The CRM Market Leaders Awards: The Best CRM Software and Solutions
Sales of CRM and related solutions are continuing to soar, and with ever-more robust functionality—especially in the form of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and analytics—and the growing prevalence of data-driven sales and marketing, it’s a trend that’s likely to continue. There’s more choice than ever before, so selecting the right CRM solution emerges as a critical part of any company’s customer relationship strategy.
Companies large and small are looking for CRM systems that are affordable and easy to use, and cloud-based, mobile-optimized solutions are helping to meet those needs. As the movement to the cloud continues, advanced AI technologies are also becoming keener objects of interest, helping users put all of that structured and unstructured data to use.
We at CRM have made it our mission to inform and enlighten on the latest products and capabilities hitting the market. It’s in that spirit that we present our annual Market Leader awards. Our panel of judges rated the leading CRM vendors in nine categories by their reputations for product functionality, customer satisfaction, company direction, and product costs. In each market segment, we recognize one category winner (the company with the highest overall score), four industry leaders, and one company to watch.
View the 2018 CRM Market Leaders in each category listed below:
The editors and writers of CRM magazine spend a lot of time crunching numbers and compiling data related to the dozens of companies evaluated in each of the nine categories represented in our annual Market Leader awards. We must, as we do every year, express our deepest gratitude to the following industry analysts and consultants who provided their expert advice and commentary throughout the issue: Jim Dickie, cofounder and independent research fellow at CSO Insights; Mike Fauscette, chief research officer at G2 Crowd; Paul Greenberg, managing principal of the 56 Group; Andy Hayler, CEO of the Information Difference; Brent Leary, cofounder and partner at CRM Essentials; Kate Leggett, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research; Laurie McCabe, cofounder and partner of the SMB Group; John Ragsdale, vice president of technology and social research at the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA); Ray Wang, principal analyst, founder, and chairman of Constellation Research; and Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of Nucleus Research.
CATEGORIES AND CRITERIA: CRM magazine’s 17th annual Market Leader awards rate the top five companies in nine categories, using a proprietary selection formula. (The overall award rating is based on a composite score of CRM revenue and analyst ratings for depth of functionality, company direction, customer satisfaction, and cost. Unlike software companies, the consultancies are rated according to ability to execute, company direction, customer satisfaction, and cost.) We present those companies alphabetically in the chart above, with the name of the category winner in red boldface. In each category, we also cite one company worth watching for its potential to appear on that sector’s leaderboard next year.
REPUTATIONS FOR DEPTH OF FUNCTIONALITY, ABILITY TO EXECUTE, COMPANY DIRECTION, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, AND COST ARE RATED ON A 5-POINT SCALE, WITH 5 BEING THE HIGHEST.