In a letter he wrote to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in 1789, Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, “On this world, nothing may be stated to make certain, besides loss of life and taxes… and a shared repository for buyer contact data being useful for gross sales groups of all sizes, industries, and constructions.”
Alright, I admit I may need taken some artistic liberty with the final a part of that quote — but it surely does not make it any much less true.
Having the ability to readily entry and analyze buyer and prospect information could make your gross sales efforts significantly simpler and more practical. That is why contact administration software program is all the time a alternative to think about.
Preserve studying to study extra, or bounce forward to the part you’re on the lookout for:
What’s contact administration?
Contact administration is the method of accumulating, storing, organizing, and managing contact information. This information comes from clients, leads, and different enterprise connections.
Environment friendly contact administration helps companies successfully use their contacts. It allows personalised communication, higher customer support, and improved gross sales alternatives.
What’s contact administration software program?
Contact administration software program is a device that provides companies a central area to prepare buyer data.
“Contact administration software program” is a catch-all time period for information administration software program.
This software program permits you to monitor prospect, buyer, and vendor contact data. This could embrace information like:
- Addresses
- Particular person staff
- Related firms
- 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 fact. 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) techniques each deal with information administration and communication. However CRMs may also assist companies handle gross sales, advertising and marketing, and customer support. A CRM may give a enterprise a transparent overview of the shopper expertise for superior evaluation, forecasting, reporting, and outreach.
In brief, contact administration software program manages particular person contact information, whereas a CRM system manages the total buyer journey to drive enterprise development.
Attempt HubSpot CRM free of charge.
Advantages of Contact Administration Software program
Helps your corporation do extra with much less.
Some companies use spreadsheets to prepare contact information or let staff have their very own system for conserving contacts. Moreover creating chaos and bottlenecks, this method silos data. A central area for contact administration can:
- Save your staff’ time
- Enhance productiveness
- Give your group a extra streamlined workflow
It additionally allows you to add automation and different time-savers to your contact processes.
Improves buyer relationships.
Each dialog with each buyer issues. A central supply of buyer information could make distinctive particulars obtainable to the group members that want them. This helps your corporation meet expectations, nurture buyer relationships, and personalize communication.
So, contact administration software program can enhance the shopper expertise for higher satisfaction and loyalty.
Betters gross sales efficiency.
Contact administration software program typically consists of instruments to:
- Handle gross sales leads
- Preserve monitor of gross sales actions
- Analyze gross sales efficiency
These instruments might help your group discover one of the best alternatives and use information 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 group collaboration.
A central platform for contact particulars retains clients 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 clients blissful.
Improved collaboration means higher outcomes to your clients and your corporation. Take a look at this information for extra tips about how one can profit from your contact administration software program.
Greatest Contact Administration Software program
Listed below are a number of the prime contact administration software program for small companies. Then, we’ll go over one of the best free and paid choices obtainable for any enterprise.
Greatest Contact Administration Software program for Small Enterprise
- HubSpot
- BIGContacts
- Nextiva Buyer Relationship Suite
- ActiveCampaign
- Freshworks
- Moosend
- Keap
1. HubSpot
Value: Free endlessly.
Get HubSpot’s Fully Free CRM
HubSpot’s free CRM is a contact administration device plus a lot extra. You will by no means must manually add or replace contact data — HubSpot will care for that for you after each interplay you have got with a contact. Plus, contact data are enriched routinely with information from over 20 million companies.
The CRM and phone 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
- Dwell chat
The CRM is completely free endlessly however you possibly can improve at any time to a paid plan for extra options as your corporation scales.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “We use HubSpot to handle new incoming leads, make revenue projections, and handle ongoing contacts. Managing lots of and 1000’s of contacts is subsequent to not possible with out a CRM and HubSpot makes the job very straightforward with all of the automation and reporting obtainable. It is good for organizing and transmitting all gross sales supplies and transaction paperwork as properly.”
Professional Tip: Get HubSpot’s free-forever CRM platform that is straightforward to begin, will scale with your corporation, and mean you can develop higher.
2. BIGContacts
Value: Plans beginning at $5 per person/mo.
BIGContacts CRM simplifies contact administration to assist small companies construct buyer relationships. The device presents an in depth view of contact data together with their cellphone numbers, location, emails, earlier touches, transaction historical past, notes, and upcoming interactions. You possibly can retailer further data underneath customized fields as properly. Then, use these complete contact data to personalize varied outreach communications and campaigns.
BIGContacts lets you seize information from net types routinely, eliminating guide effort and potential errors. The platform brings contacts and duties to 1 place, making it straightforward to remain up to date with upcoming actions.
The contact administration CRM supplies the performance to tag and kind contacts via static and dynamic contact lists to enhance segmentation. The device integrates with a number of enterprise functions reminiscent of accounting, analytics, and advertising and marketing software program. This makes it simpler to handle every thing associated to your contacts from a single platform. BIGContacts additionally supplies distant entry, permitting you to maintain tabs in your contacts from wherever.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “Adjusting to working with the software program could be very straightforward, customers can share data and examine one another’s actions associated to sure job duties. Updating contacts when their data modifications may be difficult since you should add one other contact after which it may possibly turn out to be complicated when attempting to determine which one is appropriate.”
