CRM for 20–50 person teams: overview

As a company with 20-50 employees, managing customer relationships, sales processes, and internal communications becomes increasingly complex as your team grows. A powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can help you streamline these processes, providing a centralized platform to manage leads, track customer interactions, and analyze sales performance. The right CRM can enhance collaboration across your growing team, improve customer satisfaction, and drive growth by offering the tools you need to manage your expanding operations effectively.

In this blog post, we'll explore the best CRM options for teams of 20-50 people like yours, focusing on solutions that offer scalability, robust features, and ease of use to support your business as it continues to grow.

Why you need a CRM

As a team of 20-50 people, the need to streamline operations and maximize growth is often front of mind. Making the need to implement a CRM system crucial for maintaining efficiency across your expanding workforce.

Challenges without a CRM

Your team members across different departments might already be experiencing these challenges without realising it. The challenges below are the most common ones we find amongst teams of 20-50 people without access to the right CRM in their tech stack.

• Disorganization: Managing customer data across multiple platforms with 20-50 team members leads to chaos and inconsistent information.
• Missed opportunities: Lack of a centralized system results in lost leads and sales as your team grows beyond simple spreadsheet management.
• Inefficient processes: Manual tasks consume valuable time and resources that could be better utilized by your 20-50 person team.
• Lack of insight: Inability to analyze data effectively hampers strategic decisions across departments in your growing organization.
• Inconsistent communication: Disjointed interactions with clients affect customer satisfaction when multiple team members handle the same accounts.

Benefits of a CRM

If you're unsure whether or not it is time to invest in a suitable CRM, below are a few reasons why busy teams of 20-50 people finally make the investment.

• Centralized information: All customer data in one place enhances accessibility and organization across your entire 20-50 person team.
• Enhanced efficiency: Automates routine tasks, freeing up time for strategic activities that matter most to growing teams.
• Improved customer relationships: Personalized interactions foster stronger client connections when managed consistently across team members.
• Better decision-making: Data-driven insights support informed business strategies for teams managing multiple client relationships.
• Increased sales: Streamlined processes and better lead management boost revenue for organizations with 20-50 employees.
• Consistent communication: Ensures seamless and professional client interactions regardless of which team member is handling the account.

How to boost your team's efficiency with a CRM

Wondering how a CRM can benefit your 20-50 person team more than an Excel spreadsheet? There are a few ways it can boost your efficiency at every stage of your sales process.

1. Mapping your process

Having multiple team members manually update spreadsheets with up-to-date contact information can eat up a lot of time and take your 20-50 person team away from important business priorities. But a good CRM system can help you map your process out whether you're in sales, marketing, or client management.

• Identify key stages: Break down your sales process into clear, manageable stages to ensure your CRM aligns with your team's workflow across all departments.
• Set milestones: Define specific milestones for each stage to track progress and ensure consistency across your 20-50 person team.
• Automate tracking: Use CRM features to automate the tracking of each stage, reducing manual effort and increasing accuracy for your growing team.

2. Lead qualification

You can also use your CRM as a method for assessing and qualifying leads and customers across your entire team of 20-50 people.

• Define criteria: Establish clear criteria for what constitutes a qualified lead based on your target market and business goals that all team members can follow.
• Use scoring models: Implement lead scoring models within your CRM to prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert, helping your team focus efforts effectively.
• Automate qualification: Leverage CRM automation to assess and qualify leads in real-time, ensuring timely follow-ups across your growing organization.

3. Outreach and follow-up

Instead of having individual team members manually reach out to leads and customers one by one, you can use your CRM's mail merge and email sequences features to automate this across your 20-50 person team.

• Email campaigns: Use your CRM to design and automate personalized email campaigns targeting specific segments of your leads and customers across team members.
• LinkedIn integration: Integrate your CRM with LinkedIn to manage and automate outreach campaigns directly from the platform for your entire team.
• Follow-up reminders: Set automated follow-up reminders in your CRM to ensure no lead or customer falls through the cracks when managed by different team members.

4. Nurture existing leads and customers

A CRM can also help your 20-50 person team nurture relationships with existing leads and customers consistently. You can use it to do the following.

