Customer Relationship Management

Also called CRM

Customer relationship management software that tracks leads, contacts, deals, and interactions in one place, so a team can manage its pipeline and history. Salesforce and HubSpot are common examples.

Why it matters

A CRM is the system of record for sales, without one, pipeline lives in heads and spreadsheets and forecasting is guesswork. Setting one up early, even a simple one, builds discipline as you scale.

For example

The team runs every lead, deal, and conversation through HubSpot, so the pipeline is visible and forecasting is not a guess.

Go deeper

Close CRM Close · tool A CRM built specifically for early-stage and SMB teams to run outreach and manage a pipeline, a concrete starting point rather than enterprise bloat. Open close.com →

Related terms

Sales Pipeline Customer Success Sales Enablement

Also in Starting Up

See how founders actually handle this on Getting your first customers, part of the Starting Up hub.

eChai Partner Brands The partnership →