3. Nextiva Buyer Relationship Suite
Value: Plans ranging from $24.95 per person/ mo.
The Nextiva gross sales CRM’s sturdy suite of options consists of contact administration sources which might be obtainable throughout all of their plans. Even their most simple subscription consists of instruments for sustaining electronic mail historical past, notes, and name logs.
Collectively, these sources might help you monitor your clients’ contact data and communication historical past whereas taking the stress out of processes like follow-up and outreach. With Nextiva, you will have entry to a wide selection of options together with follow-up automation, surveys, dwell chat, and analytics.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “The benefit of use on the desktop permits me to be extra productive. I like that pulling up contacts, calling, texting, and seeing who is asking is as straightforward as engaged on my newest venture.”
“I’ve had a couple of points with creating contacts and all communications not being labeled instantly, however usually a refresh solves this downside.”
4. ActiveCampaign
Value: 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 together 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 development. To start the method of contact administration, the device could have you create a contact listing.
From there, merely add current electronic mail contacts after which arrange your contacts by listing, tag, or customized subject. ActiveCampaign will immediate you to construct segments to your clients to mean you can goal and personalize content material for them. This contact administration resolution will allow you to section based mostly on communications like emails and types, too. Then, it will determine and pull out behavioral actions that may train you extra about clients in these segments.
ActiveCampaign additionally supplies case research. This might help you study in regards to the ways in which different firms like yours are utilizing the software program’s contact administration instruments and the way they section their clients.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “With ActiveCampaign you possibly can automate presents, listing administration, and phone administration. You possibly can schedule appointments, add notes to contacts, and ship them direct messages. To enhance the general person expertise, you possibly can ship personalised messages to your web site customers. To transform extra guests, you possibly can construct a form of gross sales funnel.”
5. Freshworks
Value: CRM plans beginning at $15 per person/ mo.
Freshworks is a CRM and phone administration system that helps you handle and nurture your contacts to create sturdy and lasting relationships with them. It automates contact information entry for you and supplies 360-degree views of particular person clients.
Freshworks tracks gross sales actions, manages gross sales duties and appointments, and lets you place calls or ship emails with out having to depart the device. You possibly can 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, monitor interactions, and preserve a complete view of buyer particulars, reminiscent of electronic mail conversations, cellphone calls, and social media interactions.”
6. Moosend
Value: Plans beginning at $9 per mo.
Moosend is an electronic mail advertising and marketing automation platform with superior viewers administration options to maintain your contacts organized. Moosend’s CRM capabilities will allow you to simply handle your contacts via the contacts dashboard, monitoring who’s energetic and who bounced to optimize your technique.
The platform’s superior segmentation capabilities allow you to accumulate in-depth buyer information. And you may simply tag your subscribers based mostly on completely different standards and data to create tailor-made content material. For instance, Moosend’s customized fields personalize your topic traces and content material based mostly in your clients’ names, birthdays, places, and extra.
Moosend’s lead era instruments can even allow you to increase your mailing lists by changing publication sign-up types and touchdown pages. You possibly can automate your contact administration via advertising and marketing automation by creating particular automated workflows that may maintain your listing clear and engaged based mostly on person 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 completely different campaigns. It’s fairly a helpful characteristic as a result of the person doesn’t have to recollect the time and date for beginning them.”
7. Keap
Value: Plans beginning at $159 per mo.
Keap is a CRM and gross sales and advertising and marketing platform with a shopper administration resolution for small companies. The platform presents a central location for shopper exercise and communications and the device automates follow-ups, contact document creation. and phone document updates for you. You can even rapidly personalize communications with contacts (reminiscent of types, emails, and gross sales follow-ups) utilizing the contact information that is saved in Keap.
Combine Keap with Gmail or Outlook so all of your electronic mail interactions are routinely up to date within the related contact’s document. There are additionally all kinds of different enterprise instruments and software program you possibly can combine with Keap so all of your information is up-to-date and accessible from a single location.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “Keap is a beast in itself wherein you are able to do issues successfully supplied that you just use it successfully, and know your manner round it. We used Keap for managing our Contacts, sending promotional emails, advertising and marketing automation, and e-comm. Keap turned a lot simpler to make use of as we bought to know the best methods of doing issues ranging from tag naming conventions, proper methods of utilizing Targets, Marketing campaign hyperlinks, and so on.”
Subsequent, let’s dive into one of the 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
- Nutshell
1. HubSpot CRM Platform
Value: 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 information from over 20 million companies. It additionally notifies you when prospects open your gross sales emails or go to your web site.
HubSpot consists of different contact administration staples like prospect monitoring instruments, assembly scheduling, and dwell chat (which each your gross sales and repair groups can profit from).
We chatted above in regards to the free-forever model of HubSpot — in case you’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 permits for seamless development together with your contact administration system as your corporation scales (together with a bunch of different options and instruments that are perfect for your gross sales, advertising and marketing, and repair groups).
