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CRM and VRM:Towards an Inclusive Data Strategy

for Individuals and Businesses

Doc Searls (@dsearls)6 April 2011 • SugarCon •

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FREEDOM

LIBERTYINDEPENDENCE

LOVE

Can CRM be about LOVE?

Hey, CRM has the word RELATIONSHIP in it.

Why the hell not?

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If we love customers why do we“target”

“acquire”

“control”

“retain”

“manage”

“lock in” and

“own” them?

This is the language of what?

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Where is the love here?

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Where is the customer here?

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A focus is not a presence.

Yes, we can get social.

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Here’s a simpler view:

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What if all this stuffis a bubble?

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And what about these people?

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They’re social,

but they don’t use social

media.

Two problems/opportunities here:

1) “Social” is very 2010.

The next wave is personal. Really personal.

2) It’s not “Web 3.0 or X.0”

because the way we use the Web doesn’t support it.

In fact, it keeps us locked in command-and-control mode.

We can work around that.11

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How do we geta full shift in power?

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Here’s one super-empowered customer:

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Super-empowered customerswant a few simple things:

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FREEDOM

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LIBERTYINDEPENDENCE

LOVE

Laurence Buchanan says,

Ah, but there is a problem.

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The Force in CRM is the voice of the customer.

Let’s go back to whatCluetrain said in 1999.

Not just “markets are conversations.”

Rather, this:

we are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. we are

human beings and our reach exceeds your grasp. deal with it.

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The problem is, none of ushas one of these:

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“deal with it” is not an option without one.

But, we’re building one.

Social media do help…

But they aren’t X-wing fighters.

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Customers need their ownX-wing fighters. And much more.

Vehicles of their own. Tools of their own.

And new ways of engaging CRM

rather than just fighting it.

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In our way is a problemcalled client-server.

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Server

Client Client Client Client Client Client Billions more

The Net is end-to-end and peer-to-peer.

But the Web is submissive-dominant.

Now think of client-serveras this kind of relationship:

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Client

Server

In the Web marketplace,it looks like this:

Server

Client Client Client Client Client Client Billions more

Server

Client Client Client Client Client Client Billions more

Server

Client Client Client Client Client Client Billions more

Each company has its own setof cow-calf relationships:

Server

Client Client Client Client Client Client Billions more

Server

Client Client Client Client Client Client Billions more

Server

Client Client Client Client Client Client Billions more

CRM (and everybody) remains stuck inside the calf-cow model:

Server

Client Client Client Client Client Client Billions more

Server

Client Client Client Client Client Client Billions more

Server

Client Client Client Client Client Client Billions more

Online, customers have no more power than sellers give them.

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So, VRM.

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VRM is a counterpart of CRM.

VRMCRM

It handles the customer’s side of relationships.It provides ways for customers to bear their side

of the relationship burden.It gets CRM off the ranch and into the frontier.

It started with ProjectVRMat Harvard’s Berkman Center in 2007

There are now dozens of development projects

And the results are coming to market.

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With VRM, the individual is the point of integration for his or her own data.

… and the point of origination for what’s done with it.

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Here is someof what VRM will do.

Write and execute codeoutside client-server

This is what Kynetx does.

With open source on the SugarCRM model.34

Give customers control of data:

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0% 100%

Depth of customer data

Degree of customer control

0%

100%

Give customers their own tools of engagement with sellers.

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Including the ability to assert demand and name prices and other terms.

Add new forms of signaling.Such as: r-buttons:

The red button on the site’s side is a signal that says,

“We’re open to dealing with you on your terms.”

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Issue a “personal RFP” to whole markets, on the fly.

For example, send a message saying you need a 200w 220->110 converter

in Amsterdam on a Sunday afternoonScott Adams calls this “broadcast shopping.”

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Do self trackingand personal informatics

Develop 4th parties,to assist demand.

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So, for example, with hotels…

Fourth parties can represent, intermediate, or otherwise help out.

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Open Source Personal Data Stores/Lockers/Clouds:

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More VRM development projects:

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VRM businesses:

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Companies and projects talking VRM in the last 2 weeks:

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Tweeting panelists:

Me: @dsearls

Dan Miller: @dnm54

Drummond Reed: @DrummondReed

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0% 100%

Depth of customer data

Degree of customer control

0%

100%