ABSTRACT
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) benefits are discontinuous: some operational benefits are experienced early on and then there is a “break” where management either realizes the latent benefits made possible by newly achieved customer insight and enhanced CRM capabilities – or not. Implementing the more ambitious CRM program is far less risky than doing it cold and will take far less time. This “test market” of CRM, the investment in learning and building basic capabilities, can be considered a real option that is exercised only if CRM appears to have real promise. Real Options has been demonstrated to work in the context of creating a business case for CRM. The salesperson develops neither customer-, nor product-expertise, and that is unhelpful for CRM performance. Where customers are geographically dispersed and value face-to-face contact with salespeople, there is a clear benefit in salespeople also being geographically dispersed.
