What is customer relationship management (CRM) software?

Customer relationship management software is a sales and marketing tool that organizes imported data, manages lead pipelines, and optimizes business workflows. Create custom dashboards that reflect your sales process and track every customer interaction, from lead generation to deal closing, from a single hub. And with integration capabilities with other tools in a sales technology stack, such as calendars or email providers, they can automate mundane sales tasks while still keeping the customer experience in mind.

Types of CRM

Most CRM software is tailored to a company's size, needs, and industry. There are general and industry-specific CRMs, all of which generally fall into four specific types of customer relationship management: analytical, operational, collaborative, and marketing.

Analytical CRM

Analytical CRMs take internal and external data and turn it into actionable insights using advanced forecasting and artificial intelligence features. Sales teams that want to better forecast future deals would benefit from this type of CRM.

Operational CRM

Operational CRMs support more administrative responsibilities, customer-facing tasks, and other administrative or day-to-day tasks. This is best for businesses looking for a tool to monitor customer lifecycles or need more sales automation features.

Collaborative CRM

Collaborative CRMs can facilitate enterprise-wide collaboration between sales, marketing, and service departments by collecting and sharing customer data from a single hub. These CRMs offer more advanced team management features, making them ideal for sales and customer service teams generating and sharing leads.

Marketing CRM

Marketing-focused CRMs help generate and nurture online leads through social media, email, and more. In addition to basic email marketing, these CRMs can create drip campaigns, run social media campaigns, or help with landing page and website creation.

How does CRM work?

CRM software manages customer contact data, supports complete sales processes, and coordinates marketing campaigns for B2B and B2C companies. CRM software collects data that matches the profile of an ideal customer and then generates detailed reports and profiles of potential customers. These profiles and channels create custom dashboards that continually track individual or company-wide sales progress.

CRMs prioritize automating as much of the sales process as possible. This can include data entry tasks, sales forecasting, and even direct interaction with customers on behalf of a company. They are intended to house all customer interactions in one place and consolidate communication such as filling out forms, emails, calls, and meetings. They can also store important documents, notes, and purchase history, allowing entire teams, departments, and companies to access the same up-to-date data.

When a company's goal is to generate and nurture leads and close deals quickly with excellent service, CRMs are meant to take on the burden of sales reps' repetitive tasks, such as miscellaneous calendar scheduling or meeting tracking tasks. . A CRM will expand your services to reach the business where it is currently, while detecting opportunities for growth and adjustments to take the business to where it wants to be.

CRM Benefits vs. CRM Drawbacks

Even small businesses that start out using simple sales tools, spreadsheets and calendars will eventually need to adopt a CRM to help monitor the growth of their business and clientele. CRM is generally worth investing in when it comes to automating and optimizing a sales process.

CRM benefits

For any industry and company of any size, having core pipeline tracking and management software that can integrate with your existing technology stack can be a game-changer. Some notable benefits of implementing a CRM are:

• Create effective processes and workflows: Automate a variety of tasks through third-party integrations, such as sending tedious emails, calendar reminders, and even customer service touchpoints.
• Monitor individual and team progress: Track individual or team milestones through a CRM dashboard and monitor interaction patterns with prospects.
• Solidify data organization or segmentation: Import and organize large, comprehensive data sets, making them more accessible and understandable for all employees.

Disadvantages of CRM

Choosing and implementing a new CRM into an existing organization and sales process can be challenging. Learning the software and then fine-tuning it to fit specific needs can take time. Some more significant disadvantages of using a CRM may include:

• It can be expensive: Allocate a healthy budget, as CRM software can be a big investment, especially for smaller businesses.
• Expect a software learning curve: Spend time implementing new software on a team, as CRMs can integrate with different applications and sync between software.
• Occasional technical difficulties: Expect technical difficulties, such as duplicate customer profiles or delays in syncing information.

Popular CRM providers

The most popular CRM vendors cover a variety of ideal use cases, industries, and even serve domestic and international clients. Some of the major providers include:

• fresh sales: Prioritize the alignment of sales and marketing teams to create a better experience for customers through data synchronization and lead generation management.
• CRM: Deploy robust automations with detailed analytics that can be customized to meet customer needs.
• Pipedrive– Create custom pipeline stages with actionable sales tasks and monitor performance with greater privacy and security around data.
• HubSpotCRM: Use live chat software, AI email writing tools, company insights, and dashboard building functionality.
• Smart CRM– Forecast future deals with its advanced lead tracking and opportunity management.
• Sales force: An adaptable and scalable CRM tool with collaborative features and customer revenue forecasting.

Factors that influence CRM pricing

CRM pricing is generally based on support levels and features. The main factors that influence pricing include how many users you want to have access to the software and what specific features or integrations you need. Some of the more advanced features you want may only be accessible by purchasing a higher support level. Still, another benefit of CRMs is that it's an industry standard that they all offer free, extended trials or demos for customers to try the software themselves before committing to a larger purchase.

Should your organization use a CRM?

When deciding whether your company should implement a CRM, first consider your company's current pain points and overall goals. If you want better communication and strategy between departments, look for a collaborative CRM. If you want to focus on lead generation and sales pipeline growth, a marketing CRM would suit your needs well.

If you think your business could benefit from a combination of CRM types, opt for a more general CRM with a variety of core features. The same goes for industry-specific CRMs that are tailored directly to your business needs. For example, if you want a real estate and property management CRM or a recruiting and staffing CRM, there is software with unique features that support those types of businesses.