CRM (customer relationship management)
The system a team uses to log customers, leads, notes, tasks and follow-up activity through the sale.
Use this definition in team training or when clarifying a sales note.
Definition
A CRM, short for customer relationship management, is the system of record for a sales team’s customers. It holds the customer record, what they are interested in, deal stages, appointment times, follow-up tasks and the history of calls, texts and emails. The term names a category of software, and most sales teams already use one.
Its value depends entirely on discipline. Promises that are never entered do not become tasks, and appointments that are never entered cannot be confirmed by anyone else.
Why it matters
Almost every follow-up gap on a team traces back to a promise that stayed in someone’s head. Requiring the next step to be written before the next call starts is a small habit that fixes a large share of missed follow-up. What the record cannot show on its own is what was actually said, which is why teams check it against the conversations, a practice called record reconciliation.