Martech, explained · Platforms side by side · 2:35
CDP vs CRM, and the CEP between
A CRM is built for people, a CDP for systems, and the CEP is growing into both
The short answer
A CRM is built for people: sales and service teams read and update the record of a customer they know. A CDP is built for systems: it collects what customers do on your site and app, known or anonymous, and works out which visits are the same person. A CRM can feed a CDP, but it can't replace one.
Questions this answers
Can a CRM replace a CDP?
Not really. A CRM can feed a CDP and take segments back, but it won't collect the events or recognize a visitor who hasn't signed in.
Where does a CEP fit between a CDP and a CRM?
The CEP sends the email, the push and the text. It started as the channel, and now keeps profiles of its own and customer data that looks a lot like a CRM's, so the lines are blurring from both ends.
Which system should own which customer data?
Each one holds the same customer, so decide which system owns what before you connect them: for example the phone number in the CRM, consent in the CEP, visits in the CDP.
Is it different in B2B?
In B2B the CRM is often the center, and the CDP feeds it.
Transcript
Every chapter as text. Click a time to play the film from there.
0:00 Two systems, one customer
A customer calls about a late order.
The agent on the phone sees her name, her orders and the open ticket.
An hour earlier she was on your website without signing in, and to that system she was just a visitor.
0:15 Same person, two jobs
Same person, two systems built for two different jobs: that's CDP versus CRM, in one phone call.
What a CRM is for
A CRM is built for people.
Sales and service teams sit at it: they look someone up, read the history, and add notes while they talk to a customer they know.
Accounts, contacts, cases and deals: what your people did with that customer.
0:41 What a CDP is for
A CDP serves your other systems.
It collects what customers do on your site and in your app, signed in or not, and figures out which visits are the same person.
Then it hands segments to the tools that act on them.
Nobody sits at it, and nobody types into it.
1:00 Can a CRM replace a CDP?
So can a CRM replace a CDP?
Not really, because they do different jobs.
A CRM can feed a CDP, and take segments back.
But it won't collect the events, and it won't recognize a visitor who hasn't signed in.
In B2B, the CRM is often the center, and the CDP feeds it.
1:24 The CEP in between
Between them, there's often a CEP: the platform that sends the email, the push and the text.
It started as the channel.
Now it keeps profiles of its own, and customer data that looks a lot like a CRM's.
Some engagement platforms already call themselves a CRM for consumers.
The lines are blurring, from both ends.
1:48 Which one wins?
That leaves you with three systems that each hold the same customer.
The phone number in the CRM, the email consent in the CEP, the last visit in the CDP.
When two of them disagree, which one wins?
Another connector won't settle that.
Decide which system owns what, before you connect them.
For example: the CRM owns the phone number, the CEP owns consent, and the CDP owns visits.
2:19 Who it's for
A CRM is for people talking to customers they know.
A CDP is for systems acting on all of them, signed in or not.
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