Insights / MOVE Methodology
Initiation: Use the MOVE Methodology to Develop Your Business Case
You know you need to build a robust business case — but how do you define your strategy? Before you can start looking at technology, you need a clear vision, a comprehensive strategy, and the capabilities to enable your documentation.
Key Takeaways
Strategy first, technology second. Build your business case before you speak to a single vendor.
Collaboration isn't optional. Developing a CRM plan in isolation is one of the fastest ways to fail.
Every phase of implementation must justify its investment — through savings, compliance, or insight, not just revenue.
CRM Strategy
Team Workshop: Collaboration is Key
The best way to fail with your CRM initiative is to develop a plan in isolation. Effective CRM strategies break down barriers between departments. Use this opportunity to shift from a siloed approach to one that genuinely focuses on the customer.
Gather a Cross-Section of Your Team
Include representatives from technical teams, marketing, sales, service, and frontline staff. The people closest to the customer often hold the most valuable insights.
Pre-Workshop Survey
Ask key business leaders how effective they feel in managing the customer lifecycle stages — attract, engage, convert, fulfil, retain, grow, reactivate — and how important these stages are to meeting company KPIs. This survey will surface common challenges and reveal differing views to address in the workshop.
Workshop 1
Defining Your Strategy
Your first workshop should work through four foundational questions. The answers become the backbone of your CRM strategy — and everything you build from here should connect back to them.
Company Mission
Why do you exist? Ground the entire CRM initiative in your organisation's purpose — everything else should ladder up to this.
Customer Identification
Who are your current and ideal customers? Understanding your audience ensures your CRM is built around the people it needs to serve.
Product Types
What products or services do you offer? Mapping these allows you to define scalable, repeatable processes rather than one-off workflows.
HERO Journey
Align your products to your purpose, vision, and key lifecycle stages — connecting customer journey maps with strategic objectives and measurable progress.
Customer Journey
Mapping the Ideal Customer Journey
Map the customer journey and identify where customers might stall or fall off. Determine what information you need to capture or store along the way. This high-level view becomes the blueprint for your CRM platform's capability requirements.
Platform requirements to consider:
The Approach
Focus on product types, not individual products.
Instead of mapping every individual product or service, focus on product types to establish scalable, repeatable processes. Identify common process steps collaboratively with CRM champions from across the business.
Frictionless Experience
Streamlined processes for customers at every touchpoint.
Easier Automation
Standardisation makes automation and new product launches faster.
“Prepare your requirements document before engaging with vendors. This ensures you maintain control over the conversation.”
Technology Selection
Vendor Engagement: Selecting the Right Technology
Taking ownership of vendor engagement is essential. Too many businesses let vendors lead the conversation — resulting in platforms built around demos, not requirements.
Prepare Before You Engage
Build a comprehensive requirements document before you speak to any vendor. This ensures you control the conversation — focusing on how vendors can meet your specific needs rather than being swayed by impressive demos.
Involve Your CRM Champions
Have your team participate in vendor discussions and rate each vendor against your documented requirements. This collaborative approach removes bias and guesswork from the selection process.
Plan for Post-Selection Support
Once you select a technology, identify the skill set needed for ongoing support. Always include a technical admin from your business who understands the implemented solution and can evolve it over time.
The MOVE Canvas
Mapping Every Step of the Customer Journey
The MOVE Canvas outlines the steps that guide customers on their journey, organised by the stages of the customer lifecycle. Assign ownership of each pathway to ensure accountability and efficiency.
While vendor selection is underway, your team should define every step needed to keep customers moving through the lifecycle — documenting the customer journey, scope of work, key deliverables, and success metrics.
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lifecycle stages to map ownership across
Key Considerations
Building a Business Case That Lasts
Every phase of implementation should justify itself. Remember — “paying for itself” can involve operational savings, compliance benefits such as data security and customer preferences, and enhanced insights. Not just increased revenue.
With a clear CRM strategy and articulated requirements, defining KPIs becomes straightforward. Measure both the implementation success with your partner and the overall business impact. There are four additional factors that will determine whether your business case holds up over time.
Integration Challenges
Ensure any new CRM system can integrate smoothly with your existing systems. Failing to plan for integration creates data silos that undermine the entire initiative.
Change Management
New processes and technologies require deliberate strategies for managing organisational change. Without this, even the best CRM will face resistance.
User Adoption
Training and support are critical. When users understand how the CRM makes their work easier and improves customer outcomes, they embrace it rather than tolerate it.
Continuous Improvement
Regular reviews and updates keep your CRM strategy aligned with changing business needs and evolving customer expectations. Build this cadence in from the start.
Conclusion
By following the MOVE Methodology, you now have the information and visibility to create a strong and impactful business case. You've encouraged collaboration, defined your requirements, and built a foundation for a CRM initiative that the whole organisation can stand behind.
The work you do in the initiation phase — the workshops, the surveys, the cross-functional conversations — is what separates CRM initiatives that deliver from those that stall. Start here, and everything else becomes clearer.
Strategy before technology. Always.
The MOVE Methodology gives you the structure to build a business case that earns buy-in, drives adoption, and delivers results.