• Segment audiences: Use your CRM to segment your existing leads and customers based on their behavior and purchase history for targeted team approaches.
• Personalized offers: Create personalized upsell and cross-sell offers tailored to each segment to increase conversion rates across your team's efforts.
• Automate campaigns: Automate nurturing campaigns within your CRM to consistently engage and convert your leads and customers across all team members.

How to evaluate and choose a CRM platform

With a lot of CRMs to choose from in a saturated market – it can feel overwhelming for teams of 20-50 people who are unsure how to proceed. Below we've outlined some processes for you to consider as part of your decision making process.

1. Define your requirements

Identifying the key features your 20-50 person team needs is crucial. Consider functionalities such as lead management, sales automation, customer service tools, and integration capabilities with existing software. Understanding your specific needs will help narrow down the best CRM for teams of 20-50 people, ensuring the solution aligns with your business goals and can handle your team size effectively.

Key features of a CRM for teams of 20-50 people

• Automated processes: Streamlines tasks by automating repetitive workflows across your entire team.
• Contact enrichment: Automatically finds leads and customers' email addresses and contact information, enhancing efficiency for your growing team.
• Structured pipeline: Tracks leads and customers through defined stages, ensuring process clarity and effectiveness across all 20-50 team members.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Increases communication efficiency with follow-up templates and automated sequences that your entire team can utilize.
• Social media integration: Seamlessly imports leads and customers from LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and more to bring all contact information within the CRM effortlessly for your team.
• Analytics: Provides essential data analysis and predictive insights for better planning across departments in your 20-50 person organization.

2. Budget considerations

Balancing cost and return on investment is vital when selecting a CRM for your 20-50 person team. Evaluate the pricing models of different platforms, considering both upfront costs and long-term value. Look for options that offer scalable pricing to match your team's growth, ensuring you get the best CRM software for your organization without overspending on unnecessary features.

3. Selection process

Researching and choosing the right CRM vendor involves several steps for teams like yours. Start by gathering recommendations and reading reviews specific to CRMs for teams of 20-50 people. Shortlist vendors with a strong reputation and proven track record in serving similar-sized organizations. Request demos and engage with sales representatives to assess their support and service levels.

4. Get a demo

Trial and comparison are essential in selecting the best CRM for teams of 20-50 people. Utilize free trials or demo versions to test the usability and functionality of different platforms. Engage your entire team in the evaluation process to gather diverse feedback from different departments. Compare features, ease of use, and customer support to make an informed decision that will drive your team's growth and efficiency. Get started with a demo of folk, and contact their sales team.

👉🏼 Try folk now to map your CRM processes and never miss a follow-up across your 20–50 person team

3 tips for implementing a CRM

1. Import your data in your new CRM

Transitioning to a new CRM can be seamless for your 20-50 person team if you import your existing data correctly. Start by exporting your data as a CSV file from your current system. Proper data migration ensures that you don't lose any critical information during the switch and that all team members have access to complete customer histories.

2. Create your first pipeline

Setting up your first pipeline is crucial for managing your sales process effectively across your 20-50 person team. For teams your size, it's essential to create a pipeline with statuses that reflect your specific business stages. Typical stages might include Lead Qualification, Proposal Sent, Negotiation, and Closed Won/Lost. This tailored approach helps in tracking the progress of deals and identifying bottlenecks across different team members.

3. Onboard your team

Finally, onboarding your 20-50 person team is a critical step in ensuring the successful implementation of your new CRM. Provide comprehensive training sessions to familiarize all team members with the CRM's features and functionalities. Encourage them to explore the software and ask questions. A well-trained team of 20-50 people can leverage the CRM to boost productivity and drive business growth effectively.

The 5 best CRMs for teams of 20-50 people

1. folk

folk is the ideal modern CRM platform for teams of 20-50 people managing contacts, workflows, and relationships, offering customizable pipelines, AI-driven tools, and integrations specifically designed to enhance deal management and prospecting for growing organizations.

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.
• Social media integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and more to bring all contact information within folk, and use templates for quicker, streamlined communication across your entire team.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling your team to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• AI-powered features: AI tools assist your 20-50 person team in managing contacts and relationships, automating routine tasks, and suggesting actions to improve productivity across departments.
• Integrations: Beyond Zapier and Make, folk provides an open API and native integrations (e.g., Kaspr, Allo, Salesforge, PandaDoc) for direct, scalable connections alongside 6,000+ app connectivity.

