Glossary
CRM
CRM (customer relationship management) is software that stores every company, contact, conversation and deal a business has, so sales, marketing and support teams work from one shared record. It also refers to the practice of managing customer relationships with that data.
What Is CRM?
In short A CRM is built on four kinds of record: accounts (companies), contacts (people), activities (emails, calls, meetings and notes) and opportunities or deals, each with a stage, amount, owner and close date.
Reports and the pipeline view are built from those records, so a CRM is only as good as the data that goes into it.
Revenue work is shared. Marketing needs to know which campaigns create pipeline, sales managers need a forecast, and the next rep on an account needs its history. Without a CRM, that history lives in inboxes and spreadsheets and leaves when people do.
CRM Example
Example: an SDR books a meeting with the IT director at a 300-person manufacturer. The CRM shows the account had a lost deal 9 months earlier, with notes on which competitor won and why. The AE opens the call on what has changed since then instead of starting from zero.
CRM in Practice
For outbound teams, the CRM is the system of record that prevents double contact and shows what happened after a reply. Outbound tools usually sync with it so every email, LinkedIn message and meeting is logged against the right account, and prospects already in an open deal, or already customers, stay out of cold campaigns.
FAQ
What does CRM stand for?
Customer relationship management. Microsoft defines it as the strategy, processes and technology organizations use to manage customer and prospect relationships; in everyday use, "a CRM" means the software.
What does a CRM do?
It keeps contacts, companies, interactions and deals in one place, tracks each deal through pipeline stages, automates routine work such as logging emails and reminders, and reports on pipeline and revenue.
What are the types of CRM?
The usual split is operational (running sales, marketing and service processes), analytical (reporting on customer data) and collaborative (sharing customer information across teams). Most CRM products combine all three.
Do you need a CRM for outbound sales?
Once more than one person sends outreach, yes. Without a shared record, two reps can email the same prospect, replies get lost and nobody can see which campaigns produced pipeline.
The new Ken opens to the waiting list in batches.
Related
- GTM Glossary
Every GTM term, grouped by topic.
- Sales pipeline
- RevOps (revenue operations)
- Sales operations
- Data enrichment
- Sales automation
- Ken features
Sources
| Source | Checked |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Dynamics 365: What Is CRM? | |
| Salesforce: What Is CRM? | |
| HubSpot: What Is CRM? |
Changelog
- Page published.