At first glance Personal CRM seems an oxymoron, or at least terms put together by somebody who doesn’t really understand their meaning. After all, there’s nothing personal about ways companies implement Customer Relationship Management. The systems are intended to enforce control by accountants over sales and service functions.
But distill the concept of CRM to it’s fundamental elements – Relationships, Plans and Schedules – “Who” we know, “What” we want to do them, “When” we plan to do it – the potential for Personal CRM starts to emerge.
Firstly, we really should be keeping our own records of our business contacts, but in a “relationship” as opposed to “transaction” context. The fact that John Jones is CFO of Acme Inc and we have an appointment to discuss his renewal on the 28th is related to a transaction. Facts like he’s a member of Pine Valley Golf Club, enjoys classical music, his wife works for a children’s charity and daughter is studying medicine are related to our relationship.
These are different dimensions of the same contact. We need to be on time with a competitive offer if we’re to win the renewal. At the same time we need to know which of our contacts enjoys concerts when we have tickets for the symphony. If we can commit to knowing more of John’s personal interests we can deepen the relationship, opening up other opportunities. Maintaining that relationship will always be helpful when the going gets tough.
Secondly, we probably don’t need a reminder of our daughter’s birthday, but a reminder to find a gift a few days before might be helpful, as will a list of her close friends so we can invite them to the party.
Thirdly, in the natural course of things we meet people who aren’t, and may never be, clients, and also aren’t family or friends. They can be helpful to us in our business, and we can reciprocate. We need to know what their value add is so we can introduce opportunities to them, and build similar relationships to those with our customers.
We’ve just looked at three different types of relationship, but of course there’s only one of us. Having three different systems to record this information, and know how and when to use it, sounds like it might create more problems than it solves.
Maybe our own Personal CRM system isn’t an oxymoron. Maybe it’s an absolute requirement as the focus of business turns from transactions to relationships.
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