Notebooks and spreadsheets have their uses, but managing business relationships shouldn’t be one of them. That is where contact list software comes in to better serve customers, while also opening up essential communication channels among different departments. It’s time to pick up the best-suited contact management software from our thorough review to integrate into your business operation.
Table of Contents
What is the contact list software?
Getting started with the term
Before jumping right to the list of powerful contact list software, it is a good practice for users to grasp the basics of the umbrella term – contact management definition. Technically, contact management is a strategic activity to store, organize, and track information about a business’s prospective customers and its sales lead.
Hereby, contact list software or contact management software is a catch-all term that encompasses any kind of tool that allows businesses to manage all their current and potential customer touchpoints. Other than that, these platforms also help firms track sales, organize contacts, manage projects, automate tasks, monitor social accounts, and even control expenses. Comprehensively, contact management solutions are robust resources that can ultimately improve your overall operation by streamlining outreach and lead qualification processes.
Contact management software and CRM software are both related to some extent. Specifically, both parties help firms organize contacts. A CRM is typically much broader in scope with regards to the functionality that it offers. However, the exact place where contact managers software becomes a CRM system is not clearly defined. This is because software providers are trying to include the best features in their products to reach out to a large customer base.
Contact list software systems have gradually become an aspect of customer relationship management (CRM), or in other words, contact management CRM with the aim of sales efforts.
What makes a good contact list software tool for businesses?
When deciding to invest in a contact management system, a business needs to select a tool that provides an ideal match with the business needs. The optimal contact list software should have all the right solutions to daily issues and hiccups that firms face or are likely to face along the way.
Let’s dig into the fundamental features integrating into contact management systems that modern-day companies are looking for:
Provide seamless accessibility and scalability
The ideal contact list software tool should give access at any given time, as well as scalable for the firm’s future expansion. These features not only enhance connectivity and ease of use but also boost efficiency and productivity for a company’s operations.
A cloud-based solution, or contact management cloud is preferred among modern businesses as it allows multi-device navigation anywhere and anytime. Besides, it also offers long-term benefits to users due to the fact that Cloud Computing is a popular digital trend these days.
Include but not limited to sales
There are many contact list software in the marketplace. However, a perfect fit solution should complement how you work. Acceptedly, it will work with your team through every stage of the sales process, from receiving to closing a deal. In addition, this contact management tool should come with built-in flexibility to its benefits across teams. In particular, it must enhance every aspect of the business process apart from sales, for example, marketing, customer accounts, or even customer service.
Allow customization and reporting
Activities and procedures in different departments can vary greatly. Thus, a quality contact list software should be highly customizable to suit every need.
At the same time, users are also in high demand for software that can give them insights into data and information through reports and analysis. This characteristic not only benefits the sales team but also other departments across the board, allowing firms to improve their overall performance.
Easy-to-use interface
Normally, the process of training and getting employees to adapt to any new system is a real challenge. An easy-to-use technology is much more likely to be accepted and used among your team members, creating better value for your business.
Cutting-edge contact list software tools are no exception. With a user-friendly interface and understandable functions, most employees will hold a positive attitude towards those tools, thereby helping managers successfully implement their training process.
Allow integration with other apps
Seamless connectivity is essential to the success of running a business, due to its impact on the cost. To better grasp a 360-degree view of sales and marketing activities, companies employ a variety of solutions, and therefore, integration with other apps is a vital aspect of modern contact list software.
For example, thanks to the synchronization between a contact management tool and social media platforms, users can have a comprehensive view of data from various sources to better handle customers.
The good reputation of the software’s provider
As a matter of fact, users might be confused with plenty of contact list software options available in the marketplace. That’s when the reputation of the provider can save the day. Research also indicates that the reputation and stability of a provider can be deciding factors to reliability and demonstrate that your investment is safe.
With a high level of trustworthiness, you can be assured that those good software providers back up their products with excellent service for the seamless use of their tools.
>> Read more: Biggest companies using CRM system: Do they succeed?
Top 5 best contact list software in 2024
After having some basic understanding of contact management software, let’s dive into our comprehensive list of 5 excellent tools. Then, you can base on your business’s current situation to employ the most suitable one.
# Salesforce
Salesforce takes the lead in our best contact list software review in 2024 thanks to its exceptional products. This intuitive tool is a great solution when you have to make a comparison to choose the best-suited contact list software for your business.
Unlike other CRM platforms, which are merely created for one single user, Salesforce CRM is a one-stop solution for all customer relationship management, sales as well as marketing professionals in every stage of a firm’s operations. It is considered one of the best CRM solutions that is suitable for various sized businesses and comes at a very fair price.
Features: A set of great features to drive your business forward:
- Allow management of customer-related activities, and customer support.
- Offer features for marketers including marketing lead monitoring, email, and social media integration.
- Provide workflow creation, task management, opportunity tracking
- Email Integration.
- Provide detailed reports to gain more insights into customers
- Offer mobile-based dashboard.
