VRM tools provide customers with the means to bear their share of the relationship burden with vendors and other organizations.
They relieve CRM of the perceived need to "target," "capture," "acquire," "lock in," "direct," "own," "manage," and otherwise take the lead of relationships with customers.
Doc Searls believes VRM will help create what he calls an intention economy, which he described first in an essay[5] by that name in Linux Journal.
Searls also sees VRM addressing some of what he calls the "unfinished business"[6] of The Cluetrain Manifesto, which he co-wrote in 1999 with Christopher Locke, Rick Levine and David Weinberger.
Customer Commons' mission is to educate, research, support and create VRM tools, and generally advocate for individuals as they interact with entities on and offline.