Choosing the right CRM

Close vs. Salesforce

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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You’re looking for an affordable CRM solution

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You’re a small business with a sales team of less than 100 people

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You prefer having an all-in-one system over disparate tools and add-ons

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You’re looking for a dedicated, sales-focused CRM

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You do (or plan to do) high-volume outreach by email, voice, or SMS

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You need to qualify large lead lists quickly

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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.

Built-in Calling
Send/receive SMS
Global calling
Call recording
Historical import of email conversations
Power Dialer
Predictive Dialer

When should you choose Salesforce, and when Close

Close

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Close is an “all-in-one” sales-focused platform built for small businesses

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Affordable

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Easy to learn

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Has straightforward pricing

Salesforce

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You have a large sales tech budget

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You’re a large organization with a sales team of over 100 people

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You don’t mind paying for additional third-party add-ons to make key sales functions work

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You’re looking for a completely cloud-based IT solution and not specifically a dedicated sales-focused CRM

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You have extremely advanced CRM requirements which require a lot of customization

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You’re okay with paying for training and configuration of the CRM (which may take weeks to months)

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Our customers say it best

If you have experience with Salesforce, I cannot recommend Close’s free trial high enough. The problem it solves is getting new sales people trained up on a new CRM system in days instead of weeks. From a management perspective, the reporting is extensive and I can cut and slice the data to get granular reporting on a company level, campaign level, and individual rep level.
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Jonathan Howes
VP Sales at InvoiceASAP