Chapter 3. Planning Your CRM Initiative: Strategic Planning

Now that you have decided your business needs a CRM system how do you go about implementing the system to ensure initial and continued success? This chapter will discuss how to tackle the long-term strategic planning of your CRM implementation, and will address such questions as these:

• How do you decide what functionality you need in a CRM system and when you need that functionality?

• How do you align your business needs with your CRM vision and roadmap?

There are two critical components to cover when planning your CRM initiative. First, you must identify and structure the team that will provide management-level support, guide the vision, and provide decision-making authority during the effort. Second, the strategic plan must be developed to define goals, set priorities, and organize the initiative so that it provides the most benefit to the organization. Depending on the size of your initiative, the people involved in the activities will vary, but these two components are a must in order to provide guidance and authority throughout.