What is Social CRM?

Here is an excellent blog post by Jacob Morgan of Chess Media Group answering the question "what is social CRM".

I particularly liked the explanatory diagrams that The author uses from his whitepaper "Guide to understanding social CRM".

Overall, Jacob describes well the profound shift in relationships between buyers and vendors.

Jacob points out that Paul Greenberg states in his book "CRM at the Speed of Light", (now in fourth edition having been originally published almost 10 years ago):

“Transaction is not the paramount artifact of the interaction. Instead, a transaction becomes the side effect of rich relationships that are built on conversation. This notion is fundamental, and is a radical switch in priorities for the interaction between customer and vendor.”

All of this underpins our argument that the role of salespeople must change fundamentally. Our key idea is to equip and support business development people to take upon themselves the role of "business development coach".