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Person Relationship Manager
You’re familiar with a CRM, right. Most people are if they have a business background. If you don’t, CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It’s used to manage, as you might have guessed, communications with customers throughout their lifecycle as a customer. These systems are important when working in a team environment as they facilitate sharing and make past conversation referencing a breeze.
For example, everyone in the company knows that Sheryl is the stakeholder at Acme Co. and all decisions go through her.
What is a CRM?
A CRM can take many forms. It can be as simple as an Excel Spreadsheet or as complex as a piece of dedicated software (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce).
This article is not about a CRM, but a PRM. PRM = Personal Relationship Manager
What do I mean by PRM?
PRM stands for Person Relation Management.
I bet you think you don’t need one. You probably have no problem keeping friends’ names in your head. That may be the case. However, a PRM’s real power shows when you meet new people that you may not see again for several months several months. Most of us mere mortals can not remember specifics from a conversation more than a couple of days ago with someone new let alone the person’s name and whether her kid is graduating from college or pre-school. It’s ok, we all need a little help. This is where a PRM shines.
It’s a database of contacts both professional and personal. You can keep them separate but let’s be honest, nowadays there is not much separation.
Who uses a PRM?
Bill Clinton kept a small notebook in his pocket throughout college (and his political career) where he’d write down every person he met that day with a note about their conversation (source: Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi).
Bill reviewed this notebook before meeting the person again. The notes kept him sharp and allowed him to grow his personal capital. Imagine catching up with someone you met for the first time 6 months ago and they remembered to ask about that trip you were planning with your family. This is basically “God Mode” in video games.
Remembering details from past conversations helped Bill become Governor of Arkansas and President of the United States.
Think about it. Wouldn’t you trust someone more (and quicker) if they remembered specifics from your first conversation? You’d think, “Wow, I made that much of an impression on them for them to remember that little snippet from a past conversation.”
Bill puts in the extra work because he understands how important relationships are in your career and life. Almost, every successful person can point to a handful of men and women, outside of their immediate family, that have been influential in their growth.
How I use a PRM?
A PRM is simple to create. You can choose to use a notebook like Bill Clinton or a piece of software. It depends on what you’re comfortable with. If you carry a physical day planner, a physical notebook may be best for you. You only need a couple of pieces of data for a successful PRM (feel free to add more columns as you go, start simple).
Here are the columns that I use:
- Name (first and last, duh)
- Company
- Position (think more of what they do not their title, Growth Hacker guru wizard = marketing)
- Current city and state
- Phone and/or email
These are the most important pieces of information that I attempt to capture during meetings and conversations. Sometimes I only capture 3 of the 7 which is fine. Allow the conversation to flow, this is not a checklist and don’t drive the conversation to complete the PRM. That is not the purpose. The purpose is to document your conversations to be used in the future.