Glossary
What is CRM?
CRM is short for Customer Relationship Management. It is a system that records calls, quotes, contracts and inquiries with each account in one place, and manages sales and service from that record. Think of a personal notebook and spreadsheet grown to team scale.
What kinds of CRM exist?
- Sales CRM: leads, opportunities and pipeline. This is what most B2B teams mean by CRM.
- Marketing CRM: campaigns, email and segmentation.
- Support CRM: tickets and conversations.
When does a company need a CRM?
- You cannot tell where inquiries come from.
- Account history disappears when the owner changes.
- Quote versions are scattered across mailboxes.
- Quarterly forecasts are guesses.
What does the CRM process look like?
A B2B sales CRM usually lines up five stages. Each stage keeps a different record, and the rule for moving to the next one has to be explicit before the pipeline can be read as numbers.
- Capture: register contacts from web inquiries, referrals and events, with the source and date attached.
- Qualify: check the lead against your ideal customer profile. If it does not fit, close it here and record why.
- Convert to opportunity: attach an expected amount and a target close date. From here it counts toward forecast.
- Propose and quote: build the quote and keep its versions. When the amount changes, the opportunity amount changes with it.
- Close: record the contract and hand it to delivery and billing. Lost deals need a reason too, or next quarter has nothing to learn from.
CRM system, SFA, ERP and marketing automation: what is the difference?
| Name | What it covers | When you reach for it |
|---|---|---|
| CRM system | Customer records and sales management | Accounts and deals outgrew the spreadsheet |
| SFA | Sales activity and pipeline only | Only the sales team uses it; marketing and support sit elsewhere |
| ERP | Accounting, inventory, purchasing | Billing and accounting after the win are the main problem |
| Marketing automation | Campaigns, email, lead nurturing | You collect many leads and nurture them automatically |
How much does a CRM cost?
Korean products start around KRW 200,000 a month, global products at US$7 per seat. Seat counts included in the entry plan differ, so the list below is normalised to a team of five. Korean prices exclude VAT; dollar prices move with the exchange rate on the billing date.
- Korean vendor prices were checked against their public pricing pages on 2026-09-05.
- HubSpot charges a separate onboarding fee (US$1,500) from Professional up.
| Product | Entry price (month) | Seats included | Cost for five |
|---|---|---|---|
| sufly CRM (CRM AX) | KRW 500,000 | 5 | KRW 500,000 |
| Salesmap Starter | KRW 249,000 | 2 | KRW 368,700 |
| Recatch Basic | KRW 200,000 | 3 | KRW 328,000 |
| HubSpot Sales Hub Starter | US$7 / seat | per seat | US$35 (annual) |
| Pipedrive Lite | US$14 / user | per user | US$70 (annual) |
Frequently asked questions
- What does CRM stand for?
- Customer Relationship Management. It is the system that records calls, quotes, contracts and inquiries for each account in one place, and manages sales and service from that record.
- Is a CRM system the same as CRM marketing?
- No. CRM marketing means activities that make existing customers buy again (coupons, messages, repeat-purchase campaigns), mostly in B2C commerce. A CRM system is the software that holds the customer data those activities run on.
- What does a B2B team actually do with a CRM?
- Capture leads, qualify them, convert them into opportunities with an amount and a close date, send quotes, and record wins and losses with reasons. Once that record exists, the quarterly forecast is a sum of stages rather than a guess.