Contact Time Management Software

By Julie Chance

Gain Control of Your Marketing Efforts and Assure a Steady Flowof Clients

by Julie Chance

When it comes to marketing, do you ever feel like you are at themercy of the tides – following up on a referral here, chasing alead there and more often than not ending up battered andbruised by the rocks along the shoreline? There is a simplesolution. It is a solution that will put you in control of yourmarketing efforts and help assure a steady flow of prospectiveclients: develop and use a contact management database.

Now what could be simpler? And if you invest in developing yourdatabase, like an investment in a great stock or mutual fund,your return will be many times the initial investment. As withmost things knowing what needs to be done is simple. Actuallydoing them or doing them successfully is a little bit morecomplicated. That is why so many of us have contact managementdatabases like ACT! or Goldmine installed on our computers withnary a name entered in while we continue to be tossed abouthelplessly like a seashell in the marketing tide.

Gain control of your marketing efforts now!

Set-up a contact management database – Pick a program – ACT! andGoldmine are popular contact management databases. Outlook mayeven work if you’re just getting started. And coaches shoulddefinitely explore Client Compass www.clientcompass.com, acustomized business management software including a client andprospect database, developed for coaches by coaches. Talk toother people in your line of business to see what they are usingand what they like and dislike about the program. Give somethought to how you might use the database and what types ofinformation you want to collect.

Here are some general things to consider as you start thisprocess:

• Have one list. Setting up multiple lists for example one witheveryone you met at one networking event, another with namesfrom a second networking event and a third from a mailing listyou purchased leads to duplicates that at best needlesslyincreases costs and at worst irritates your prospective clientswith duplicate mailings. Be especially careful of this whendoing mass e-mailing.

• Set-up fields so contacts can be sorted in multiple ways. Forexample, you would want to include fields for the source of thename; the type of business the individual is in; which of yourproducts/services they are most likely to be interested in; andwhether they are a suspect, prospect, potential referral source,current client, past client, etc. • Determine other purposes forwhich you may want to use the database. Client Compass forexample has a multitude of functions helpful to managing acoaching practice including client and prospect informationtracking, coaching call summaries, administration, marketing andinvoicing. There's even a credit card billing option. Goldminecan be used to track both opportunities (proposals that youmight have out and the status of the proposals) as well asactive projects – especially helpful for consulting projectswhere multiple people may be involved. • Be sure you can easilyuse the names for direct mail and e-mail purposes. The databaseprogram should have the capability to do merge mailings ande-mails to selected groups or the ability to export to otherprograms such as Excel so mail merges can be accomplished.

Invest in the technology and the assistance necessary to set-upa functional database system because this is one of the mostvaluable tools in constructing an effective marketing program.

Feed the database on a regular basis. The best designed databasewith all the latest technological bells and whistles is uselessif it doesn’t have any names in it. The primary objective ofmuch of your promotional efforts should be obtaining contactinformation for individuals who fit the profile of your targetcustomer. You can then enter this information into your databaseand begin the relationship development process with theseindividuals.

So how can you feed your database?

• Networking. When you are networking be sure to ask for thecards of the people you meet who could be prospective customers.In fact, it is much more important to obtain their card than itis to give them your card. • Speaking. When you speak or dopresentations be sure you have a mechanism for obtaining thenames of the people in attendance. A door prize is one good wayto do this.

• Writing. If you write articles be sure to invite readers toyour website to sign-up for your regular newsletter or a freeguide.

• Direct mail and advertising. With a few exceptions, the goalof direct mail or advertising should not be to make a sale. Itshould be to obtain contact information so you can continue tomarket to those individuals who have shown an interest in yourservices. Therefore your promotional pieces should be designedto get a maximum number of people with even a slight interest inyour services to provide you their contact information. Givingaway a free guide is one excellent way to accomplish this.

Obviously once you have contact information it must be enteredinto the database. The 500 cards you collected throughnetworking activities last year aren’t doing much good wrappedin a rubber band lying in desk drawer. If you get even a fewbusiness cards a week that need to be entered into the databaseit is well worth an investment in a card scanning program suchas CardScan. Be sure the program you select allows export of thecontact information to the contact database program you will beusing. In fact, a program like CardScan could serve as theprimary contact management system if you are just gettingstarted. If adding names to your database is something you justnever seem to get done the investment in some administrativesupport to accomplish this task can pay off handsomely.

Consistently nurture the names in the database. A great databasewith hundreds or even thousands of names in it is useless unlessyou actually have contact with the names in the database. Thisis a topic for another article or even a whole book. At aminimum there should be follow-up with every contact shortlyafter you receive their contact information (i.e. a note ore-mail to someone you met at a networking event within a fewdays of meeting them) and regular, planned contact with them atleast monthly going forward. With today’s technology much ofthis can be automated.

Protect this valuable asset. Your contact database is one ofyour most valuable assets. Be sure you protect it. Do regularback-ups and store these back-ups off site. For about the costof a week’s worth of Starbuck’s coffee you can have all of yourfiles backed up automatically each night and stored on a remoteserver. What would be the cost of replacing your contactdatabase?

Get your feet planted solidly in the sand. Invest in developing,maintaining and using a contact management database to harnessthe power of the marketing tides and generate the leads you needto grow the business of your dreams. © 2005 STRATEGIES-BY-DESIGN.

Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com

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