What Is a CRM? And How Does it Help Businesses?

What is CRM?

CRM stands for customer relationship management and refers to the combination of strategies and technologies businesses use to optimize customer engagement and make the best use of data. Overall, customer relationship management combines sales, marketing, and service under one system and/or strategy so that teams can align their efforts to meet their organization’s goals. 

A strong CRM strategy accounts for all stages of the buyer’s journey, from when a potential customer becomes aware of your brand to after they make a purchase and become a loyal, repeat customer.  

Keep reading to discover how CRM systems work, which ones are the most common, and how to get started in CRM. 

What is a CRM system and what can it do? 

The main purpose behind a CRM system such as Salesforce or Hubspot is to use data and automation to achieve company revenue goals. Let’s explore some typical CRM system capabilities. 

Customer experience 

Settings and features within CRM systems can improve customer experience in several ways, including automating replies to support requests, signaling when to follow up with cold and warm leads, and customizing messages to fit customers’ specific needs. 

Sales

CRM systems allow sales teams to monitor the sales pipeline and categorize leads to prioritize their outreach efforts and drive sales.  

Read more: What Is a Sales Pipeline and How Do You Build a Successful One? 

Marketing

CRM systems can streamline audience targeting to help reach niche audiences during a campaign or message customers at various stages in the buyer’s journey. That way, audiences get the content they need exactly when they need it so they can make empowered buying decisions. 

Read more: What Is a Niche Market? And How To Reach One

Collaboration across teams

When data is widely accessible, teams have more opportunities for impactful collaborations and cross-functional work.   

Did you know? Global revenue from CRM systems increased from $13.93 billion to $69 billion between 2010-2020, according to findings from Statista [1]. 

How to get started with CRM 

Learning CRM can open up a variety of career opportunities in roles such as: 

• CRM consultant. Guides organizations on how to improve their customer experience with recommendations for new strategies, systems, and training. 

• CRM administrator. Provides IT support so organizations get the most out of their CRM systems. 

Review your career goals and follow these steps to get started. 

1. Gain relevant experience. 

Experience in sales, marketing, or customer service roles can build skills that transfer to CRM roles and use CRM tools. Here are examples:  

• Starting your own business, building a customer base, and offering an engaging customer experience 

• Working in a customer support or help desk role 

• Taking on a sales rep or sales development rep job 

2. Take a CRM course.

One of the most direct ways to get to know CRM as a career field, set of strategies, and fleet of technologies is to take a course. Look for courses that cover the conceptual, strategic, and tactical aspects of CRM, including:  

• Articulating business goals

• Designing and delivering content that engages customers at every stage of the buyer’s journey

• Segmenting customers to personalize their experiences 

3. Practice using a CRM tool. 

Once you have some working knowledge of CRM and what it can enable for your career, it’s a good idea to learn how to use common CRM software.

Popular CRM systems include: 

• Salesforce

• Monday

• Hubspot

• Freshsales CRM

• Zendesk Sales

• Zoho CRM

Choose a CRM tool matching your career goals, whether to grow your business or seek employment in CRM. Consider the following factors: 

• How a CRM’s features can help you grow your business 

• Pricing options 

• Learning curve 

• Time it will take to import data and set up automation

• The tools companies in your industry most use 

guided project

Introduction to CRM with HubSpot

In this project, we will develop and utilize a CRM in HubSpot and learn how to utilize our CRM to better grow and manage our business. HubSpot is a ...

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Average time: 1 month(s)

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Skills you'll build:

Data Management, Marketing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Service, Sales Operations

Some of the tasks you’ll want to practice include: 

Importing data

Data might entail information about customers, sales, and marketing channel activity. You may be able to use actual data from your own business or simulate it with made-up information for learning purposes. 

Setting up automations

Automations help ensure important tasks get done without having to execute them manually. Practice automating email sequences to prospective and current customers and delivering freemium content to new subscribers. 

Monitoring results

Select a few metrics to measure for practice, such as email opens, social media mentions, and conversion rate, and set a date for checking in and deciding how to respond to the results. For example, if the email open rate is lower than you anticipated for a given time period, what improvements could you make to email subject lines to encourage more clicks from subscribers? 

Read more: What Is Email Marketing? And How to Do It

Discover CRM with Coursera. 

Online courses can be a great way to build CRM knowledge and skills and discover career opportunities. Check out these options from industry leaders, Salesforce and Hubspot. 

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Salesforce Sales Development Representative

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Sales Development, interviewing, Sales, Time management, Cold Calling, teamwork, Personal Advertisement, Audience, Personal Branding, Resume writing, cold emailing, objection handling, Prospecting, video prospecting, sales engagement, Customer Relationship Management Software, empathy, Proactivity, Creative Problem Solving, Coachability, Communication

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HubSpot Sales Representative

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Skills you'll build:

Lead Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Process Engineering, Inbound Sales, Sales Enablement, Content Creation, Customer Success, Sales, Outreach Sequence, Social Selling, Customer Experience, Inside Sales, Sales Presentation, Data Analysis, Data Management, Data Visualization (DataViz), Sales Team Management, Onboarding

Related articles 

• What Is Relationship Management? And Why Do Businesses Use It?

• What Does a Customer Success Manager Do? Your Guide

• What Is a Sales Representative?

• What Is a Sales Development Representative? And How To Become One 

Article sources

1. Statista. “Customer relationship management (CRM) software revenue worldwide from 2010 to 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/294537/customer-relationship-management-crm-software-revenue-worldwid/.” Accessed July 25, 2022.