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What’s happensafter buyer reach

exceeds seller grasp?

Doc Searls

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This is how Chris Locke first framed the Call of the Wild

Customer:

This isn’t quite true yet.Better grasping won’t make it true.

Making it true is something only we can do.Not easy when we still see ourselves as “consumers”

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Toffler saw marketing & markets

as opposed, way back in 1980

From The Third Wave:“(The Industrial Age) violently split apart

two aspects of our lives that had always been one… production and consumption…

“In so doing, it drove a giant invisible wedge into our economy, our psyches …

It ripped apart the underlying unity of society, creating a way of life filled with economic tension.”

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The split in our psyches was between producer and

consumerAt work we forgot

or ignored who we were at home.

So we “targeted,” “captured” and tried to “own” our very selves. Including our seats and eyeballs.

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Meanwhile, the “value chain” model

is getting antique.

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Customer Relationshp Management (CRM) isn’t

enough.

CRM can focus, but it cant relate...… as long as we’re just wallets with eyeballs…

… to be “acquired” and “managed.”Free-range customers are better than captive

ones.

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What we need is VRM:Vendor Relationship

Management.

With VRM, we get to manage our relationships with vendors.We get to set our terms.

We get to help vendors in ways CRM systems still can’t… yet.

We get to help CRM actually relate.For example…

VRMVRM CRMCRM

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I should be able to express global (and logical) preferences outside

of anyone’s silo.

Such as… IF I am calling for tech

support,THEN I don’t want to hear

a commercial message.AND I am willing to pay X

to reach a human in <60 seconds.

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I should be able to manage

my own health care data.

Instead of risking my life when I fill out manual forms with names of

diseases I don’t know how to spell.

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I should be able to issue a “personal RFP”

to whole markets, on the fly.

For example, send a message from my moving car that I need a stroller for

twins in 2 hrs…— without going into a silo, or giving any

more than the required information…— which mainly consists of being

trustworthy and having money to spend.

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I should be able to manage my relationships with

vendors.

That means “agreements” need to go both ways.My TOS should eliminate wordy TOSes from corporate

lawyers that nobody reads and everybody has to “accept”.It means real relationships between truly consenting patries.

Whether those relationships are enduring or transitory.Kinda just like we have in the physical world.

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We’re calling this VRM,for Vendor Relationship Management

It tests the belief that markets can be truly free and open.

That every customer can be a “platform”.We’re building tools that equip customers to be both independent of vendors, and better able to

engage with them.We’re doing this at http://projectvrm.org.

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Our first project is a new business model for free

media.(that isn’t advertising)

Free media include…Non-commercial broadcasting

Blogs, podcastsMusic…

Anything that’s either free on purpose or too easy to “steal”

VRMVRM CRMCRM

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Our first tool is the r-button:

a symbol of VRM+CRMIt says,

“I want to pay…what I want.” And/or,“I want to relate…

on my terms…and not just yours.”“This is my code’s way

of letting your code know that.Even if you’re not listening.

Yet.”

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The relbutton can represent

three different states.1. Intention to buy (and to

relate).2. Intention to sell, but also

to relate on your (the buyer’s) terms, as well as your own.

3. Existing relationship — which can be viewed and unpacked on either side.

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There’s no limit to data types

stored on both sides.

These can include intentions, transaction records, preferences, memberships, “social

graphs”, shopping lists, existing agreements, whatever.

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Here’s where you’ll see it first:

On a radio tuner for the iPhone and other mobile Internet devices.

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That provides a new business model for

media.

Starting with noncommercial sources.And growing to include everything.

Starting with the music business, probably.

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So, to sum up.

1. The customer is the new platform. This is how buyer reach exceeds seller grasp.

2. Markets are relationships. Relating is the new frontier. And a huge business opportunity.

3. The Intention Economy will grow around what we actually want. Not just guesswork about that. Demand will drive supply. Personally.

4. VRM will give CRM something much better to relate to.

5. Our work has just begun.