opportunities, though may lack sophistication needed by growing investment banking teams.
• Sales automation: Provides workflow automation for routine tasks, though features may be limited for complex investment banking processes.
• Email integration: Basic email sync and tracking, but lacks advanced communication features needed by 20-50 person teams.
• Reporting and analytics: Standard reporting tools that may be insufficient for detailed investment banking analysis.
• Customization options: Limited customization compared to what growing investment banking teams typically require.

Pros

• Simple interface: Easy to navigate, though may lack features needed as teams grow from 20-50 people.
• Pipeline focus: Good visual pipeline management, but may be too simplistic for complex investment banking deals.
• Quick setup: Fast implementation, though limited customization may not meet growing team needs.
• Basic automation: Includes essential automation features, but may be insufficient for sophisticated investment banking workflows.
• Affordable entry point: Lower initial cost, though advanced features require expensive upgrades.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Lacks sophisticated tools needed by investment banking teams of 20-50 people for complex deal management.
• Basic reporting: Reporting capabilities are insufficient for detailed investment banking analysis and team coordination.
• Restricted customization: Limited ability to adapt to specific investment banking processes and team structures.
• No built-in marketing tools: Lacks integrated marketing features that growing teams often need for investor relations.
• Limited support hours: Support availability may not meet the needs of busy investment banking teams.
  

Price and plans

Pipedrive's annual subscription plans can become expensive for teams of 20-50 people when advanced features are needed.

• 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 comprehensive features that can work for some teams, though it may be overly complex for investment banking teams of 20-50 people who need streamlined operations.

Key features

• Contact management: Manages client information and interactions, though interface complexity may slow down team adoption.
• Customizable dashboards: Allows dashboard creation, but customization complexity may overwhelm 20-50 person teams.
• Pipeline management: Provides deal tracking functionality, though setup can be complicated for growing teams.
• Workflow automation: Automates processes but requires significant configuration time that busy investment banking teams may not have.
• AI assistant (Zia): Offers AI features, though these may be unnecessarily complex for straightforward investment banking operations.

Pros

• Extensive customization: Highly customizable, though complexity may be excessive for teams of 20-50 people who need quick implementation.
• Zoho ecosystem: Integrates with other Zoho products, though this may create unnecessary complexity for focused investment banking operations.
• Multi-channel communication: Supports various communication channels, but setup complexity can be overwhelming for growing teams.
• AI capabilities: Includes AI features, though these may be more advanced than needed for straightforward investment banking processes.
• Scalable platform: Can handle growth, but initial complexity may hinder adoption by busy investment banking teams.

Cons

• Steep learning curve: Complex interface and extensive options create barriers for 20-50 person teams that need quick user adoption.
• Complex setup process: Initial configuration requires significant time investment that growing investment banking teams may not have available.
• Performance issues: Reports of slow performance with larger datasets can hinder productivity for busy teams.
• Data migration challenges: Moving data from existing systems can be difficult and time-consuming for teams with limited IT resources.
• Technical requirements: Advanced customizations require technical expertise that 20-50 person investment banking teams may not have in-house.
  

Price and plans

Zoho's free plan is limited to three users, insufficient for teams of 20-50 people. Annual subscription plans are as follows.

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

Conclusion

For investment banking teams of 20-50 people, folk CRM emerges as the clear winner, offering the perfect balance of powerful features and simplicity that growing teams need. While other CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce may be overly complex and expensive for mid-size teams, and solutions like Pipedrive may lack the advanced features needed for sophisticated investment banking operations, folk CRM provides exactly what teams of 20-50 professionals require. Folk's intuitive interface ensures quick adoption across your entire team, while its comprehensive contact enrichment, LinkedIn integration, and customizable pipelines streamline operations without overwhelming users. The all-in-one approach eliminates the need for multiple tools, reducing costs and complexity—crucial advantages for growing investment banking firms. With competitive pricing designed for teams your size and seamless integrations that work with your existing workflow, folk CRM enables your 20-50 person team to enhance efficiency, improve client relationships, and scale operations effectively. Try folk for free here and discover why it's the optimal CRM solution for investment banking teams of your size.

👉🏼 Try folk now to never miss a follow-up and centralize client & deal workflows across your firm

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FAQ

What is the best CRM for investment banking?

The best CRM depends on team size and workflows. For 20–50 person teams, folk fits well with contact enrichment, LinkedIn import, pipelines, and email sequences. Alternatives include HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Zoho.

What features should a CRM for investment banking include?

Core needs: stage-based deal pipelines, contact enrichment, LinkedIn import, email sequences, analytics and forecasts, custom fields, team permissions, and secure data handling. Integrations with email and workflow tools are essential.

How much does a CRM cost for investment banking teams?

Typical pricing ranges $20–$150 per user/month. For mid-size teams, folk plans run about $20–$60 per user/month. Consider total cost of ownership, including implementation, data migration, training, and support.

How to choose a CRM for a 20–50 person investment banking team?

Define requirements, map workflows, and list must-have integrations. Shortlist vendors, review case studies, run a live demo and trial, compare TCO, and pilot with a small group before rolling out to all users.