Pros

• Ease of use: folk is praised for its intuitive interface, making it accessible even to non-technical users within your 20-50 person team with quick onboarding and minimal learning curve.
• All-in-one solution: folk streamlines your team's 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 for your growing organization.
• Perfect scalability: Custom fields, dashboards, multiple pipelines, and workflows that scale perfectly with teams of 20-50 people without overwhelming complexity.
• Extensive integrations: Extensive integrations via folk's open API and native connectors (Kaspr, Allo, Salesforge, PandaDoc), plus Zapier and Make to reach 6,000+ apps.

Cons

• Advanced reporting and analytics are available, including pipeline and deal stage analytics, forecasting with weighted probabilities, performance breakdowns by owner, channel, industry, region, or any custom field, and revenue insights.

Price and plans

You can try folk for free with a 14-day free trial, perfect for testing with your 20-50 person team. After that, a monthly or annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month - ideal for teams of 20-50 people starting their CRM journey.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month - perfect for growing teams needing advanced features.
• Custom: Starts from $60 per user, per month - tailored for teams with specific requirements.

2. HubSpot

Hubspot CRM is a comprehensive platform offering integrated tools for managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations, though it can be complex for teams of 20-50 people to fully utilize.

Key features

• Marketing Hub: Includes email marketing, ad tracking, landing pages, and lead generation tools, though can be overwhelming for smaller teams.
• Sales Hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting for managing customer relationships.
• Service Hub: Offers customer service tools like ticketing, live chat, and knowledge bases for customer support.
• Operations Hub: Syncs and automates business processes across different systems, though requires technical expertise to implement effectively.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring, though setup can be complex for teams without dedicated specialists.

Pros

• Comprehensive features: Offers extensive functionality across marketing, sales, and service departments.
• Strong automation: Provides powerful automation tools for various business processes.
• Scalable platform: Can grow with larger enterprises, though may be overkill for teams of 20-50 people.
• Brand recognition: Well-known platform with extensive resources and community support.

Cons

• High cost at higher tiers: HubSpot's pricing becomes prohibitively expensive as teams of 20-50 people need more advanced features.
• Complexity overload: The breadth of features can be overwhelming for teams who need a streamlined, focused solution.
• Steep learning curve: Requires significant training investment for teams of 20-50 people to use effectively.
• Add-on costs: Many useful features come as paid add-ons, rapidly increasing costs for growing teams.
• Over-engineered for most teams: Many features go unused by teams of 20-50 people, making it an expensive choice for actual needs.

Price and plans

Prices and plans on the CRM suite for an annual subscription are as follows.

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

3. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM offering lead management, automation, and customizable pipelines, though it lacks the comprehensive features that teams of 20-50 people often need for broader business operations.

Key features

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage customer data and sales pipelines.
• Sales automation: Basic workflow automation for repetitive tasks and follow-ups.
• Email integration: Email sync and templates, though limited compared to more comprehensive solutions.
• Reporting and analytics: Sales performance tracking, though reporting features are basic in lower tiers.
• Pipeline customization: Customizable sales stages, though lacks broader business process management.

Pros

• Sales-focused design: Well-designed specifically for sales pipeline management.
• Visual interface: Clean, intuitive visual approach to managing deals.
• Reasonable pricing: Competitive pricing for basic sales functionality.
• Easy to learn: Straightforward interface with minimal learning curve.

Cons

• Limited scope: Primarily focused on sales, lacking comprehensive features for teams managing multiple business functions.
• Basic reporting: Reporting features are limited, especially in lower-tier plans that teams of 20-50 people might choose.
• Missing modern features: Lacks advanced features like contact enrichment and social media integration that growing teams expect.
• Integration limitations: Fewer integrations compared to more comprehensive platforms like folk CRM.

Price and plans

An 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.

4. Capsule CRM

Capsule CRM is a basic customer relationship management platform designed primarily for small businesses, though it may lack the advanced features and scalability that teams of 20-50 people require as they grow.

Key features

• Contact management: Basic tools to manage up to 30,000 contacts, though without advanced enrichment capabilities.
• Basic workflow automation: Simple automation for routine tasks, though limited compared to modern solutions.
• Sales reporting: Basic sales performance reports, though lacking advanced analytics.
• Limited integrations: Integrates with essential tools like G Suite and Microsoft 365, but fewer options than comprehensive platforms.
• User roles: Basic user permission controls for team management.

