By Mark Blezard
Picture this. You sit down at your desk in the morning, fire up your computer and launch your CRM. Up pops 48 follow-up calls/contacts with various prospects. A normal day.
You get your head down and start firing out emails, leave a few voicemails, have a couple of "How ya doing" conversations. Break for lunch. Get back on it for the afternoon. 4 pm comes round and guess what – you're done! What a fantastically productive day.
And herein comes the dangerous bit. You've been productive, you've done all your calls and your CRM confirms it. Right? Well, technically, correct. However, the problem with CRMs is actually the user, us. If you are an account manager, banging out the calls and emails, there is a real danger of focusing on your list of tasks rather than the content of the task in hand.
We're managed by our CRM, rightly so, to complete tasks but there is no widget that monitors the quality of the call or email. So, here's a tip that will help raise the quality of the task, and help ensure that your contact points are both interesting and intelligent. Instead of writing "Follow up with John" in your task reminder, expand on what you will say and need to do before the call. For example; "Check on John's competitor, review their share price, check website for latest press release - and then follow-up last meeting."
In summary, always diary a bit of research in tandem with the follow-up call. It will stop you from becoming a 'phone/email basher' and improve client progression ten-fold.
