Ultimate Guide: What Is a Sales CRM?
Table of Contents
Foreword
“Sales CRM” isn’t the most accurate term—technically, every customer relationship management system is a sales CRM. But before I dive into the world of CRM for sales teams and explain the concept, let me share something with you.
Fifteen years ago, I started my journey as a sales rep in my family’s business. As a young and ambitious person, I was looking for ways to improve customer relationships and our company’s sales, and that’s when I discovered this gateway to Narnia called CRM.
Just like you, I was trying to answer questions like, “What is CRM?”, “What can it do for my company?”, “What types of CRMs exist?”, and “Where do I even start my research?”
Back then, there were very few resources available to help me. I’d say there were almost none. Most of the articles I found were trying to sell me their product, promising it would skyrocket my sales and make me richer, healthier, happier—and, well, my… um… salary would get bigger.
Long story short: I’m now a CRM consultant. As part of my mission to help other companies on their CRM journey, I create content like this article to help you understand what CRM is, how it works, and why you might need it (if you need it at all).
In this article, I’ll explain in very simple terms how CRM works and what it is. If you already know something about it, please don’t skip the explanation. It’s often useful to refresh your knowledge or get a different perspective on what you already know.
Later in the article, I’ll dive into more complex concepts that may give you a better understanding of the topic. By the end, you should have a solid foundation to guide you in your CRM journey. Grab a tea, and let’s get started!
What Is Sales CRM?
First, let’s circle back to the original question: What is a Sales CRM?
To be blunt, it’s software. It’s a computer program installed on your computer, your company’s server, or hosted somewhere in the so-called Cloud, designed to help you track your sales opportunities.
Technically, even a well-organized Excel file could serve as your Sales CRM. I’m sure many of us have been there—starting work on a new product or entering a new customer segment, where we create a shortlist of prospects. This is essentially what a Sales CRM is meant to do.
It’s a database of your prospects and clients.
To put it another way, a Sales CRM is designed to make it easier for you to track all your opportunities, whether they involve existing customers or prospective ones.
Making Notes, but Better
When you’re on the phone with a client, you usually make a note of who you’re speaking with, right?
Ideally, you’d include more details, like the date of the conversation. The more information you jot down about that interaction, the easier it will be to reference later and remember the context.
A CRM system is designed to simplify this task by storing all the contextual data for you.
Often, when making notes, you’re interrupted by a call in the middle of something else (unless it’s an outbound call). You grab a pen and start scribbling, but you might forget to note down the name, the date of the conversation, or even the company name. Who knows what details might slip through the cracks?
As someone who’s spent a lifetime in sales, I know that no matter how good I get at it, I’m still human, and I forget to write things down. One of the biggest benefits of a CRM is that it solves this exact problem. It helps you store all the necessary sales data without missing anything.
Names, Phones, or Fields
How does CRM help you store all this information? It uses fields. These are specific sections where you enter details like First Name, Last Name, Phone Number, Email, and so on. You can even make some of these fields mandatory.
So, the next time you pick up the phone and a new prospect is calling, as you create a new contact in your CRM, you’ll be prompted to ask for and enter that information.
Now, here’s where things get interesting. Over the years, CRM software has evolved into something quite complex.
If you’re new to the industry, it can be hard to immediately understand what all of it means—especially when you sign up for a trial and are greeted by a screen full of tabs like Opportunities, Accounts, Contacts, Quotes, Products, Pricebooks, and possibly dozens of others.
But remember: all of this grew from the simple idea of storing customer information in a reusable way, so you don’t forget important details during or after a client interaction.
Once you grasp this core concept, it’ll be easier to understand the more advanced features and see where this evolution has taken us.
Objects
Now that you understand the concept of fields, let me introduce you to the next key concept: Objects.
In technical terms, an “object” is an abstraction from real life. As a businessperson, you’re already familiar with some abstractions we’ve invented to make life… well, more complicated, but also to help us build complex social and business structures.
Take a company, for example. A company isn’t a real, physical person; it’s a legal abstraction. You can’t actually talk to a company—you’re always talking to the people within it.
This is where CRM becomes incredibly useful. If you’re in B2B sales, you’re selling to companies. Even in B2C, you might have suppliers, and to them, you are the customer.
CRM replicates this real-life abstraction. It has an “object” called Accounts, which represents the companies you’re selling to (in the context of Sales CRM).
