What is a CRM and What's it Used For in Tech?

Tech sales is full of acronyms and terms to know, but few are more important than CRM — or Customer Relationship Management.

The term is often used to describe software known as a CRM system. This refers to a tool sales reps can use to keep notes about customers, collect data about their interactions, automate simple communications, and share information with their team (among other things, of course).

The goal of a CRM system is to take the heavy administrative load off of reps and let them get back to doing what they do best: selling and keeping customers happy.

CRM software also helps companies collect data about who’s buying what products, and what sales techniques are working best. That’s the high-level stuff… but there’s more to the story!

Keep reading to learn more about the history of CRM as a sales tool and how it's used today.

History of the CRM

If you want to go old-school (like, really old-school), you can think of the Rolodex as a proto-CRM system. Popular in the 1950s, it covered the basics: customer name, contact info, and any other notes you wanted to write it on a tiny index card.

Digital versions of the Rolodex followed in the 1970s and 1980s with the added benefit of keeping all customer contact information in one handy place. Some even offered limited search capabilities!

More robust digital CRM systems as we know them today got their start in the 1990s. Three elements lined up in a perfect storm: personal computers became commonplace within workplaces and homes.

The world wide web entered the scene, and people widely adopted email as a main form of communication. Siebel Systems is credited with launching the first CRM, followed quickly by competitors like Oracle, SAP, Peoplesoft, and Salesforce.

Today, CRM uses cloud technologies, mobile apps, and automation to make customer relationship management easier than ever. There are hundreds of CRMs available on the market, each with its own unique features and benefits.

How Is CRM Used Today?

CRM software is used by businesses of all sizes to manage their customer relationships. They are particularly popular with sales teams as they offer a great way to keep track of leads, deals, and contacts.

However, CRMs can also be used by marketing teams, customer service teams, and even human resources departments.

Most CRMs offer a range of features that meet the needs of any organization. Some common ones include:

• Lead management
• Contact management
• Interaction tracking
• Opportunity management
• Deal tracking
• Pipeline management
• Reporting and analytics
• Quote management
• Workflow automation
• Marketing automation
• Billing and invoicing

Many CRMs are customizable, meaning you can add features or integrations to get the most out of them for your business, whether you’re in hospitality, real estate or – you guessed it – tech!

And sales reps largely agree: CRM systems are very important to the work they do. That’s because these productivity boosters help automate manual tasks that no one has time for, visualize sales opportunities, and meet quotas.

Learn How To Use Common Tech Sales Tools

We’re long past the days of the Rolodex — but there’s still a lot to learn about CRM systems as a salesperson in tech! If you’re going to take steps on your journey to Career Success, you’ll need to know how to put this knowledge and all these features to good use. It’s so important in tech sales that we’ve made it a key part of our Tech Sales Courses!

So if you want to learn more about tech sales and the tools that make it tick, that’s a great place to start… or you can browse through our Career Success Catalog for the next steps on building your dream career in tech sales.

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