The customer relationship management, also known as CRM, is the automation of a series of marketing tools to combine the commercial strategies of a company with its sales force, either internal or external. Just as in other competitive sectors, for industrial companies this is a fundamental phase, since analysing and understanding the behaviour of customers is the best way to know what and how to sell them, and thus optimize commercial efforts.

To do this it is important primarily to keep a record of all the company’s contacts, with a useful feature being to import them from other applications with which they work and to integrate them with other areas with which they are closely related, such as sales or purchases. It is also important to analyse the evolution of each business opportunity that may arise, in order not to neglect those that may be beneficial, or waste time with those that are not or have little chance of success. In addition, the monitoring of these opportunities can also be used to estimate future income, as well as to plan marketing campaigns or specific tasks (such as calls, visits, or e-mails) which are assigned among the different commercial agents.

Another aspect to keep in mind is that a large part of the work of the sales force is carried out during trips and visits to clients, so they need tools that allow them to work in a mobile fashion. Finally, it is beneficial to provide these employees with functionalities that minimize routine tasks and allow them to take better advantage of their time, such as managing templates, segmentation by client types, direct access to orders and budgets or configuration of notices, among many others.