Here's what I believe and have always believed: that "social business" is more and more about relationships. I've always contended that relationships are central. As far back as when I built GoldMine, a pioneering CRM software product, I knew that something was missing from the conventional products.
That something is Relationships.
The power of relationships formed the glimmer of an idea about life in the social media river, about applying the new social landscape to business. I knew sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn would affect business relationships, and saw the chance to build a product that would turn these relationships into opportunities. And then I read a book that inspired the company that became Nimble.
The book was The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott, and reading it was like seeing a blueprint of all the ideas I had about the art of business engagement. The book talked about how social was going to shift business, and it solidified my vision of tying influence, engagement and marketing to PR and social selling. When I met David in person at South by Southwest, we hit it off and he quickly became an advisor and dear friend.
I started Nimble so business people could know who they should be in touch with, why they're important, and when to reach out. The most important opportunities in your network, the topics and areas of interest that mesh with yours: in short, the best signals culled from all the distracting noise.
The way we evolve our software is always moving in that direction. We are always asking questions like these on behalf of our users:
- Who do I want to know better? How do I know that?
- How do I find the people who are likely to be important to me?
- How do I keep up with what's important?
- How do I know when someone is ready for a relationship with me?
- How do I know when someone is talking to or about me or my brand or my business?
- How can I make my relationships robust and genuine?
- How can I make sure that opportunities aren't falling through the cracks?
In a noisy, distracting world, we are bombarded. We start each day feeling as if we are behind. Data noise is everywhere. Over 100 million bits of information come in through your visual system-every second! In the midst of this chaos, you still need to build, manage, and nurture your relationships - both personal and business.
Yesterday Nimble announced a new version, Nimble 3.0. Yes, we've added innovative features and enhancements - but the biggest WOW is a focus on insight-driven engineering leading to actionable insights to help you build vibrant business relationships.
We Want to Change CRM
We noticed that business relationships have a lot in common with our personal relationships. Shared history and mutual respect. Helping where there's need. Authenticity. Caring, and sharing, and trust. Relationships are, well, human.
But most business isn't done face to face any more. We need a new way to work so that our professional relationships are as satisfying as our personal ones. So we created Nimble, to be insightful about things that really matter - even when you're not there in person.
That's why our team is now pioneering the landscape of a new kind of CRM - one that goes beyond "social," beyond "CRM." In fact, we're changing the very lexicon of CRM based on the vision Nimble shares with many thought leaders and influencers about social selling and the future of relationships in a socially-networked world.
We know you are dealing every day with a noisy, distracting world where it's hard to keep track of people, conversations and the contacts that matter most. We're here to help. And that's our Nimble roadmap.
Read more about the new Nimble on our blog.