In a letter he wrote to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in 1789, Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, “On this world, nothing might be stated to make certain, besides demise and taxes… and a shared repository for buyer contact data being useful for gross sales groups of all sizes, industries, and buildings.”
Alright, I admit I may need taken some artistic liberty with the final a part of that quote — nevertheless it does not make it any much less true.
With the ability to readily entry and analyze buyer and prospect knowledge could make your gross sales efforts significantly simpler and more practical. That is why contact administration software program is all the time a selection to contemplate.
Preserve studying to study extra, or soar forward to the part you’re searching for:
What’s contact administration?
Contact administration is the method of accumulating, storing, organizing, and managing contact knowledge. This knowledge comes from prospects, leads, and different enterprise connections.
Environment friendly contact administration helps companies successfully use their contacts. It permits customized communication, higher customer support, and improved gross sales alternatives.
What’s contact administration software program?
Contact administration software program is a instrument that gives companies a central area to prepare buyer data.
“Contact administration software program” is a catch-all time period for knowledge administration software program.
This software program enables you to observe prospect, buyer, and vendor contact data. This will embrace knowledge like:
- Addresses
- Particular person staff
- Related corporations
- Open quotes
- Orders
- Gross sales historical past
It is a useful resource that may enhance your gross sales efforts by simplifying communication and making a single supply of reality. Contact administration software program may also assist streamline processes like outreach and lead qualification.
Contact Administration Software program vs. Buyer Relationship Administration System
Contact administration software program and buyer relationship administration (CRM) methods each deal with knowledge administration and communication. However CRMs may also assist companies handle gross sales, advertising, and customer support. A CRM may give a enterprise a transparent overview of the client expertise for superior evaluation, forecasting, reporting, and outreach.
In brief, contact administration software program manages particular person contact knowledge, whereas a CRM system manages the complete buyer journey to drive enterprise progress.
Attempt HubSpot CRM without cost.
Advantages of Contact Administration Software program
Helps your enterprise do extra with much less.
Some companies use spreadsheets to prepare contact knowledge or let staff have their very own system for maintaining contacts. Moreover creating chaos and bottlenecks, this method silos data. A central area for contact administration can:
- Save your staff’ time
- Improve productiveness
- Give your staff a extra streamlined workflow
It additionally lets you add automation and different time-savers to your contact processes.
Improves buyer relationships.
Each dialog with each buyer issues. A central supply of buyer knowledge could make distinctive particulars obtainable to the staff members that want them. This helps your enterprise meet expectations, nurture buyer relationships, and personalize communication.
So, contact administration software program can enhance the client expertise for larger satisfaction and loyalty.
Betters gross sales efficiency.
Contact administration software program typically contains instruments to:
- Handle gross sales leads
- Preserve observe of gross sales actions
- Analyze gross sales efficiency
These instruments may help your staff discover the very best alternatives and use knowledge to enhance the gross sales course of. These enhancements can result in larger win charges, shorter gross sales cycles, and higher gross sales efficiency.
Allows staff collaboration.
A central platform for contact particulars retains prospects from getting handed from division to division once they have an issue to resolve. It makes it simpler for groups to share the work it takes to maintain your prospects completely happy.
Improved collaboration means higher outcomes in your prospects and your enterprise. Try this information for extra tips about how one can profit from your contact administration software program.
Greatest Contact Administration Software program
Listed here are among the high contact administration software program for small companies. Then, we’ll go over the very best free and paid choices obtainable for any enterprise.
Greatest Contact Administration Software program for Small Enterprise
- HubSpot
- BIGContacts
- ActiveCampaign
- Freshworks
- Moosend
- Keap
1. HubSpot
Worth: Free eternally.
Get HubSpot’s Utterly Free CRM
HubSpot’s free CRM is a contact administration instrument plus a lot extra. You may by no means should manually add or replace contact data — HubSpot will deal with that for you after each interplay you will have with a contact. Plus, contact data are enriched routinely with knowledge from over 20 million companies.
The CRM and speak to administration system is simple to get began with, use, and navigate.
Along with contact administration, different notable options embrace:
- Pipeline administration
- Reporting dashboards
- Firm insights
- Deal monitoring
- Electronic mail monitoring and notifications
- Prospect monitoring
- Assembly scheduling
- Reside chat
The CRM is fully free eternally however you’ll be able to improve at any time to a paid plan for extra options as your enterprise scales.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “We use HubSpot to handle new incoming leads, make earnings projections, and handle ongoing contacts. Managing lots of and 1000’s of contacts is subsequent to not possible with no CRM and HubSpot makes the job very simple with all of the automation and reporting obtainable. It is good for organizing and transmitting all gross sales supplies and transaction paperwork as effectively.”
