Do have notebook after notebook filled with leads, prospects, customer information and a host of other info? The answer is probably yes. If so I can get you organized without spending another dime. If you follow the plan below you will not write on another pad of paper! Better yet – your sales will increase because you will be so organized.
There are a ton of organizers for sale today. Two of the more famous ones are Act and GoldMine. Both of these put organization on another level that most people don’t strive to achieve. Most people, like me, just want to know where I put that stupid email address for the 5th time.
Here’s the famous program that you can use at no cost, because you already own it, Microsoft Outlook!.
Now I’m no Microsoft fan or foe. They happen to be the most widely used software out there. A lot of people have been exposed to it. I don’t know every nuance of the program but I can get you more organized.
We are going to work with just 4 functions of Outlook:
1: Notes
2: Tasks
3: Contacts
4: Calendar
Here’s how you should layout your paperless organization starting with a new entry.
1: Notes – Use the notes to type out your conversations that happen on the phone or after a meeting. Always start your note with the person’s name – very important. You do that because that is the only line you typically see when you are looking at all the notes together. Notes should be temporary. Delete them periodically otherwise you will have a mess in a few weeks. If future action needs to be taken then the note becomes a task.
2: Tasks – This is my main focus during the workday. If a note requires a callback, email sent, whatever, it then becomes a task and the note gets deleted. Tasks as well as notes should be have the persons name as the subject. When I first started with this system I was using cute little snippets of notes as the subject. After a few weeks I had hundreds of tasks and I couldn’t find anything at a glance, which is not what I wanted. I wanted to find items quickly. So my subject will be “John Doe.” I typically have a bunch of tasks that pop up throughout the day. Tasks allow callback times to be set. Here’s a word of caution, try to straggle your task times or you will have 10 items opening up at the same time. People remain in my tasks for months. There could be over ten actions taken with a particular prospect. Each action gets a note of what was discussed in the main body. Eventually they either end up as “completed” or in my contacts.
3: Contacts – If one of the people in my tasks tend to end up as someone I will be dealing with on a consistent basis they then become a contact. Copy all of your task information into the main body of the contact portion. Don’t go overboard with contacts. The object is finding items on the fly. Eventually you will have 400 contacts but don’t push it. Remember, you are trying get organized. 350 contacts of people you only call rarely is a waste of time. These people can stay as callbacks in your tasks. Go through and delete the people you don’t deal with regularly. All my customers end up as contacts. Contacts allow you to set other items such as the calendar.
4: Calendar – Once someone is in my contact list they then move to the calendar if further action needs to be taken. I look at dates and times set in the calendar as set in stone. I treat them as appointments that can’t be missed. If further action needs to be conducted then just advance the calendar.
The point of the 4 steps above is to get organized. You don’t need notebook after notebook of useless lost information. What you really need is one central location to store all of your information. Something with a handy “find” button.
I’m sure Act and Goldmine can do a bunch more than Outlook. When it’s time to advance to one of those programs I’ll give you the 4 easy steps for them as well. For now get organized so you have the ability to sell efficiently!
David Peterson is a Managing Partner with Proactive Sale. He has 20 years selling and sales management experience. During those 20 years he has been responsible for over 50 million in sales. Visit his site at http://www.proactivesale.com/
