Forrester interviewed 58 executives about their best practices for getting more value from customer relationship management (CRM). They told us that it is critical to set clear CRM objectives and establish the right metrics before making a technology purchase. How? By following a four-step approach to establish the correct measures for your organization: 1) define and quantify business goals; 2) formulate CRM strategies and tactics; 3) establish appropriate CRM measures; 4) link CRM goals, strategies, and metrics. Firms also need to adopt CRM metrics best practices, including establishing metrics early in the CRM deployment initiative, measuring what is important to customers, and using metrics to guide employees.