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RE: Sigh. CRM is NOT Dead, OK?

wimrampen 16th Aug 2010

Hi Paul,

Of course CRM is not dead. I'm not even going to discuss that.

First observation: I'm not sure why he so clearly wants to step away from CRM in their positioning and still mourn over not making it to the top position in the social CRM magic quadrant....

Secondly it clearly does not make sense to me to exclude an entire market in which many businesses will start their search for solutions to problems they need to solve.. Problems that sales, marketing & service have and problems that RN provide some good tooling for to help solve..

Right Now would have been right if they stated businesses don't want to be bothered by acronyms or definitions. Businesses care about the jobs they need to do and the jobs their Customers need to do.. Again, RN understands a lot about these jobs. Would it not have been a more powerful positioning statement if they would explain that to their Customers?

Also "social" seems to be high on their list.. I wonder how much time they spend discussing with their Customers on their new positioning away from CRM. My guess?: not a lot, because their Customers don't care..(and they should not). But is it then not a very bold statement to say people don't want to hear about CRM..?

Last, but not least: this is exactly what I mean when I write/talk & discuss how marketing needs to adopt a new "service dominant" logic.. Marketeers should not be obsessed with their positioning, the should be obsessed with their Customers jobs.. If this particular CMO would have done that, I wonder how many more "stuff" they could sell..

All in my humble opinion of course..

Wim Rampen