To help you find a CRM software that scales well with your startup’s growth, we asked founders and cofounders for their expert insights. From automating and personalizing marketing efforts to using Clio for personal-injury law, here are 19 ways entrepreneurs leveraged different CRM solutions to address their evolving needs.
- Automate and Personalize Marketing Efforts
- Customize Workflows and Dashboards
- Integrate Deeply With Website
- Customize Salesforce for Evolving Needs
- Add Users Seamlessly With Pipedrive
- Adapt Buildium to Handle More Properties
- Adapt Go High Level Features
- Configure Propertybase for Real Estate Needs
- Launch Location-Specific Campaigns
- Incorporate AI-Powered Lead Scoring
- Create Specific Segments With Userlist
- Leverage Copper’s Google Workspace Integration
- Scale Zendesk With Team Growth
- Centralize Data With Insightly
- Modify Apps With Apptivo
- Customize HubSpot for Complex Sales
- Customize Zoho for E-Commerce
- Configure Salesforce for Evolving Needs
- Use Clio for Personal-Injury Law
Automate and Personalize Marketing Efforts
Through our experience with ActiveCampaign, we learned that the scalability of CRM software is significantly enhanced by its ability to automate and personalize marketing efforts.
As we expanded, ActiveCampaign’s features allowed us to continue delivering tailored messages without losing the personal touch that our customers valued. This capability of handling increased complexity in customer interactions without compromising the quality of engagement led to a dramatic improvement in customer satisfaction.
It taught us that for a CRM system to scale effectively, it must be able to adapt to larger volumes of data and more complex customer needs while maintaining ease of use. It’s important to note that scalability is not just about handling more customers; it’s about managing deeper interactions more efficiently.
Kyran Schmidt, Cofounder, Outverse
Different Types of CRM Explained: Which One is Best for You?
Customize Workflows and Dashboards
When my startup began to scale, SuiteCRM proved to be an excellent choice for our evolving needs. Its flexibility allowed us to customize workflows and dashboards to match our specific business model and customer engagement strategies. The integration capabilities with other tools helped streamline our processes significantly, making it easier to manage customer interactions and data.
As we grew, SuiteCRM’s reporting features enabled us to monitor sales performance and customer behavior effectively, allowing for data-driven decisions. The open-source nature of SuiteCRM meant we could adapt it without the constraints of a rigid system, which was vital as our requirements changed.
I appreciated the community support surrounding SuiteCRM, which provided valuable resources and shared experiences to enhance our implementation. SuiteCRM not only kept pace with our growth but also empowered us to leverage our customer data in impactful ways.
Valentin Radu, CEO & Founder, Blogger, Speaker, Podcaster, Omniconvert
Integrate Deeply With Website
As our startup expanded, we needed a CRM that could scale with us seamlessly, and HubSpot CRM proved invaluable. Its adaptability to our growing needs was evident through its deep integration capabilities with our website.
We’ve utilized HubSpot’s forms to capture leads directly into our CRM, ensuring no opportunity slips through the cracks. Moreover, the ability to customize pipelines according to our evolving sales processes allowed us to manage our workflows more efficiently, adapting to new market demands and client interactions.
HubSpot CRM’s robust analytics also provided insights that helped us refine our strategies in real-time, making it a cornerstone of our business growth.
Dominic Bonaker, Founder, Lunar WP
Hubspot
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Customize Salesforce for Evolving Needs
As a software developer, I found Salesforce to be a CRM software that scaled well with our startup’s growth. Its customizable nature allowed us to adapt the platform to our evolving needs, enabling seamless integration with our existing systems. The robust reporting and analytics features provided valuable insights as we expanded, and its cloud-based architecture ensured scalability without compromising performance.
Additionally, the extensive ecosystem of third-party integrations and app marketplace allowed us to tailor the CRM to our specific requirements, making it a valuable asset in our growth journey.
Gregory Shein, CEO, CORCAVA
SalesForce
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Add Users Seamlessly With Pipedrive
I have come to realize the importance of a CRM that has the potential to scale up with the business. We chose Pipedrive, and so far, the solution has helped us in our growth. At inception, our operations were very small, but as they increased, we were able to add users seamlessly without any downtime due to the flexible architecture of Pipedrive. These pipelines and workflows in Pipedrive were customized to fit our recycling processes.
