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Collaborative CRMs are software that help multiple departments at your company easily organize and share lead and customer data through specialized communication and collaboration features. The top collaborative CRMs offer tools for communication and document management as well as centralized data, activity tracking, and cross-platform compatibility. To help you choose the best CRM for you, we've evaluated quality options and their use cases:
The top seven collaborative CRM solutions include:
Our overall winner for the best collaborative CRM was Freshsales, which took first place in the customer support category and also tied in the features and pricing categories. However, all options on our list are quality CRMs. Continue reading to learn more about each option’s use case, pricing structure, and key features. Otherwise, jump down to see our scoring logic.
Note: All per-user prices are with a one-year commitment unless otherwise noted.
The key features below are included in the top collaborative CRMs:
By making customer data and deal statuses readily available for all employees to view and keep updated, your company can come off as highly organized to your leads and clients and communicate with them effectively.
In our evaluation, we used six key criteria consisting of more specific subcriteria to review some of the biggest and most popular collaborative CRM software. After assigning a score out of five for each criteria, we added up the total scores to determine the overall winner. The CRMs that scored the highest made our list, then we used our research to assign a primary use case to each according to what it does best.
We gave the most consideration to core features and pricing because the top options should offer a solid set of standard CRM tools and collaborative features across reasonably priced plans. We then looked into ease of use so the entire team could utilize them, followed by advanced features and customization. Finally, we assessed each CRM’s user support solutions.
We reviewed the core CRM and collaborative capabilities offered by each CRM, including contact management, pipelines, workflows, data centralization, and project management.
We looked into each CRM’s pricing for basic and enterprise-level plans, free tiers or trials, billing options, and/or add-ons.
This category takes into account feedback and ratings from real users across trusted review sites, as well as the accessibility of their knowledge bases.
Here, we checked the sophisticated tools the top options on our list provide, including company chats and feeds, project dashboards, customer linking, and artificial intelligence.
We assessed each collaborative CRM’s capabilities to customize pipelines, workflows, and views or filters, as well as integrate with third-party applications.
We looked into user reviews on certified websites to evaluate each CRM’s support solutions via live chat, phone, and email.
A collaborative CRM helps reps and teams manage communication and collaboration across multiple departments that interact with the same customers and share data. Traditional CRMs focus heavily on client-facing processes with the goal of improving customer relationships and driving revenue, but collaborative CRMs are integral for teams to manage nurturing processes together, allow cross-functional communication, and easily collect collateral and documents.
Collaborative CRMs are ideal for team-based environments where multiple teams or departments interact. Evaluate the different reps, teams, and even external stakeholders you’re working with to identify which tools would actually help you to work together more effectively. Also assess the resources available to you, including your budget and your team’s technical know-how, so you can narrow down a list of options that are affordable and easy to use.
Collaboration is vital in every business with teams working together, but industry-specific companies need a suite of niche features so they can be more effective in their field. While most software offers standard CRM functions, industry-specific solutions provide distinct tools such as asset management for creatives, progress trackers for construction, a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant platform for healthcare, and more.
Whether you’re empowering internal sales and marketing teams or building partnerships with vendors and stakeholders, the best collaborative CRMs give you tools to communicate and share key info. There are plenty of worthy CRMs available that offer conventional solutions for the typical business model or customized approaches for industry-specific companies. For more on how collaborative CRMs stack up against other types, check out our guide on the four types of CRMs.
This article was written by J.R. Johnivan and updated by Kezia Jungco.
JR Johnivan is a contributing writer for Selling Signals and a self-identifying tech nerd with a background in programming and hardware. He uses his understanding of tech to help people make SaaS- and software-related decisions through comparative guides. For Selling Signals, JR writes about CRMs and related software to help readers choose the best option for their business.
Selling Signals delivers actionable advice for sales and marketing professionals. Learn strategies that help you hit targets, strengthen customer relationships, and win more business. Get expert advice on lead generation, sales processes, CRM software, sales management, and account management directly to your inbox.
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