Pros

• Simple interface: Clean design that's easy to navigate for basic CRM needs.
• Affordable pricing: Lower-cost option for teams with basic requirements.
• Quick setup: Easy to implement for teams needing basic contact management.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Lacks modern features like contact enrichment, social media integration, and AI-powered tools that teams of 20-50 people expect.
• Basic functionality: Email marketing and automation capabilities are quite basic compared to comprehensive solutions.
• Scalability concerns: May not scale effectively as teams of 20-50 people grow and need more sophisticated features.
• Limited support: Primarily email-based support, which may not meet the needs of growing teams.
• Integration limitations: Fewer integration options compared to modern CRM platforms.

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. Zoho

Zoho is a comprehensive CRM system with extensive features for sales, marketing and customer service, though it can be complex and overwhelming for teams of 20-50 people who need a streamlined solution.

Key features

• Sales automation: Comprehensive automation for sales tasks, though setup can be complex for teams without technical expertise.
• Customizable dashboards: Extensive customization options, though can be overwhelming for teams seeking simplicity.
• Multi-channel communication: Integrates with various communication channels, though interface can be cluttered.
• Lead and contact management: Robust contact management features, though learning curve is steep.
• Workflow automation: Powerful automation capabilities, though requires significant setup time.

Pros

• Comprehensive features: Extensive functionality across multiple business areas.
• Zoho ecosystem: Integrates well with other Zoho products for businesses already using their suite.
• Customization options: High degree of customization for specific business needs.
• AI features: Includes AI assistant Zia for insights and automation.

Cons

• Steep learning curve: Complex setup and extensive features require significant time investment for teams of 20-50 people to master.
• Cluttered interface: Interface can feel outdated and overwhelming compared to modern, intuitive solutions like folk CRM.
• Performance issues: Can be slow with large datasets, affecting productivity for growing teams.
• Complex implementation: Requires technical expertise and dedicated resources that teams of 20-50 people may not have.
• Limited third-party integrations: While it integrates well within the Zoho ecosystem, third-party integrations are more limited.

Price and plans

Zoho's free plan is limited to three users, insufficient for teams of 20-50 people. 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 team of 20-50 people is a critical decision that can significantly impact your business growth and efficiency. Each CRM platform—folk, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Capsule CRM, and Zoho—offers unique features, pricing models, and strengths that cater to different business needs. However, folk CRM stands out as the clear winner for teams of 20-50 people, offering the perfect balance of powerful features, ease of use, and scalability without the complexity and high costs of enterprise solutions like HubSpot or the limitations of basic platforms like Capsule CRM.

folk CRM provides everything your 20-50 person team needs: contact enrichment, social media integration, comprehensive email sequences, AI-powered features, and seamless integrations with over 6,000 apps—all wrapped in an intuitive interface that requires minimal training. While other platforms either overwhelm teams with unnecessary complexity or underwhelm with basic features, folk strikes the perfect balance for growing organizations. Ready to experience the best CRM tailored specifically for teams of 20-50 people? Try folk for free here.

👉🏼 Try folk now to organize contact enrichment and email sequences for consistent team outreach

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

FAQ

What is a CRM in private equity?

A private equity CRM centralizes LP, co-investor, banker, and portfolio contacts; tracks deals and fundraising pipelines, due diligence, commitments, and communications; supports compliance and reporting; and integrates email and data rooms.

How should a 20–50 person team choose a CRM?

Map your process, list must-have features, check integrations and permissions, set a budget, shortlist 2–3 vendors, run a 14-day trial with real data, gather feedback from sales, marketing, and ops, then compare usability, automation, analytics, and support.

What features matter most for teams of 20–50?

Shared pipelines, automation, contact enrichment, email sync and sequences, task reminders, role-based permissions, reporting and forecasting, LinkedIn import, API/Zapier integrations, and easy onboarding for cross-functional teams.

How much does a CRM cost for a 20–50 person team?

Expect $20–$60 per user/month for modern SMB CRMs; advanced suites can exceed $100. Include onboarding, add-ons, and email sending in total cost. Example: folk starts at $20/user/month with a 14-day trial.