Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

It’s Not too Late to Setup a CRM

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It's not too late to setup a CRMI’m talking a lot about CRM’s lately and it’s not a surprise. Your Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) is a vital piece of your growing business, but who wants to build a database?

Like it or not you need one. And ideally you setup your CRM when you’re just starting your business. But if you’re a few years into business and still haven’t done it, there’s no time like the present! Here are a few things to consider when setting up your CRM…

  • Your contact list isn’t your CRM – You need a dedicated database that contains ONLY your contacts for your business. A spot where you can save notes related to the client, or prospect, and set reminders to follow up with them.
  • Your newsletter program isn’t your CRM – I’m always surprised when people tell me that they have MailChimp setup and does that work as a CRM? It doesn’t. Technically you can make notes in MailChimp but that’s not it’s purpose. Setup a dedicated CRM that can integrate with MailChimp (I use Zoho CRM which does) so you can easily import contacts into your newsletter program.
  • Figure out what contact info you want to track – You may decide that you want all sorts of contact info available in your CRM including admins and multiple phone numbers. When you’re building your CRM you can customize the data. When you upload your lists it’ll make your life easier if you clean up the data and organize it up front.
  • Consider what kind of reminders and tagging you want to include – I make sure to reference how I met the contact – was it a client referral or a networking event? Did they come through my website or a speaking engagement? All of this should be tracked so you can follow up down the road when you have a new offering for that group.
  • Setup Templates  – Many CRM’s will allow you to setup templates so you can have a standard series of emails that go out. This is a feature that I’ll admit I don’t use, but I should. If your CRM has all the info you need, you can build a template that will even automate or plug in all sorts of details for you.
  • Use it! This is the most important thing. If you go through the trouble of setting up a CRM to manage your contacts make sure you use it! The second item on my to do list each week is “Zoho” which is my reminder to check in with my CRM and make sure I do the follow up or check in with clients/prospects as promised.

I believe you need a CRM and that it will help you grow your business and stay organized. If you need help, my friend wrote a great post a couple of years ago on how to choose the right CRM for you.

Did You Miss Your Follow Up Window?

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Did You Miss Your Follow Up Window_I received this text from a friend the other day…

Blog idea (for you): if you’ve forgotten to follow up…. how long is too long

It’s a GREAT idea and I realized I haven’t written about this much. When is it too late to follow up with someone?

It’s Never Too Late

Well, unless there was a deadline surrounding the follow up, then maybe it is. But, the thing with follow up is that my insane standards are my insane standards. And they’re a goal not a deadline. Sometimes you’ll leave an event go do 3 more things and then you open your bag a month later and find that business card you put in the perfect spot so you wouldn’t forget it. We’ve ALL done it.

There’s nothing wrong with a mea culpa. Be honest – “Hi Jack – I just opened a pocket in my bag and found your card. I’m so sorry for this incredibly delayed response. If you still need help…”

Don’t make up an excuse. Acknowledge that the delayed follow up is on you, apologize and move on to the follow up you initially intended to do.

If you were just busy and are now a week or two late – take this pro-tip from my follow up templates (in the future):

Having a crazy week? Unsure if you can get to them right away? Try saying this:
“I’ll send ___ over to you by the end of the week. The next few days are a bit crazy.”

It’s okay to use this tactic to give yourself some wiggle room, but you absolutely must do it within the time frame you promised. And then leap over tall buildings to get it to them before your competition swoops in.

Honesty is the best policy, you know this. It’s okay to admit you screwed up. I am much more likely to do work with someone who admits they dropped the ball than someone who makes up an excuse.

How do you handle delayed follow up? Or do you just count it as a loss and move on?

Guest Post: Follow Up Inside an NFL Locker Room

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We all know I love follow up and so does my friend Jen Mueller. Jen is a Seattle Seahawks Sideline Reporter and runs Talk Sporty to Me, where she helps you weave sports into every day business conversations. In this week’s guest post I am excited for Jen to share her follow up game plan…

If you were to follow me inside an NFL locker room during the Seahawks weekly media availability you’d notice a couple things. First, it doesn’t look like I’m doing much of anything and secondly, my conversations aren’t as football driven as you’d expect.

Which is exactly how I planned it.

And I do, quite literally, plan out my interactions with the athletes. I’m strategic in the way I approach building relationships to reach best-case scenarios.

Here’s what happens

I start with a “3 Player Max” rule.” As in, I’m not going to try and meet 10 or even five new players at a time. This is the time to be narrow-minded and focus on two, no more than three, people at a time, because the moment I meet those new players I initiate a follow up sequence that follows this timeline.

Make contact within 24-48 Hours. Maximize the initial introduction by having a second point of contact within two days. For me, that could be as simple as a head-nod or a smile in their direction in the locker room. It could be saying “Hi,” as I pass a guy walking through the locker room. It’s a casual exchange, but one that reinforces our initial meeting.

First name exchange within 5-7 days. Get on a first-name basis within a week of the initial introduction. I not only want to stay on a player’s radar, but demonstrate that I’m paying attention. My first-name exchanges sometimes sound like this, “Heck of a catch in practice Tyler.” Or “Justin, I meant to tell you after the game, but that was a great play on third down.” Or “You’re playing my kind of music today Doug!” Adding their first-name to an exchange personalizes the conversation, and helps develop the relationship.

Talk expertise within 10-14 days. Tap into expert opinions and perspective within two weeks of making the introduction. There’s a reason I introduced myself in the first place. Now that I’ve developed a baseline for the relationship, I’ll initiate football-related conversations. Sometimes that’s actually walking up to a player after the game and asking for a post-game interview. Other times, it’s having a mid-week conversation with a player about what I should be looking for in a specific matchup.

Keep ‘em in the loop. Once the relationship is established look for ways to stay connected. Players need to know I care about them on Wednesday, as much as I do on game day. This is another way of saying, don’t be one of those people who only calls, emails, texts or writes when you need something. Maintain relationships that put people first.

The relationships I develop with athletes aren’t much different from the relationships I develop with colleagues and business clients. The conversation topics differ, and the meeting rooms I’m in smell much better than an NFL locker room after a game, but the overall conversation and follow up strategies are the same.

Here’s how it works for you

Identify two or three people you want to connect with. They could be folks you meet at a networking event, an industry conference or perhaps they’re already in your office building. Develop a follow up plan based on the timeline above. Include ways to show up within two days, one week and two weeks along with topics you want to discuss (i.e. their expertise) and subjects you’ve already talked about that can be used as conversation starters.

Oh, and one more thing, don’t wait to put your follow up plan in place. I never know when a player is going to make the biggest play of the game and become my target for a walk-off post-game interview. It’s one of the reasons I’m consistently following up and maintaining relationships throughout the season.

You don’t know who holds the keys to your next biggest opportunity, until you commit to your own follow up strategy.

Sign up for Jen’s fantastic weekly Conversation Starters with a quick recap of the weekend sports news you need to know. AND grab her latest book, The Influential Conversationalist!