It’s no secret that successful businesses rely on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools to improve their customer interactions and drive growth. That’s why the CRM market is absolutely booming around the world as organizations are turning to CRM to increase conversion rates and retain loyal customers. In fact, as many as 65 percent of organizations start using a CRM within the first five years of being in business.

Investing in a CRM platform is one of the biggest and most helpful steps your business can take. Picking the right one, however, can seem like a bit of a daunting task. But perhaps you’ve already narrowed it down and just need a few more tips on finding the right one for the job.

Let’s take a look at two of the best CRM software packages available: Salesforce and NetSuite. Both offer comprehensive features, but vary in interface, plan options, and of course—pricing. We’ll put the two of them side by side here to help small businesses specifically decide which will be the best fit for their needs, and how they can ensure they get the best value for their dollar out of both their selected CRM and the integration solutions that help tailor it to their exact needs. 

How Do The Two CRMs Compare?

Not all CRMs are the same, but that doesn’t mean any one solution is right or wrong. It comes down to what is the right solution for your business. Salesforce, for example, focuses more on sales, marketing, and service delivery. NetSuite CRM, on the other hand, is part of a broader enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and is centered more on robust e-commerce support. 

First, let’s look at a quick side-by-side comparison on some of the most major points:

	NetSuite	Salesforce
Features	A unified solution with features focused on sales, marketing, and e-commerce. Top features include sales automation, marketing automation, reporting and analytics, upsell recommendations, commission tracking, and e-commerce customer portal.	Primarily sales and marketing features that include customer contact management, customizable dashboards, opportunity scoring, email marketing, customer journey building, and sales forecasting.
Pricing	Contact for pricing	Starts at $25 / user / month
Ease of Use	Clear dashboards and user-friendly mobile app, but also a definite learning curve.	Initial learning curve, but easy to use very quickly.
Customer Support	24/7 phone support, online form submission, self-help resources	24/7 email, chat, and phone support
Implementation	Requires NetSuite ERP implementation as well, a weeks- or months-long process, depending on business needs and modules selected.	Starter plans are straightforward. Implementation is lengthier and more complex for any advanced customization.

 

Both CRMs are excellent choices—we can’t deny that! But it comes down to which one is the best choice for your organization.

Choose NetSuite If . . .

NetSuite is great for SMBs looking for an all-in-one CRM that can centrally manage accounting, sales activities, marketing, and HR all in one solution. Because NetSuite CRM is part of NetSuite ERP (and you can’t have one without the other), you’ll have access to tools for accounting, inventory management, and HR right alongside your CRM functionality. 

When it comes to sales and marketing automation, NetSuite embeds marketing automation into its CRM so that leads are captured from web forms and landing pages. 

Other major pros for choosing NetSuite include:

• Manage all of the business’ primary functions in one platform
• Highly customizable platform and packages
• More substantial e-commerce features

Choose Salesforce If . . .

If you’re not a primarily e-commerce business, you might prefer the Salesforce CRM setup. Salesforce is relatively affordable while still remaining scalable and comes with its own array of comprehensive features. It’s also one of the most popular CRM solutions out there. Salesforce CRM Sales Cloud is well-designed to improve sales with customer data management, sales forecasting, email templates, AI sales recommendations, and more. On top of that, Salesforce is available in customizable tiers to meet your organization’s particular needs. Choose exactly what CRM services you need today with the option to add features for tomorrow’s growth. 

Salesforce is stronger than NetSuite at sales forecasting and beats NetSuite on some reporting aspects with its AI-driven insights. 

Major pros for choosing Salesforce include:

• Pricing plans start at $25 / user / month
• Mix of classic features like call tracking and customer profiles alongside AI-powered insights and automations
• Ability to segment customer and prospects into lists for targeted and personalized email marketing campaigns

There are, of course, other things to look at with each solution, especially when it comes to reporting and analytics and third-party integrations that can further tailor your experience. Make sure you ask plenty of questions as you head down the road of final selection to make sure that the CRM solution you get is exactly the one you need and want.

Make Your Chosen CRM Solution Work Best for You

We stated at the beginning that both Salesforce and NetSuite CRM are top-tier choices, and we meant it. Both CRMs have equal merit, and both will function best if they are kept as up-to-date as possible. After all, if it’s not in the CRM, it didn’t happen, right? 

That’s why at CloudExtend, we’ve built integrations for both NetSuite and Salesforce to help you get the most out of each app. Want to effortlessly pull down data for reporting in Excel, even going so far as to combine NetSuite saved searches or push data back to your CRM directly from Excel without having to go through native or CSV import processes? We can do that. And when it comes to keeping records updated, we can help you create, edit, modify, and delete contact records in NetSuite right from your Outlook or Gmail inbox. Sync calendar events and even automatically connect future email communications based on thread or email address. 

Whether you choose to work in Salesforce or NetSuite for your CRM solution, let us help make that experience even better with purpose-built integrations. Once you’ve got your chosen CRM set up and ready to go, try any of our integrations free for two weeks.