Free Articles on Business and many other topics
Another free Business article for you by Kim Schott
Titled: How often do you hear yourself saying: Get the Business category RSS Feed

How often do you hear yourself saying:

Article Summary: 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.

Trust is very hard to come by in the global business world. If you have established a bond of trust with past clients, make the most of the effort you have put into building that trust. Let your clients hear from you often. If they don't hear from you, they'll be hearing from your competition. And your competitors will be more than happy to harvest your 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: When the Fall season arrives in Michigan, we like to go apple picking. 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 should have several columns. 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.

Article Source: http://www.upublish.info

About the Author:
Kim Schott
Kim Schott, created the Keys to Client Communication System to help struggling self-employed professionals master Client Attraction Marketing while increasing their revenue, and taking more time off. Signup for our FREE eZine ($107 value) by visiting http://www.SchottCulturalConsulting.com