Contact relationship management (CRM), contact management system (CMS) … what’s the difference?

Each does a little bit of what the other does, but how do you choose between the two?

It's a database that hosts all key information about your clients – name, address, email, phone number, transaction notes – as well as a recorded history of their interactions with your business. The idea of a contact manager, or contact management system (CMS, not to be confused with a website content management system such as WordPress or Wix), is easy to get your head around. Think of it as a contact list with added features.

         It is almost like a complex digital telephone directory with different sections and categories to sort your contacts.

A true CMS has many different layers of information (job titles, URLs, company addresses, notes, etc.), has enhanced searching and grouping features. A more enhanced CMS will also provide layers of security and access permission to information. This creates more flexibility where connections and relationships can be tracked and more can be learned about a contact. A CMS solution often has functionality to communicate with your database like making phone calls, sending emails or even SMS.

          It manages more than just the information and communication. It manages, monitors and reports on the whole life cycle of a contact or customer.

Sales and marketing work very hard to get information on potential customers, but for a company trying to sell to a scattershot of personal preferences and contacts isn’t efficient. A good CRM cleans up the mess and puts the contacts to work so sales team never have to scramble to find a contact’s number or the details of the last time they got in touch.

It will be no use having all your contacts segmented and grouped and you don’t generate new business from it. Build relationship.

Where a CMS centralizes contacts and lets you easily find them and get in touch with them, a CRM gives you a myriad of modules for fully tracking the customer relationship over time and distance.

A CRM is like your personal workspace, geared toward your business requirements. It lets you store your leads and customers, make phone calls, send emails, generate reports, schedule appointments, add notes, manage your sales pipeline, even see who’s read the mails you sent them.

         In summary, a CRM, at its core, is a one-stop shop for your sales (and marketing) teams.

Where does Bitrix24 fit into this equation. That is the best part, you don’t have to choose - you have the best of both worlds in one solution and you can use one or the other or both to complement each other.