Professional Tip: Get HubSpot’s free-forever CRM platform that is simple to begin, will scale with your enterprise, and help you develop higher.
2. BIGContacts
Worth: Plans beginning at $5 per consumer/mo.
BIGContacts CRM simplifies contact administration to assist small companies construct buyer relationships. The instrument affords an in depth view of contact data together with their cellphone numbers, location, emails, earlier touches, transaction historical past, notes, and upcoming interactions. You’ll be able to retailer further data below customized fields as effectively. Then, use these complete contact data to personalize varied outreach communications and campaigns.
BIGContacts means that you can seize knowledge from internet varieties routinely, eliminating guide effort and potential errors. The platform brings contacts and duties to 1 place, making it simple to remain up to date with upcoming actions.
The contact administration CRM gives the performance to tag and kind contacts by static and dynamic contact lists to enhance segmentation. The instrument integrates with a number of enterprise functions corresponding to accounting, analytics, and advertising software program. This makes it simpler to handle every part associated to your contacts from a single platform. BIGContacts additionally gives distant entry, permitting you to maintain tabs in your contacts from anyplace.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “Adjusting to working with the software program may be very simple, customers can share data and consider one another’s actions associated to sure job duties. Updating contacts when their data adjustments might be tough since you should add one other contact after which it could possibly develop into complicated when making an attempt to determine which one is right.”
3. ActiveCampaign
Worth: Plans beginning at $49 per mo.
ActiveCampaign is a buyer expertise automation platform with a variety of contact administration options and capabilities.
ActiveCampaign pairs its contact administration capabilities along with your buyer lifecycle. The method begins with reaching and interesting your viewers, then nurturing and educating them, adopted by changing and shutting them, and lastly, supporting their progress. To start the method of contact administration, the instrument may have you create a contact listing.
From there, merely add current e-mail contacts after which manage your contacts by listing, tag, or customized subject. ActiveCampaign will immediate you to construct segments in your prospects to help you goal and personalize content material for them. This contact administration resolution will assist you to section primarily based on communications like emails and varieties, too. Then, it’s going to establish and pull out behavioral actions that may train you extra about prospects in these segments.
ActiveCampaign additionally gives case research. This may help you study concerning the ways in which different corporations like yours are utilizing the software program’s contact administration instruments and the way they section their prospects.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “With ActiveCampaign you’ll be able to automate affords, listing administration, and speak to administration. You’ll be able to schedule appointments, add notes to contacts, and ship them direct messages. To enhance the general consumer expertise, you’ll be able to ship customized messages to your web site customers. To transform extra guests, you’ll be able to construct a sort of gross sales funnel.”
4. Freshworks
Worth: CRM plans beginning at $15 per consumer/ mo.
Freshworks is a CRM and speak to administration system that helps you handle and nurture your contacts to create robust and lasting relationships with them. It automates contact knowledge entry for you and gives 360-degree views of particular person prospects.
Freshworks tracks gross sales actions, manages gross sales duties and appointments, and means that you can place calls or ship emails with out having to depart the instrument. You’ll be able to combine with Google Workspace to entry Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, and extra all from Freshworks.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “Customers can effectively handle their contacts, observe interactions, and keep a complete view of buyer particulars, corresponding to e-mail conversations, cellphone calls, and social media interactions.”
5. Moosend
Worth: Plans beginning at $9 per mo.
Moosend is an e-mail advertising automation platform with superior viewers administration options to maintain your contacts organized. Moosend’s CRM capabilities will allow you to simply handle your contacts by the contacts dashboard, monitoring who’s energetic and who bounced to optimize your technique.
The platform’s superior segmentation capabilities assist you to accumulate in-depth buyer knowledge. And you may simply tag your subscribers primarily based on totally different standards and data to create tailor-made content material. For instance, Moosend’s customized fields personalize your topic strains and content material primarily based in your prospects’ names, birthdays, areas, and extra.
Moosend’s lead era instruments may even assist you to broaden your mailing lists by changing publication sign-up varieties and touchdown pages. You’ll be able to automate your contact administration by advertising automation by creating particular automated workflows that may maintain your listing clear and engaged primarily based on consumer actions.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “Customers can create contact lists quickly and simply. This platform targets the required viewers itself. This platform permits customers to schedule totally different campaigns. It’s fairly a helpful characteristic as a result of the consumer doesn’t have to recollect the time and date for beginning them.”
