CRM implementation: a 30, 60 and 90 day plan

The main reason implementations fail is that the goal is stated as "install a CRM" rather than "stop losing enquiries". The system duly gets installed, and enquiries keep getting lost. What follows is a plan that starts with processes and ends with scaling.

Before starting you need one person on the business side who makes decisions. Without them, implementation turns into endless sign-off.

Days 1-30: processes and data

• Talk to the people who actually deal with clients — sales, support, the manager.

• Draw the current path of an enquiry and mark where it gets lost.

• Pick one pipeline for the pilot, with clear criteria for moving between stages.

• Clean the data: duplicate contacts, companies, deals.

• Set up roles, required fields and basic reporting.

Output: a glossary of entities, status rules, a map of enquiry sources, a migration plan and a pilot scenario.

Days 31-60: pilot and integrations

• Launch in one department rather than everywhere at once.

• Connect the most important source of enquiries — the site, telephony or a messenger.

• Configure the first-contact task and an escalation rule for missed deadlines.

• Train staff on real deals, not on a demo interface.

• Review process and configuration errors once a week.

The key rule at this stage: automation must remove a specific piece of manual work, not add notifications.

Days 61-90: quality and scaling

• Work out why fields are being left empty instead of making them mandatory.

• Reduce reporting to a few figures: response time, conversion by stage, reasons for losses.

• Extend to other departments only once the pilot runs steadily.

• Document roles, integrations and reference data.

The metrics that tell you it worked

• The share of enquiries that reached the CRM at all.

• Time to first response.

• Deals with no next task — there shouldn't be any.

• How completely critical fields are filled in, and how intelligible the loss reasons are.

If you're planning an implementation and want to start with processes rather than with picking a system, we can help at the analysis stage and with the site integration.