Keeping track of the people that matter is one of the most critical tasks for any business, from the smallest startup to the largest corporation. If you don’t know who your customers, clients, stakeholders, vendors, partners and other VIPs are, you run the risk of ruining relationships with real potential.
And no one wants that!
Enter customer relationship management, a term that according to TechTarget, “refers to practices, strategies, and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving customer service relationships and assisting in customer retention and driving sales growth.”
In other words, customer relationship management (CRM) is a highly complex process, whereby businesses control the flow of information related to their valued customers.
While some form of CRM has always existed, this science has truly blossomed with the advent of digital tools.
Today, advanced CRM software enables enterprises to track their sales, compare product popularity, upsell current customers and more.
As you shall see in a moment, it can do much more than that, too.
In order to gain a thorough understanding of what CRM software is and does, it’s important to consider the differences between desktop and cloud CRM, take a look at some of the most common providers in the industry, and consider both integrations and implementation.
Only then will you learn enough to choose the right software for you.
With that information in hand, you can go explore online reviews, speak to CRM providers, get demos of the software and make an investment to better your business future.
First, what is CRM software? For this, we once again turn to TechTarget, which explains that in the simplest terms, “CRM software consolidates customer information and documents it into a single CRM database so business users can more easily access and manage it.”
Instead of having to track down customer information through a huge variety of channels – think sales records, phone logs, email strings, calendars, and so forth – you can turn to your CRM software.
There, you’ll find every interaction anyone has ever had with the customer in question, offering a perfect picture of that relationship from the very first touch to the latest sale or upgrade.
As Salesforce points out, “a CRM system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability.” It increases productivity, cuts down the time spent searching for information and offers keen insights into the behavior of individual customers and groups of them.
This is important because the nature of the customer journey is changing and with it the best means of reaching new customers. 
“It used to be enough to segment by cohorts or platform, but performance marketers are going to need to shift their focus to customers as individuals,” says Tune. “Personalization is key.
Research shows that personalization can reduce acquisition costs by as much as 50 percent, lift revenues up to 15 percent, and perform 42% better than non-personalized content.”
To personalize truly, you’ll need to know not only what your customer is interested, but where they hang out, how they contact you, how often, what drives them to that contact, and more.
Webopedia is careful to point out that, while we most frequently associate these details with a customer who has already purchased a product or service, those aren’t the only people for whom CRM software may prove useful in tracking.
Sales leads should also make an appearance, as should employees and business contacts. Think of CRM software as the world’s biggest Rolodex, with the most detailed stats available. You might even use one to track college applicants or manage HR departments.
To whatever end you use it, your CRM software should help you track leads, automate your sales process, maintain contracts, support clients, and customers, gather data, churn out insights, and provide constant access to assets or resources on which you rely.
Obviously, that’s not a tool you can let slip through your grasp. So the question becomes, what kind of CRM software will work best for your sales and marketing goals? To answer it, you must first consider desktop versus cloud.
The age-old battle of desktop versus cloud (and by “age-old,” we mean “roughly 5-10 years old”) rages on when it comes to CRM software.
The first option is desktop CRM, which runs in-house on an internal network connecting multiple PCs together. Typically, you want to keep the number of PCs you’re using as your dedicated server relatively small to avoid overload. This can work well if you have an IT team willing and able to tackle the challenges that come with running software in-house: crashes, server overloads and so on.
Note that desktop can only scale based on the volume of internal resources that you can bring to bear, so if you’re looking to grow your business quickly through the use of customer relationship management software, you’ll want to keep this in mind.
Again, if you’re a larger company that has significant IT resources, you’re better situated for a desktop version.
On the other hand, if you have a massive sales department where many different employees need access to the CRM system, this might not prove the best solution. With more than 5-10 workstations wired to the network, the challenges of keeping all those computers happy stacks up.
Again, dedicated IT. Enough said.
1. Salesforce: The Salesforce team is dedicated to helping you engage meaningfully with prospects and close sales quicker, then keep customers around longer.
2. HubSpot: HubSpot’s CRM is free to start, and helps you sort your customers by those whose business you won or lost, upcoming appointments, purchase price tag and more.
3. Marketo: Marketo is all about focusing your energies in the right place, helping ensure that the prospects and customers on whom you do spend your time are those most likely to reward you with their business.
4. Zoho: Zoho does all of the above, and uses an AI assistant to help you out when you need it. The way of the future, indeed.
Before you dismiss that last attribute as needless/inconveniencing/creepy, think again. According to Forbes, machine learning is the way of the future, especially in sales: “Now that we generate and collect vast amounts of data, we are able to give machines the amount of data that is required for them to learn by using algorithms to interpret the data and predict outcomes.”
Moreover, “When machines get feedback about whether those predictions were right or wrong, they use that feedback as learning experiences to make their predictive capabilities better in the future. Machine learning is one aspect of artificial intelligence and it is disrupting roles and responsibilities for professionals in every industry.”
While most of us don’t think of them that way, colleges and universities must constantly sell themselves and market the opportunities they provide. Not only that, they have to manage student applications and test scores, enrollments, scholarships and financial aid, career fairs and more. It’s enough to make anyone’s head spin, which is where CRM comes in.
1. AdmissionPros: With 25 years in the game, as well as endless modules and integrations, AdmissionPros is the gold standard for CRM at institutions of higher learning. They also integrate their CRM with the admissions process, taking it beyond just a CRM.
2. Ellucian: This software focuses on providing a rich student experience in the cloud, from first touch to the final day on campus.
3. Slate: Slate helps counselors and other staff help students set up visits with universities, communicate with them and plan for the future.
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