Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses
LinkedIn has evolved beyond a simple networking platform: It's now the premier B2B sales battlefield.
Choosing the right CRM can be the difference between mastering your pipeline and getting overlooked. In the debate between Zoho CRM and Copper CRM, the key question isn't just about features; it's about which platform offers you a strategic advantage in building relationships, tracking engagement, and transforming LinkedIn conversations into closed deals.
While Zoho CRM and Copper CRM are both solid options, if you're seeking a CRM designed specifically for LinkedIn workflows, folk CRM often sets the standard.
Why a CRM for LinkedIn Is Essential in 2025
LinkedIn has become the epicenter of B2B sales. By 2025, nearly every decision-maker you aim to connect with will be on this platform—sharing insights, interacting with peers, and making purchasing decisions in real time. If your sales strategy isn't tailored for LinkedIn, you're missing out on valuable opportunities. A CRM designed for LinkedIn is no longer optional; it's essential for effective prospecting, relationship-building, and pipeline expansion.
The power of such a CRM lies in its ability to facilitate a multi-touch sales journey. Simply sending a single cold email and hoping for a response is no longer sufficient. With the right CRM, you can efficiently track, manage, and engage prospects across multiple channels:
- Initiate conversations on LinkedIn. Connect, comment, and establish familiarity where your buyers already engage.
- Follow up through email or calls. Your CRM preserves context, ensuring each interaction is personalized.
- Foster relationships over time. By syncing LinkedIn activity, you can identify the right moments to engage and when to close.
In 2025, success will belong to teams that engage prospects on their preferred platforms. LinkedIn is where business occurs. Without a CRM that fully harnesses its capabilities, every outreach effort will be slower, less precise, and more challenging to scale.
What is Zoho CRM?
Zoho CRM is a versatile cloud-based CRM designed for businesses of all sizes. Its customizable modules and AI-driven assistant enable effective lead management, workflow automation, and insightful sales analytics. With tools for multichannel communication and seamless app integration, Zoho ensures your team remains aligned and productive.
What is Copper CRM?
Copper CRM is seamlessly integrated with Google Workspace, directly embedding into Gmail and Google Calendar. It automates data entry and brings relevant contact insights to your inbox, enhancing efficiency. With an easy setup process and straightforward analytics, Copper streamlines relationship management.
Feature comparison of Zoho CRM and Copper CRM
AI Follow-ups
Zoho CRM lacks native LinkedIn profile capture functionality. If you’re sourcing leads from LinkedIn, you’ll have to manually input them into Zoho or utilize a third-party Chrome extension such as Leadjet. Unfortunately, there’s no one-click option on LinkedIn to transfer profile data directly into your CRM. This makes prospecting workflows slower and relies heavily on manual input, creating a significant hurdle for sales teams engaging in daily outbound efforts on LinkedIn.
In contrast, Copper CRM provides the capability to capture LinkedIn profiles with a single click, but only through third-party extensions like LinkCopper or Surfe. These supported tools allow users to seamlessly add LinkedIn profiles into Copper with just a click on the profile page. While Copper does not feature native LinkedIn capture, it depends on these integrations to facilitate lead import workflows across social platforms.
Automated Contact Enrichment
Zoho CRM does not automatically enrich contacts with LinkedIn data. While you can integrate LinkedIn Sales Navigator with Zoho, it merely displays profile information in the contact view, without syncing or enhancing your CRM records. This means job titles, company details, and LinkedIn URLs won't be automatically retrieved; any enrichment related to LinkedIn must be performed manually or via a third-party tool. If LinkedIn is your primary lead source, Zoho will not enhance this data on its own.
Similarly, Copper does not independently enrich contact leads using LinkedIn data. All enrichment tasks—such as obtaining job titles, profile URLs, and contact numbers—are carried out solely by external tools like Surfe or LinkMatch. Copper’s capabilities rely on data from Gmail or websites, rather than LinkedIn, necessitating an external integration for any LinkedIn-based enrichment.
Smart Fields
Zoho CRM lacks native tracking for LinkedIn engagement; if you message a lead on LinkedIn, that interaction won’t automatically be logged in the CRM. You’ll need to manually create a note or activity to track it. Even when connected to Sales Navigator, Zoho doesn’t retrieve messaging history or engagement stats, which means teams risk losing visibility into crucial parts of the sales conversation unless they consistently update records manually.
Similarly, Copper CRM does not offer message templates for LinkedIn messaging. While it provides templates for Gmail outreach, these aren't available for use in LinkedIn DMs. There is no built-in overlay or personalization tool for LinkedIn messaging through Copper, requiring you to write or copy messages manually for each contact.
