--- tags: Week 1, H3, M4 --- # What is a CRM and why is it so important? 💻 First up, CRM software! CR.. what? CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and will probably be, besides email, your most used tool. It will become your best friend and the first thing you open when you get to work each day. &nbsp; ## What is a CRM? It's a category of integrated, data-driven software solutions that improve how you interact and do business with your leads, prospects, and customers. CRM systems help you manage and maintain customer relationships, track sales leads, marketing, and pipeline, and deliver actionable data. &nbsp; ## Why are they important? Generally speaking, CRM solutions increase businesses' profitability by streamlining administrative and customer-facing communication and processes in sales, marketing, service, and support divisions. A good CRM solution is a multifaceted platform where everything crucial to developing, improving, and retaining your customer relationships is stored. Imagine misplacing customer contact information, only to learn that your delay resulted in losing your client to a competitor. Or, picture two sales colleagues pursuing the same prospect, resulting in an annoyed potential customer and some unfriendly, in-house competition. Without a centralized and automated CRM system, salespeople can lose track of customer contact data, interactions, and details of business opportunities. Let's watch this video from the software company Zoho to get a comprehensive understanding of what CRM stands for and the purpose it serves 👇 {%youtube hnEQq7kNFWo %} <style> body > .ui-infobar, body > .ui-toc, body > .ui-affix-toc, body > .ui-community, body > .document-footer { display: none !important; } </style>