The best CRM for startups
A CRM platform supercharges startups by merging tools and processes to prepare them for growth. Choose one of the best CRM tools for startups by adopting Pipedrive for your new company.
14-day trial. Zero cost. Full access. No credit card required.
Pressing play on the video above will set a third-party cookie. Please read our cookie policy for more information.
What’s CRM for startups?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software streamlines your workflow and helps you quickly assess the health of your sales pipeline.
A startup CRM is growth-focused. This means it lets you oversee performance in a single platform, allowing you to identify opportunities and grow your business. In short, it ensures you keep your eyes on the prize and meet your goals.
Pipedrive’s sales CRM is a feature-rich yet surprisingly easy-to-use tool. It keeps you up to date with your pipeline management activities, tracks important customer data and helps you improve your business processes. It also keeps team members in sync with access to data like contact information, deal sizes and customer preferences.
4.5/5
4.2/5
4.3/5
4.5/5
4.5/5
4.7/5
Pipedrive’s startup CRM features and add-ons
How to find the best CRM for startups
You may be tempted by a CRM platform designed or priced for new businesses. However, as your business needs grow, you should look for flexible software features that fuel further growth.
The best CRM tools for startups have a few key features:
Sales reporting and sales forecasting: Use visual sales reporting to get an instant overview of your current deals and help forecast future sales.
Data entry automation: Eliminate admin work by automating reports and data collection.
Pipeline customization: Tailor your sales cycle stages towards lead generation and sales activities.
Ease of use: Onboard new sales reps quickly with a user-friendly interface.
Business data security: Prevent security breaches and get alerts for suspicious activity with built-in security features.
Why is a CRM important for startups?
It’s easy to get lost in a sea of tasks and clutter as a growing business. Pipedrive’s CRM software for startups helps guide new businesses toward success. It’s no wonder more than 100,000 companies globally seal their deals with Pipedrive.
Forecast your sales
Often, the only thing standing between you and sales excellence is clear data and actionable insights.
With the right CRM for startups, you can quickly and accurately identify problems and predict your future growth. Dig into the data to highlight weak links in your sales process and understand which sales activities bring the best and worst conversion rates.
Discover how to forecast with Pipedrive’s sales insights and reports.
Automate your pipeline
When you’re just starting your business, you might not have enough time or personnel to finish every task.
Still, with a bit of help, a small business can compete with a large corporation. Use your CRM for task management and streamline your workflow by automating pipeline stages to promote efficiency. Set triggers for desired actions and automate email marketing, task notifications and social media activity all within your CRM.
Pipedrive recommends popular sales automations so that you can focus time and energy on growing your revenue.
Keep track of communication
Like any other living being, your customer base needs consistent nurturing to thrive. But as you grow, it can be hard to stay in touch with each customer to offer the best customer support.
A CRM platform helps build and strengthen relationships by organizing conversations. Pipedrive’s email integration connects with your existing email client, (like Gmail or Microsoft Outlook) to sync, store and manage every message. View all your emails alongside sales call notes for more context about each prospect.
Centralize your customer support with Pipedrive’s communication management feature.
Manage your contacts
Getting new sales reps up to speed can affect down productivity, which, as a startup, you can’t afford.
With the right CRM, your new sales reps get instant access to historical data about your leads, prospects and customers, allowing them to shine in no time. They’ll quickly learn what your sales process looks like, what your customers care about and how your product makes a difference.
Make onboarding each new sales rep easier with Pipedrive’s user-friendly contact management feature.
Make your startup more efficient with integrations and add-ons
Strengthen your startup’s CRM system with powerful integrations. Save time and streamline your workflow by connecting Pipedrive with hundreds of popular apps and services.
Here are some integrations to help any startup or small business shine.
Zapier
Work faster and automate processes by connecting thousands of popular apps via Zapier directly with your Pipedrive CRM.
Access more tools with Pipedrive’s Zapier integration.
Web Visitors
Simplify your lead generation by capturing web visitors. Reveal which organizations are visiting your site, how they found you and what they engage with using Pipedrive’s Web Visitors add-on.
Slack
Forget lengthy emails and excessive meeting schedules. With Dealbot for Slack, your sales team can quickly and easily update managers on deal progress.
Keep in touch with Pipedrive’s Dealbot for Slack integration.
Asana
Supercharge your CRM by combining Pipedrive and a powerful project management tool. Stay organized and connect all your departments on one platform.
Improve your project management with Pipedrive’s Asana integration.
Plecto
Gain insights with visual, in-depth reports and customized dashboards. Easily share data to make sure everyone’s in the loop.
