Strengthening and expanding business relationships: CRM's role in maintaining meaningful communication.

• Author: Kinas, Robert

Strengthening any business relationship requires an ongoing investment of time and a long-term, personal commitment to the friendship. Taking an interest in the business and personal lives of your friends builds bonds that last a lifetime. Recognizing your friends' business needs and individual values enables you to connect them with others in your business network, within the firm and it may lead you to becoming a valued component of your friends' business successes. Regular one-on-one time is essential to the process--to listen, to learn and to identify the various business needs and action items. Preserving this knowledge and then being able to quickly recall the same at a later date is of utmost importance--and is uniquely manageable through the CRM software at most law firms.

Our CRM system allows the user to preserve and recall the business and personal interests that are of significance to each relationship--the key legal issues, the important charitable causes, the athletic endeavors and the college passions. Having preserved this valuable information, the system allows the user to quickly identify groups of individuals with similar interests and to easily communicate with them--perhaps sharing an invitation to a legal seminar of common interest, co-sponsoring a table at a specific charity event or attending a presentation by a speaker of unique interest. Each event provides an additional touch-point or face-to-face opportunity to spend quality time with those in a business and/or community group who share common interests.

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