CRM tracking system: what it means

Best Practices | Customer

by   Val Riley May 11, 2023

A CRM tracking system is more vital to your business than you think it is. Why? Because it has value on multiple levels. 

When you track a lead through all of its stages, you are making small notes about that lead. For instance, if it’s a new prospect that came in from a trade show, and after a touch point, it becomes a lead and then an opportunity, that information is helping your team provide the best experience for that customer during the journey. That’s obvious. But what you are also doing is creating data points that can be aggregated over time and help your leadership make predictive decisions about the business, which is key to better forecasting and for driving growth.

So, now that we know the value, let’s explore more about CRM tracking in this blog post. 

What is CRM tracking?

CRM tracking is a term for the action of mapping the path of how data moves through a system, specifically a CRM system. A CRM gives you a single platform to track all of your business processes. If you are currently using a spreadsheet or your cell phone contact directory to keep track of your customers, you know that those are not reliable, long-term solutions for your business. If you are currently licensing a CRM that is not modern, affordable and easy to use, you are likely not getting the benefits of CRM tracking. Simply put, you need to put good data in to get good, predictive data out, and if the system isn’t user friendly, your team is likely to find other methods to track business. 

When you track how prospects come into your organization, move through your sales cycle, and become a customer, you will start to see how valuable CRM tracking is to your business. Using a CRM is the #1 way to track customers. 

What is a CRM tracking system?

Now  that you understand the importance of CRM tracking, you see that you need a CRM tracking system to accomplish this. A CRM tracking system (or CRM software meaning, or CRM meaning) is another way of saying CRM – that is a customer relationship management system. 

The CRM meaning in business refers to a software platform for managing the relationships and interactions your organization has with its customers and its prospects (e.g. potential customers.) The premise is that the more and better relationships your organization has, the more it will prosper. 

When you look at the best CRM on the market, or attempt to create a top 10 CRM software list, this will be a challenge. That’s because the best CRM tracking system for your organization depends on your unique needs. For instance, the best CRM for small business may not be the best CRM for manufacturing businesses. Some CRM tracking systems may not even make your CRM software list depending on the industry you are in. It’s a good idea to start looking for a CRM with a CRM definition and benefits based on your industry, since a CRM meaning in banking may be different from a CRM meaning in marketing. It’s also a good idea to document your customer relationship management process to help you find the right CRM tracking system. 

Important business processes to track with a CRM

The beauty of a CRM is that it gives you the ability to and the option to track literally any data points that are a part of your business. This is powerful, since it allows you to slice and dice data to see exactly where you are winning deals and why, and – perhaps even more valuable, where and why you are losing deals. You can see data on any aspect of the sales cycle and use that information to be predictive in forecasting where and how your business is growing. 

Here are just a few examples of the many data points your CRM tracking system can provide to you: 

Tracking opportunities and sales pipeline

Your sales pipeline…the literal rainbow to the pot of gold at the end of a deal. When a lead becomes an opportunity, it enters a critical stage. This means so much! First, it means that the marketing team has served up a prospect that is qualified. That prospect has the budget, authority, and a timeline that shows a high level of intent to purchase from you. Your sales team has validated that and is now moving this opportunity down the funnel towards a sale. At every single stage, you will be CRM tracking this process and you can learn so much. How long does the opportunity sit in each stage? What are the events that cause it to move to the next stage? Are some quicker? Slower? How long until the deal closes – lost or won? All of these data points are valuable to this deal and to the business as you look back and aggregate this information with other deals. 

How long do opportunities stay in our pipeline? In each stage? Do opportunities from certain industries take longer or shorter to close? This data is vital to this sale, but can also make your entire sales operation more successful down the road. 

Tracking the customer journey

How do prospects/customers move through your whole funnel? What are the first touch points? What actions make them move to the next phase? Every step that the prospect takes will be recorded in your CRM tracking system. This is another reason that a CRM tracking system is so vital. You can see what’s working to get prospects to take an action that turns them into a lead and then, with any luck, an opportunity. 

The customer journey even goes beyond the sale and you can track that in your CRM as well. How quickly do they adopt your product or service? Do they buy again or renew? Can we look at the aspects that turn this customer into a champion for your organization? All of that, from how a CRM provides complete customer profiles to how it tracks each contact from interest to retention – is all part of CRM tracking. 

Tracking marketing campaigns

Your marketing budget is likely the largest budget in your organization. Simply put, you need to spend money to get the word out about your products and services. But how and where you spend are critical. Taking dollars away from what’s not working and doubling-down on what is working is the name of the game. You’ll need to be accurately tracking your spend, your campaigns and your leads by campaign in order to know what’s working. Attributing leads to the right campaign may seem arduous and even tedious, but it’s got to happen. Your CRM can help with CRM tracking of lead source. Additionally, if you are using a marketing automation platform, you can track your marketing to an even more granular level. 

For instance, a marketing automation platform will allow you to send mass emails and then track email stats like opens, clicks, etc. It’s easy to see which emails produced results. 

Tracking tasks and to dos

The to-do list…a never ending set of tasks to accomplish to keep your business running. You can use your CRM tracking system to help manage tasks in several different ways. 

First, you can use a simple task function to schedule an action for yourself ahead of time. You can set up workflows which are a series of tasks or actions, that you can automate to ensure you don’t miss any. 

Post-sale, you can use your CRM for project management by setting up milestones and then tracking progress towards them in the CRM. 

All of these options allow for visibility to the rest of your team and also create a tracking system that allows you to extract data at any time to see how tasks are impacting your business. 

CRM tools for a CRM tracking system

What are CRM tools? CRM tools are another way of saying the features of a CRM. For example, a CRM tools list might include workflow automation, pipeline management, task management, email management, price books and quotes are all functions of a CRM. These features or functions can also be called the tools of your CRM. What are CRM tools used for? They are used to manage the tasks associated with selling your products or services. It’s easy to make a list of the best CRM tools, however, the best CRM tools are the ones that matter most to your organization. So you may really need dashboards and performance management tools more than project management tools and that’s OK – it’s custom to your business. 

Ready for a CRM tracking system? Try Insightly today!

Insightly CRM has all of the features you need to track your data in a full-featured, modern, affordable CRM. You can also consider adding on to use more of the full platform. For instance, you could add a marketing automation application like Insightly Marketing to drive more leads and turns those leads into sales. You may want to create more complex integrations between your CRM and the rest of your tech stack. You can do that with Insightly AppConnect. If you have a customer service team, you may wish to look at Insightly Service for support ticketing. A demo of these apps can help you determine what’s right for you given the growth trajectory of your business. You can watch a demo on demand at your convenience, or request a personalized one-on-one call with a team member. 

Additional helpful links

More information on this topic is available on the following pages: