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CRM stands for “Customer Relationship Management” and includes the processes used by organizations of all sizes for retaining existing customers and acquiring new ones. The term CRM often refers to CRM software platforms which are used by nearly all businesses to manage customers and contacts, organize the sales pipeline, and produce reports that show the health of the business.

When people use the term CRM, they are often speaking about a CRM system, CRM platform or CRM software. These terms are interchangeable. CRM software is the application businesses buy, that is typically-cloud based software, for that they use to manage their current and prospective customers.

Any business that handles sales or marketing of products or services can benefit from using a CRM. This includes both B2B and B2C businesses. The teams most likely to use a CRM in any business are Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. Sales – A CRM helps your sales team be well positioned to upsell and cross-sell your products and services. Sales teams can also use click-to-call functions to help save time and make it easy to keep track of all your interactions with prospects and customers so nothing falls into the cracks. They can also generate highly specific quotes as they seek new business and to run reports and invoices for existing customers. Marketing – A CRM helps your marketing team gather valuable information from your customers, making it easier to target marketing efforts precisely and effectively. When you can aim your marketing campaigns at a specific audience, you’re far more likely to reap a good ROI, and you don’t waste the time and money that often results from an undifferentiated marketing campaign, which can end up feeling like spam. Customer service – CRMs help support teams efficiently resolve issues, and make it easy to connect customers to the right person at all times.

Most companies wait too long to implement a CRM, often falling into chaos and making both customers and employees irritable. By the time you’ve hired employee number 10, you’re likely to need a CRM. At this point, communication starts to get more difficult, and the lack of a CRM is probably resulting in a lot of wasted time and effort. A good test is if you feel that you’ve outgrown your spreadsheets, it’s time for a CRM. If you aren’t able to identify where new customers have come from (and whether they’re responding to your marketing campaigns or not), it’s time for a CRM. If you don’t know what your salespeople are doing, it’s time for a CRM.

The big difference between on-premise and cloud is where the software and data are stored. With on-premise CRM, the software is located on your company’s servers and on employee computers. The implementation process typically takes more time, more IT resources, and is more complex. However if your organization has especially strict security protocols, this can be the ideal choice. With an on-premise implementation, upgrades will take longer, and your IT team will be taxed to provide service to the CRM. You’ll typically be charged per implementation. Cloud-based or software-as-a-service (SaaS) CRMs are operated on and store data on the vendor’s servers. The vendor is responsible for the uptime operation of the system and provides customer support. You’ll need a strong internet connection to run a cloud-based CRM, but you won’t need the expense of dedicated servers. Upgrades will occur at all times, so the platform will be constantly evolving. You’ll typically be charged by seat.