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	Contact Management

	by Kathy Paauw

"The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine."
- Mike Murdock

WHY CONTACT MANAGEMENT?

Keeping in touch with the right people at the right time is essential to business growth. Benjamin Franklin once said, "To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions." There are several wonderful programs that help you to jump at those opportunities by reminding you of important FOLLOW-UP dates at the appropriate time. For example, if a prospect tells you that she wants to consider your product or services six months from now, these programs can remind you to jump at that opportunity when she will be more receptive to looking at what you have to offer. I did away with my Rolodex years ago and have been using a contact management program since then. It enables me to remember important follow-up at the appropriate time, and I have instant access to detailed information about every CONTACT in my database.

MOVING BEYOND THE ROLODEX

A contact manager keeps track of more than just names and contact numbers. It links your entire relationship history -- meetings, commitments, calls, to-do items, correspondence, proposals, e-mails, and more. Plus, with its new MOBILE features, you can manage your relationships from your computer or handheld (such as Palm or Visor). Contact managers even include a "notes / history" field where you can enter FREEHAND information -- such as the price you quoted to a prospect or a promise you made to a client. You can also use the "activities" field to build in reminders and alarms to help you follow up on promises and commitments…especially helpful when the commitment requires you to follow up several months from now. When you sync your contact manager with your handheld, that reminder alarm can travel with you everywhere you go.

GETTING CUSTOMIZED

One of my favorite features of a contact manager is the ability to look up someone's record by a number of different CRITERIA. For example, I can do a SEARCH by type of contact (prospect, client, inactive client, referral resource, friend, family, vendor, etc.) I can also look them up by area code, zip code, city, first name, last name, company name, or keyword. And when I find them, all of their contact information and contact history is in one place.

OTHER TIME-SAVERS

You can also generate mass communications after doing a group SORT. For example, let's say that I want to send a letter to all referral resources. I can run labels for them and do a mail MERGE with a Word document to a personalized letter. Or I can choose the group I want to contact and send a blanket email to everyone at once. I determine the criteria, and my contact manager sorts the contacts for me.

KEEPING THE BIG PICTURE IN MIND

Think of all the people with whom you've LOST contact … people you thought you'd never need to contact because you did not offer products or services that were of interest to them. But now you have developed a new product or service that you believe would be of great interest to them. You've lost the opportunity because you did not keep their contact information since you had no way to manage it. With a contact manager, you'll have a way to CAPTURE contact information and keep it as long as you like…and you'll be able to find it instantly when the need arises for you to make a connection.

Kathy Paauw is an organizing and productivity consultant, certified professional and personal coach, and speaker. Visit her website at www.orgcoach.net or contact her at .

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