CRM implementation

Promise a system they will open on Monday, and name what you will not import.

CRM consultants arrive after a tool was bought and abandoned, or before a team outgrows a spreadsheet. The proposal should name the pipeline stages, who must enter them, and the history you will refuse to import.

Open on Monday

The test is mundane. On the Monday after go-live, a salesperson can find a live deal and add the next step without asking you. Write the stages in the customer's language, not the tool's default language. If you do not know the stages yet, the proposal should say they will be agreed in the first week and that the build waits on that agreement.

Name who must use it. If the founder is exempt, the team will be too. The proposal can say the founder logs the deals they personally hold, or it can say this engagement will fail and you should not take it. Both are more honest than a training plan aimed only at the most junior hire.

Data you will refuse to import

Old spreadsheets full of dead email addresses are how a new CRM looks dirty on day one. Write the rule. You will import open deals and active customers. You will not import ten years of notes, and you will not deduplicate by hand a list nobody owns. Put the refused data in the out-of-scope section where a keen operations manager can see it before they argue.

The license cost is theirs. Your fee is the configuration, the import you agreed, and the first week of use. Custom development, a marketing-automation build, and an integration with every other tool are separate. One integration can be in scope if you name it. 'Whatever we need' cannot.