CRM projects don’t require planning – True or False?

Recently I’ve been thinking about a simple test that customers should take before starting a CRM project. Our test? True or False, indicate if you agree with any of the following four scenarios:

• You’re travelling from Boston to Milwaukee and intend to get there as quickly as possible. You decide that going online to book a flight or get driving directions takes too much time, so you just start driving.
• You’re building a house. Because architects are expensive, you buy the materials for your builder and tell her you want four bedrooms and two and a half baths; she’ll figure out the rest.
• You’d like to fly from New York to San Diego in less than an hour, confident that the laws of physics can be conquered by your travel agent.
• You want to increase topline revenues by 25%. You buy ACT! contact management software and suddenly your sales close rate improves.

Obviously, in each of these cases, you immediately knew that the correct answer is false. Nonetheless, I can’t tell you how many otherwise rational and intelligent customers appear to approach their CRM projects thinking that:

• keeping the project budget a secret means the project will cost less
• project planning wastes time and costs more money
• do-overs are as time- and cost-effective as having a defined scope before beginning
• the project scope and the time it takes to implement the project have no relationship
• magic happens when software is installed.

I can be as impatient and inclined towards taking a shortcut as anyone, so I understand the tempation of let’s just get started. I also understand that the above approach is costly, unrealistic, ridden with pitfalls, and has failure written all over it. If you agree, congratulations: you’re ready to proceed with your CRM project.

Here is the truism I want to convey: A CRM project done well is an investment; if done poorly it is a non-recoverable expense. The return on investment grows – or shrinks – in direct proportion to the planning, project management, and resources incorporated into the project.  Bottom Line?  A successful project results when the customer and the consultant understand that the cost of the project is not  a zero-sum gain, that the customer should expect to make a profit on the fees paid, and that all parties are equal contributors and stakeholders in obtaining a successful result.