Pricing: Varies depending on the number of features to be integrated
- $25/user/month for a Lightning Essentials package (ideal for startup and small businesses).
- $75/user/month for a Lightning Professional package (best suit medium-sized businesses).
- $150/user/month for a Lightning Enterprise package (for a larger number of process automation, ideal for established businesses).
- $300/user/month for a Lightning Unlimited package (include all the features of the platform).
# Hubspot CRM
Hubspot sale hub is another popular name of “contact management system free tools” with a wide range of features and scalability. This powerful tool is a great choice for businesses to keep close track of their sales pipeline.
Generally speaking, HubSpot CRM is a platform that allows sales teams to embrace quickly without making significant changes in their existing workflow. It is a solution ideal for startups and SMEs during their business development.
Features:
- Allow users to customize views on a real-time dashboard.
- Provide, schedule, track deal, and task.
- Allow marketing synchronization, including email, phone, and website integration.
- Provide company database.
- Allow website visitors tracking.
- Provide reports of sales activity, productivity, and individual performance.
- Offer a mobile-based platform to track activities and performance on the go.
Pricing:
- A free version with a limited set of features.
- Paid versions: including 4 packages ranging from $50/month (for starters), $200/month (basic), $800/month (for professionals), and 2400$ (for enterprise with a maximum of 10 paid users).
On the flip side, Hubspot has a huge disadvantage compared to other contact list software. Specifically, this solution doesn’t support social collaboration although it does provide network integration ability.
# Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is web-based contact list software designed to help firms attract, retain, and satisfy customers. This CRM tool focuses on lead and contact management while taking into account some sections such as sales pipeline management and purchase control. Although Zoho seems an ideal solution for any business of all sizes, its pricing plan is reasonably priced for growing ones.
The prominent value of Zoho ContactManager is in its simplicity and easy-to-use interface with 10 components and the main module navigation panel on top for easier searching. Zoho contact management software allows users to easily operate without sacrificing power or any necessary functionality. At the same time, this tool also allows users to maintain their contacts in a centralized address book and provides a comprehensive view of any communication channels.
Features:
- Allow sales force automation, sales tracking, and forecasting.
- Offer basic lead management.
- Detailed account management with purchase history, prices quotes, and customer data from various sources.
- Allow marketing management: Email, Social CRM.
- Allow dashboard customization to make it look more business-specific.
- Offer a document library for follow-up tasks.
Pricing:
- A free version with a limited set of features (accommodate 500 contacts for an individual user).
- Paid version: 4 different packages: $18/user/month (Standard), $30/user/month (Professional), $45/user/month (Enterprise), $55/user/month (Ultimate).
# Oracle
Oracle is among the leading players of today’s contact list software market which can present a robust and intuitive interface, as well as a variety of product lines and deployment models. This solution makes customer relationship management easier for businesses and allows them to optimize and boost their sales productivity.
Oracle is a highly recommended platform for flexibility and user support. Having said that, firms need to take their pricing plan into consideration as this contact management platform is only suitable for medium-sized companies and above.
Features:
- Offer contact management, partner relationship management, price, and customer data integration.
- Allow integration with Siebel CRM.
- Provide self-service and eBilling.
- Develop business intelligence (BI) applications, and CRM gadgets.
- Available on mobiles for both IOS and Android operating system.
Pricing:
- Starting price: $75 per month ( for an annual subscription).
- $90/user/month for a standard version (the maintenance and upgrading schedule is set by Oracle).
- $125/user/month for an enterprise version (the maintenance and upgrading schedule is set by the customer).
- $110/user/month for a self-deployed version.
# PipeDrive
Finally, we have Pipedrive as an excellent contact list software tool to level up your business operations. Designed by a team of insightful salespeople and hardcore web app developers, the Pipedrive platform help to better organize your customer database and business leads. In particular, the solution gives users a thorough overview of their sales and allows them to put more effort into potential deals.
What makes Pipedrive stand out among the common contact list software tools is its focus on direct sales. Thanks to this software, users will certainly get a complete solution to efficiently manage their business’ sales pipeline.
Features:
- Provide comprehensive sales pipeline view.
- Allow integration will other apps and software: Google Calendar, Google Maps.
- Provide full customization.
- Offer marketing features: Mail integration, Email tracking.
- Provide sales reports.
- Multi-language and multi-currency support.
Pricing: 4 packages
- $15/user/month for an Essential version.
- $29/user/month for an Advanced version.
- $59/user/month for a Professional version.
- $99/user/month for an Enterprise package.
Conclusion
Installing and implementing the right contact list software systems can ultimately create new sales opportunities, and drive the business forward. Among these aforementioned contact list software tools, Salesforce stands out as the most powerful solution that suits business of all sizes and offers a reasonable pricing plan.
As a Salesforce’s strategic consulting partner, Magenest is there to assist you during your business development with Salesforce. If you stumble upon any issue regarding the performance of Salesforce, just throw your words in the comment section below. We will analyze your problem and further support you to get the most out of the tool.