6. Keap
Worth: Plans beginning at $159 per mo.
Keap is a CRM and gross sales and advertising platform with a shopper administration resolution for small companies. The platform affords a central location for shopper exercise and communications and the instrument automates follow-ups, contact file creation. and speak to file updates for you. You can too rapidly personalize communications with contacts (corresponding to varieties, emails, and gross sales follow-ups) utilizing the contact knowledge that is saved in Keap.
Combine Keap with Gmail or Outlook so all of your e-mail interactions are routinely up to date within the related contact’s file. There are additionally all kinds of different enterprise instruments and software program you’ll be able to combine with Keap so all of your knowledge is up-to-date and accessible from a single location.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “Keap is a beast in itself during which you are able to do issues successfully offered that you just use it successfully, and know your approach round it. We used Keap for managing our Contacts, sending promotional emails, advertising automation, and e-comm. Keap turned a lot simpler to make use of as we received to know the appropriate methods of doing issues ranging from tag naming conventions, proper methods of utilizing Objectives, Marketing campaign hyperlinks, and many others.”
Subsequent, let’s dive into the very best free and paid contact administration software program for all companies — from small to midsize to enterprise.
Greatest Free and Paid Contact Administration Software program
- HubSpot CRM Platform
- Bigin
- Bitrix24
- Streak
- Pipedrive
- Nimble
- Nextiva Buyer Relationship Suite
- Nutshell
1. HubSpot CRM Platform
Worth: Free and paid plans beginning at $45 per mo.
The HubSpot CRM platform’s contact administration instruments are designed to take away friction out of your gross sales processes, streamlining your gross sales efforts and giving your reps extra time and adaptability to shut offers.
Just like the free model of the CRM, the platform routinely enriches your contact data with knowledge from over 20 million companies. It additionally notifies you when prospects open your gross sales emails or go to your web site.
HubSpot contains different contact administration staples like prospect monitoring instruments, assembly scheduling, and reside chat (which each your gross sales and repair groups can profit from).
We chatted above concerning the free-forever model of HubSpot — for those who’re a startup or small enterprise, you might begin with that model of the software program after which scale right into a paid model of the gross sales CRM. This enables for seamless progress along with your contact administration system as your enterprise scales (together with a number of different options and instruments that are perfect for your gross sales, advertising, and repair groups).
Helpful buyer suggestions: “Gross sales Hub seamlessly integrates with HubSpot CRM, which serves as a single supply of reality for all buyer and prospect data. This integration ensures that our gross sales groups have an entire view of our contacts, communication historical past, offers, and interactions. It permits me as gross sales rep to offer a personalised expertise to prospects and prospects, enhancing the standard of our interactions.”
2. Bigin
Worth: Free and paid plans beginning at $7 per consumer/ mo.
The worth of Bigin is in its simplicity — it is easy to function with out sacrificing energy or performance. It means that you can handle your contacts with a complete view of any communication you will have with these folks.
Emails, duties, and notes particular to your particular person contacts are all accounted for and straightforward to entry. It additionally options instruments that assist you to apply the knowledge gathered throughout these communications to your gross sales efforts.
Essentially the most fundamental model of the platform is free to make use of and might accommodate 500 contacts for a person consumer. That plan is right for small companies, startups, and freelancers. In the meantime, Bigin’s paid subscriptions supply extra flexibility and options.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “We use Bigin to fully handle the contacts of shoppers, which makes it efficient after we need to make some communications with them. Moreover, Bigin makes workflow administration more practical, after figuring out the enterprise alternatives for progress.”
3. Bitrix24
Worth: Free and paid plans beginning at $49 per mo.
Bitrix24’s contact administration software program’s suite of options affords customary contact administration sources, together with a centralized database for accumulating and monitoring prospect and buyer contact data.
The instrument additionally routinely logs and data all cellphone calls reps place or obtain. The identical goes for e-mail communications — for those who sync your e-mail tackle with the platform, your whole historical past of e-mail exchanges will probably be saved in your Bitrix24 contact supervisor.
If you happen to’re fascinated with a free resolution with performance that usually is not obtainable with customary contact administration software program, Bitrix24 could also be price contemplating. As your enterprise grows and also you need extra out of your contact supervisor, Bitrix24’s paid plans can accommodate your wants at affordable value factors.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “We would have liked a system that allowed for unified communication, contact monitoring, doc administration, and workplace setup. Bitrix24 allowed as much as rise up and working rapidly.”
4. Streak
Worth: Free and paid plans beginning at $15 per consumer/ mo.