It’s this adaptability that guaranteed our CRM changed with our services as they diversified. With new tools and software integration for managing the different aspects of our business, Pipedrive’s powerful API and integration capabilities gave us one system to work on. Pipedrive has been much beyond a CRM for us; it has been the growth partner growing with us in innovation, so we continue to focus on reducing waste and environmental impact.
Gil Dodson, Owner, Corridor Recycling
Pipedrive CRM
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Adapt Buildium to Handle More Properties
A CRM tool that scaled well with our growth was Buildium. We started as a small property-management company but now manage over 500 residential units across New Jersey. Initially, we used Buildium for its core features like online rent payments, expense tracking, and basic reporting. But as our portfolio and team expanded, Buildium adapted to handle far more properties, vendors, tenants, and internal users.
Buildium’s software integrates with the tools property managers actually use, like maintenance software, payment processors, and accounting platforms. This meant we could keep using our existing tools while Buildium acted as the central hub for all our data. The pricing tiers allowed us to pay only for the features we needed at the time. Whenever we upgraded to handle more properties, Buildium provided training and support to get our team up to speed quickly with the new features. This incremental-growth model prevented information overload and ensured a smooth transition with each expansion phase.
Overall, Buildium’s scalability, reasonable pricing, and real-world integrations provided the foundation we needed to grow sustainably over the years. Their platform continues adapting to the changing needs of property managers, and we look forward to many more years of partnership.
Daniel Rivera, Owner, Proactive Property Management
Adapt Go High Level Features
I believe Go High Level was a game-changer for us. When our startup began, we needed a CRM that could keep up with our rapid growth and changing demands. Go High Level adapted like a chameleon. It started simple, managing our client interactions, but as we expanded, it seamlessly integrated more features we didn’t even know we needed at first.
For instance, it handled our marketing automation and lead management with ease. We could customize workflows to match our unique processes, and its scalability meant we never felt like we outgrew the system. As our team grew, Go High Level kept up, adding user permissions, advanced reporting, and robust client-communication tools. In my opinion, it’s like having a Swiss Army knife for CRM, always ready to meet new challenges.
Andrew Lee Jenkins, Owner, Catalyst RVA Marketing Agency
Configure Propertybase for Real Estate Needs
Propertybase is the CRM software that scaled well with my startup’s growth.
Propertybase is a robust, real estate-specific CRM that is designed to scale seamlessly as your brokerage or agency grows. Its scalability and adaptability features adapted well to support my business.
It offers flexible pricing and tiered plans, allowing me to start small and gradually increase users, contacts, and transaction data as my team expands. The platform’s architecture is built to handle large volumes of real estate-focused information, from listings and showings to marketing campaigns and commission tracking.
The software provides extensive customization capabilities, which enabled me to configure the CRM to align with my unique real estate workflows and business processes. As I venture into new markets, property types, or service offerings, I can easily extend Propertybase to accommodate those changes through custom fields, automated workflows, and integrated third-party apps.
Chris Hoffman, Owner, Lehigh Valley Just Listed Real Estate
Launch Location-Specific Campaigns
As a multi-location, service-based business, what has helped us grow is Mailchimp. Primarily, it gives us the right tools to streamline our marketing efforts, and as we grow with multiple locations, in and out of New York, this has allowed us to take our initiatives a notch higher through market segmentation.
With Mailchimp, we are able to launch location-specific campaigns that highly resonate and almost give an at-home feeling to local clients. The interface is user-friendly, so we are able to utilize it ourselves and cut costs on outsourcing tech support in this aspect.
Through Mailchimp’s analytics and reporting tools, we are also able to keep track of the effectiveness of each campaign. With market insights that are tailored and specific to our services, I can say that we are able to improve our strategies, which really contributes to our overall success over time. Most importantly, in a business where we cater to private homes, it is important to us that Mailchimp has been instrumental in strengthening our relationships, especially with our long-standing clients.
Joseph Passalacqua, Owner & CEO, Maid Sailors
Mailchimp
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Incorporate AI-Powered Lead Scoring
One CRM software that significantly scaled with our startup’s growth was Freshsales. Initially, we employed its basic features for lead capture and tracking, which proved invaluable during our early customer outreach efforts.
As our business expanded, Freshsales adapted to our evolving needs by incorporating robust features such as AI-powered lead scoring and intelligent workflow automation, allowing us to efficiently prioritize leads and streamline our sales processes. The powerful insights and analytics provided by Freshsales enabled us to identify trends and measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns in real-time.
