You spend all this time driving to networking groups, marketing yourself, making calls, selling to our friends and family, looking for the right client, but what's the point of it all if you don't have a way of tracking and responding to the leads you do have? This article will show you my ongoing simple technique and software recommendation for keeping track of prospects.
What's the point of owning a small business, and attending networking meetings if you don't follow up on the leads you do have? Why are you grasping at fruit that is out of reach, when you could simply position your basket to catch the low hanging fruit?
Visualize Low Hanging Fruit on a tree for a moment. The Low Hanging Fruit is riper, and because of that, easier to pick. Here is an example: In Michigan, we like to go apple picking in the Fall season. Dozens of families flock to their cider mill to get warm cinnamon donuts (now I'm hungry), cold apple cider, and ripe apples. With our baskets in hand, we naturally go after the low hanging ripe apples, because they are ready to be picked. And think of your warm prospects, those that have already expressed an interest in working with you, as a ripe apple. Ready for the picking.
Many self-employed professionals and independent consultants waste a lot of time and resources on the harder-to-reach apples or prospects. We spend a lot of time working on far-fetched clients, friends, or family members that are not ideal. What we really could be spending our time on is developing high-trust, low-tension relationships, and closing the deal with people who've already said they'd like to work with us but haven't been turned into clients yet.
Starting today, you're going to change that by putting more focus on Low Hanging Fruit, while you continue to make your business more client attractive. From this day forward you will have a Low Hanging Fruit spreadsheet or chart above your computer at all times. You can create it in MS Excel or write a list by hand. Either way it needs to have several columns and rows. 1. Name 2. Business Name 3. Phone Number 4. Time Zone (for your global clients) 5. Email Address 6. Language Spoken (you'll need this column for your ethnic clients) 7. Referral Source 8. Client's Particular Concern 9. When to Contact Them Next
If you have a Palm Pilot or a day-planner, then put this list in there as well. Go through your mental Rolodex, day-planner, Palm Pilot, cocktail napkins and sticky notes to see who has expressed interest in working with you over the last 6 months to a year, but hasn't been converted into a client or patient yet. All your prospects need to be listed on this sheet. This can also include those who you met with for an initial consultation but who never signed up, for whatever reason.
This will be one of your more important documents you'll use for getting clients, and you should plan on using it until you can afford CRM (Customer Relationship Management)software. This method of keeping tabs on prospects (and taking action to follow up with them) is so simple.
The bottom line is that when my clients use this SIMPLE low cost list, they report that they convert more prospects into paying clients. When they stop using this list, prospective clients slip through their fingers. Hint Hint.
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