What is CRM?
Customer Relationship Management
TL;DR
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is software that helps you track and manage all your interactions with customers and potential customers.
Example
Imagine keeping track of every customer conversation in your head.
When you have 10 customers, you can remember who you talked to, what they need, and when to follow up. But what about 100 customers? Or 1,000?
A CRM is like a shared brain for your sales and customer service teams. It stores:
- Every email, call, and meeting with each customer
- Where each potential customer is in your sales process
- Notes about what they need and when to follow up
- Purchase history and support tickets
Popular CRM systems:
- HubSpot - Popular for small to mid-sized businesses, has a generous free tier
- Salesforce - The industry giant, very powerful but complex
- Pipedrive - Focused on sales pipeline management
- Monday.com - Combines CRM with project management
Explanation
What a CRM Actually Does
At its core, a CRM helps you answer questions like:
- "When did we last talk to this customer?"
- "Which deals are about to close this month?"
- "Who should I follow up with today?"
- "What's our average deal size?"
Key Features
Contact Management Store all information about a person or company in one place. See their full history with your business at a glance.
Pipeline Management Visualize your sales process as stages (Lead → Qualified → Proposal → Negotiation → Won/Lost). Move deals through stages and forecast revenue.
Task Automation Automatically create follow-up tasks, send reminder emails, or notify team members when certain events happen.
Reporting See metrics like conversion rates, sales cycle length, revenue by rep, and more.
CRM vs. Spreadsheets
Many businesses start with a spreadsheet to track customers. This works until:
- Multiple people need to update it simultaneously
- You need to track the history of changes
- You want automatic reminders and workflows
- You need to connect it to email, calendar, and other tools
Why It Matters
For Business Owners
Nothing falls through the cracks. Every lead, every follow-up, every customer request is tracked. No more "I forgot to call them back."
Your business knowledge isn't locked in people's heads. If a salesperson leaves, their customer relationships stay with the company.
Data-driven decisions. See which marketing channels bring the best leads, which products sell best, which salespeople perform best.
Scale your team. A new hire can see the full history of any customer relationship and pick up where others left off.
When You Need a CRM
You probably need a CRM when:
- You have more than 2-3 people talking to customers
- You're losing track of leads or follow-ups
- You can't easily answer "how's our sales pipeline looking?"
- Customer information lives in multiple places (email, spreadsheets, notes)
Common Misconceptions
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