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If you work as a consultant, a CRM is probably the most critical tools you may have in your arsenal.
That’s because a CRM (or Client Relationship Management) tool helps you retain track of potential clients, current clients, and former clients. You’ll be able to record and store all conversations, interactions, purchases, and plenty more.
The higher you already know your clients, the higher you’ll do as a consultant.
After working on this space for a few years, I’ve been bombarded with all the CRM options available for consultants.
So to enable you to narrow down your CRM options, I’ve compiled a listing of the very best CRM for consultants together with rankings and more details later within the article:
Moxie has really taken the market by storm over the previous few years. With Moxie, you not only get a strong CRM tool, but you may also integrate nearly every other a part of your consulting business (proposals, invoicing, time-tracking, collaborating and tons more).
At a look, Moxie helps you see exactly what’s happening with each client—from where they’re in your pipeline to deadlines, deliverables, and plenty more.
You’ll be able to try Moxie CRM free for 14 days with no bank card required.
One CRM for consultants that’s been in the marketplace for an extended time is Hubspot. The craziest thing in regards to the Hubspot CRM is it’s 100% free.
Yes, actually free. Not “free for a limited time” and never a free trial. Not free with limited capability. It’s totally free.
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The catch? They’ll attempt to sell you on their other products. But that’s okay. You get access to a strong, powerful, incredibly useful CRM at zero cost to your consulting business.
You’ll be able to try Hubspot CRM for free here.
In your search for the right CRM, you would possibly have also come across Keap (formerly InfusionSoft).
Keap helps you to collect and organize recent leads, automate personalized messages, and send targeted email and text marketing campaigns.
One thing I also really like about Keap is their coaching and support. They really care should you succeed. The truth is, they’ve a “90-day growth guarantee” which essentially says in case your sales and revenue don’t go up in lower than 90 days, they’ll refund your money.
You’ll be able to try Keap here for 14 days and put their guarantee to the test.
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With an enormous suite of tools and features, Monday.com is a strong, modern app consultants can get huge profit from.
The Monday CRM tool offers tons of customizable features including email sending and tracking (including mass email if that’s your style). It means that you can track client activity and interactions so that you neve forget where your client is at in your pipeline or process.
It also helps with sales forecasting, lead capture, and a ton more. It’s a bit on the pricier end, but should you need a extremely robust tool, it might be the precise fit for you.
You’ll be able to start with Monday’s CRM for free. Depending on what you wish in a CRM, you would possibly have the opportunity to make use of their free product eternally.
One other CRM value considering as you grow your consulting business is Bloom. Bloom’s goal is to get you out of your email inbox and enable you to manage your client relationships like an expert.
For those who use email alone, you would possibly lose contacts, ignore past clients, or miss out on opportunities altogether. But with Bloom’s CRM, you may keep track of every essential relationship with the depth and detail you wish.
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You need to use this link to try Bloom for free and save 15% in your first 12 months.
For those who’re looking for something very simple yet still customizable, think about using Trello for your CRM.
It’s most definitely not as robust as a few of the other options I’ve included on this list, but sometimes that’s okay.
For those who’re recent to being a consultant a straightforward tool like Trello might do the job. And should you’re more focused on moving clients through your pipeline, then the “Kanban” style format of Trello shall be perfect.
It does, nevertheless, get a bit more complicated if you desire to keep client details eternally. It’s just not likely built for that. It’s really built for task management and an ever-flowing list of things (resembling clients).
Have a look and check out Trello (it’s free).
A really simple-yet-powerful CRM option for consultants is Capsule.
I like the easy design behind Capsule, but don’t let the simplicity idiot you, Capsule is a strong CRM that may tackle all your client management needs.
I’m particularly intrigued by the reporting features on Capsule which mean you can see which efforts are having the largest impact on your small business. This means that you can double-down on what’s working and stop wasting time on what’s not.
You’ll be able to try Capsule free for 14 days.
One other great CRM for consultants that has developed lots through the years is Pipedrive.
As you may infer from the name, Pipedrive focuses totally on getting clients into and driven through your sales pipeline.
