4 types of CRM software and how to choose

All customer relationship management software can be classified into analytical, operational, collaborative or marketing CRM solutions. Some might even fall into two or more of these groups. While all CRM software is intended to help organizations manage business processes, customer interactions, and more, these categories are intended to explain the platform's specialization or niche purpose.

Let's dive into each of these categories and what your ideal use cases might be to help you decide which one is best for your business needs.

Analytical CRM Software

CRM software with strong analytical functionality collects internal and external data and converts it into reports with useful information for businesses. These tools collect, manage and analyze customer data and then present it to users so they can increase or adjust operations or customer outreach.

Analytical CRMs are most useful for medium and large teams and organizations that require detailed data reporting for business strategy and planning. Industries such as banking, real estate, and service businesses can greatly benefit from CRM software that can offer data mining and insight into consumer trends.

Popular Analytics CRM Providers

Common features of analytical CRM software include data warehousing and mining, advanced sales forecasting, and online analytical processing. All of these tools help companies find, extrapolate, and visualize dense data in a way that is digestible.

Here is a short list of CRM software with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities:

• Sales force: The best analytical CRM to create custom reports and dashboards.
• Fresh sales: The best analytical CRM that offers affordable reporting features plus AI-powered insights.
• Microsoft Dynamic 365: The best CRM solution that provides enterprise-level business intelligence tools.

Operational CRM software

Operational CRM software typically supports a company's daily operations, from marketing to sales and administrative performance. While this type of CRM tool can overlap with general CRM functions such as lead nurturing, its purpose is to do so efficiently and effectively through automations for many business functions.

Companies or situations that would benefit from an operational CRM include those that need help managing customer relationships, especially after the sale. It can also be extremely beneficial for teams that need automations to route leads, schedule meetings, and perform other administrative tasks so sales reps can focus on selling and building customer relationships.

Popular operational CRM providers

Strong project management, workflow automations, and automated marketing campaigns or tracking tools are common operational features of CRM.

Here are some options for providers that offer these functionalities:

• Pipe unit: The best CRM software with visual channels and operational plugins.
• Sales force: The best CRM tool that offers highly customizable dashboards to reflect daily operations.
• Fresh sales: The best operational CRM with affordable plans and workflow builders.

Collaborative CRM Software

Salespeople are not the only users of CRM software. Collaborative CRMs are intended to help with communication and collaboration between departments. Using a tool like this, sales, marketing, operations, and more can share customer data, insights, performance trackers, forecasts, and much more.

The best collaborative CRM solutions provide a variety of communication channels for internal and external use, a centralized data center, and multi-user support. Collaborative CRMs typically offer robust integrations for this reason.

Popular Collaborative CRM Providers

Marketing teams that need to send newly generated leads to sales teams, sales teams that need to share information about leads, and customer service teams that work with customers are examples of teams that should consider a collaborative CRM to help facilitate that teamwork.

Below are three CRM providers that offer excellent collaboration capabilities:

• Fresh sales: The best provider offering multiple user views and task management tools for delegation.
• Zoho CRM: Best for marketing, sales and service teams who want to collaborate across different channels.
• Monday Sales CRM: The best collaborative CRM with an intuitive interface for team members of all levels working together on projects.

Marketing CRM Software

While the general use of CRM software is to manage and track customer interactions and sales, some tools offer robust marketing and lead generation functionality. CRM marketing software helps organizations develop lead generation and nurturing processes to funnel high-value leads into their sales funnel. This style of CRM is ideal for businesses looking to invest in their inbound and outbound marketing and want to increase brand awareness.

Beyond basic email marketing and automations, marketing CRMs include one-time drip campaigns, social media marketing, and website and landing page builders. These solutions also offer general CRM features such as contact management, calendar integration, and basic reporting. Marketing CRMs provide a set of campaign management features, typically involving automations and sequences, customizable templates, and activity tracking.

Popular Marketing CRM Providers

General CRM providers that offer a combination of sales, channel management, and marketing functions help companies optimize their entire sales process from start to finish. The average price for marketing CRM solutions can range from limited free tiers to $50 and $75 per user per month.

Here is a short list of three popular marketing CRM providers and their ideal use cases:

• Zoho CRM: The best general marketing CRM with omnichannel marketing and campaign management.
• Bitrix24: The best marketing CRM for integration with social networks for marketing campaigns.
• HubSpot Marketing Center: The best free marketing CRM software with premium updates and plugins.

How to choose the type of CRM for your business

The most important part of adopting a CRM platform is first choosing the option that best fits your company's unique needs and goals. Criteria to consider when deciding if a provider fits your needs include pricing, features, customization, integrations, ease of use, and more. It is an industry standard for CRM tools to offer demos, free trials, or free versions of their platform so that users can take a look at how the tool would realistically provide a solution.

Below are some key factors to consider when choosing a general CRM tool:

• Business needs: Understand the exact reason why your company is looking for a CRM tool. For example, if your business is growing rapidly, a highly scalable tool that can grow with you to the enterprise level is ideal.
• Budget: Depending on the size of your company or team, CRM tools can be expensive. Whether it's the cost per user or additional fees for more advanced features, knowing what you can afford will be an important factor when deciding which tool to choose.
• Easy to use: For small and medium-sized businesses that may not have deep technical expertise or resources, ease of use should be a priority. For example, open source CRM vendors require experience, so if you don't have someone on staff with the necessary skills, look for something that fits your needs right away. That way, all users can sell effectively without worrying about accessing or navigating the tool.
• Industry or market experience: If your company is in an industry that requires specific features or data security compliance, it is important to ensure from the beginning that the solution you select is in accordance with your industry standards.

Ultimately, the success of a CRM platform within your company requires ongoing support from you. Although these providers are intended to be solutions, they can only work well if implemented correctly. Therefore, be sure to provide clear and thorough training to team members on how to use the platform. Administrators, managers or owners must also continually monitor the platform so that the productivity result matches the investment.