Furthermore, its integration capabilities with other tools in our tech stack facilitated a seamless flow of information across departments, enhancing collaboration and overall productivity. Freshsales’ continuous updates and user-friendly interface made it an essential asset as we navigated the complexities of growth.
Rohit Vedantwar, Co-founder & SEO Expert, Supramind.com
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Create Specific Segments With Userlist
One of the CRMs that scaled exceptionally well with our startup’s growth was Userlist. While it’s often viewed primarily as an email-marketing tool, Userlist’s features were perfectly aligned with our startup’s needs.
As a product-led growth company, we initially didn’t have a dedicated sales team, which meant we didn’t require extensive sales-related functionalities in our CRM. Instead, we needed a tool that could support our unique marketing and customer-engagement strategies.
Userlist offered the capability to create specific segments based on criteria that we could define. You can set up segments for virtually any scenario—whether it’s a prospect who failed to complete a sign-up form, an existing customer with an upcoming card expiration, or a new customer with limited product usage.
The ability to create these segments and run targeted email-marketing campaigns played a crucial role in reducing and managing churn, enabling new leads to adopt our solution, and ensuring proper communication of our newly released features to our user base.
Moreover, Userlist’s ability to append URLs for lead attribution was invaluable. It allowed us to track which leads came from specific marketing channels, enabling us to allocate resources more effectively and optimize our marketing strategy.
As our startup continued to grow and the number of inbound leads increased, it became challenging for our customer success team to manually follow up with leads. To address this issue, we integrated Userlist with sales-enablement tools like Outplay, which further automated our lead-nurturing process. This integration made Userlist an incredibly competent CRM that consistently delivered outstanding results for us.
Rahul Chakraborty, Senior Growth Manager, FirstPrinciples Growth
Leverage Copper’s Google Workspace Integration
A tool like Copper CRM (formerly ProsperWorks) scaled really well as our startup grew, in part because it was deeply integrated with Google Workspace. We started by using Copper for basic contacts and email tracking, which helped us manage our first sales processes. But as our needs grew, we leveraged Copper’s scalability to take advantage of automated workflows, advanced reporting, and even other integration tools such as Zapier for greater automation.
The ease of use in the interface and the Google Workspace integration meant it was not disruptive; team members were able to continue what they were doing, and we could focus on growing the business rather than learning a new system. Copper is an example of an application that enabled us to grow because it effectively met our needs and was easy to use.
Mark McShane, Founder, Cupid PR
Scale Zendesk With Team Growth
Zendesk is a great CRM for our sales team, especially in the beginning when we only had 5 agents. Its price-scaling allowed us to use the best features for our needs while still being able to adjust costs with our increased earnings.
It works really well with our knowledge base. We could grow it with our business to support sales reps in answering queries quickly. It got even better when we added a live-chat service. With their new AI chatbot functionality, we could offload general inquiries and offer self-service to our customers. It’s an additional cost, but having the option integrated into our existing business made it worth it.
I recommend Zendesk to any business that has a small sales team but is looking for growth over the medium term. It equips you with the best tools based on the size of the team. It scales well enough that it could provide enterprise-level functionality.
Anders Blomqvist, Co-Founder, Cannabiva
Zendesk
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Centralize Data With Insightly
Insightly has been the CRM software that really scaled well with our startup’s growth. We use Insightly to centralize all our customer data, which helps us close more deals and create successful customer journeys. It also allows us to turn these deals into projects, deliver on time, enhance customer support, and exceed customer expectations. It’s a great platform if you need to align all your teams on one platform.
From my experience, Insightly has shown itself to be a robust CRM that integrates seamlessly with project-management tools. It’s particularly suitable for businesses managing multiple projects and who need efficient task organization. The visual mapping helps us understand and manage the relationships between contacts, tasks, and projects better. I appreciate the advanced task-management features that help set priorities, assign responsibilities, and monitor deadlines to keep projects on track.
It’s very user-friendly and easy to implement across different teams. The platform includes attractive and customizable email templates, offers multivariate and A/B testing, and allows the creation of custom customer journeys that effectively turn visitors into prospects. Its comprehensive analytics provide a complete understanding of client engagement. Additionally, the customer support portal is quite useful, and the mobile app features, like a business-card scanner, data sync, and voice notes, are especially handy for on-the-go professionals.
Kyle Kozlowski, Co-Founder, Eco Temp HVAC
Monday.com CRM
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Modify Apps With Apptivo
Despite our constantly changing sales and marketing strategies, Apptivo CRM has been instrumental in adapting to them. The flexibility to modify apps and features to suit specific business needs made it an ideal choice as we explored new markets and diversified our service offerings.