But of course, you’re still dealing with people, not just the company itself. CRM handles that, too, with another object called Contacts. But you probably guessed that, right?
You see where I’m going with this. CRM starts with simple abstractions like Accounts and Contacts, then builds on them to “systematize” every aspect of your business.
This eventually leads to many different objects, each representing a different part of your business operations.
Relationships
Have you heard of “structured data”? It’s a term that explains how information is stored and organized. I’ve already explained the concepts of fields and objects, but now let’s dive into a third concept (and the last one for today, I promise): Relationships.
Let me give you a glimpse into something a bit more complex. Imagine you want to pull a report on the best-selling product by region. How would you do that?
To get this information, you need to have data about Accounts (the companies you’re selling to), and that data must be stored in a way that you can filter and sort it. Just like in Excel, you might have a column for “Country.” If you type “USA” in that field, you can now filter all rows by USA.
But in this case, country information isn’t enough—you also need to know which products are selling the best in each region. So, in addition to Accounts, you’ll need information about Products, which are part of the Orders, which are linked to the Accounts.
Accounts (companies you’re selling to)
Orders (sales transactions made with those companies)
Products (items sold within those transactions)
These objects are linked together through relationships, allowing you to gather and report on meaningful data, such as the best-selling product in a particular region.
What CRM can do?
What Does This Have to Do with Sales CRM? Glad you asked! This is exactly what Sales CRM is designed to do: store all the relevant knowledge about your sales activities for higher sales productivity.
By building these complex data models, where you have Accounts, Contacts, Orders, and Products, the CRM enables you to generate reports and insights.
These allow you to analyze sales records, track performance, and forecast future sales based on the structured data you’ve collected.
Tracking Sales Leads
Let’s say you’re at a trade fair and need to quickly gather information about your prospects. What are your options? Well, you can either do it on paper or digitally. Both methods work, but digital has an edge. While it might seem more complex at first, it gives you greater flexibility for managing that information after the event.
Here’s what you typically gather:
Company name
First Name
Last Name
Position/Role/Title (whichever suits you best)
Phone number
Email
Maybe a note or two.
In a Sales CRM, you can create a record in the Lead object (remember we talked about objects earlier?). But here’s where it gets interesting—why not create an Account and a Contact right away? Well, you could, but do you really want to clutter your system with unqualified contacts and accounts that may never become customers?
Think of the Lead object as a shield for your business. It lets you collect and manage potential customers’ information without overloading your system with unnecessary data. Once a lead is qualified, you can convert it into an Account and Contact, ensuring you only store high-quality leads—those you can follow up with confidently, without worrying about getting a “Who the hell are you?” response on the other end of the line.
Tracking Opportunities
Now, let’s complicate the scenario a bit. Suppose you have 100 accounts, but only 20 of them have inquired about your products or services. How do you keep track of these inquiries? Jot them down? Add a reminder to your calendar?
In a CRM, you can create an Opportunity, which is linked to the relevant Account and the Contact responsible for that specific inquiry.
By doing this, you can track potential sales for one of your Accounts while keeping a clean, organized record of inquiries and their statuses—without cluttering the main Account record with too much noise. Make sense?
Imagine opening an Account “card” (or record, as we call them) and finding it flooded with random comments from different people at different times. It would be chaos. The Opportunity object helps you avoid that mess by isolating information related to a specific opportunity at a specific time.
If you win the opportunity, you can always go back to the Account record to see all the successful opportunities—when they were won, who handled them, and what the sale amount was. This kind of structured data helps you stay organized and efficient.
By the way, this can also help prevent confusion, especially if you have multiple sales reps or sales team members. A customer might submit multiple inquiries. If two reps happen to open the same Account to process separate inquiries, they’ll see an existing Opportunity and can decide to pass the new inquiry to the rep already handling that Account. This prevents duplication of effort and keeps things running smoothly.
Recommendations
Ever seen the recommendation “People who bought this also bought that”? Of course, you have—it’s everywhere.
Guess how that works? Relationships! This is another powerful use case of how CRM can transform your data into actionable insights that increase sales and revenue for your business. By collecting and analyzing purchase history, the CRM can generate cross-selling and upselling recommendations.
To be honest, this is an advanced feature of a sales CRM system, but it’s proven to be incredibly effective. When done right, it turns existing customer data into a revenue-generating engine, suggesting complementary products or upgrades based on past purchases.
Creating Quotes
I never get tired of telling this story about one of our customers.
