Why do startups need a sales CRM?

From post-its and spreadsheets to email clients and a phone system, startups use a bunch of tools to run their sales. Juggling all these tools on a hectic day—which is daily, for startups—can wear out your sales reps and eat into your team’s productivity. For a startup to stay nimble and move fast, reps need a single tool that fundamentally gives them more time for selling. A sales CRM is that tool. It stores your contacts, lets you make calls, helps you send and track emails, generates reports and brings a clear view into your pipeline. Which means while your reps focus on winning the next deal, you can focus on stabilizing and scaling your startup.

3 questions to ask when you’re picking a sales CRM

Is it simple?

A clean interface and an intuitive experience are good signs in a CRM. If your reps can hit the ground running in hours (rather than weeks), that’s a clinching indicator of “simple.”

Is it affordable?

Find out how a sales CRM’s pricing plans stack up against your budget. Look out for hidden charges. What you see on the pricing page should be exactly what you pay for (and get).

Is it relevant for me?

Having a clear list of use cases is a good point to start off from. Matching these use cases against the CRM’s features is the next step; it helps you quickly identify the right fit for your startup.

Introducing Freshsales CRM

Freshsales is a sales CRM built by a startup. We wanted a tool that matched our sales needs, and we realized the best way to get a tool like that is to build it. Because we eat our own dog food, we identify use cases for startups faster than most others can. And because we’re young and eager to learn, we listen to our customers closely and iterate quickly.

 

Why Freshsales works for your startup

What we’re not
What we are
A CRM that feels like rocket science

Far too often, CRMs are complicated. Salespeople don’t enjoy using an unhelpful tool; we don’t enjoy building one.

A CRM that’s a pleasure to use

From the free trial to our 24x5 support, Freshsales wants to be the best CRM for you.

A dumping ground for leads

A CRM that just lets you store leads, and forces you to switch between multiple tools for basic functions like calls and emails? Not us.

An integrated, hassle-free solution

Freshsales is a fully featured CRM that comes with built-in phone, email, reports, integrations with other tools, and more.

A CRM minus collaboration and productivity

CRMs are not meant to make teams work in silos. They’re not meant for manual data entry either.

A CRM for collaboration and productivity

Inboxes can be shared in real time. You can also share reports with your team and automate repetitive tasks.

A CRM with hidden costs

Why pay for implementation, support or maintenance?

A CRM with transparent costs

On the website, in your product, on your invoice—all the same.

3 Freshsales features your startup can use right away

Lead management

In Freshsales, you get a 360° view of the lead in one screen—complete with their professional details, their activity on your website (and in your app), the meetings you’ve had with them, even their social media information. You can also sort leads by various filters including lead score, a score assigned to leads based on their engagement with your company. And if you’ve stored your leads on Excel, don’t worry—start importing your leads with a single click.

Learn more about lead management

Email management

Freshsales starts you off by integrating your email with the CRM. And then there’s a bunch of things to explore. Create email templates for quick communication, learn how to manage your sales campaigns by sending bulk emails, and understand recipients’ behavior by tracking email opens and link clicks. Plus there’s Team Inbox, a single inbox for multiple email addresses in your company. With Team Inbox, any member of your team can step into an important conversation with the customer, get instant context, and take the dialogue forward.

Learn more about email management

Pipeline management

Freshsales helps you visualize your sales process with a pipeline view that’s easy on the eye and easier to use. A drag-and-drop is all you need to do to move deals from one stage of the sales funnel to another. You can also list your deals if you feel like it, and then sort them using factors like expected close date, deal value and date when the deal was created. If one pipeline doesn’t capture your sales process(es), feel free to create multiple sales pipelines.

Learn more about pipeline management

A happy customer speaks