Whether we needed to overhaul our lead-management system or integrate new communication tools, Apptivo was up to the task, offering solutions that could be tailored to our requirements. This capability ensured that our CRM system grew with us, always aligned with our strategic objectives and operational demands.
The ease with which we could customize Apptivo helped us maintain a competitive edge by quickly adapting to market changes and customer needs.
Chris Aubeeluck, Head of Sales and Marketing, Osbornes Law
Customize HubSpot for Complex Sales
We have been using HubSpot for more than 6 years, and it proved effective for the growth of our startup. Although we tried many other CRM systems, we always used to come back to HubSpot. When we first started to use it, we were a small team with limited needs. Most of our focus was on managing contacts and tracking basic sales activities.
As our customer base grew and our sales processes became more complex, HubSpot adapted seamlessly to meet our needs. Its flexibility and scalability always helped our company to perform effectively with fewer resources. It allowed us to customize our pipeline, automate repetitive tasks, and integrate with other tools we were using as we expanded our operations.
With the growing team, we obviously needed better visibility into our sales funnel and customer interaction. HubSpot’s robust reporting and analytics features also became invaluable as we scaled. They helped us track key metrics, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize our sales and marketing efforts.
Moreover, the customer-support services and training resources were top-notch. They provided us with the guidance and expertise that we needed at each stage of our growth. HubSpot not only kept up with our growth but also empowered us to grow smarter by streamlining our processes and improving our customer relationships.
Saikat Ghosh, Associate Director of HR & Business, Technource
Customize Zoho for E-Commerce
In the early days of our company, choosing the right CRM was a pivotal decision for our growth trajectory. We opted for Zoho CRM, which turned out to be a fantastic partner as our business expanded. Initially, we needed a system that could handle basic customer interactions and sales-pipeline management. Zoho’s intuitive platform allowed us to hit the ground running and focus on building relationships with our customers.
As our operations scaled, Zoho CRM proved incredibly adaptable. We needed more sophisticated features, like automated workflows, advanced reporting, and customer segmentation. Zoho’s flexibility allowed us to customize these aspects without disrupting our existing processes. The ability to integrate with other software tools we were using, such as inventory management and email marketing, was crucial for maintaining operational efficiency.
Zoho CRM’s pricing model was also a huge benefit. As a startup, managing costs while accessing powerful tools is vital, and Zoho offered scalable solutions that fit our budget. The platform’s constant updates and support have helped us navigate challenges and continue to innovate. For an e-commerce business like ours, having a CRM that evolves with our needs has been a key component of our success.
Chris Bajda, E-commerce Entrepreneur & Managing Partner, Groomsday
Zoho CRM
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Configure Salesforce for Evolving Needs
We used Salesforce CRM to power our customer data management. Salesforce scaled well with our startup growth in several ways: First, the software has a flexible data model that adapted to our evolving needs. As we expanded our offerings and customer segments, we were able to configure new objects and fields in Salesforce to track the appropriate information.
Second, Salesforce offers a range of paid plans that match different company sizes and budgets. As a startup, we began with the Professional Edition and later upgraded to Enterprise Edition to unlock features for our expanding user base.
Finally, the Salesforce platform features an extensive app ecosystem with thousands of options. We integrated new apps over time that streamlined tasks like customer service, marketing automation, and revenue management.
Salesforce CRM provided a scalable foundation that flexibly adapted to our startup’s changing needs at each stage of growth. The platform’s configurability, pricing options, and app ecosystem made it a good long-term choice for our customer data management.
Mahee Chouhan, Content and Digital Marketing Manager, Mitt Arv
SalesForce
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Use Clio for Personal-Injury Law
Clio has proven to be an excellent choice for our personal-injury law firm. One of the main reasons for selecting Clio was its user-friendly design, which is appreciated by both my team and clients. It’s actually been the sole deciding factor for our firm because we can focus more on our clients rather than getting bogged down in complicated software. Customer support has always been impeccable with their responses and troubleshooting.
Clio adapted to our evolving needs when we were scaling up by offering features specifically designed for personal-injury law. It includes tools for managing medical records and tracking damages, which are essential for our practice. And it integrates with all the other tools we use, allowing us to manage everything from client intake to billing in one place.
Riley Beam, Managing Attorney, Douglas R. Beam, P.A.
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