Understanding Contact Manager Vs CRM

	Contact Manager	CRM
What Is	A Contact Manager software provides basic functionality for managing and tracking information about customers, prospects, vendors, suppliers. It covers information like address, job title, company size, designation, birthdate, email's, quotes, etc.	A CRM software provides more advanced functionality which will help to manage the entire sales process, prospects and relationships. It contains all the detailed information about a customer and automates many tasks and has lot of built-in marketing automation systems like sending campaigns, drip marketing, invoicing, etc.
Features	Contact manager may have features like: Search and filters Layers of security and permission Integrations reports Custom fields Scheduling appointments	CRM is a much broader concept and is designed to: Manage various tasks related to sales and marketing Manage relationships with customers and prospects Schedule events and meetings Creating email lists Categorizing customers Handling customer issues Manage notes related to a contact and many other things
Who can use	Can be used by small business or a small company who have lots of contacts, but don't need detailed follow-ups and doesn't involve much of sales or marketing process.	Can be used by various industries like banking, retails, insurance, hospitality, health, etc. which helps them to manage and organize all the contact information and also includes managing notes, issues, tagging, social networking, setting call-list and much more. It carries the sales and follow-up process smoothly.
Why use	It will help to manage, organize the information regarding all your contact, accounts, competitors, opportunities. It captures all data, which can be retrieved whenever required and does not require too much of analysis.	It will give a 360 degree view of the customer information and their activities. All this information is quite useful for the long sales cycle which will help in converting a lead into prospect easily. It can generate various kind of reports in real-time for future analysis.

What Is

A Contact Manager software provides basic functionality for managing and tracking information about customers, prospects, vendors, suppliers.
It covers information like address, job title, company size, designation, birthdate, email's, quotes, etc.

A CRM software provides more advanced functionality which will help to manage the entire sales process, prospects and relationships.
It contains all the detailed information about a customer and automates many tasks and has lot of built-in marketing automation systems like sending campaigns, drip marketing, invoicing, etc.

Features

Contact manager may have features like:

Search and filters
Layers of security and permission
Integrations reports
Custom fields
Scheduling appointments

CRM is a much broader concept and is designed to:

Manage various tasks related to sales and marketing
Manage relationships with customers and prospects
Schedule events and meetings
Creating email lists
Categorizing customers
Handling customer issues
Manage notes related to a contact and many other things

Who can use

Can be used by small business or a small company who have lots of contacts, but don't need detailed follow-ups and doesn't involve much of sales or marketing process.

Can be used by various industries like banking, retails, insurance, hospitality, health, etc. which helps them to manage and organize all the contact information and also includes managing notes, issues, tagging, social networking, setting call-list and much more. It carries the sales and follow-up process smoothly.

Why use

It will help to manage, organize the information regarding all your contact, accounts, competitors, opportunities. It captures all data, which can be retrieved whenever required and does not require too much of analysis.

It will give a 360 degree view of the customer information and their activities. All this information is quite useful for the long sales cycle which will help in converting a lead into prospect easily. It can generate various kind of reports in real-time for future analysis.