It's no secret that winning and retaining customers is the key to business growth and success. But that's no small feat given the dynamic and ever-increasing customer demands that companies face today, as well as the difficulty of implementing and enforcing processes to effectively support your interactions with prospects, customers, and partners. Fortunately, there are dozens of technology products devoted to helping companies manage those critical relationships - commonly known as customer relationship management or CRM.

To thrive, companies must focus on customer relationships and CRM strategies. For the most successful companies, CRM is an area of continual innovation and assessment. And your CRM processes and technologies must keep pace with - or ideally stay ahead of - changes in your market and customer base.

If you are searching for the right CRM technology for your business, re-evaluating your current use of CRM, or looking to derive more value from an existing investment, understanding the essential factors of CRM success can help you get the best results.

This guide to eight proven CRM essentials distills best practices, lessons learned, and collective insights from salesforce.com's 35,000+ customers - as well as industry experts - across various company sizes, geographies, and vertical markets.