If you’re looking for an online customer relationship management (CRM) solution, you probably would like to compare Salesforce vs. Zoho CRM. But it’s like comparing a tailored suit to a loose sweater. The tailored suit is shaped to your needs and priced accordingly. The sweater keeps you just as warm but hangs loosely, and is kinder to your cash flow. They are both appropriate for different situations.
To help you sort through the pluses and minuses of these CRM systems, and understand where their features intersect, read our review below.
The Salesforce and Zoho Overlap
Both Zoho and Salesforce solutions enable you to:
- Manage contacts by providing organized storage for contact information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, as well as a record of your communications with each contact. That means no more sifting through multiple spreadsheets and files to find the nuggets of data you need.
- Optimize leads with a system that can be set up to track and nurture them.
- Run campaigns that engage customers and prospects with messages they need when they need them. You can also weigh up campaign effectiveness, and paint a picture of market segments.
- Maximize opportunities by tracking them, following up and shrinking your sales cycle. Everything can be stored in one place, such as meeting notes, and products and services that are a good fit for the customer.
- Increase service levels with a system which assures your help-desk service is top-notch.
- Integrate with Microsoft Office so data, such as Outlook contact information, can travel without roadblocks between software packages.
- Create roles and profiles which put boundaries around what users have access to, so they can access exactly what they need while data that’s for a few eyes only remains secure.
- Support mobile devices so users can access your CRM system anywhere, anytime.
- Deal in multiple currencies.
- Construct workflow rules to automate your business’ standard processes.
Advantages of Salesforce
If you have a large, global enterprise and need a CRM solution with possibilities for extensive customization, Salesforce might be right for you. Salesforce enables you to:
1. Customize the User Experience with Apps Galore
Salesforce's AppExchange, a cloud-computing marketplace, offers businesses a vast selection of customizable apps to enhance the user experience. With over 1,000 different apps available, businesses can find solutions that cater to their specific needs and industry requirements. These apps range from productivity tools to industry-specific extensions, allowing businesses to customize Salesforce to their unique workflows.
Furthermore, Salesforce boasts over 1,800 partner-built apps and supports the creation of 1 million custom-built apps, providing businesses with unparalleled flexibility to tailor Salesforce to their exact requirements.
2. Developers’ Sandbox for Code Experimentation and Customization
Salesforce provides a developers' sandbox, a dedicated environment where developers can experiment, test, and customize Salesforce with code. Similar to children playing with sand in a sandbox, developers can explore and create customizations without affecting the production environment.
The developers' sandbox allows businesses to iterate and fine-tune their Salesforce implementation, ensuring that it aligns perfectly with their specific business processes and requirements. This capability empowers businesses to create tailored solutions that optimize efficiency and productivity within their Salesforce instance.
3. Create Unlimited Roles and Profiles for Precise User Access Control
Salesforce enables businesses to create unlimited roles and profiles, offering precise control over user access and permissions. Roles define hierarchical relationships within the organization, while profiles determine the level of access and functionality available to each user.
By leveraging this feature, businesses can ensure that users can access exactly what they need and no more. Customized roles and profiles help maintain data security and integrity, preventing unauthorized access to sensitive information while allowing employees to efficiently carry out their assigned tasks within Salesforce.
4. Seamless Email Integration with Mail or Microsoft Outlook Plug-Ins
Salesforce’s integration services through the Mail plug-in or Microsoft Outlook plug-in, ensure a seamless flow of email communication within the Salesforce ecosystem. Businesses can effortlessly sync email streams with Salesforce, capturing important conversations, updates, and attachments directly within the corresponding Salesforce records. This integration eliminates the need for manual data entry, saves time, and enhances productivity by centralizing email communication within Salesforce.
The Mail and Microsoft Outlook plug-ins are available at no extra cost, providing businesses with a seamless and efficient email management solution within their Salesforce environment.
5. Streamline Lead Management with Lead Queues
Lead queues in Salesforce offer an efficient way to manage and distribute unassigned leads among a group of users. Similar to customers lining up at a bank and being directed to multiple tellers, lead queues allow businesses to create a centralized pool of unassigned leads that can be evenly distributed among a specific team or group of users.
This ensures a fair and balanced distribution of leads, optimizing lead management and increasing the chances of prompt follow-ups. Lead queues simplify lead assignment, streamline lead tracking, and promote efficient collaboration among team members, enhancing overall lead management processes within Salesforce.
Disadvantages of Salesforce
Salesforce offers a robust and feature-rich CRM solution, but it's important to consider the potential limitations and financial commitments that come with it.
