A Winning Business Owner Wears Many Hats Without Losing His Head

Most of the new business owners we talk with are what are known as owner-operators. They not only provide the financial resources to start and run their businesses, but they are also the sole source of labor for their new businesses. In this capacity, they must learn how to perform a wide of variety of management tasks, often combining several in a short period of time and largely without the benefit of outside consultants.

 This month's column addresses a commonly experienced management challenge for a new business: how to organize the process of finding and following prospective customers.

 Q. I have estimated that in order to make my sales goal for my first year in business, I will probably have to approach 200 or more prospective customers. How do I organize this search?

 A. The process of identifying, contacting and converting prospects into customers is the lifeblood of any business. The process is complicated in a new small business because the owner is usually the sales prospector, sale persuader and customer service manager all in one. This activity is further complicated by the fact that prospects come in different varieties -- some have just learned of what you offer and while interested, aren't ready to buy yet. Others know of the category in which you sell but have not finalized the quantity or delivery yet. And yet others are very ready to buy, they just need to find out about you and become assured that you will satisfy them. A given sales prospect may move through these three stages over a period of several months, sometimes even a year. And if you want to have a ghost of a chance to sell them, you must track them throughout their journey to final decision or you will lose the sale to someone else.

 There are two systems we recommend for keeping track of key information on sales leads and for recording your communication with them:

 1. A manual index card system. This system utilizes a small file card box, a deck of lined 3" x 5" cards, a set of "months of the year" indexes, a set of "days of the month" indexes and a set of alphabetical index cards.

 Key background information on each prospect goes on the front of the 3" x 5" card, one prospect per card. This information might include the address, phone number, fax number, name of the contact's boss and their secretary, a brief description of what the company does, etc. On the backside, you record the date of each contact, whether in person, through the mail, over the phone, etc. as well as a brief description of what resulted from the contact and what date is requested for follow-up.

 In the front of the box you place the current month index card with the days of the month behind it. Each time you make a contact and commit to perform some follow-up you place the index card behind the day you promised action. This could be tomorrow for sending of sales literature or two weeks from now to call for a sales appointment. Once per week, review the index cards behind the days of the month indexes to refresh you memory of when to take action.

 Keeping your promises when selling is critical to success as new small company.

 Once you obtain the first order from a given prospect, place their card behind the appropriate letter of the alphabet for quick retrieval when you have them on the phone. You will find that if you can remind your customers of what they ordered last time, you will pick of more business than if you leave it up to them to remember what they need.

 2. Computerized contact management software. This category of automated sales assists is relatively new in the marketplace. There are several main programs, including ACT, Goldmine, Sharkware, and Ecco. There are variations in the way their computer screens look and how easily you can move from one area to another, but their key functions are similar.

 The starting point for this type of software is a data-entry window which automatically pops up on your computer screen when you open the program. This screen is similar to filling out the index card, except that there are well organized blanks for all key information. This screen also permits you to enter the results of each selling contact in a "notes" section. This section is very critical to the successful use of this type of software because it is this information that helps organize the outcome of the contact into a calendar program to assist in you in everything from creating daily "to do" lists to automatically dialing the phone number of your prospect through the use of a computer modem. You can, for example, tell the program to sound an alarm through your computer when certain appointments are coming up.

 Another tremendous benefit from contact management software is the ease with which you can go from the prospect information window to a customized sales letter. These programs contain within them a basic word processing module that permits what is known as "mail merge" -- that is the combination of name and address information with the text of a preformatted letter. This saves a tremendous amount of time!

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