Inside CRM carries a very good blog post on why CRM is very important during a recession period here . I will try and simplify and summarize it here.

1. Deeper understanding of one's customer base
This will make the sales and marketing depts more certain of being able to address the needs of the customer instead of just pushing to the customer. No one likes to be pushed around and more so when financial difficulties strike. The customer ideally would always like to get something that will solve his problem. 90% of the time, sales are made on the 10% that the CUSTOMER does NOT want. So good time to get back to basics.

2. Valuation of customers
Some customers are gods, and the rest are not so. These 'gods' have to be treated with care and often have the ability to influence a lot many folks because they have used whatever has been sold to them (mostly!) and have endured/experienced the service given. Since they come back and buy, one can safely imagine that they are happy with the service ;-) and would be happy to share the news around.  This makes it even more important to be ready with the red carpet when they come around. This information is typically stored as a stat entry. Time to get the dust off the CRM system-data and search/ferret out these gods! And then, see what you can give them.

3. Filter the Leads
Most of the time, lead filtration is not done and data are just about dumped into the CRM system. In recession, getting a lead in itself is a task. So time one got down on the knees and wade through each so-called lead that comes into the system. Is the lead worth classifying a lead, is it gossip, is it someone's room-mate who accidentally happened to smile at me and give the card, etc? Take those junk out.

4. Keep the base happy
Having a customer base is good. knowing what they do/buy/etc is also good. But what do they get for being good to you??? Spend sometime thinking on this and try and go back to basics. Time to populate the CRM with data that will help enhance one's knowledge of how the person behaves/wants. Come up with a scheme to tell them they are royal for being loyal and that one is willing to bend over and help them else, well, this is recession time and someone will undercut you. Remember, a penny saved is a penny gained, right?

5. Be smarter - well, you knew this so no need to harp on it.
A man is known by his abilities in times of crisis. In a recession time, think through your strategy. Do not panic. Take time to think of what you stand for and what would you expect your customer to see you as. They may not be the same!
You are human too so it is far easier to sit and analyze what they would need.
It is the Cerebral things that matter. The brawns certainly do matter but less so in recession time.

Let me know what you felt about this.

Archie