Series of Tubes

Whatchamacallit

Permit me to indulge in a potential conflict of interest. I found this post the other day talking about how CRM is dying or dead as a buzzword. On the one hand, it probably hurts me to give the post any more publicity than it's already getting since CRM pays my bills—literally, due to my job at the magazine of the same name. On the other hand, the author (Geoffrey James) makes some valid points that I'd like to discuss, and it would be rude not to give credit where it's due. Hence the conflict.

To begin with, I contest Mr. James' statement that CRM is merely the new name for SFA. The former contains the latter, along with a lot more. I admit that the magazine I work for was born under the name Sales & Field Force Automation, but even then (to the best of my recollection) it included field service as well as sales.

Mr. James also writes "Today, about half the websites selling some kind of sales technology already avoid the 'CRM' moniker. Instead, they sport a variety of terms like 'Sales 2.0' or 'Sales Enhancement Technology' or 'Sales Productivity Improvement Tools.' That's because they''re sales tools, not CRM. If it's not tied into marketing, customer service, and probably some back-office disciplines as well, it's not doing all of CRM's job.

Beyond those two disagreements, though, I have to say that the spirit of the article is spot-on. There's a discussion on the CRM 2.0 Wiki about whether the new technologies and approaches being used merit dropping the term CRM (or CEM—customer experience management) in favor of something newer and possibly more descriptive.

Mr. James writes "Many CRM systems are implemented simply to supply management with data; very few systems actually help sales pros in the day-to-day task of selling. Many sales pros feel as if they’re being asked to be data entry clerks — and give away their contacts, simply to help their managers make fancy reports." This has been and continues to be a huge problem. We have a term for what he describes: failed CRM implementation. Improved reporting is an important part of any CRM project, yes. But if that's the only purpose, the money that went for the software would probably have been better spent on resume paper for all the employees, 'coz the company is in trouble. CRM contains tools to make users more effective at their jobs, and better able to focus on the customer; the more advanced your CRM, the more you are able to support real two-way conversations with them in the manner they prefer. The reporting should be a product of that work, not an added task for salespeople.

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On a related topic, I found this gem by Seth Godin (yeah, him) about the absurdity of motivating your skilled individuals by way of a department called Human Resources. (Thanks to Chris Carfi for reposting the link, or I'd never have seen it. I owe you a call, man.) The first thing I thought of, naturally, was one of my favorite Dilbert cartoons. I'd link to it, but either they've got that site locked down tighter than Joan Rivers' facial skin, or it's not in the archives. You can find it on p. 103 of Casual Day Has Gone Too Far, dated 9/22/1995. I won't describe it—few things are more lame than trying to explain a comic strip—but believe me when I say it's stuck with me all these years for a reason.

Taken together, these two discussions show the good and the bad of changing the name of something you already know. I'd also like to add that, at some level, this is missing the forest for the trees. The name of a thing should describe it accurately, but it's so much more important that it actually does what it's supposed to.

True story (seriously, not the "true story" you say when setting up a joke): One day in 3rd grade, one of my classmates kicked another in the groin. The substitute teacher we had that day didn't see it happen, so I informed her: "Alex just kick Mike in the balls!" Her reaction was to get that flustered, distracted, don't-know-what-to-do look on her face and say, "I really don't think you should say that," while taking a couple of baby steps toward the incident, probably 30 feet away, where the victim (who probably deserved it) was howling and writhing in pain. Precocious little shit that I was, I replied, "Fine. Alex's foot just impacted Michael's testicles. Are you going to do something?" The specific words are secondary to the information conveyed. If you can't cope, sooner or later there's a boot coming for your squishy bits.

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I'll end with another slight conflict of interest. I try to keep my day job as separate from my blog as possible, given that both tend to hit the same topics. However, my co-workers at Speech Technology have just started a blog for that publication, and it's pretty good so far. I'm adding it to the blogroll, and hoping they keep us amused. Lauren, Ryan, Len—I'm watching you.

The power of honesty, and a contest

This is an attempt to rewrite a long and insightful post from a week ago that was eaten by the Internet and my own stupidity. Chances are that it will be shorter and less insightful, but that's because I'm still kicking myself for losing the original post. I'm hoping it will be worth your time and mine. Special thanks this time to the people who maintain Wikipedia, without whom I'd have to do real research.

I spend a fair amount of time talking about the importance of honesty, transparency, and willingness to admit error as keys to maintaining a relationship with customers. The book "Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts" illustrates the mechanisms behind why those good qualities aren't more common in life and in business. The reason is self-justification. In brief, our brains edit our memories whether we want them to or not, in an effort to reduce cognitive dissonance between our self-image and the fact that we screwed up.

Self-justification is like the Dark Side of the Force: once you start down that path, forever will it dominate your destiny. It can be identified and controlled, but it's always something to watch out for. I've done it, you've done it, the person you admire most in the world has done it. It's like that old joke about masturbation -- "We know that 90% of men masturbate, and 60-75% of women do it...and the rest lie about it."

It's possible to get off the slippery slope (of self-justification, not masturbation ... that's a nasty image right there), but it takes courage. Again in brief, a great example of this is the incident involving Oprah Winfrey's endorsement of James Frey's fabricated autobiography "A Million Little Pieces." Yes, I know it's old news. It's still a fine illustration, and the authors of "Mistakes Were Made" use it.

When The Smoking Gun announced it had investigated Frey's story and found it to be crammed with falsehoods, Oprah initially backed Frey with strong statements about the emotional truth of the story and its value. As the truth became clear, Oprah could have done what most people would do, and stuck with her initial statements, justifying them as true as far as she knew when the book was presented to her, and the literal truth of it isn't an issue because it's such a strong story from which we can derive great lessons anyway. It would have ruined her reputation and destroyed her as a brand (yes, Oprah is a brand). Instead, she apologized, honestly and publicly, for her part in misleading the world and perpetuating a lie. It was a ballsy move, and it cemented her place of respect in American culture.

She brought Frey onto her show as part of her own apology, and took him to task for representing fiction as real life; even then, he weaseled around any admission of wrongdoing. Heard much from James Frey lately?

The last U.S. President to truly own up to the responsibility for a mistake was John F. Kennedy, regarding the Bay of Pigs invasion. When he admitted he screwed up, his approval ratings shot through the roof. Since then, we've had everything from "I am not a crook" to "it is best to defeat them there so we don't have to face them here"; from "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" to all the backtalk surrounding Iran-Contra. Is there any wonder why we don't trust government anymore?

Whether it's in business, politics, or personal life, please please PLEASE realize that if you might be wrong, it's better to admit it up front than to be found out, and have it dragged out of you later. Fight the urge to self-justify. Don't give in to the Dark Side.

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Now it's time for a contest. No matter how funny I find "Series of Tubes" to be as a title for a blog, I realize it doesn't really describe my subject matter. I'm opening it up to you, my handful of loyal readers: what should I call this thing, fer realz? The best suggestion (the sole criteria being my capricious nature and my twisted sense of humor) will get the job, as well as an outpouring of gratitude. Please note that I'm also incredibly lazy, so a sufficiently impassioned defense of the current title has as good a shot as something new.