13 reasons why free CRM software is powerful for your startup

We love free stuff. Our natural tendency is to gravitate towards free things because we love the idea of zero cost— free samples, free cup of coffee, free donut, free chocolates, free tickets, etc. As much as we love free things, we don’t always perceive free as good. When it comes to business decisions some of us are suspicious of the value of free products; particularly one—free CRM.

But, the real value of a free CRM is subjective for each business. A free version of a business software can work wonders for a startup with limited budgets, and not the optimal choice for an enterprise. There may not be many bells and whistles in a free tool—but if sufficient with the essential features, it will help run and build your startup.

Every startup needs a CRM system to manage data and develop customer relationships. There are definitive advantages to using a CRM when you’re getting started. Why else would 91% of companies adopt a CRM to grow their business.

If you’ve launched your business and now searching for CRM software, here are 13 reasons why free CRM is powerful for your startup.

1. You’re a startup now, and don’t want to remain as a startup forever.

For your startup to thrive and succeed, you need to grow your sales. To sell more, you must have the proper tools to get, keep and grow your customer base. CRM software logs contact details, communications and opportunities in one place, and gives a 360-degree view of your customers. It helps you manage customer relationships and expand your business.

2. You need a budget-friendly (or, free) tool to reduce costs.

Due to the budget constraints that many startups face at early stage, a free CRM reduces costs and helps you stretch your dollar for your new business. Free CRM with core functionalities such as contact and deal management, email, phone and integrations can simplify and enhance your business processes—freeing up costs for other initiatives.

3. Customer relationship is more holistic with built-in phone and email.

Businesses communicate with customers over channels like phone and email. If interactions with customers aren’t stored in one place, as a business you can lose transparency of your customer’s needs. Free CRM with phone and email capabilities tracks your conversations and links it to the customer record. So you don’t lose communications over either medium. A holistic CRM improves your relationship with the customer by having the right conversations.

4. You maximize your startup’s productivity.  

Keeping productivity high and your team focused is important for your startup. But when customers are growing and teams are expanding, it’s easy to get inundated with routine work. It can be challenging for a salesperson to perform repeated data entry and also sell. CRM being a productivity tool enhances workplace productivity and saves time. Replacing work like adding contacts manually with options to auto-create them from email and webforms, and centralizing customer and sales information are effective ways your CRM helps your sales team be more productive.

5. Know your hot leads and prioritize sales efforts.

For a startup, finding the right prospects will save your team valuable sales time. If you can’t differentiate the hot prospects from the cold in your sales funnel, it’s likely that you take a long time to initiate contact with your hot prospects. Free CRM with lead scoring feature helps you identify qualified leads instead of chasing ones that don’t have any buying power. It scores leads so you can focus on the right prospects fast, engage with them and improve your conversion rate.

6. Never miss follow-up tasks.

Communicating with customers throughout their journey is vital for startups to build long-lasting relationships. But, it’s easy for sales reps to drop the ball on communication when things get busy. When this happens, customers feel forgotten and are less likely to buy from you because they think you don’t care. You can’t afford to lose potential business, and amidst all the hustle and bustle your team needs a little help with task management. Get your follow-up done with task reminders in your free CRM. Whether it’s an email, call or coffee appointment, reminders in your CRM will prompt action-items and help you stay on top of your tasks.

7. Streamlined process to close more deals faster.

A defined and consistent sales process will ensure your sales reps take the right steps to close each deal for each of your customers. A sales CRM streamlines this process and helps you be more effective at prospecting and closing deals. It increases visibility on open opportunities so you can zero in on where to steer your efforts to successfully close an opportunity. Deal management capability helps you to optimize your sales cycle, close more deals and increase revenue.

8. Offer better customer experience.

Businesses have support and sales teams working for the same customers, but the use of separate disconnected tools results in data silos if the two work independently. Synchronizing customer data across products is imperative for business to operate efficiently as a whole. CRM integrated with a customer support platform improves overall customer experience and increases customer retention. Satisfying your customer even after their purchase is important to acquire their loyalty to your business. After all, a happy customer is a loyal customer.

9. Integrated business apps to foster collaboration

In addition to having a sales CRM, startups use a set of tools like marketing, accounting, messaging, google apps, etc. to achieve their business goals. Integrating your free CRM to other tools creates a centralized database and allows you to take a collaborative approach to growing your business. If you’re a Gmail user, use a Google Chrome extension to have your CRM inside Gmail. And if you’re a Slack, MailChimp, or facebook user integrate it with your free CRM using Zapier. Startups can unlock potential upselling and cross-selling opportunities with an integrated CRM system.

10. Find information faster with smarter search

It’s estimated that the average television watcher will spend more than two weeks looking for lost remote controls during their lifetime. Yikes! CRM can’t help you find your TV remote, but it can help you find business information faster. Search in CRM is important for your business because employees spend 1.8 hours everyday on average searching and gathering information. You can look up information using their name, email, phone number, or any custom fields. What’s even better is for your free CRM to show your recent searches, just in case you forget again. Don’t feel overwhelmed by your data overload. Let the CRM find what you’re looking for.

11. Track and manage sales on the go.

In today’s world, we’re always on the go. We spend up to 5 hours per day on our mobile devices. So a free mobile CRM is a fair ask. The possibility to handle sales and customer relationships on mobile plays a substantial role for startups in their success and growth. Having contact information in the touch of your hand allows sales reps to easily view and enter data, and conduct business from anywhere.

12. Your data is safe and secure.  

If your business handles customers, then you face the responsibility of protecting your customer data. As a startup, the last thing you want to deal with is loss of data. Modern cloud CRM software secures your business information against cyber attacks and mishaps. Moreover, your data is encrypted and constantly backed up as opposed to storing them in excel sheets. CRM protects your data round the clock even when you’re not in the office.

13. Your business grows, but you don’t outgrow your CRM.

Once your startup grows and acquires more customers, your business needs will also evolve. And you’ll need more out of your CRM. But if your free CRM cannot grow with you, then switching CRMs— although possible, is not viable. The right free CRM software builds your startup and grows as your startup grows. It’s equipped with functionalities for SMBs and provides scalability for your team as it multiplies and your business as it expands.

Now if you’re a startup looking to manage your customer relationships and sales data, we have the right free CRM software for you— Freshsales.

Freshsales CRM helps your team perform their highest potential, nurtures your relationships and propels you to turn your startup into a successful business.

Take a look for yourself!