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Back in the mid to late 80′s, I was using a program called Telemagic (DOS based no less), that was revolutionary in that it was a very complete (for it’s time) “contact management” application. I had never seen anything like it. In 1989, a new product hit the market called Goldmine. Goldmine went where others had not gone before by offering integrated teams, email, and a host of other functions. It was the next step in the CRM evolutionary ladder. Well, Goldmine’s founder, Jon Ferrara is back in his laboratory and he and his team are creating a new SaaS application, Nimble, that will again redefine what is today known as CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Nimble will bring “social” to CRM (SCRM) and it will blow your collective socks off!
I am prohibited from sharing all I know but I will tell you that I have seen it, have had conversations with the big man himself, and I have never been so excited about any product that I have seen to date! Should you peruse this site, you will find that I have have spent a considerable amount of time and effort in the research and evaluation of Social Media products and applications as they pertain to business use.
The simple fact is that the CRM you see today is not that much different than what you saw in 1990. They are centered around contact and activity data. Some are very simple but provide very little actually horsepower (Outlook, Act!, Gmail). Others are quite sophisticated, such as Salesforce, but can also be pricey, bloated, and difficult to set up and to navigate. Their user interfaces reflect an engineer’s perspective, not yours or mine.
For any CRM to be effective, it must be complete but not too complete. It must be easy to use and intuitive in design. It requires the ability to grow with you as your needs change as opposed to forcing you to utilize features just because they are there or to have to figure out how to navigate around them. I will say that BatchBook has a pretty nice product in this regard. Still, where’s the “social”?
Everybody is talking about Social CRM but, other than perhaps enterprise level solutions, I have not been able to find anybody that is actually doing it. Some say they are but I would strongly disagree. What I have seen is a lot of vendors hanging social add-ons onto their existing products or third party vendors developing products that you can add on yourself. Don’t get me wrong. Some of these products are excellent and I am using them now! These would include Gist. Xobni, and Rapportive. Still, my heart longs for a single integrated product that will truly add the “social” to SCRM.
Why is this so important? With the advent of social media, it is no longer about the “contact”. It is about the “conversation”. We no longer “manage” these relationships, we now collaborate, discover, and discuss along common grounds. While we still use the phone (not enough) and email, we now also communicate via text, Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn. Put all of these together and we form “the conversation”. However, there remains a small problem. All of these discussions are happening on different platforms. As a result, we are distracted and inefficient in achieving our goals. These communications must be integrated so that we may focus. They will be. We will now have the ability to listen and to engage with the community around us and to do so on the platforms of their choosing. We enter the conversation based on an understanding of what is of interest to others rather than by barging in and sharing our story unannounced. All of this, and more, forms a model of efficiency. We become “Nimble” in our ability to engage and respond to the needs of others. That’s powerful!!
I have been talking about Social CRM for some time now and most people look at me like I have two heads. That fact aside, I firmly believe that the folks at Nimble have managed to secure one of them because my vision is being suspiciously reproduced (smile). Nimble will soon be releasing beta invites and I would encourage you to go to their site and get signed up … TODAY. However, there will be no cutting in line! It’s a “dog and his bone” kind of thing.
Thanks for visiting!
Craig
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- Be A Nimble Organization – Social CRM With Potential (customerthink.com)
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- Social CRM: What Is It And Where Is It Going? [10 Links] (newcommbiz.com)
- When Does CRM Become A Collaboration Service? (readwriteweb.com)
- Social CRM for CRM’ers (customerthink.com)
- Be Nimble. Be Social. (customerthink.com)
- Social CRM is Just the Beginning: Looking Beyond Customers (briansolis.com)
Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. NetWorks! Boise Valley is a business to business networking organization for the most serious sales and marketing professionals only.
