Why is a CRM Important for B2B Sales?

A CRM is crucial for businesses, particularly for sales professionals in the B2B sector. Here are key reasons why CRM is important for businesses:

• The source of truth: it allows you to have a centralised location to store customer information and to have a live view of “what has happened with what prospect and what are the next steps”
• Improved customer relationships and team communication
• Sales process optimisation and workflows
• Analytics and data-driven decision making
• Marketing integration: ensure a smooth customer journey from the moment someone first hears about your business until they sign on the dotted line

You can go into further detail in the article Why is a CRM important for business growth?

Comparing Free CRM Solutions: The Best Free CRMs for B2B Sales

HubSpot CRM: HubSpot’s free CRM is user-friendly and includes features such as contact and lead management, email tracking, and integration with other HubSpot tools. It’s known for its ease of use and can be a good fit for small to medium-sized businesses.

Zoho CRM: Zoho CRM’s free plan offers basic contact and lead management, as well as workflow automation. Zoho is known for its customization options and can be suitable for B2B sales teams.

Freshsales: Freshsales provides a free plan with features like contact and lead management, email tracking, and integrations. It’s designed to be intuitive and can be a good choice for B2B sales teams looking for a straightforward CRM solution.

Agile CRM: Agile CRM’s free plan includes basic CRM features along with marketing automation capabilities. It offers contact and lead management, email tracking, and more, making it a versatile option for B2B sales professionals.

Insightly: Insightly’s free CRM plan provides features such as contact and project management, as well as email tracking. It’s known for its integration capabilities and can be suitable for small B2B sales teams.

Remember that the effectiveness of a CRM also depends on the specific requirements of your business. Save costs where you can with your B2B sales tools and software. Free CRM plans for B2B sales are ideal. If not available, why not try a free trial to save costs?

It’s advisable to start with a free CRM plan, or sign up for free trials to explore the features in more detail. As such, you can determine which one aligns best with your company.

Best Free CRMs: The Key Features

As always, it’s best to narrow down the options to two or three, and make a more in depth comparison. My top two picks are Hubspot CRM and Zoho CRM. Let’s dig into each one:

Hubspot CRM: Free Plan Features

HubSpot CRM free plan allows you to store and manage an unlimited number of contacts in the system. You can track basic contact details, interactions, and communication history.

Lead Management:

• You can organize and track leads throughout the sales process
• You can store lead information, including interactions and notes, for easy reference.

Email Tracking:

• The free plan includes basic email tracking capabilities.
• You can track when emails are opened/clicked, providing insights into recipient engagement.

Deal and Task Management:

• HubSpot CRM free plan allows you to create deals and manage them through various stages of the sales pipeline.
• You can track tasks and activities related to deals. You can log calls, set reminder tasks or log other activities.

Integration with HubSpot Marketing Hub:

• HubSpot CRM integrates with HubSpot Marketing Hub.
• Hubspot Marketing Hub is not free (see article on marketing automation software). It does, however, allow you to align sales and marketing when your business reaches that point.
• Marketing and sales data can be shared between two platforms.

Integration with Gmail and Outlook:

• You can connect your Gmail or Outlook accounts.
• When you send or receive an email, it is logged automatically in Hubspot.

HubSpot App Marketplace:

• The CRM features can be extended via integrations through the HubSpot App Marketplace.
• Find and install apps that suit your needs (think Apple App Store but for CRM extensions).

Customisation:

• Basic customisation options are available.
• Add custom properties and fields to capture unique data.

Lead Scoring:

• HubSpot CRM includes lead scoring features.
• Prioritise leads based on predefined criteria (e.g. engagement or behaviour – see more about lead scoring here).
• This helps sales teams focus on leads that are more likely to convert.

Dashboard and Reporting:

• The free plan offers basic reporting and analytics features.
• Create simple dashboards to track key metrics and performance.

And…what about Zoho?

Zoho CRM for B2B Sales: Free Plan Features

Contact Management:

• You can store and manage contacts in the system.
• Track basic contact details and interactions.

Deal and Task Management:

• Create deals and manage them through various stages of the sales pipeline.
• Organise and track tasks and activities related to deals.

Lead Management:

• You can organise and track leads throughout the sales process.
• Store lead information, including interactions and notes.

Workflow Automation:

• You can automate certain processes and use workflows to streamline sales and marketing activities.
• Set up workflow rules to trigger actions based on specific conditions.

Customisation:

• Basic customisation options are available.
• You can add a minimal amount of custom fields and modules, for example.

Webforms:

• Zoho CRM allows you to create webforms that can be embedded on websites.
• Capture lead information directly into the CRM.

Mobile App:

• The app is free and on the App store for Apple users and the Play StoreUsers for Android users.
• It’s pretty cool, simple interface, and easy to use.
• This means you can access customer data and tasks in real-time and on-the-go.

Integration with Zoho Apps:

Whereas Hubspot has an app marketplace, Zoho has a similar kind of set up, but the apps are Zoho created, rather than also created by third parties.

• The Zoho free plan integrates with other Zoho applications.
• You get a comprehensive approach to business management.
• Integration with Zoho Mail, Zoho Books and other Zoho products is available.

Social Media Integration:

• Connect your social media accounts to Zoho CRM to monitor and engage with contacts on social platforms.

Basic Reports and Dashboards:

• Zoho CRM free plan gives you basic reporting and dashboard features.
• Track key metrics and performance within the CRM.

Which has the best free CRM for B2B sales, Hubspot or Zoho?

I’m torn on which is more advantageous. On the one hand, I always believe that everyone should specialise in what they are good at. Hubspot specialises in what they do. They have an app marketplace where other third parties contribute their products and apps, which is their specialty.

Zoho, on the other hand, has its own apps that it integrates into its all encompassing Zoho One. Whether it be analytics, bookkeeping, website visitor tracking, it’s all a Zoho product. The products themselves might be slightly inferior. Each app is not Zoho’s specialty. It’s specialty is a CRM. However, everything is seamlessly integrated and under one hood.

That’s speaking generally. If we’re speaking specifically about the Zoho free plan, vs the Hubspot free plan, then I’ll have to side with Hubspot. Although I do admit, it is a close call. Both products are great.

While Zoho CRM’s free plan offers valuable features, there are limitations on the number of users, storage, and certain advanced functionalities. Hubspot’s free features also have their limitations (obviously, otherwise why would anyone pay for a paid plan).

For me the key winning factor is that Hubspot free plan gives you the ability to store up to one million contacts in the Hubspot CRM database, and an unlimited number of users can gain access to the CRM.

For free…how cool is that.

That is the main reason why Hubspot is my pick for best free CRM for B2B sales.