Who Owns the Relationship

Noted author, and feminist, Robin Morgan is generally attributed with the quotation “Information is Power”. So true, this has become a “truism” – we know that, right?

So why don’t we do a better job of looking after that information? Please note the word “information”, we’re not talking about data, but information which is data in context.

Knowing our prospect, John Jones, is a member of Chicago Golf Club is data. It becomes information when we put it together with more data e.g. Hank Harrison, our reference customer is also a member of Chicago Golf Club. Now we have power – an indirect influence on John’s decision.

Typically we don’t record these extra details in our databases. Once the deal is done, we move on and somehow the extra information held in the sales guy’s head is lost to the business, and probably her too.

Why is this? If I’m the business owner this is my property. I’m paying the sales guy as she collects it. If I’m the sales guy, it’s mine. I’m paid for making sales not collecting information. But neither of us rates the information enough to look after it, even though it’ll be valuable one day.

Employers who use systems to collect and keep their data in ways that transform it into information don’t lose it all when the sales guy moves on. This information is a business asset.

Sales guys who keep their own information take it with them. It increases their value to future employers.

So whose information is it? And who should be responsible for systems to look after it?

Guess the answer depends on which side of the fence you sit.

But I do know of a guy who used to be in a very precarious situation – self employed agent of an association offering special terms to members. One of is tasks was approaching non-members with a suggestion they join, to enjoy the benefits.

The association wasn’t interested in collecting the information but this guy needed it, to do his job. Along the way he collected and collated every piece of who, what, why, how data and stored it in his own system.

Now he knows more about the entire sector, comprising 1,500 organizations – names, contact details, affiliations, dates, conversations, correspondence and even documents – than anybody else.

He’s irreplaceable, not because of who he knows, but because of what he knows.

In his case, information genuinely is power.