You may think that your goal in the initial phase of a CRM project is to finally, at long last, gain access to useful management reports, or perhaps, should you be so bold, to increase sales or improve customer service.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but neither of these goals, admirable as they may be, deserves to be your most important objective.Your most critical job in Phase 1 is to sell your troops on the importance of using the new system, and thereby achieve your most important goal: high adoption levels.