Your CRM Initiative – Where to Start CRM?

Updated November 2022

If you’re reading this article, it’s most likely because you are looking for answers on how to start your CRM initiative. The good news is that starting your CRM project would not be as difficult and overwhelming as you think it might be. The challenge is, every business has its own unique needs and challenges when it comes to implementing a new system. Some businesses can easily use an online service while some others will require in-depth training before they can implement what they need. There are also some businesses that need a little extra support from outside companies and experts so that their implementation becomes the best that it could be. With all these challenges in mind, it’s highly recommended to have a look at other organizations who are able to tackle similar implementations and see what worked for them. Here is everything you need to know about starting your CRM project – from where to start, the different phases of implementation, resources needed, risks involved, costs involved and more!

Where to Start Your CRM Initiative

First and foremost, you need to understand where to start your CRM initiative. The ideal place for a new CRM initiative is to start it from where your business is at. Therefore, you need to understand what needs your current CRM system is not meeting and then find a solution that’s best for your organization. You also need to understand what your specific needs are, what’s not meeting your needs and what you’re spending a lot of time on. That will be the best indicator of where to start your CRM initiative.

Phase 1: Understanding the Needs of Your Organization

First, you need to understand the needs of your organization so that you can better define your needs with your CRM. You need to take the time to clearly define the needs of your organization so that you can improve and grow with your business. The first need that you need to understand is CRM’s current status with your organization. In this phase, you also need to know what CRM’s current issues are, what are the main issues your customers are facing, what issues are your employees facing and how and when employees are facing these issues. That will help you fully understand what not yet met needs your CRM system has and what issues it faces.

Phase 2: Defining your Risks and Goals

Now that you have a clear picture of your organization’s needs and CRM’s current status, you can move to defining your goals. Your goals with your CRM project should be clear and defined, and be aligned with the goals of your organization. That will help you to better align your goals with your CRM. Your goals could be to increase sales, improve lead quality, or increase the number of clients. Your goals could also be tangible things like improving your CRM users’ productivity or understanding how often your CRM users use CRM features or how often they rely on them. Your goals will help you to better define the risks and resources that you need, as well as establish policies that govern all CRM users.

Phase 3: Identify what you need from your CRM

Now that you have a clear picture of your organization’s needs and CRM’s current issues, you can move to defining your specific needs with your CRM. Your needs should be specific enough to clearly define your goal and what you need your CRM to do. In this phase, you should start thinking of the use cases and scenarios where your users would use your CRM. You should also start thinking of the functions that you need your CRM to have. You can start a thought-clouding exercise where you write down all the use cases that come to your mind when you think of your CRM use cases. You can also do an actual brainstorming exercise where you make a list of all the CRM functions you want to have.

Phase 4: Procure the Resources You Need

Now that you have a clear picture of your specific needs with your CRM, it’s time to start procuring the resources that you need to make your implementation happen. That includes finding an implementation partner, choosing an implementation method, and choosing an implementation platform. When you’re looking for an implementation partner, you need to ensure that you find a partner that has the right experience, tracking, and auditing credentials. If you don’t find the right partner, you can start a project that’s going to take a long time to complete and will not be successful. When it comes to choosing an implementation method, you need to consider the implementation method that works best for your organization and the resources that you have. That will help you to choose a method that works best for your organization. Something to keep in mind is that you should choose a CRM implementation method that works best for your company’s resources and the CRM implementation method that works best for the company’s resources.

Phase 5: Train Staff on New System and Establish New Policies

Next up, you need to train your staff on the new system and establish new policies. First, you need to ensure that you train your staff on how to use your CRM. That will help you to ensure that your CRM users operate the CRM properly. You can use training videos, classrooms, or in-person training. Secondly, you need to establish new policies that govern all CRM users. Policies can be as simple as reminding your employees to clean-up their CRM data before they leave the office, to ensuring that your CRM users perform their daily tasks properly, or to reminding them to modify their data only if they have a reason to do so.

Phase 6: Maintaining a CRM After Implementation

Now that you have implemented your CRM, you need to maintain it. That includes finding ways to better improve your CRM and performing audits. First, you need to find ways to better improve your CRM. You can do that by identifying what issues your CRM has and solving them. That will help you to better improve your CRM. You can also do that by identifying what your users need and what’s not meeting their needs. That will help you to better meet their needs with your CRM. Second, you need to perform audits. That includes the CRM auditing where you can look for data that’s inaccurate, data that’s being used in multiple ways, or data that’s not being used at all.

Conclusion

This will be a long road if you do not know where to start. However, implementing a CRM is never an easy task because it involves buying new systems and new software, training your staff on how to use the new systems and new software, and implementing new policies.