Coordinating Your Contacts
So far, we’ve discussed how to selectively add to your database of contacts, and the concept of reaching out after initial contact. I’ve introduced your contacts list as a pool of selective entries. Where do all of these go?
For some, all the people they’ve ever met are simply dumped in their email address book. Others use an email marketing campaign software and park everyone there. While these methods help you put your contacts somewhere, it doesn’t help when it’s time to retrieve selective information. Here’s where a CRM really helps.
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. As its name implies, it’s a database which helps you manage your associations with the people you’ve met and communicate with by tracking meaningful information beyond their email address or what’s on their business card. It’s a fully searchable database of the people you know, how you know them, what they do, what they’re interested in, when you last spoke with them, what you discussed, etc. This is the mother-load of information management on every person you want to keep tabs on.
Yes, it’s true: a CRM holds all the data your brain can’t possibly remember all at once. Give me all the people I’ve met through the ABC Networking Club; show me all the accountants I’ve met; list all those people who had attended my seminar last October.
Regardless of which CRM software you use, If you set up your database correctly, you can pull a list of people to match a specific query. The secret of success is that a CRM is a hungry beast and you need to keep feeding it. Constantly. Each time you have a phone conversation with a contact, enter a summary in your CRM. Each time they attend your seminar or buy your product, enter it in your CRM. If they mention they also know someone you know, enter that too. Enter their dog’s name, the fact that they have twin daughters, and that they enjoy coaching the neighborhood soccer team. What business owners used to hand write on the back of a rolodex entry you can now keep more efficiently in a database.
Which CRM software to use? Choose one that is user friendly and requires a short learning curve. Select one that is fully customizable to your business and the way you work and will grow with you as your business grows. There are those products which live on your hard drive and those who reside in the cloud – it’s important to make the right choice for you. There are many products out there and it’s critical that you simply don’t go with a product that you’ve heard about – you need to demo and test drive it to make sure it’s right for you.
