Small Business CRM Systems Move from Tracking Solo Customers to Client Groups

In a recent column on CustomerThink, Graham Hill delivers his manifesto for social business. It's an evolution in the way that sales professionals think about their clients and their markets--a societal move that actually implies more than the name suggests. Until now, CRM applications focused on the management of relationships between sales professionals and customers. In an atmosphere of social business, as Hill describes it, CRM software must become capable of so much more:

• Shifting CRM software from personal relationships to group networking. Although nothing will ever replace the direct vendor-client relationship, small business CRM now requires an understanding of maintaining relationship with a prospect's ecosystem, as well. Have a great interaction, and a prospect may become a client. Have a bad interaction, and hundreds of their Twitter followers may hear about it. A new generation of CRM software helps sales professionals maintain transparency, so they can prepare more effectively for interactions and enjoy more productive follow-ups.

• Using CRM applications to understand a customer's real value proposition. As Hill points out, customers don't just expect our products and services to deliver value. They expect our products and services to allow us to co-create even more value by helping us do our jobs more effectively than ever. It's no longer about what's in the box, but what the contents of that box enable us to do. Strong CRM software helps sales professionals measure and celebrate that creation.

• CRM software can help sales professionals respond more intuitively. Whether tracking Twitter streams or reviewing a client's direct e-mail, CRM software can help companies respond more effectively to customer needs. Understanding the real urgency and importance of a situation--even when a customer does not reach out directly--can help vendors maintain customer relationships through challenges and setbacks.

CRM systems will continue to evolve to meet these needs, even as our own needs as customers keep changing. Customer relationship management has little to do with keeping lists of addresses and phone numbers, and everything to do with cataloguing our most important wants.