There has been an unprecedented resurgence of academic as well as practitioner interest in customer relationship management (CRM) in recent years. However, efforts made in extant literature to link the components of CRM strategy to its implementation are insufficient. We argue that relationship management is the process of implementing it. This paper aims to provide insights on the core components of CRM and the implementation of CRM strategy. An integrative framework for implementing CRM strategy guides our exploratory effort. Other major contributions offered by this paper are its deep anchorage in extant literature and the exploratory study of CRM implementation at a Swedish company serving consumer, business, institutional and government markets. The case study illustrates that relationships are not only a tactical weapon, but represent a different, strategic approach to buyer-seller exchange. It further epitomises that a more useful way to think of CRM is as a process that helps to bring together a variety of information about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends. The study also highlights the fact that implementing CRM strategy requires the endorsement by and commitment from top management, systematic cross-functional communication, and mandatory customer loyalty training programmes for all employees.