A roofing company approached us with an interesting challenge. At the time, they had multiple sales reps but only a few estimators. The problem was that estimators—who provide pricing and project details—are highly specialized and difficult to hire. This created a bottleneck because the few estimators they had were overwhelmed with work.
We helped them implement a CPQ system (Configure, Price, Quote). Essentially, we took the knowledge of the estimators and turned it into a series of guided questions for the sales reps. This allowed the sales team to generate simpler quotes on their own, freeing up the estimators to focus only on more complex projects.
A Sales CRM integrated with CPQ can drastically streamline your quoting process, making it faster and more consistent, while freeing up specialized resources for more critical tasks.
Sales Team Reporting
Now let’s flip the perspective. Suppose you’re a sales manager, a business owner, or someone responsible for managing the sales process in your company. Your job is to ensure the business thrives, grows, and moves forward. How do you stay on top of everything your team is working on? You generate reports.
Sales CRMs are all about reports. Whether you’re looking at sales pipeline inspection, deals closing this week, lead conversion rates, or opportunities with quotes—the list goes on. Many CRM systems, such as Salesforce CRM platform, come with pre-configured reports, but as a manager, you can (and should) customize reports to fit your specific needs.
The value of structured data (unlike Excel files, text notes, or paper notebooks) is that it gives you a helicopter view of your business. You can filter, analyze, and visualize data across your sales process, giving you the visibility and control you need to make informed decisions.
Now, is this the only way to manage a business? Absolutely not. But it’s a crucial tool that helps you gain better control and visibility, which can improve everything from forecasting to day-to-day decision-making.
Forecasting
One of the key elements in sales management is Quota Attainment and Forecasting. When I start working with a new client, I often ask, “How do you forecast your sales?” The usual answer is something like, “Last year around this time, we had X number of orders for X amount of money.”
Now, let me ask you: What is the connection between last year’s sales and this year? Historical data doesn’t reflect the current reality. Sure, it gives you a reference point, helping you understand trends, but it shouldn’t be the foundation of your sales forecast.
The beauty of a well-structured, well-implemented, and well-maintained CRM is its ability to give you forecasts based on real-time data analytics. And it’s not as complex as it might seem.
Sales typically follow a funnel structure. Naturally, you start with more inquiries than actual sales.
For example, imagine you own a car dealership. Let’s say 100 people walk into your showroom, but only about 5 will actually buy a car.
What happens between that initial visit and the final purchase is called the Sales Funnel—something you’re likely familiar with. The key point here is that understanding your sales funnel and the steps your customers go through enables you to forecast sales with greater accuracy.
Let me break this down with a simple hypothetical scenario:
Sales Funnel Breakdown
100 prospects enter the showroom
80 of them talk to a sales rep
50 leave their contact information
35 receive a quote for a new car
10 respond to the offer
5 end up buying a car
At each stage, you have a conversion rate. For example, 80% of showroom visitors talk to a sales rep. This means your conversion rate from visitors to conversations is 80%. You follow?
Knowing these conversion rates allows you to calculate the probability that any given prospect will turn into a paying customer.
For example, with 100 prospects entering the showroom, each has a 5% chance of buying a car, based on historical funnel data. However, once a prospect reaches the final step—responding to an offer—their chances of making a purchase increase to 50%.
Calculate your forecast
Here’s the final step:
Take the average value of an opportunity (or “deal,” if you prefer) and multiply it by the probability that a prospect will become a customer.
For example:
If the average car deal is worth $30,000, and a prospect has a 50% chance of buying, then the forecasted revenue from that prospect would be $15,000.
This approach lets you generate an accurate sales forecast based on real-time funnel data, rather than relying solely on past performance.
And that’s how forecasting in a CRM works. By analyzing conversion rates at each step of the sales process and applying them to your opportunities, you get a data-driven forecast that reflects the current sales pipeline—not just last year’s numbers.
Benefits of CRM
Here’s the million-dollar question: What does all of this mean for your business? Great question! Let’s dive deeper.
First of all, not all businesses benefit from CRM. Yes, you read that right. But let me explain what I mean.
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. If your company has customers, you already have some sort of strategy in place for managing those relationships and customer retention. Implementing a CRM could improve your process—or it could make things worse if it doesn’t align with your current, successful sales practices.
