Don't Make This CRM Mistake

Too many organizations make this mistake: thinking about CRM as a project or an initiative that has a defined beginning and end. But CRM is actually a fundamental change in how your organization manages its most important asset: it's relationships. So it's never 'done.' 

You can't deploy a CRM system and consider it finished after the implementation is over. Success with CRM requires ongoing effort being devoted to adoption, training, communication and data quality. This is the reason so many people consider their CRM deployment to be a failure - and why so much time, effort and money is spent trying to enhance adoption and get ROI on CRM investments.

So, if you want to succeed with CRM, at the outset make sure you have a strategy:

• Set measurable, achievable goals
• Put metrics in place to measure results
• Engage users by providing value, as they define it
• Focus on people, process and change management
• Dedicate ongoing data quality resources
• Plan for training new hires and retraining existing users
• Never stop communicating the value

Remember that CRM never ends - which means we have forever to get better at it.