Have you ever heard about CRM Management Plan? What does it mean? Keep your interest, since this is the focus of this article. Let’s find out.
What Is a CRM Management Plan?
A CRM management plan is a document that includes all the things you need to do to successfully implement the CRM software. This document is prepared by the CRM project manager and it acts as the guideline for all the team members.
In addition, it includes information about the customer, market, and sales process, technologies, and vendors used, communication plan, organizational changes, metrics, training guidelines, policies, etc.
How to Create a CRM Management Plan?
Creating a great CRM Management Plan is not an easy task. We can’t list all the tasks you need to do when creating this document. However, we can give you some examples that will help you create a great plan:
Step 1: Identify Stakeholders and Roles
You need to identify all possible stakeholders who may be affected by your implementation project. You should also find out who will play what role in your project. For example, you should know who will be responsible for implementing new technologies, who will write technical documents, etc.
Step 2: Determine How to Get Approval for Your Project
If your company has strict rules on new projects, you will need approval from key personnel (such as the IT manager or company owner) before you start developing your project. This is important because they can help you prevent issues such as budget constraints or time delays. You should also make sure that your business owners are aware of your project goals because they can provide you with many valuable insights about how to improve your business processes.
Step 3: Define Your Project Budget and Timeline
Before starting any kind of IT project, make sure that it does not affect other projects or workflows that are already in place in your organization. For example, if there are already two projects going on at once and your project prolongs either one of them, you should receive approval from key personnel to avoid disruptions in other areas. This rule applies even if all other stakeholders agree with your project idea. In short, make sure that all parties agree with the following things before starting any type of IT project: project budget, timeline, risk assessments, and change requests (if applicable). The last thing you want is an overspent or delayed IT project! You need to clearly define these things in your IT project plan.
Step 4: Develop a Concept of Operations (CONOPS)
As you may know, the CONOPS is a document that describes the context of an operation, its purpose, how it functions, and what are its goals. In other words, you can think of it as your project’s blueprint. It includes information about the mission, goals, roles, and responsibilities.
Step 5: Outline a Business Case and Metrics
Business Case: This document explains why your CRM project is valuable to the organization. It includes things like the costs and benefits of CRM implementation and how it will improve the business processes. Metrics: These are measurements that you will use to determine whether your project is successful or not. For example, if you are creating a new CRM software, you will need to determine the number of sales per day so that you can compare it with the sales per day in your previous business year. These metrics will help you know how effective your CRM implementation project is. Step 6: Create a Communication Plan and Training GuidelinesStep 7: Create a Project Management Plan and Schedule
Conclusion
Once you create a great CRM Management Plan, it will be an easy task to implement the CRM software. A good CRM management plan also helps you avoid problems that may arise during the implementation so that you can reduce costs and increase profits.
