HomeInsights
How to successfully implement your CRM system

How to successfully implement your CRM system

Dec 2020
Julia Engstrand
You Got This sign|Question marks|Road signs|Guy standing by gears with pictures of people in them

How to successfully implement a CRM system?

During an implementation process, there are major changes within an organisation and its employees. Changes so demanding that, according to the CIO, up to 69% of CRM (customer relationship management) projects fail.

Is it even worth the effort to implement a CRM system? Answer YES! According to statistics from Capterra, a whopping 47% of CRM users felt that CRM has made a significant impact on customer satisfaction and retention.

So how do you successfully implement a CRM system? How do you make sure you are one of the 31% who implement CRM successfully? What steps and processes need to be in place to ensure the success of the project? Here are 5 concrete tips for a successful implementation of a CRM system.

1. Consensus

Among the first questions you need to ask yourself is: "What does implementation mean for us?". It is important to clarify what the word implementation means to you. And in this way create consensus in the project team and avoid different interpretations. You need to distinguish the technical implementation, the customisation of the system and the implementation by the employees with the behavioural change/use.

Make sure that everyone involved in the project has a common understanding of what an implementation means to you.

It's not just Implementation that can be a fuzzy concept. For example, what does CRM mean? Is it strategic? Or perhaps technical? CRM strategy can encompass the larger part of the buying journey and affect several internal functions such as marketing and support, while CRM is also the technical platform that salespeople work in on a daily basis. Take your time and think it through so you speak the same language and avoid unnecessary confusion and frustration. Through this work, you will create common expectations, which is the foundation for the success of your CRM implementation.

Issues and consensus

2. Clear purpose, plan and anchoring

Why CRM? What do you want to achieve with a CRM? What works well and what is missing in the current solution?
You should always have this in mind and the answer needs to be very clear to everyone. Knowing the answer to the "why" question helps the project team stay focused. For example. it is common for employees to feel that the old CRM system has never been as good as when they are about to implement the new one. Here it is essential that everyone is clear on why you have chosen to change, why it is necessary and how it will benefit you.

Also ask yourself "What value can this create for us?". Instead of focusing on what the system costs, put the focus on what you can get for the investment you are willing to make. An Implementation should be seen as an investment.
To create this clarity and understand what your organisation needs, we recommend a needs analysis.

Resistance in the organisation

Changing or starting to use a CRM system means a big change in daily work and the big changes increase the risk of failure.
When organisations implement change, resistance often arises. To avoid this, it is incredibly important to have a clear plan that everyone in the organisation knows and feels comfortable with. In a clear plan, as we have mentioned before, it is important that you know why you are implementing a CRM system. Once you know that, you can move into planning how it will happen, what the implementation model will be, when it will all happen and who will be responsible for what.


If, despite a clear plan, there is a disagreement, it is important that you have carried out a risk assessment so that you are prepared for how to deal with it. It is important to understand human behaviour and thus find ways to manage and respond to it. It is also important to clarify to your staff what their focus should be during this period so that they feel it is clear what their role is.

No technology, no matter how sophisticated, can be a success without a strategy on how to implement and use it. That's why it's important that it's embedded in the organisation from the start and that "everyone is heading in the same direction".
Here we come back to our common expectations of what an implementation is for us and why we are doing it.

Heading in the same direction

3. Patience

Develop a realistic timeline that you stick to and don't be afraid if your implementation takes up a lot of time. A common reason for CRM project failure is precisely because of stress and not taking the time to train staff, test the system and go through how to enter the current data.

A classic problem area is the data, the data volume, the lack of foundation in the data and inaccurate data. In this situation, you risk paying too much in system costs related to the volume, while you cannot use the data and the data you have is wrong.

Make sure you are dedicated to the project and give it the time it needs already in the planning phase. Because although you shouldn't rush, you don't want to fall behind either! It's also important to think carefully about which features you want to start implementing. Don't fall into the trap of implementing all features straight away! It's easy to feel overwhelmed for employees who are new to the system. It also becomes a roadblock in the project that prevents your organization from getting started.

Improve the situation first

Do you have a current CRM system that you want to change? You can do a lot to improve your situation with your current system even if you think it's bad and have plans to change. Many people focus too soon on changing systems to solve all of one's problems. But a system migration won't solve the problems without you making a lot of changes at the same time, which in turn need to be addressed and managed. The system usually gets undeserved blame for not working but the biggest cause usually lies in the usage and lack of processes and procedures.

When you improve the situation in your current system instead of directly changing systems, you learn things for the big change you take with you. What are technical limitations and what problems are caused by inadequate processes? It will be easier to evaluate and implement a new system if the organization is a seasoned CRM user.

So be patient before and during your implementation of your new CRM system.

4. Leadership

In a project, there are usually several people in charge. The role of leaders is not just to answer questions and make decisions. It is also about leading the team in the right direction, towards the right goals. It is their responsibility to ensure that everyone in their team has common expectations, an understanding of what is to be done, what is expected of them and why. As a leader, you also have to motivate your team members, raise their self-esteem and ensure that they reach their full potential.

Before an implementation process, it is important to think that the system is for the whole organisation and not just one department, such as sales. It is from this mindset that you should then create a team responsible for the implementation.
It may also be useful to select one or more people within the organisation to act as expert representatives. These can help the others when they encounter problems.

Working as a team

5. Give yourself the right conditions

So what did an implementation mean to you?
Was it just the technical stuff i.e. getting the system up and running? Or do you also want to achieve new and better results?
Do you want to achieve results with your new CRM system and not just set it up technically. Then you need to spend money time and resources that are outside the technical implementation. This could be external consultants, training and system development.

There are advantages to using someone from the outside who brings a different perspective. You can become more stable and make decisions more quickly - it's someone to "hold your hand" and have as a reference. Dare to take help to avoid the usual pitfalls and access expertise instead of "learning by doing" which can create disappointment at this important stage. Success is not determined in the technical today but in the human.
Give yourself the right conditions to succeed in the implementation of your CRM system!

You can also read more about this topic in our post "If You Can't Answer This (Specific) Question, Your Company Is Not Ready to Change or Buy a CRM"

Good luck!

Copy UTM
Copied!
Powered by
Want to use this UTM widget? Copy the code and install it on your site 😊.
Copied!
Copy code
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Here you can create your UTM tag:
Fill in the fields and let us create a UTM tag for you!
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Insights
More recommended insights