Learn the basics of CRM

Customer relationship management is a hot topic around the marketing water cooler, but all it really means is "know your customer." Now you'd expect this to be a marketing problem, and you'd essentially be correct, but the solution is going to involve you. Because it's going to involve you, wouldn't you rather that it be on your terms instead of a solution imposed from above?

Last spring, Microsoft held the " Microsoft CRM eBusiness Conference" which you, like me, probably missed. Well, we are in luck. Microsoft is making available videos of a number of the presentations that can be downloaded or viewed from the Microsoft Web site.

While there is a fairly large amount of marketing jargon involved, the jargon includes terms and buzzwords you should get familiar with so that you can head off the more outrageous plans the marketing department might be trying to foist upon you. So take the time to view the keynote address, as well as some of the other presentations, including:

• Customer Relationship Management: Critical Factors for Success.
• Enabling CRM eBusiness Solutions.
• Business Internet Analytics for Customer Intelligence.
• Improving Customer Support to Dazzle (and Keep) Your Customers.
• Customers for Life: Attracting and Maintaining Valuable Customer Relationships.
• Mastering the New eCustomer Lifecycle.

And a half dozen more.

Don't try to view more than one or two at a sitting, but do attempt to get through all of them so that you'll at least understand the terms involved with CRM. At best, you'll be able to formulate a plan that will win you friends and admirers in Marketing - and when's the last time that happened?

Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. His most recent book is "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks" published by SAMS. Dave's company, Virtual Quill, provides content services to network vendors: books, manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill provides "words to sell by..." Find out more at Virtual Quill or by e-mail at info@vquill.com

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