And while Pipedrive doesn’t have quite as many features as a few of the other options on the list, it has tons of integrations with popular tools you employ already in your small business.
You’ll be able to try Pipedrive free for 14 days—no bank card required here either.
One other tool that has been an option for consultants for a few years now could be Dubsado.
Dubsado focuses on automation through your CRM and is de facto well-known for their workflows.
Essentially, you place repetitive tasks you’ll normally should do yourself on autopilot and Dubsado does them for you (send invoices, remind clients to pay, reply to inquiries immediately, etc).
While they’ve some great features, their CRM features are a bit lighter than others we’ve featured here today.
You’ll be able to try Dubsado free for a limiteless time—as much as 3 clients.
What exactly is the Best CRM for consultants?
So why exactly do you have to care about finding the precise CRM as a consultant?
If you work as a consultant, your entire business relies in your ability to bring recent clients into your small business.
And while most of us start out using some type of spreadsheet to administer our client lists, as your small business matures and also you begin to assemble an increasing number of client information, you need to discover a protected, secure, easy-to-navigate place to store that information.
That’s why many consultants use a CRM.
A CRM principally gives you a spot where you may store all your client information including things like:
- Client contact info
- Interaction history with each client
- Sales opportunities and leads
- Client purchase and payment history
- Task and appointment scheduling
- Customer preferences and segmentation
- Notes and comments about customer interactions
- Support and repair requests
And there’s lots more you need to use it for too.
Why consultants should use a CRM
By utilizing a CRM as a consultant, you give your future self the prospect to periodically review the health of your small business with regard to your client relationships.
Are you communicating often with future, current, and former clients?
Do you already know your clients well and remember essential details about them?
Are you following up in a timely manner with leads?
These are all of the sorts of questions you need to ask yourself. And should you’re struggling in any of those areas, a CRM is perhaps solution.
What to contemplate when selecting a CRM
If you’re choosing your ideal CRM as a consultant, there are just a few things to remember. Listed below are just a few ideas to get you began:
Can this CRM grow with you?
Depending on where you might be in your consulting business, it’s value considering if the CRM you select will have the opportunity to grow with you.
While many CRMs on the list today do offer migration services, it’s still never fun. The ideal could be to decide on a CRM and keep on with it for no less than just a few years.
Does this CRM have enough features you wish? And never too many you don’t need?
My advice in terms of picking a CRM? Start easy.
But in starting easy, be certain that the CRM does all the things you wish it to. You’d hate to outgrow the tool in a matter of months. For those who’re growing quickly, ask yourself: where will I be 1 12 months from now. Or 2 years from now? And take a look at to seek out a tool that may accommodate the inevitable change.
Then again, it might be tempting to choose a CRM that has all of the “bells and whistles” and each feature you could possibly ever imagine…”just in case” you wish it.
But getting a CRM that’s overcomplicated can actually just result in frustration.
You would like something right in the center.
Will this CRM make your work easier, no more complicated?
This query comes all the way down to a CRM’s usability. Take time to try them out (a lot of the CRMs on this list have a free trial) and be certain that you just like the layout, user experience, design, and functionality of the CRM.
If it’s hard to make use of, hard to take a look at, or simply gives you bad vibes, try something else.
Are you able to see yourself making more sales with this CRM than without it?
Last, but actually not least is probably crucial query of all:
Will you make more sales with this CRM than without it?
For those who’re undecided, possibly it’s not time to undergo the work of establishing a CRM yet.
For those who’re confident, then the choice is a no brainer.
The moral of this point, though, is that this: don’t join for a CRM simply because all the opposite consultants you already know are getting CRMs. Get a CRM because you already know it can help grow your small business.
Selecting the precise CRM for you
Regardless of where you might be in your journey as a consultant, there’s going to be a CRM that matches your small business. But as a reminder, this isn’t something you desire to rush into. Don’t let decision paralysis hold you back, but be certain that you do your due diligence before landing on a particular solution. Hopefully my list and advice today have been helpful. Good luck!
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