CRM software only benefits companies that can successfully implement and adopt the system in a way that complements their existing business processes. If your sales process is already working, a CRM can help streamline and optimize it. But if you don’t have a solid process in place, it might be a bit too early to implement CRM, and you could end up causing more harm than good.
But here’s the good news: There’s always a way to make CRM work for you—if done right. Let me explain what CRM, when properly implemented, can do for your business.
Reliability of Data
Imagine this scenario: You’re in a meeting with your sales reps, asking them how things are going. Each person gives you an update, and you build a mental picture of the current state of your pipeline.
But how reliable is that picture?
Let’s say Josh, one of your sales reps, had an argument with his wife that morning and completely forgets to mention that there’s a pending inquiry from a customer who needs a one-time discount and could place a large order if the first shipment goes well.
Or take Alicia, who was sick last week. She missed two opportunities that were due, and no one followed up on them because only she knew about them.
A great CRM brings structure to your sales operation. Imagine opening your laptop in the morning and seeing all of your opportunities in one place, with clear closing dates, expected amounts, and next steps.
No one gets missed.
No opportunities are forgotten.
And if someone is out for a day or two—or even leaves the company—you can easily pick up where they left off.
CRM objectifies information, so you no longer have to rely solely on the human factor. You can assist your team, and your team can assist you, because you all have a clear view of what’s on each other’s plate. This transparency boosts accountability and collaboration across the board.
To Summarize:
CRM aligns with your current sales process: It helps structure, track, and optimize how you manage customer relationships.
It provides transparency: With a CRM, you always know what’s happening in your sales pipeline, even if a key person is out.
It reduces reliance on memory and human error: All opportunities and customer interactions are logged, meaning no one gets left behind.
CRM, when done right, becomes a powerful tool that strengthens your business, fosters teamwork, streamlines sales processes and ultimately helps drive more sales.
Better Relationships
Ask yourself: If your supplier personally called you every year to wish you a happy birthday, remembered your kids’ names, and added a thoughtful personal touch, would that harm your relationship?
Let me answer that for you—absolutely not. This is what we call managing relationships, much like how you’d manage friendships.
For example, I use my iPhone to store my friends’ birthdays so I don’t forget anyone. Why should customers be any different?
CRM helps you keep everything organized and enables you to make every interaction feel more personal.
Here’s a story I love to share: I have a habit of calling people who’ve interacted with me, even if they never said a definitive “no.” I put a task in my CRM to call them once a year. After each conversation, I tell them, “I’ll call you in a year,” and then I do.
The reactions I get are priceless. Out of all their suppliers, they remember me—the one who didn’t forget to follow up a year later. Sure, they know I wrote it down, but they also see that I’m dedicated. Think about that kind of impression.
Shorter Sales Cycles
Another significant benefit of implementing CRM is the potential to shorten your sales cycles.
When I conduct sales training, one of my favorite questions to ask sales reps is, “How often do you follow up?” The answers vary, and many times they seem to be based on guesswork, not a structured approach.
Sales reps often forget to follow up or assume it’s unnecessary. But following up with clients is crucial. Depending on your sales process, in B2B you should follow up at least once every two weeks.
What’s even more important is how many times you follow up. Did you know that most sales are closed after the 8th to 12th follow-up?
Here’s the thing: People aren’t always rational. They often do business with the supplier they like the most. If you follow up regularly and do it right, your customers will remember you more often, which increases the chances they’ll choose you when it’s time to make a decision.
By being persistent and organized, you seem to care the most about them—and that’s what customers remember. See where I’m going with this?
In short, CRM helps you maintain those personal touches and ensure follow-ups don’t fall through the cracks, ultimately strengthening relationships and potentially closing deals faster.
What Sales CRM Is Not
One of the main reasons companies struggle with CRM implementation is a misunderstanding of what a CRM should do and who it’s designed for. It might be useful to clarify what a Sales CRM is not intended for, which can give you a clearer picture of its true purpose.
CRM Is Not Just for Large Enterprises
Historically, CRMs were used by large companies to manage massive databases, and unfortunately, this misconception still lingers. As a result, many small and medium-sized businesses shy away from CRM implementation, thinking it’s only for the “big guys.”
The truth is, Sales CRM is no longer just for large enterprises. In fact, most CRM vendors have realized that 80% of the global economy is driven by small and medium businesses. Today, customer relationship management systems are packed with tools designed specifically to help smaller businesses thrive.
