My office is across the hall from the Director of Product Development for CRM, Paul Rijnders.

We talk almost daily and have at least one meeting together every week. However, I still hadn’t had a chance to talk to him about the entire development process for Benchmark CRM. Sure, we heard bits and pieces along the way, but this was a unique opportunity for Daniel and me.

You see, Paul is a bit of a unicorn here at Benchmark (except that we feel like we’ve got a few of them). His work ethic, determination and round-the-clock schedule are often marveled at by all of us.

So, we had to try and figure out what magic elixir he has that lets him do it all.

If you’re curious about CRM, what goes into the development of a new product or how to work with an international team, this episode is for you.

A short pencil is better than a long memory any day. That’s where I see CRM coming into play. You may have 100 customers, you may have 10 customers, you may have 1,000 customers. Invariably, you’re going to talk to them and that data that makes up those previous conversations and previous touchpoints all your interactions, your customers are going to expect you to remember that. Even as a person, human to human, they’re going to want you to remember various facts about your life. Or even if they don’t want you to remember that, the fact that you do is going to help your relationship, because they’re going to think, ‘Oh wow. This person cares about me. They know me.’

  • 2:02 – What is CRM?
  • 7:22 – The importance of good organization of data
  • 10:30 – Going back to the beginning of the development process of Benchmark CRM
  • 15:42 – Keeping around the clock hours with an international development team while having infant twins and another kid at home
  • 21:28 – Communication lessons from working with a remote international team
  • 24:40 – Overcoming challenges in the development process
Author Bio:

by travis@harbingerlabs.com