Step One: Know What You Want To Achieve
THE BEST WAY TO DO THIS IS to spend face-to-face time with key stakeholders across the organization.
Begin with a clear idea of where you want to get to, and you are far more likely to get there. The first step in understanding your requirements must be to invest time in defining the precise objectives of the implementation.
Make sure that you involve a wide range of functions. CRM is often seen as a tool solely for the sales team, but it has potential applications across many functions, from marketing to customer service to operations and finance and so on. Involve them all.
These can be difficult meetings to get right. You are asking them to highlight what their function could be doing better, and it can be easy for people to react defensively to that question. So, frame the conversation in the right way, explaining what you are trying to achieve. Focus on future opportunities as much as on current problems. What are the ways that improved technology could create new and previously unexpected opportunities?
