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My Working Documents

I am a great believer in Writing It Down, and I need something concrete to keep me on track.

Two simple one-page documents help me.

The first document

The first document is the quota of calls I want myself to make each day. This is described in http://chrisgreaves.com/ExpertGroup/Business%20Development/The1610Rule.htm ).

By the time you read this, the sheet will have changed. This is my starting-point on a tool to keep my nose to the grindstone.

First Table

Each week-day I elect one prospect to my portfolio. Remember that my goal is to bring in 200 top-level prospects a year. Very few of them will bring in immediate business, but they ought, each, to be much better than some of the deadwood that currently sits in my contact list.

This is a process of renewal, regeneration.

Second Table

Each week-day I head into my 300-member contact list and ruthlessly call-to-cull the stalest members on that list until I have managed to delete 6 which for whatever reason I do not wish to call. These are the small 2-man legal firms on The Danforth, small prospects who I've never met, have never done business with, and whose only raison d'etre (in my eyes) is to receive a Christmas Card each year.

During the process I will, of course, phone several contacts who are to remain, so this exercise might involve 12 calls, 6 as regular "How are you doing?" calls, and 6 which will result in being dropped.

I have no qualms about dropping a contact at a large firm where the contact is but a lowly clerk or manager. I am interested in communicating ONLY with people who have budgeting authority. No-one else is in a position to influence the production of a cheque. If I am ever to do business with that firm, I'll need to re-establish them as a prospect and start at the top.

When I say "ruthless" I mean without ruth. On Friday I placed a call to the president/owner; he asked me to get in touch with Cheyanne. For four days I have played telephone tag, waited for her to call back when she said she would, and now am ready to drop this contact; they won't benefit from my ideas.

I have to face facts; if the business is so dis-organized that they can't keep either one of two promised scheduled calls, what will it be like when I need to communicate on a problem/solution?

If the staff are so frazzled and overworked that they can't set aside time for a telephone call, how will they set aside time for a sober evaluation of their situation and a potential marriage of my resources into their organization?

"Reynold, Following your recommendation, I have tried to establish
communications with Colin Palmer with little success. Is there anyone
else in your GTA area with whom I might speak?
Thank you Chris Greaves".

I will wait 24 hours for a response, by phone or by email, then it's time to hit the DELETE button and spend my time on newer, bigger fish.

Third Table

The third table reflects my desire to "go viral" with Indxr.

My first day of calls was a great success, and amazed me. My next two days saw me bogged down with data base fidgets. By Tuesday evening, having spent the afternoon in emitting only 4 emails, I saw that I had to streamline the process. No more accumulation of names, phones numbers and dithering. My job is to call the first person that pops up, get the email address of a designated recipient, emit the email, and delete all other records for that company from the list.

In this way my database of 3,600 records should trim down to, perhaps, 300 records, one ("TO:") or at most two ("CC:") per company of individuals who agreed to a single email from me.

These contacts are candidates for infrequent, irregular emails announcing enhancements to the original product.

The Second Document

The second document outlines the basic steps I will go through to establish a dialogue with a prospect.

This sheet too will change, as the days go by, but it serves as a template for my actions.

The sheet can be stapled to the outside or inside of the hanging folder, as a log sheet.

Within two weeks, the entries should be complete up to and including ONE of the two result cells.

I will tolerate 3 phone calls that drop me into voice-mail, and I'll log and vary the time of day in an attempt to make contact. After the 3rd voicemail I'll adopt a "press zero" attitude and chase the contact down. The same attitude prevails for the follow-up call.

The desired result for GTA prospects is to create an invitation to visit their office.

In one case I proposed a 15-minute demonstration to 6 staff members or managers.

In another case it was a 15-minute chat with an executive.

In all GTA cases I want to visit the site, be seen as a pleasant guy, and shake a hand.

The desired result for prospects outside the GTA is to initiate a dialogue with a senior manager to establish myself as their source of help.

My Experience

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Toronto and Mississauga, Sunday, December 05, 2010 9:11 PM

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