Building the team

A critical factor in the success of your CRM initiative will be deciding who is on your team. The size of the team will obviously vary among differing organizations; those with 3 staff members will have to do things differently than those with 300. While this section is oriented towards larger organizations, the principles apply to any size.

The implementation team should include the people who will play a direct role in the ongoing project development. Not everyone affected by the CRM initiative needs to be on this core team tasked with driving the strategy and implementation. A good working group is seldom larger than six to eight people, and very often, a smaller group can be more effective. To get where you want to be, it is a good idea to have a representative project team where the different voices of the organization will be heard. Apart from representation, it is also good to have a mix of talents in the team. Some tasks will require extrovert communication skills...