Wisdom in others questions

"Judge others by their questions rather than by their answers." - Voltaire



I found an interesting resource online relating to Relationship Management in an unexpected place, LinkedIn: Answers. Although there are many topics to choose but for now go to Sales and then search for Customer Relationship Management. Once there you will see lots of interesting questions and some great answers.

To get the maximum benefit I suggest you subscribe to the RSS for this category. Once you get a bit of confidence you might want to add your own 2-cents!

Top 20 CRM Blogs

InsideCRM had an interesting post today on the the Top 20 CRM Blogs

By CRM we mean the solutions as opposed to the role. It's worth checking out given that anyone serious about managing the business relationships needs tools to help.

Chris Bucholtz blog is very good anyway and I'd recommend it if you want to keep abreast of the technology and tools out there supporting CRM. (also check out his blogroll for other sources)

Linking your calendar to your goals

Lessons from GE's Approach to Personal Productivity.




While reading the HBR Editors Blog last month I came across an interesting post called Lessons from GE's Approach to Personal Productivity. The pearl of wisdom I picked up from this article was this:

"Compare your calendar with the priorities. Label the purpose of every regular or recurring activity on your quarterly calendar and highlight those activities that are connected with your top five priorities. This simple exercise will reveal where you’re squandering your time."

Although this point is valuable for any busy manager I believe it is even more relevant to anyone who brings value to their organisation through contact with customers, suppliers or prospects on a regular basis. Your calendar will be a reflection of the relationships you are forming, building or neglecting and in addition to telling you where time is being spent (or squandered) you have a metric on which to measure your performance.

If you are in sales, how many 1st and 2nd meetings have you this week. Managers in support or services could look at how many existing clients they have "stayed in front" of through calls, meetings or mail. In partner management or procurement how many planning meetings or reviews have been done.

Take a look at each of your goals for this quarter and try to convert the "measurable" element to something you could see in your calendar, now look for the evidence. You will gain a great insight into your performance and you will also have a weekly/monthly measure of performance.

Wikipedia on Customer Relationship Managers

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a customer-centric business strategy with the goal of maximizing profitability, revenue, and customer satisfaction. - Bligh, Philip; Douglas Turk



I was checking out Wikipedia's definition of what customer relationship management was recently and the above quote was part of the definition presented. It went on to describe CRM as a philosophy, policy and coordinating strategy. Then expanded on the different players, types of CRM and the technologies. The theme throughout was integration.

Integration of all the activities in relation to the customer is the greatest challenge for any CRM function. This goes beyond the manager, the technology solution even any one department. It is all of them and more. Where it is done well everyone benefits.

As an aside, it is interesting how a wikipedia definition is arrived at. Check out the discussion tab for the definition of Customer Relationship Management, I guarantee you'll be surprised.

Power of the Meeting Note

I have a habit I developed some years ago of sending a short note, usually email, after every meeting with a client (and many phone calls). It developed out of my time as a project manager when you needed to keep a history of decisions and to remove any ambiguity over actions agreed. As a relationship manager they serve a similar purpose put from a different perspective, here are some reasons to consider sending a note:

• Looks professional and that you take such meetings seriously, even when the tone is light hearted
• You have a record of what was discussed and any actions agreed.
• You can circulate your note to other interested parties e.g. Project Managers, Sales & Marketing, your boss, the rest of the team.
• Audit purposes (for all the ITIL Service Level Managers in the audience)
• Your own records especially when you are managing a large number of clients
• Personal marketing, so all concerned know the great job you are doing.

I would suggest you have a template ready as speed is import in writing up these notes. If it takes more than 10 minutes you simply won't do it. A text based template (e.g. Outlook Forms) or a draft email saved works very well. Avoid MS Word/PDF documents unless you have to be formal (e.g. Proposal or anything with a price in it). Typical headings would be:

• Subject,
  
• Date/Time and Place,
  
• Attendees, Agenda,
  
• Main Points (short, highlights only)
  
• Actions (who, what and for when).

An optional and very useful heading to have is Internal Only. This is usually at the top and contains information that you want the internal team to know but which you might not be of interest to the client and would not be sent on their copy.

Issue it as soon after the meeting/call as possible as it looks professional and they will very often be filed as meeting minutes by the client who hasn't the time (or interest) to write up their own.

The One Minute Relationship Manager

I just finished reading the management classic "The One Minute Manager "(Blanchard & Lorber) this week. It's a short book, 100 pages in a very light style, ideal for a day hop on the plane. It boils down to 3 tools of management

1. One Minuet Goal Setting
2. One Minute Praise
3. One Minute Reprimand

I recommend you pick up a copy for yourself. Like all tools the challenge is in using them correctly and consistently to achieve your goals.

After reading it I was left wondering is there such a thing as the "One Minute Relationship Manager"? What would the 4-5 things if done correctly and consistently would help them build and maintain excellent relationships and hence achieve their goals. Some suggestions:

Be of value
Figure out how you can be of service in each of the business relationship you have. It will be different for each and with every contact made you need to be checking that you have been of service and that they know it.

Keep Excellent Records
Establish a system of keeping excellent records on all your clients and use it. You may have a CRM package, a paper filing system or a well organised email system. The structure is your own choice but it must be well maintained and easily accessible.

Frequent Connect
Business Relationship are build on frequency of contact not necessarily duration, context or even quality. This is a fundamental difference between business and personal relationships. A quick call every few weeks can be as affective as a site visit once a quarter.

These are just a couple of suggestions. I will consider this idea further and see if I can come up with a better "One Minute Relationship Manager". If you have any suggestions please let me know