1. Cost Considerations and Annual Contract Commitment
Implementing Salesforce can be a significant investment for businesses, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. The licensing fees, implementation costs, and ongoing subscription fees associated with Salesforce can eat into a large chunk of a company's budget.
It's crucial for businesses to carefully evaluate their budgetary constraints and assess the return on investment (ROI) before committing to Salesforce.
2. Attachment Size Limitation
One limitation of Salesforce is the maximum size restriction for attachments, which is set at 5 MB. This can pose challenges for businesses that frequently deal with large files or media-rich content.
If a company regularly needs to share or store files exceeding the maximum attachment size, it may need to explore alternative solutions or integrate with third-party file-sharing platforms to accommodate its specific file size requirements.
3. Lack of Inventory Management Capabilities
While Salesforce offers comprehensive customer relationship management functionalities, it does not provide native capabilities for inventory management. This means that businesses using Salesforce may encounter limitations when it comes to managing inventory-related processes such as purchase orders, sales orders, and vendor management.
Companies with significant inventory management needs may need to integrate Salesforce with specialized inventory management systems or explore other solutions that offer dedicated inventory management functionalities.
Advantages of Zoho CRM
If you’re looking for a CRM solution for a small company that needs to contain costs and doesn’t need a high degree of customization, Zoho might be the right solution.
1. Cost-Effective Solution with Flexible Pricing
Zoho CRM is an ideal choice for small companies that need to contain costs. It offers low-cost subscription plans with flexible pricing options, allowing businesses to choose the plan that best fits their needs and budget.
Unlike Salesforce, Zoho CRM does not require annual contracts, providing businesses with more flexibility and the ability to adjust their CRM usage as needed. The Professional and Enterprise versions of Zoho CRM also offer unlimited data storage, ensuring that businesses can store and access their customer data without limitations.
2. Efficient Duplicate Record Management
Zoho CRM simplifies the process of handling duplicate records while preserving important data. With Zoho CRM, businesses can easily identify duplicate records by comparing specific fields such as Company or Phone.
Once duplicates are identified, Zoho CRM allows users to merge the duplicate records, consolidating all relevant information into a single, complete record. Additionally, Zoho CRM retains deleted data for a longer period, storing it for 60 days compared to Salesforce's 15-day retention period. This provides businesses with a longer window to recover accidentally deleted data.
3. Task Automation with Macros
Zoho CRM empowers businesses to automate repetitive tasks using macros. Macros are pre-defined actions that can be applied to selected records, streamlining and accelerating processes within the CRM.
For example, businesses can create macros to send email campaigns to specific sets of records or perform other routine actions, saving time and ensuring consistency in task execution. The ability to automate tasks with macros increases productivity and allows users to focus on more strategic activities.
4. Seamless Integration with Zoho PhoneBridgeTM for Call Centers
Zoho PhoneBridgeTM is a practical tool for call centers, integrating call center applications with Zoho CRM. This integration enables businesses to handle telemarketing activities seamlessly within the CRM platform, from lead nurturing to customer service.
With Zoho PhoneBridgeTM, call center agents can make calls directly from the CRM, access customer information during calls, and log call details in real time. This streamlined integration improves efficiency, enhances customer service, and provides a comprehensive view of customer interactions.
5. Attractive Pricing
One of the factors that appeal to many business people is the pricing offered by Zoho CRM. Zoho CRM provides cost-effective subscription plans that are competitive in the CRM market. The affordable pricing, combined with the flexibility to choose the most suitable plan, makes Zoho CRM an attractive option for businesses that want to optimize their CRM investment while keeping costs in check.
Disadvantages of Zoho CRM
With prices like this, there are a couple of things you have to sacrifice.
- There is no sandbox environment for customization.
- There are no queues for lead assignments. So you may lose some flexibility and efficiency as leads have to be assigned to specific users.
Making Your Decision
Choosing a CRM system can seem like a daunting task. So take it a step at a time.
First list all the features you would like to have in your CRM software. Now, prioritize. What do you absolutely have to have? What should you have? And what’s just nice to have? Put the features in these categories; then, bump them up against your budget, and your best choice will likely float to the top.
Implementing Your CRM System
You’ve made your CRM system choice. Now, how hard is it to implement?
It depends on what you want to do. There are drag-and-drop interfaces for basic applications. But if you want advanced customization to tailor the system to your company’s specific needs, you need someone who has knowledge of proprietary languages (Deluge for Zoho, and Apex for Salesforce). Since the possibilities of Salesforce customization are greater than those for Zoho, the level of difficulty and costs can also be greater.
