Best CRM For Startups: The All-In-One Guide

About 80% of newly launched businesses survive the first year and only 50% make it to the fifth. To set up your startup for that level of success, you need to find tech solutions that’ll help you raise capital, scale quickly, and maintain efficiency.

That's where customer relationship management (CRM) comes in. A good CRM for startups will increase productivity, strengthen customer relationships, and improve your bottom line — all at the same time.

What you'll learn:

• What is a CRM for startups?
• Why is CRM a must-have for startups?
• What can startups do with a CRM?
• Which types of CRM are best for startups?
• How do you choose a CRM for startups?
• When is the best time for startups to get a CRM?

CRM is a system that manages your customer data and provides easy-to-use tools that help you take action. That can include CRM tools for sales, service, marketing, commerce, and even industry-specific areas like financial services and healthcare.

As a startup, your teams are always multitasking and trying to maximize their time. CRM can completely change the way you work, making your jobs easier and your business better.

These are just some ways companies are using CRM to do that:

• Identifying target audiences and launching marketing campaigns
• Gaining visibility into every sales deal and forecasting future revenues
• Providing immediate customer service on any channel

Some CRM platforms can bring all your company data together from a variety of sources, and even come with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

Whether you’re backed by crowdfunding, grants, business loans, or venture capital, as a startup founder, you need to lay the foundation for growth. Here are five ways CRM can help with that.

Revenue is the number one metric for startups. Scaling and steady sales demonstrate that customers are engaged with your brand and making the crucial move from interest to conversion.

With over 15 years of experience helping startups with their enterprise sales motions, Salesforce Ventures released The Startup Enterprise GTM Report with insights on how startups should sell to enterprises.

One insight revealed, “Founders should build and lead the enterprise sales motion. Founders didn’t step back from this role until hitting $5M ARR."

This shows that founder-led sales are now more important than ever. With CRM, even founders without sales or marketing backgrounds can create and execute structured, repeatable sales processes.

These are a few ways CRM can help you sell faster, easier, and smarter:

• Pinpoint target audience demographics, like age, location, and average spend
• Set up outreach sequences and automated actions
• See how prospects are interacting with digital mediums, like your website and emails
• Get in-depth reporting and insights

You might be ready to scale, but is your tech stack going to keep up?

Think about your tech stack like a toolbox. Are you using multiple tools that do the same job? Are they all serving a purpose and adding value? Do they work well together?

With CRM, you have many tools that are ideal for startups on one platform, which means you can save time, reduce costs, and stay agile as you grow.

For example, Starter Suite and Pro Suite have automation tools that help startups handle a larger volume of sales, customer service requests, and marketing campaigns, all with an interface that’s intuitive, easy to use, and fast to set up.

Starter and Pro Suite are two Salesforce solutions that were specifically designed for startups. They’re affordable CRM suites that come with marketing, sales, service, and commerce tools on one platform. Starter has tools that help you get up and running with CRM quickly, and Pro offers everything in Starter plus customization, automation, and advanced features.

Almost two-thirds of customers say they expect companies to adapt experiences to match their changing needs and preferences. With CRM, you can build stronger relationships with customers by personalizing every interaction.

If you want to see a customer's lifetime value, what they're most likely to buy next, or when they visited your mobile app, you have that info right in their customer profile.

Plus, you can ensure seamless transitions between your teams. For instance, when marketing gets a lead, they can smoothly transition it over to sales.

That's how you keep customers happy — and as we all know, happy customers turn into repeat customers who share their experiences with others.

When it comes to financial health, CRM can significantly increase runway, help you manage working capital, and decrease burn rate, which are all crucial, especially in the early stages of your startup.

Plus, you can improve operational efficiency and lower your costs to serve customers with automated workflows. These workflows help minimize manual tasks, optimize resource allocation, and provide better customer experiences all while reducing costs.

