The 4 types of CRMs used by MSPs (and which is best)

Here's one of the most common questions I get when I talk to my new MSP Marketing Edge members: “Paul, which CRM should we use?”.

This is one of those questions that sounds simple on the surface. But the more you dig into it, the more complicated it becomes (isn't that always the case?).

See, this isn't really about software. It’s about frustration.

Because when an MSP asks which CRM they should use, what they really mean is...

• Where do I put all my prospect data?
• How do I pull together a deals pipeline?
• How can I keep track of future opportunities?
• How do I know who to follow up next?
• WHY IS THIS HURTING MY BRAIN? 🤣

So before we even start listing tools, let me say clearly: There isn’t one “best CRM” for MSPs. There is only the best CRM for how YOUR MSP markets and sells itself.

When I look at MSPs, they generally fall into four broad areas.

Area 1) PSA-led MSPs

These are MSPs who already live deep inside their PSA. They have a mattress and a coffee maker in there.

Their agreements are there, obviously their tickets are there, their billing is there, and the idea of keeping sales in the same place feels logical and tidy.

For these MSPs, the CRM functionality inside platforms like ConnectWise PSA, Autotask, HaloPSA, Kaseya BMS, Syncro or Atera is often perfectly good enough.

If your sales are largely driven by referrals and renewals, and so pretty straightforward, this can work very well. You’re not trying to build a sophisticated marketing engine; you just want visibility on your leads without adding another system to manage.

Just a word of warning: I haven't looked in detail into the marketing capabilities of these PSAs. But typically, when a vendor says their PSA is good enough for marketing (because it has a marketing module), that doesn't mean you can really use it in a way you can use a piece of software such as HubSpot that's designed purely for sales and marketing.

( if I'm wrong on this, please tell me which PSA you use and how good the marketing module is )

Area 2) Marketing-led MSPs

These tend to be MSPs that just don't have enough leads, meaning marketing is the principal growth activity.

And so the CRM is used for running campaigns, publishing content regularly, collecting leads through forms, and wanting automation to follow up intelligently.

If that's you, look at platforms like HubSpot (with Marketing Hub), ActiveCampaign, Keap, or Zoho One. Maybe even MailChimp or MailerLite at the lower cost end.

These systems combine contact management with automation, lead scoring, and campaign reporting.

However, they only make sense if you are genuinely prepared to use the marketing capabilities. Otherwise, you’re paying for potential you never use.

Also be aware that each one comes with a pretty steep learning curve. You WILL spend a chunk of time getting them set up, trust me!

(I say this as someone who last year migrated a complicated setup from a CRM called Keap to HubSpot, and it was six months of pain... worth it though. Our secret weapon in this migration was Ben Spector ).

Area 3) Sales-led MSPs

These are MSPs that have a lot of sales activity, perhaps even a sales team, and they want clarity on their pipeline.

If you're getting serious about defined stages, forecasting, accountability for follow-up, and being able to glance at a dashboard and understand what’s really going on, you're here.

Look at tools such as Pipedrive, HubSpot Sales Hub, Zoho CRM, Freshsales, Close or Insightly.

They're built first and foremost for clarity in your sales process. If you’ve ever found yourself saying, “I don’t really know what deals we’ve got on right now,” then you probably belong in this group.

These systems are often simpler than enterprise platforms but far more structured than a PSA add-on.

Area 4) Enterprise-led MSPs

There's not a lot of MSPs that I speak to in this category, but I've got to get here for the sake of completeness.

We're talking about using very, very powerful but also incredibly expensive platforms with deep customization of reporting capabilities: Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite CRM, and SugarCRM.

They can be outstanding tools in the right hands. But they demand process maturity and internal ownership. If you don’t have clearly defined stages, reporting needs, and someone responsible for maintaining data quality, these systems are just expensive, overcomplicated databases rather than revenue-driving assets.

What’s interesting is that most MSPs don’t actually fail because they chose the wrong CRM. They struggle because they chose a tool BEFORE defining their process.

If you don’t know what marketing you should be doing, or your exact sales stages, and you don't really have any data to work with, then no software will rescue you.

So, rather than starting with "which CRM should you get?", I would start with this: "How do we generate leads, turn them into hot prospects, and then into clients?

Side note: If you have no idea how to answer that question, I have a very simple 3 step lead generation system that works for all MSPs.

• Access a free 8 minute video on it here
• Or buy my book MSP marketing: Start Here, which you can read or listen to in less than an hour. It's available as a paperback, on Kindle, and Audible