Helpful buyer suggestions: “Gross sales Hub seamlessly integrates with HubSpot CRM, which serves as a single supply of fact 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 allows me as gross sales rep to offer a customized expertise to prospects and clients, enhancing the standard of our interactions.”
2. Bigin
Value: Free and paid plans beginning at $7 per person/ mo.
The worth of Bigin is in its simplicity — it is easy to function with out sacrificing energy or performance. It lets you handle your contacts with a complete view of any communication you have got with these individuals.
Emails, duties, and notes particular to your particular person contacts are all accounted for and simple to entry. It additionally options instruments that allow you to apply the data gathered throughout these communications to your gross sales efforts.
Probably the most primary model of the platform is free to make use of and might accommodate 500 contacts for a person person. That plan is good for small companies, startups, and freelancers. In the meantime, Bigin’s paid subscriptions provide extra flexibility and options.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “We use Bigin to utterly 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 development.”
3. Bitrix24
Value: Free and paid plans beginning at $49 per mo.
Bitrix24’s contact administration software program’s suite of options presents customary contact administration sources, together with a centralized database for accumulating and monitoring prospect and buyer contact data.
The device additionally routinely logs and data all cellphone calls reps place or obtain. The identical goes for electronic mail communications — in case you sync your electronic mail tackle with the platform, your whole historical past of electronic mail exchanges will likely be saved in your Bitrix24 contact supervisor.
For those who’re desirous about a free resolution with performance that usually is not obtainable with customary contact administration software program, Bitrix24 could also be price contemplating. As your corporation grows and also you need extra out of your contact supervisor, Bitrix24’s paid plans can accommodate your wants at cheap 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
Value: Free and paid plans beginning at $15 per person/ mo.
Streak’s contact administration instruments may be built-in into your Gmail inbox, working alongside all different Google Workspace functions. The software program additionally lets you each preserve and share a timeline of buyer contacts and communications. This could embrace information about electronic mail data, name logs, information, notes, and duties.
Streak presents customized views of your gross sales pipeline. You possibly can search, filter, group, and kind your contact information in any configuration in addition to save these leads to customized views and share that information together with your group.
Streak is an accessible software program, designed to simply combine together with your Google functions. It is free for private use however there are additionally paid skilled and enterprise-level plans.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “It’s going to mean you can create a pipeline of the potential clients and allow you to comply with up via the mails you might be sharing and receiving with them. Some further options price point out is that you may monitor the openings of the emails shared, associations of particular contacts with particular offers, and better of all, organising the pipeline as you want.”
5. Pipedrive
Value: Plans ranging from $14.90 per person/ mo.
Pipedrive CRM is decidedly sales-oriented, and its contact administration sources replicate that. The contact administration options are supposed to allow arduous gross sales with information and automation. They add a brand new diploma of perception and intelligence to an organization’s gross sales efforts by gathering sensible contact information and routinely pre-qualifying leads.
The platform consists of instruments that may retrieve net information 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 straightforward. I repeat, it’s easy and ideal for gross sales guys. The deal view and the contact/firm views are simply easy and simple to work with. Anybody can simply customise or add new fields if required.”
6. Nimble
Value: Plans beginning at $24.90 per person/ mo.
Nimble CRM’s contact administration options mean you can entry all of your contacts — throughout any cell, cloud-based, or desktop data — in a single relationship supervisor.
Nimble’s prospecting device routinely shows all contact data and firm particulars for prospects and clients, together with all emails, social interactions, messages, notes, and calendar occasions you could have exchanged with them.
The platform works seamlessly with Google Workspace and Office365 and options over 100 app integrations. It’s a strong, versatile device for conserving tabs in your contacts, the way you attain them, and the way they may match into your general gross sales efforts.
Helpful buyer suggestions: “The system is organized and you do not are likely to get misplaced within the small particulars with contacts. The benefit of use and the potential of linking multiple firm to 1 particular person is a superb benefit. It’s versatile and simple to configure.”
7. Nutshell
Value: Plans beginning at $16 per person/ mo.
Nutshell acts as a central repository for all of your firm’s buyer information and information. It is a single location for you and your group to retailer and reference contact particulars, name notes, and electronic mail conversations with clients. The device’s contact administration infrastructure — paired with its highly effective gross sales automation instruments — might 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 straightforward and sensible alternative. Reminders for follow-up are properly designed and may be set in response to your cadence, making it straightforward to maintain monitor of your contacts.”
Select Your Contact Administration System
Irrespective of how massive your corporation is, what you promote, or the way you construction your gross sales group, you are sure to have contacts you could monitor and handle. If you have not already invested in touch administration software program for your corporation, you need to strongly think about a number of the decisions listed above.
And bear in mind, nothing in life may be stated to make certain, aside from loss of life, taxes, and high-quality contact administration software program making life simpler for salespeople.
Editor’s notice: This submit was initially revealed in February 2020 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, however our group makes use of AI in our editorial course of. Take a look at our full disclosure to study extra about how we use AI.