These are just some ways you can boost cash flow and improve margins:

• Speed up the sales cycle by automating lead management and follow-up emails. This helps reps focus on high-priority leads and makes outreach quick and easy.
• Create more efficient marketing campaigns with personalized and automated emails that keep leads moving through the sales funnel
• Accelerate the payment process by generating invoices, collecting payments, and embedding payment links directly into your quotes
• Improve lead-to-cash with predictive sales and service data analytics

No matter where you are in the world or what team you’re on, everyone in your company can collaborate in real-time and access all the information they need on one centralized platform.

Here are a few ways CRM can help startups overcome their biggest challenges, scale quickly, and deepen relationships with new and existing customers.

Have you ever heard of data silos? Data silos are collections of information that aren't accessible to other parts of your business.

Imagine your marketing team sends out an email offer, but your sales team can't see who's interested in that offer because the data is stuck in different apps.

As your team and tech grow, these silos can lead to issues with resource allocation, and duplicated efforts. Plus, 81% of IT leaders say data silos are hindering digital transformation efforts.

CRM eliminates data silos by bringing your data together in one place, so every team has complete visibility into all that data.

With analytics features, you can also quickly analyze data, make decisions, and improve performance. For example, let's say you notice revenue is up, but new customer conversions are down. That could be a sign that your current customers are buying more, but your marketing isn't reaching new prospects, which would prompt a change in strategy.

When you invest in CRM early on, you can build lifelong customer loyalty from the start. According to the 2024 Salesforce Customer Success Metrics Global Highlights, small businesses that implemented Salesforce saw a 42% increase in customer satisfaction and a 41% increase in customer retention.

To get those results, you need to stay on top of customer needs and proactively address issues before they happen with features like:

• Seamless self-service
• Timelines of interactions across any channel
• Personalized, data-driven automation

Many CRMs for startups include automated workflows and AI capabilities, which take tedious and time-consuming tasks off your plate. That way, you can spend less time entering data manually and more time working on complex tasks.

For instance, you can use AI to log and transcribe your sales calls, and automatically sync your contacts, events, and emails to your CRM.

Want to know what your customers are saying about you? CRM tools can help you understand how they use your products and services. With those insights, you'll be able to improve your offerings, stand out in crowded markets, and discover patterns and trends.

Some types of feedback you can analyze include:

• What they like or dislike
• What would make the product better
• What would make them switch brands or stop buying

CRM helps companies of any size significantly boost revenue and conversion rates. It has the tools you need to engage buyers effectively, improve productivity, close deals faster, and grow revenue on a single platform.

It all comes down to:

• Focusing on high-impact activities and opportunities
• Understanding customer needs
• Gaining complete visibility into sales pipeline and performance
• Staying ahead of goals and tracking results

Combining AI and CRM can be a game-changer for startups. AI can help you quickly discover trends in customer data, find new ways to connect with prospects, generate content, and personalize marketing experiences.

According to the Small Business Trends Report, SMBs using AI say it has wide-ranging benefits, from forecasting accuracy to competitive insights. In fact, 85% cite major or moderate improvements to how sales reps use their time.

Generative AI is specifically opening up possibilities and freeing up time to focus on more important tasks. Sixty-four percent of SMB desk workers believe generative AI could help their businesses operate more efficiently and 62% think it could help them serve customers better.

CRM also plays a crucial role in data organization and governance. Because it’s a centralized platform for managing data, you need advanced access controls that define user permissions, as well as audit trails, to ensure data integrity and security. If you're operating in regulated markets, some CRMs can also help you comply with data protection regulations. Having your data organized and protected prepares your business to use trusted AI-powered tools, which is crucial when building your future in AI.

The best CRM is the one you can grow quickly with, but how do you know if it can do that? Here are seven things to look for in a CRM for startups.

If you're new to CRM, you need a simplified solution that teaches you how to use it, preferably with built-in guidance.

As you take on more business and exit the startup phase, your CRM should have the flexibility to adapt and easily upgrade features.

