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8 Must-Have CRM Software Vendors for Your Initial Market Assessment or RFI Process

Updated: Jul 3

If you are looking for new CRM software and are about to conduct your initial market assessment with a view to issuing an RFI or RFP, our latest CRM Software Guide looks at eight vendors that we believe should be on your initial longlist for consideration.


CRM Software Options

Our CRM Software Guide - The Longlist - looks at the CRM market and suggests 8 vendors that would be useful to speak to for your initial market assessment. You may wish to add more, or take some away - it is not a definitive list of all the software vendors in the market, but it is a curated selection based on our viewpoint. We've looked at various analyst opinions, CRM market share, and customer ratings and feedback to arrive at our selection.


CRM Software Options


You can find the CRM Software Guide here but eight vendors (in no particular order) are as follows:

  • Salesforce (www.salesforce.com) - the leading CRM vendor for many years. Salesforce changed the CRM software game at the turn of the century and has not looked back since. One of the major tech vendors with a breadth of offerings that expands beyond the CRM market.

  • SugarCRM (www.sugarcrm.com) - Sugar is a long-standing vendor in the CRM marketplace and is often considered on various analyst reports. They are a great fit for many businesses and work particularly well in the mid-market.

  • Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) - like Salesforce but on an even bigger scale, today's Microsoft is a significant player in the tech space and they operate in areas touching and completely different to CRM. However, CRM has been a core investment area for them for many years. Companies of all shapes and sizes rely upon Microsoft's CRM platform.

  • Creatio (www.creatio.com) - a vendor that is a little different from the others on our Longlist, Creatio is a no-code vendor that works in the CRM market. If you don't know of them, take a look at how they might be able to help and how they are different from some of the usual vendors in the CRM marketplace.

  • Oracle (Oracle | Cloud Applications and Cloud Platform) - featuring on many different software market assessments, Oracle is one of the oldest enterprise software businesses and they have a real breadth of technology and market solutions. CRM has been central to their offerings for the longest time and it brings considerable market credibility and customer references.

  • Zoho (www.zoho.com) - perhaps a new name to many - Zoho is an India-headquartered business that has grown exponentially in recent years to bring a CRM platform and many other enterprise technologies to the market.

  • Zendesk (www.zendesk.com) - a vendor that takes a different stance on the traditional CRM offering and therefore they present a dynamic that perhaps will not be seen when considering the other tech solutions on our list. Zendesk is deployed in companies across the globe and in businesses of all shapes and sizes.

  • HubSpot (www.hubspot.com) - bringing another different approach to traditional CRM, HubSpot is an increasingly popular technology choice for big and small businesses. With a focus on inbound marketing and sales software, having them on a CRM longlist or shortlist will bring a different viewpoint and approach.


CRM Vendor Selection


Choosing a CRM solution is no different from most enterprise software selections. The key is to communicate the challenge and what we are looking for in a new CRM - and then make that call.


Viewpoint Analysis, as a 'Technology Matchmaker' runs 'Rapid RFI' and 'Rapid RFP' vendor selection processes to accelerate moving from a longlist to a shortlist - and selection, quickly. There are some golden rules to follow in order to get things moving quickly:


  • Scrap the old-fashioned RFI and RFP approach - some of your favourite vendors will decline to bid. Instead, keep it simple. Forget about sending that long spreadsheet and expecting answers by next Friday!

  • Issue a brief 'problem statement' - tell the vendors what your challenge is and let them tell you how they can help.

  • Let them know why you are asking them to participate - it's critical to 'sell to the sales team' so they know why they should respond to you.

  • Keep your RFI process wide - but your RFP process tight. You should really need no more than 5 vendors in your RFP process if you have done the RFI properly.

Check out our RFI Guide if you want to see all our hints and tips!


CRM Selection Help


If your team needs a little more help, our CRM Technology Matchmaker Service might be what you need - it's a super-quick approach to doing a market assessment. We don't need to stick to these eight vendors - we can go where you want to go.


We'll write up your requirement, we'll take it to the marketplace, and we'll host the vendor presentations. Just sit back and listen to how they can help. Those CRM vendors that you like can then be part of your selection process (maybe an RFI or skip straight to an RFP) - we can help or you can take things on.


Find out more about our CRM Technology Matchmaker here.

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