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It’s All About Relationships, People!
Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.
Customer Relationship Management is one of those terms that mean different things to different people. To many it’s simply a piece of software used by sales people--a glorified contact and task management application. In this article I’ll spend a small amount of time talking about CRM software, but I want to focus on something more fundamental--managing customer relationships, the heart of true CRM.
CRM and the PM
Before we go too much further, let’s define what I’m referring to when I talk about CRM. It’s the process of understanding the needs, situations, challenges, motivators, etc. of the people with whom a project manager interacts, and adapting the project manager’s behavior, actions and approach accordingly. You won’t find that definition of CRM in many textbooks, but that’s what I’m referring to--understanding your audience and responding appropriately.
It’s important to note that I’m taking a fairly broad definition of “customer”--you could consider any person with which you interact on a project to be a customer. As I expand on my thoughts, you’ll realize that you probably don’t need to formally undertake these steps for everyone--it’s probably not necessary for your core project team. And in some cases you can consider some stakeholders in groups, but …
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"He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot." - Groucho Marx |