When you're ready, you should be able to:

• Customize your CRM to fit your needs
• Swiftly implement even more powerful automation tools
• Integrate other apps directly into your CRM

You might think CRM is just for enterprises, but there are simpler solutions out there that don't break the bank. Check out options specifically designed for startups and early-stage businesses. (Bonus points if they have a free trial.)

For example, even though Salesforce has enterprise solutions, Starter Suite and Pro Suite are perfect for startups. These are simplified, low-cost CRM suites that come with sales, service, marketing, and commerce tools in one platform. (And yes, there's a free trial.)

You need to hit the ground running from day one and see results fast, so the perfect CRM should be easy for everyone to set up and use — no developer required. Look for one that's:

• Intuitive
• Makes it easy to import data
• Provides training resources and timely support

The best CRM for startups will allow your teams to seamlessly connect, collaborate, and share data with each other, regardless of their location or role.

With the right CRM, you can turn a first-time buyer into a lifelong customer. Look for a solution that lets you see a customer's entire journey with your company, from their first contact to their latest engagement. That way, you can tailor every interaction to them.

A CRM centered on relationship-building is also valuable when it comes to communicating with current and potential investors. You can easily manage partnerships, and better connect with venture capital companies and other sources of potential funding.

Your CRM should focus on improving business operations throughout the entire customer lifecycle. It should have automation as a key component to reduce manual effort for teams across your company.

The right CRM for startups should have high-quality reporting and analytics features designed to improve performance.

Analytics-based CRMs include data-mining tools, which capture and analyze data from multiple sources, as well as segmentation tools, which allow teams to segment leads and customers based on demographics, engagement, and buying behavior.

With so many options out there, it can be hard to find one with the right mix of cost, capability, and customization. Here are six tips that'll help you decide on the best fit.

First, figure out what you want to accomplish with your CRM. What's the end goal? What metrics will demonstrate success in reaching that goal?

Let's say you want to prioritize in-depth customer profiles that inform your sales and marketing decisions. Go with a CRM that offers a complete view of each customer, plus AI features that recommend the best ways to connect with them.

List out the tech tools you currently have and the ones you want. Then define the purpose of each one. Try to see where CRM fits into the mix, what it can do that your other tools can't, and if there's any overlap.

What are the most important features to you? Some CRM tools are great at data analysis. Some provide a great customer experience. Others are on the cutting edge of AI.

What about all three? Salesforce AI helps startups derive insights from data, personalize experiences, and improve productivity.

The next step is to compare a few solutions to see which one best meets your needs. As you're reviewing, consider scale, cost, and ease of use.

Ask yourself:

• Can this CRM keep pace as my business grows, or does it have a finite limit?
• What does it cost to deploy and manage?
• Are there extra costs or fees that aren't immediately obvious?
• How does it integrate with existing solutions?
• Is it simple to use and easy to understand?

Once you've selected a few front-runners, read the reviews. Pay attention to any recurring themes like performance problems, hidden fees, or limited support.

At this point, you should have the list down to three or four solutions, so let's bring in key stakeholders. Getting their feedback is critical because to drive CRM adoption, your team has to like the CRM they're working with every day.

Be sure to include department heads, IT managers, frontline staff, and anyone else who will regularly use it.

Before buying, ask your provider about support and service. Ideally, you're looking for a CRM that offers on-demand support to resolve immediate issues, in addition to keeping tools updated with new features and functions.

The sooner, the better. If you adopt CRM early on, you're starting out with "clean data" and can track performance from day one.

Not only that, but as your startup matures, implementation becomes more costly. It’s best to start with a CRM that’ll scale with your business. If you wait, you could end up having to manage and migrate all your data to a CRM down the line.

Now that you know how to choose the best CRM for startups, you're ready to hit the ground running.

Whether you're a startup beginning your CRM journey or already on your way, check out Salesforce Launchpad. This program is designed to help startups and venture-backed companies make the most of the Salesforce CRM and ecosystem with exclusive discounts, best practices, and personalized coaching.