Consider all the features like chatbots, AI-driven agents, and sales automation tools—these are designed to help smaller businesses grow without needing to hire large sales and marketing teams.
You, too, can benefit from these CRM tools by implementing a CRM in your small or medium business. If you’re ready to take the next step, talk to us today and see how we can help transform your sales process.
CRM Is Not Your Accounting App
Another common misconception I see is businesses trying to use sales CRM software for tasks that have little or nothing to do with sales.
Sales CRM tools are designed for sales, not for accounting. Sure, you can use a CRM to keep notes, track sales-related data, issue invoices, and even set reminders for overdue payments. But for actual accounting tasks, there are better solutions out there.
Think about it like this: you can hammer nails with your laptop if you really wanted to—but should you? Probably not.
That said, it’s not always easy to draw a clear line between what your CRM should handle and what other software should. My rule of thumb is simple: Will this help our customers? Will it speed up our sales process? If the answer is no, it’s probably not a CRM task.
How to Implement CRM
Now, the final question: How do you make it work for you?
There’s one approach that consistently works best. You don’t need to plan for a huge budget, nor do you have to invest all your free time to implement CRM the right way.
But you will have to be consistent over a prolonged period. That’s the price you pay, but the ROI is well worth it.
Planning
The first step is to prepare yourself and your company for the implementation. You need to do your homework.
Start by assessing your digital readiness. Be honest about whether your employees are comfortable with technology. If your sales force is made up of old-school sales managers and reps who are less familiar with digital tools, don’t expect them to start using CRM overnight. On the other hand, if your team consists of a younger generation who grew up during the digital revolution, you’re in a much better starting position.
In either case, CRM can be implemented successfully, but in the first scenario, you’ll need to be more thorough and prepared for more effort.
Find a Good Consultant
The next critical step is to find a good consultant. Ideally, you want someone who understands your business or has worked with companies similar to yours.
Look for a consultant with a combination of technical expertise and soft skills. A great consultant will not only guide you technically but also share best practices and practical advice. It’s important to establish a good working relationship with your consultant—there should be a “click” between you. The better you communicate and collaborate, the smoother the implementation process will be.
Remember: CRM implementation is not a one-time project but an ongoing effort to integrate this powerful tool into your business. With proper planning, the right mindset, and expert guidance, CRM can help you optimize your sales processes and drive long-term growth.
More Planning
Once you have your consultant onboard (they can work remotely, which is often even better), you should start with a business analysis.
This is the stage where you build a high-level picture of what you need from the CRM, identify which parts of your business need the most attention from a CRM perspective, and decide what to prioritize or ignore for now.
At this stage, you should also develop your digital strategy—a high-level roadmap of where your company is headed with this project.
Here’s an example strategy (but keep in mind, every company is different):
Final goal: Create a Self-Service Portal.
Phase 1: Start by implementing Account & Contact Management and Opportunity Tracking (limit it to tracking 5-10 key fields).
Phase 2: Implement Products & Pricebooks to create quotes and align the pricing strategy.
Phase 3: Set up Lead Management to start acquiring new customers.
Phase 4: Implement a Service Desk to track customer service inquiries.
Phase 5: Create a simple portal where customers can submit support tickets.
Final phase: Improve the portal by adding checkout functionality, making it a fully self-service tool.
This is just a sample strategy, but it’s similar to what we recently did for one of our clients.
Implementation
Next, you’ll move into the implementation cycle—though I won’t cover the detailed steps here. What I do want to stress is the importance of keeping things simple.
Do not try to implement large, complex features all at once. During implementation, you’ll inevitably have “bright ideas” that tempt you to expand the scope and add more functionality.
Resist the urge. Keep it super simple. Actually, make it stupid simple. This approach will significantly help with adoption rates in the long run.
If you succeed in implementing small, manageable chunks, it will be easy to add more functionality later.
Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? The tortoise always wins. Slow and steady will lead to long-term success. Consistency is key.
Final Word
Thank you for reading this far—I truly appreciate your dedication. Writing this article was no easy task; it took me a couple of days to write and another couple of days to edit and polish it. So, thank you again for appreciating my work.
My company helps businesses just like yours implement CRM systems, and we specialize in preventing expensive mistakes while integrating sales CRMs that actually work.
Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn—I share useful CRM-related content almost every day.
And if you’d like to chat, the first consultation is on me. Let’s have a conversation and see how we can help your business thrive.
On that note, have a great day!
Cheers,
J.