Gearing Up for Second-Wave CRM: 3 Principles for Building the Right Foundation

Here are three guiding principles for making sure that your business can successfully ride — not drown in — CRM's second wave:

1. Size up your audience. As you should do with any major marketing decision, start with a thorough understanding of where your customers are and, more insightfully, where they're going. Look past what other industries or your competitors are adopting and focus on the audience you want to convert. If your customer base isn't doing business with you on smartphones and tablets, then why focus limited resources on linking mobile activity to CRM?