Streak’s contact administration instruments might be built-in into your Gmail inbox, working alongside all different Google Workspace functions. The software program additionally means that you can each keep and share a timeline of buyer contacts and communications. This will embrace knowledge about e-mail data, name logs, recordsdata, notes, and duties.
Streak affords customized views of your gross sales pipeline. You’ll be able to search, filter, group, and kind your contact knowledge in any configuration in addition to save these ends in customized views and share that knowledge along with your staff.
Streak is an accessible software program, designed to simply combine along with your Google functions. It is free for private use however there are additionally paid skilled and enterprise-level plans.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “It would help you create a pipeline of the doable prospects and allow you to observe up by the mails you’re sharing and receiving with them. Some further options price point out is that you may observe the openings of the emails shared, associations of particular contacts with particular offers, and better of all, organising the pipeline as you would like.”
5. Pipedrive
Worth: Plans ranging from $14.90 per consumer/ mo.
Pipedrive CRM is decidedly sales-oriented, and its contact administration sources mirror that. The contact administration options are supposed to allow exhausting gross sales with knowledge and automation. They add a brand new diploma of perception and intelligence to an organization’s gross sales efforts by gathering sensible contact knowledge and routinely pre-qualifying leads.
The platform contains instruments that may retrieve internet knowledge about your contacts from on-line sources like LinkedIn. Utilizing this data, the platform may give you perception into the viability of pursuing the leads you collect.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “The UX/UI is easy. I repeat, it’s easy and excellent for gross sales guys. The deal view and the contact/firm views are simply easy and straightforward to work with. Anybody can simply customise or add new fields if required.”
6. Nimble
Worth: Plans beginning at $24.90 per consumer/ mo.
Nimble CRM’s contact administration options help you entry all of your contacts — throughout any cellular, cloud-based, or desktop data — in a single relationship supervisor.
Nimble’s prospecting instrument routinely shows all contact data and firm particulars for prospects and prospects, together with all emails, social interactions, messages, notes, and calendar occasions you’ll have exchanged with them.
The platform works seamlessly with Google Workspace and Office365 and options over 100 app integrations. It’s a robust, versatile instrument for maintaining tabs in your contacts, the way you attain them, and the way they could match into your total gross sales efforts.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “The system is organized and you do not are inclined to get misplaced within the small particulars with contacts. The convenience of use and the potential for linking a couple of firm to 1 particular person is a good benefit. It’s versatile and straightforward to configure.”
7. Nextiva Buyer Relationship Suite
Worth: Plans ranging from $24.95 per consumer/ mo.
The Nextiva gross sales CRM’s strong suite of options contains contact administration sources which might be obtainable throughout all of their plans. Even their most simple subscription contains instruments for sustaining e-mail historical past, notes, and name logs.
Collectively, these sources may help you observe your prospects’ contact data and communication historical past whereas taking the stress out of processes like follow-up and outreach. With Nextiva, you may have entry to a wide selection of options together with follow-up automation, surveys, reside chat, and analytics.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “The convenience of use on the desktop permits me to be extra productive. I like that pulling up contacts, calling, texting, and seeing who is looking is as simple as engaged on my newest challenge.”
“I’ve had a number of points with creating contacts and all communications not being labeled instantly, however usually a refresh solves this downside.”
8. Nutshell
Worth: Plans beginning at $16 per consumer/ mo.
Nutshell acts as a central repository for all of your firm’s buyer information and knowledge. It is a single location for you and your staff to retailer and reference contact particulars, name notes, and e-mail conversations with prospects. The instrument’s contact administration infrastructure — paired with its highly effective gross sales automation instruments — may help you streamline your gross sales course of and simply qualify leads.
Nutshell additionally integrates seamlessly with functions like Slack and Google Workspace and is designed to swimsuit the wants of companies of each dimension.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “Nutshell’s performance, help, and price made it a simple and sensible selection. Reminders for follow-up are effectively designed and might be set in line with your cadence, making it simple to maintain observe of your contacts.”
Select Your Contact Administration System
Irrespective of how large your enterprise is, what you promote, or the way you construction your gross sales staff, you are sure to have contacts it is advisable to observe and handle. If you have not already invested involved administration software program for your enterprise, it is best to strongly contemplate among the selections listed above.
And keep in mind, nothing in life might be stated to make certain, aside from demise, taxes, and high-quality contact administration software program making life simpler for salespeople.
Editor’s be aware: This publish was initially revealed in February 2020 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, however our staff makes use of AI in our editorial course of. Try our full disclosure to study extra about how we use AI.