Do you use a contact record manager$%: You'd better. I don't care how great a salesman you might think that
you are, you can always be better. And one of the fastest ways to improve your productivity almost overnight
without making any major changes in your selling style is by utilizing a contact record management software
program to track your current customers and potential prospects. No matter what you think, there is no
way that you can track your accounts as effectively without a CRM program as you can with one. It doesn't matter which program you use.
I happen to like ACT. I've been using it for over 10 years and I've seen a noticeable
increase in my sales productivity ever year. Utilizing a CRM program has so many advantages that I'm not sure
I can even begin to list all of them. But I don't think that it would be an exaggeration to say that just about every
faucet of selling is improved by a good CRM. Tracking existing customers. Tracking prospects. Tracking
customer interaction, including sales calls, e-mails and meetings. I use ACT to schedule my appointments,
both personal and professional. My current database file is over 1 Gig, and has over 1700 contacts, with notes
that go back over ten years. Any information that I have on my customers and prospects typically makes its way
into my database. If someone happens to mention in passing a birthday or an anniversary, I record it in my
database for later use. Spouses and children's names, school affiliation, sports affiliations, hometown, etc.
You get the point. Any information that could help me bond with them will become part of my permanent
notes. In Harvey McKay's book "How to Swim with Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive", he covers the "McKay
66", a list of 66 questions that you should be able to answer about your customers. Personally, I think that
some of the information is a little bit overkill, but the point of the exercise is to get you to know your customer
better than you know him now and more importantly to make sure that you know your customer better than your
competitor know him. Sending your customer a card on his birthday or on his anniversary will give him
something more to think about besides price when the time comes for him to award the next contract.
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