VRM and latent buyer intention

September 15, 2008 by  

I gave my Intro. to Social Networks for Small Business presentation over the weekend and like to open the workshop describing how the shift in power from seller to buyer has been the driving force. So I’m happy that I’m now following VRM, or Vendor Relationship Management, an emerging buyer centric platform. The ProjectVRM Blog: Developing tools for customer independence and engagement with vendors, provides a good overview. VRM is particularly interesting to me because its tied to the Intention Economy.

The Intention Economy is about buyers finding sellers, not sellers finding (or “capturing”) buyers. (Doc Searls)

Most of the VRM work that I’ve scanned is about how relationship, data, identity and transactional tools will support the paradigm shift to truly open markets, where sellers compete to fulfill the buyer’s stated intention. I’m most interested in VRM development with respect to how it will address not just the obvious, but also the latent, buyer intentions:

  • Are intentions beliefs that direct thought and action?
  • Can intentions direct action that is at cross-purposes to what is wanted?
  • When do thought and action become habitual?
  • Can negative habitual actions be changed as awareness of intentions increases?

This may be an area where conversations matter most to buyers and where sellers have the ideal opportunity to earn respect and trust. I’ll be closely following this work, thinking about latent intention scenarios, and how some of my existing program frameworks may be useful to the VRM Project.

Post to Twitter

Filed under: counter-direction, intention, knowledge, self-awareness, shift, social networks, VRM
Tagged: , ,
Comments: None