Keep the team updated with Pipedrive’s Plecto integration.
Campaigns by Pipedrive
Create attention-grabbing email campaigns with Pipedrive’s intuitive drag-and-drop email builder.
Use segmentation for targeted messaging and get real-time email marketing data with Pipedrive’s Campaigns add-on.
LeadBooster
Pipedrive’s LeadBooster add-on powers lead generation to feed your sales funnel and help your startup grow. Capture website visitors, find new prospects and shorten user journeys with this add-on to augment your sales funnel management.
Chatbot: Engage website visitors 24/7 and route leads to sales reps
Live Chat: Seamlessly switch from chatbot to sales rep
Prospector: Source quality leads from a database of over 400 million profiles
Web Forms: Embed and share forms to capture and store new leads
How Pipedrive helped one startup manage their time more efficiently
Fast-growing software startup DashThis had trouble nurturing its growing pool of customers. It needed a simple way to manage inquiries and keep track of support requests.
Pipedrive helped DashThis automate follow-ups and collate data in a centralized hub, making sure every customer received timely replies. Its in-house sales team used forecasting and automated administrative work to focus their efforts and help them scale fast.
“Pipedrive really ensures that I keep up the pace when trying to close a deal. With their workflows, I see what actions I need to take in order to sign up a client, and I never forget to follow up with them. No leads are left behind!”
How to set up your startup CRM software
Aligning your CRM tool with your sales process is the key to fueling your growth. Here are some tips to set your CRM up for success.
- 1. Identify the best CRM software for startups
Find the best CRM for your business by consulting with relevant stakeholders on what they need to support your sales team’s current activities.
Consider pricing and functionality along with things like sales automation and mobile app support.
Chat with your sales team and other stakeholders and encourage them to try out free CRM software trials.
- 2. Migrate existing data to your CRM
Collect all your existing data (e.g., from spreadsheets) and add it to your new CRM.
- 3. Customize your pipeline
Personalize your CRM solution to fit your specific sales pipeline management needs. Replicate your sales cycle in Pipedrive by customizing pipeline stages, adding custom fields and incorporating Pipedrive’s templates.
Set up separate workflows for prospects based on each stage of your buying journey. Get an overview of each lead, including how likely they are to convert and when to follow up to maximize your win ratio.
- 4. Add marketing automation and campaign reporting
Spend less time managing marketing activities and more time nurturing leads with automated campaigns and custom emails. Unlock intelligent insights to target hot leads and reach more customers.
Segment your contacts with custom fields. Ensure every marketing message reaches the leads and prospects most likely to convert. Schedule and monitor your social media without leaving Pipedrive with hundreds of smart integrations.
- 5. Manage your email inboxes
Set up Smart Bcc to send a copy of all email communications from your email client to Pipedrive’s detail view. Sync Pipedrive with your email client on Advanced, Professional and Enterprise plans to compose emails inside your CRM tool.
Add a personal touch with custom merge fields. Get instant link-click and open notifications to follow up when it matters most.
- 6. Integrate with your favorite software
You shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel when adding a CRM to your current workflow.
Seamlessly connect your CRM with your favorite software and apps to automate admin, simplify data imports and reduce errors.
CRM for startups FAQs
- Is it too soon to invest in a CRM?
If you don’t have many customer relationships to manage, your instinct may be to wait on investing in a CRM. But if you wait to have more customers before you improve the customer experience, it might be too late.
Tracking and organizing your customer relationships early can help you get ahead of your competitors faster.
With a startup CRM, you can monitor every customer interaction, pain point, purchase and detail. An early start means you can tailor your customer conversations months and even years down the road.
- Can I afford a CRM?
There’s no such thing as a high-quality free CRM. However, let’s consider what drives CRM pricing plans:
Number of users
Which features you need
Monthly versus annual pricing
Add-ons
Typical startup CRM systems have pricing ranges from $15 to $50 per month for each user. If you don’t have a large sales team yet, a CRM won’t cost you much. Even a relatively low investment can help you close deals faster and focus on customer retention.
As you get more customers and hire more people, the right CRM will support your growth.
- Do we need a CRM for startups if our existing system works just fine?
Many startups default to a spreadsheet or a simple sales pipeline template to track leads, prospects and customers. This system may work for now, but think about what happens when you hire sales reps to scale your sales or an employee leaves the company.
Without a central hub for all your lead and customer details, you can become overly dependent on specific individuals to manage siloed information.
The best CRM system for startups keeps this data in a dedicated place accessible to the whole team and helps protect you from risk.
Used by over 100,000 companies in 179 countries
