Choosing the right CRM
Close vs. Salesforce
Have you ever seen a comparison page where the “challenger” comes out better than the company writing the comparison?
Exactly. Neither have we. So when we set about comparing our CRM to others we wanted to take a different approach.
Cost and capability
The comparison we’ve put together is based on whether it’s possible (and how much it costs) to do in Salesforce what you can do in Close.
We're biased, not ignorant
For some of you, Salesforce will be the better option. What we’re trying to demonstrate is when Close is a better fit than our competitor.
A quick summary
When comparing these two products, the main differences that stand out are price, lack of calling, and email automation. Salesforce can do everything - in a slower and more complex way. Their pricing structure is complex, and there are hidden costs to almost everything. You need to purchase additional products for global calling, integrate with third-party applications for features such as email sequences and predictive dialing, plus pay a dedicated consultant to set up Salesforce. It will also take weeks of training before your new sales reps start using the software.
That being said, if you’re a large enterprise - Salesforce is still probably the right choice for you as you have the resources and demand for an enterprise CRM.
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| Target sales team size | <100 | 250+ |
| Pricing | All-inclusive Pricing publicly available |
Sales call required Complex pricing with hidden costs |
| Budget | Best value | Very expensive |
| Customer success | Dedicated success team | Pay extra |
| Calling | Global calling built-in | US & Canada only as an add-on |
| Email automation | Built-in | Add-on purchase required |
| Training & implementation | $0 customized onboarding | Add-on purchase required |
| GetApp "ease of use" rating | 4.7 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Admin or developer needed? | No | Yes |
Close ideal customer checklist
You’re looking for an affordable CRM solution
You’re a small business with a sales team of less than 100 people
You prefer having an all-in-one system over disparate tools and add-ons
You’re looking for a dedicated, sales-focused CRM
You do (or plan to do) high-volume outreach by email, voice, or SMS
You need to qualify large lead lists quickly
You’re looking for simplicity in the CRM so that your sales team can start selling from day one (no complex training required)
The rest of this page will help you understand why we think Close is a better alternative to Salesforce both in terms of value and pricing.
What can you not do in Salesforce?
Salesforce is a good standalone CRM, but a lot of the critical functionality required by a high-performing sales team is highly dependent on expensive, third-party applications.
There are also some key sales functions that you cannot perform using Salesforce natively. With Close, they’re all built-in.
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| Built-in Calling |
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| Send/receive SMS |
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| Global calling |
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| Call recording |
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| Historical import of email conversations |
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| Power Dialer |
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| Predictive Dialer |
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When should you choose Salesforce, and when Close
Close
Close is an “all-in-one” sales-focused platform built for small businesses
Affordable
Easy to learn
Has straightforward pricing
Salesforce
You have a large sales tech budget
You’re a large organization with a sales team of over 100 people
You don’t mind paying for additional third-party add-ons to make key sales functions work
You’re looking for a completely cloud-based IT solution and not specifically a dedicated sales-focused CRM
You have extremely advanced CRM requirements which require a lot of customization
You’re okay with paying for training and configuration of the CRM (which may take weeks to months)
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