CRM and Offensive Linemen

I was at a local entrepreneur/networking meeting this morning when I came to a realization. It’s something I’ve been feeling for a while, but couldn’t put words to until now. What we do at Tricension — customer relationship management (CRM) software, customization and consulting — is boring. Even the acronym is boring. Just CRM. Why couldn’t it be ZAP or BOOM or HYDRA? Now, that’s not to say that I don’t have a passion for helping my clients, optimizing sales cycles, streamlining business processes, helping make data-driven customer decisions and providing world-class reporting. It does mean that what we do doesn’t sound as flashy or have the same cool-sounding talking points as some of Tricension’s fellow entrepreneurs. In fact, I came to this realization eavesdropping on a conversation. A few people at the meeting were talking about social media branding using response psychographic platforms with optimized marketing on the backend. Now, I’ve been selling software long enough to understand that “response psychographic platforms” could be secret code for an Excel spreadsheet and a Twitter feed, but at the same time when it was my turn to talk about what I did I get to use words like “sales” and “accounting” and “document management.” I felt like the competitor at the talent show who follows up the guy blowing flames and juggling fiery bowling pins with a classic flute solo*. Sigh. Anyway, as I walked back to my car, I started to press into this idea that CRM sounds fundamentally unexciting. However, on the heels of that thought is the oft-proven fact that some combination of customer relationship management, accounting, document management, time tracking, service tickets, etc. is essential to making a business run. Business have got to have good customer relationships and they have to be managed properly. Without customers, you have no revenue and if you have no revenue, you have no business. Which is why I’m going to embrace boring. See, I realize that CRM is a lot like offensive linemen on a football team. If you know anything about football, the first thing you think of is probably the name of a star quarterback, a diva wide receiver or an elite running back. Unless you’re a die-hard, chances are you can’t name your team’s starting offensive line. However, a lineman starts each play (the center snaps the ball) and the offensive line pushes around the defense so the quarterback can throw, the receiver can catch, and the running back has space to move. We may not be psychographic response metric monitoring, but CRM, sales, and accounting ensure that the metric monitors have an efficient business so they find the right audience and do their thing. I’m fine being the offensive line of the business world. CRMPoint.Net has an important role to play in the business landscape and we can help a lot of businesses along the way. I just wish I had more excited ways to talk about it. Chris PS If you can find a better acronym for CRM or a cool way to explain what I do, let me know. * My apologies to flute players. I meant no disrespect!