CxM through xRM: Focusing on outcomes when modeling relationship management in your CRM solution

I once received some valuable advice in the form of a simple question.   It changed the way I approached many things and aligns to many of life's challenges -- "Can you control it?  If you can't, why worry about it?"

CRM is all about relationships, but the idea of management can often be mistaken with control.  Similar to a personal relationship, not all interactions and activities can be planned out rigidly but they also can't be random and without context.  In a personal relationship what is it that really creates, builds, maintains, or even terminates a relationship? 

Take a simple example such as two people going on a blind date.  The experiences that influence the relationship can start before the two people even meet.  Factors such as the location and even the weather on the first date can all play a part in the relationship.  If one person arrives with a list of written questions, a minute-by-minute schedule, and an activity checklist, it could be pretty awkward ─ and probably a bad date.  But in CRM, too often we see strategies built on this same premise - that a relationship can be managed with borderline authoritarian control, and result in positive business benefits.

I'd therefore like to challenge two tenets of CRM as it is more broadly seen and understood: first, that a relationship can be managed; and second, that managing a relationship can be done by tracking activities or interactions, both past and future.

Interaction-Based Relationship Management: The cart before the horse

Traditionally, customer relationship management has been done through the management of interactions.  But why isn't this interaction, or task, management on ...