CRM Implementation: Setting Goals and Building the Business Case

Establish Goals and Objectives

Goals and objectives emerge from the visioning and prioritizing processes. Although the terms ‘goal’ and ‘objective’ tend to be used synonymously, we use the word ‘goal’ to refer to a qualitative outcome and ‘objective’ to refer to a measurable outcome. For example, a CRM goal might be to acquire new customers. A related CRM objective could be to generate 200 additional leads by the fourth quarter of the next financial year.

SMART Criteria for Objectives

• Specific: Details exactly what needs to be done.
• Measurable: Achievement or progress can be measured.
• Achievable: Objective is accepted by those responsible for achieving it.
• Realistic: Objective is possible to attain, important for motivational effect.
• Timed: Time period for achievement is clearly stated.

Identify People, Process, and Technology Requirements

The next step is to begin the process of identifying the people, process, and technology requirements for the goals and objectives to be achieved. You’ll return to these matters repeatedly as the project unfolds, but at this stage you need a general idea of the changes that are necessary so that you can begin to identify costs and construct a business case. If your goal is to enhance cross-selling opportunities you might need to invest in training sales people to ask the right questions, engineering a new opportunity management process, and acquiring sales-force automation software.

Develop the Business Case

The business case is built around the costs and benefits of the CRM implementation and answers the question: ‘Why should we invest in this CRM project?’ The business case looks at both costs and revenues.

Improved Revenues

• Conversion of more leads from suspect to prospect to opportunity.
• More cross-selling and up-selling.
• More accurate product pricing.
• Higher levels of customer satisfaction and retention.
• Higher levels of word-of-mouth influence.
• More leads and/or sales from marketing campaigns.
• Incremental sales from more effective selling processes.

Reduced Costs

• Improved lead generation and qualification.
• Lower costs of customer acquisition.
• More efficient account management.
• Less waste in marketing campaigns.
• Reduced customer service costs.
• More efficient front-office processes.