AI-Powered Message & Sequence Generation
Zoho CRM lacks native tracking for LinkedIn engagement. This means that if you message a lead on LinkedIn, that interaction won't be automatically recorded in the CRM; you'll need to create a note or activity manually to keep track. Even when connected to Sales Navigator, Zoho fails to retrieve messaging history or engagement statistics. As a result, teams risk losing insight into part of the sales conversation unless they are meticulous with manual updates.
In contrast, folk CRM tracks your LinkedIn activity directly in the contact’s timeline, providing complete visibility of your interactions. Whether you've sent a direct message, followed up, or reconnected later, everything is recorded in one location. Coupled with email and WhatsApp tracking, you gain a comprehensive engagement history for each lead, resulting in less guesswork and greater control over your follow-up strategy.
Next Best Action
Zoho's Chrome extension is designed for email and Gmail integration, not for LinkedIn. It does not appear on LinkedIn profiles and lacks capture or sync features on that platform. To utilize LinkedIn, you'll need to rely on another plugin or switch between tabs. This absence of a LinkedIn-friendly Chrome extension makes Zoho less practical for outbound workflows that depend heavily on social selling.
In contrast, Copper’s official Chrome extension functions seamlessly across the web, including LinkedIn. It enhances your browsing experience by allowing you to view and update leads, log notes, and manage deals directly within your browser, even while on LinkedIn. However, it still does not offer dedicated LinkedIn capture or enrichment features—those capabilities are available only through external plugins like Surfe or LinkMatch, not through Copper's native extension.
folk CRM: The Ultimate CRM Alternative for LinkedIn!
folk is the sales assistant every team has been eagerly anticipating. Crafted to be user-friendly, integrated, and proactive, this CRM handles repetitive tasks, allowing your reps to concentrate on what truly matters: fostering genuine relationships on LinkedIn and beyond. With an impressive 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk stands out as one of the most reliable AI-powered CRMs for lean, ambitious teams.
Engineered specifically for startups, agencies, and sales-driven teams, folk simplifies the use of AI, making it both efficient and easy to manage. It enables you to transform LinkedIn connections into qualified opportunities quickly while maintaining a smooth workflow.
1. Instant LinkedIn Prospect Capture with the folkX Extension
Prospecting on LinkedIn can be time-consuming, but folk simplifies the process. With the folkX Chrome extension, you can effortlessly capture leads from LinkedIn or Sales Navigator and add them to your CRM with just one click. Whether saving a single profile or hundreds from a filtered search, every detail is seamlessly imported into your database, including names, job titles, companies, and emails.
Say goodbye to tedious copy-pasting or juggling multiple spreadsheets. Your entire prospect list is neatly organized in one location, fully synced with your workflows, enabling your team to act swiftly and focus on converting connections into opportunities rather than wasting hours on manual data entry!
2. Smart Data Enrichment and Always-Clean Contact Profiles
Effectively reaching decision-makers requires complete and accurate data. folk eliminates tedious research by automatically enhancing your LinkedIn contacts with verified emails, company details, phone numbers, and roles. With a single click, you gain all the necessary information to personalize your outreach and initiate meaningful conversations.
The platform also employs intelligent deduplication to maintain a clean and reliable database, even as multiple team members add the same contacts. Instead of spending time managing disorganized spreadsheets or wondering who owns which lead, folk keeps your data organized and current, ensuring every LinkedIn outreach is relevant and impactful.
3. Personalized LinkedIn Outreach with AI-Generated Message Templates
folk revolutionizes your approach to LinkedIn prospects by providing AI-powered message templates right within the LinkedIn inbox. As you begin a conversation, you’ll immediately see smart suggestions for connection requests, follow-ups, and outreach messages tailored to your prospect's profile and context.
You can edit, personalize, and send these messages manually to ensure full compliance with LinkedIn's policies. There’s no risky automation or tedious copy-pasting between tools; everything takes place where the conversation begins, making your outreach faster, more relevant, and significantly more natural.
Summary: folk CRM's LinkedIn Features
- Instantly capture leads with the folkX Chrome extension, importing LinkedIn and Sales Navigator profiles in one click, with all details automatically organized in your CRM.
- Effortlessly enrich contact data by retrieving verified emails, company details, and roles, while keeping your database accurate and clean through smart deduplication.
- Send smarter LinkedIn messages using AI-powered templates directly in the LinkedIn inbox, enabling you to personalize outreach quickly without relying on risky automation!
Conclusion
When evaluating CRM options for LinkedIn, Zoho CRM excels in customizable lead management and workflow automation, while Copper CRM integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace, enhancing efficiency. However, for those specifically focused on optimizing LinkedIn engagement, folk CRM stands out. It simplifies prospect capture, enriches contact data automatically, and provides AI-generated message templates directly within LinkedIn, making it an ideal choice for teams aiming to transform connections into opportunities with ease.
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