Written by Jay Fuchs @Jay_Fewks
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In
a letter he wrote to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy
in 1789, Benjamin Franklin
famously wrote, "In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except
death, taxes, and the utility of a shared repository for customer contact
information in terms of helping a business's sales efforts — no matter its
scale, structure, or industry."
I
might have taken some creative liberty with the last part of that quote, but it
doesn't make it any less true. Being able to readily access and analyze
customer and prospect contact information can make your sales efforts
considerably easier and more effective. That's why contact management software
is always an option worth exploring.
"Contact
management software" is a catch-all term that encompasses any kind of
software that allows you to track prospect, customer, and vendor contact
information and communication.
This
can include information like addresses, individual employees, associated
companies, open quotes, orders, and sales history. It's a resource that can
improve your sales efforts by simplifying and streamlining processes like
outreach and lead qualification.
Here
are some of the best free and paid options available for any business looking
to invest in contact management software.
Best Free Contact Management
Software
1.
HubSpot CRM
2.
Zoho Contact Manager
3.
Bitrix24
4.
Streak
1. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot's
contact management tools, within the CRM, are designed to remove friction from
your sales processes — streamlining your sales efforts and giving your reps
more time and flexibility to close deals.
The
platform automatically enriches your contact records with data from over 20
million businesses and can notify you when individual prospects open your sales
emails or visit your website. It also includes other contact management staples
like prospecting tracking tools, meeting scheduling, and live chat.
HubSpot
CRM is free to leverage and suits businesses of any size. If your business is
looking for an exceptional, free contact management solution with a host of
other features to support your sales efforts, consider choosing HubSpot CRM.
The
value of Zoho ContactManager is in its simplicity. It's easy to make sense of
and operate without sacrificing power or any necessary functionality. It allows
you to maintain your contacts in a centralized address book and provides a
comprehensive view of any communication you have with them.
Emails,
tasks, and notes specific to individual contacts are all accounted for and easy
to access. It also features tools that allow you to apply the information you
gather in those communications to your sales efforts.
The
most basic version of the platform is free to use and can accommodate 500
contacts for an individual user. That plan is ideal for small businesses,
startups, and freelancers. But, Zoho's paid subscriptions are reasonably priced
for growing businesses. If you're looking for a free contact management option
with an accessible interface, definitely consider Zoho ContactManager.
3. Bitrix24
Bitrix24's
contact management software's suite of features extends beyond what you would
typically expect from this kind of platform. It contains standard contact
management resources, including a centralized database for collecting and
tracking prospect and customer contact information. But, its capabilities
extend well beyond that.
The
software allows you to automatically log and record all phone calls you make to
or receive from a specific contact. The same goes for email communications. If
you sync your email address with the platform, your entire history of email
exchanges will be stored in your Bitrix24 contact manager.
If
you're interested in a free solution with functionality that generally isn't
available with a standard contact management software, Bitrix24 is definitely worth
considering. As your business expands and you want more out of your contact
manager, Bitrix24's paid options can accommodate your needs at reasonable price
points.
4. Streak
Streak's
contact management tools can be entirely integrated within your Gmail inbox,
working alongside all other G Suite applications. The software allows you to
both maintain and share a timeline of customer contacts and communications.
This can include information about email records, call logs, files, notes, and
tasks.
The
platform also offers you custom views of your pipeline. With Streak, you can
search, filter, group, and sort your contact data in any configuration. You can
also save those results in custom views and share that data with your team.
Streak
is an accessible software, designed to easily integrate with your Google
applications. It's free for personal use but has professional and
enterprise-level options for a charge. If you're a freelancer or very small
business owner who uses G Suite extensively, Streak is a solid, viable, free
option for your contact management needs.
Best Contact Management
Software
1.
Pipedrive
2.
Nimble
3.
Nextiva Customer Relationship Suite
4.
Nutshell
1. Pipedrive
The
Pipedrive CRM is decidedly sales-oriented, and its contact management resources
reflect that. They’re tailored toward enabling hard sales with data and
automation. They add a new degree of insight and intelligence to a company’s
sales efforts by gathering smart contact data and automatically pre-qualifying
leads.
The
platform includes tools that can retrieve web-data about your contacts from
online sources like LinkedIn. Using this information, the platform can give you
insight into the viability of pursuing the leads you gather.
Pipedrive’s
plans start at $12.50 per user per month, and it has options to suit virtually
any business in terms of scale, need, or industry. If you’re looking for a
quick, intelligent way to qualify leads and streamline your sales processes,
consider taking a look at Pipedrive.
2. Nimble
Price: $19 per user per month
Nimble
CRM’s contact management features allow you to access all your contacts —
across any mobile, cloud-based, or desktop records you or your organization
maintains — in a single relationship manager.
Nimble’s
prospecting tool automatically displays all contact information and company
details for prospects and customers, including any emails, social interactions,
messages, notes, and calendar events you may have exchanged with them.
The
platform works seamlessly with Google Apps and Office365 and features over 100
app integrations. It’s a powerful, versatile tool for keeping tabs on your
contacts, how you reach them, and how they might fit into your overall sales
efforts.
With
plans starting at $19 per month, Nimble is a solid option for businesses in the
market for a contact management software that reconciles extensive utility with
affordability.
Nextiva’s
sales CRM’s robust suite of features includes contact management resources —
available across all three of their pricing plans. And even the company’s most
basic CRM subscription includes tools for maintaining email history, notes, and
call logs.
Together,
these resources can help you easily and effectively track your customers’
contact information and communication history while taking stress out of
processes like follow-up and outreach.
The
Nextiva CRM is available at three reasonable price points — ranging from $10 to
$30 per month per user. Each plan includes access to a wide array of features
across the company’s CRM, survey, live chat, and analytics infrastructures.
If
you’re looking for a reasonably priced option to aid with your contact management,
follow-up, and outreach efforts — with several other features to boot —
consider exploring Nextiva.
4. Nutshell
Nutshell
provides a central repository for all your company’s customer knowledge. It
offers a single location for you and your team to store and reference any
contact details, call notes, and email conversations you have with customers.
Its contact management infrastructure — paired with its powerful sales
automation tools — can help you streamline your sales process and easily
qualify leads.
The
platform is simple to implement, learn, and ultimately use on a consistent
basis. The interface is relatively straightforward, so anyone on your team
should be able to make sense of it quickly and leverage it long term without
much trouble.
Nutshell
has plans starting at $19 per user per month, integrates seamlessly with
applications like Slack and G Suite, and is designed to suit the needs of
businesses of every size. Still, its pricing and ease of use make it a better
option for small to midsize businesses than large enterprises.
No
matter how big your business is, what you sell, or how you structure your sales
efforts, you're almost guaranteed to have contacts you need to track and
manage. If you haven't already invested in contact management software for your
business, you should strongly consider some of the options listed above.
Nothing
in life can be said to be certain, except for death, taxes, and high-quality
contact management software making life easier for salespeople.
Originally
published Feb 27, 2020 8:00:00 AM, updated February 27 2020
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