GTD / Sales Rep Setup Needing Help!

G

gator

0
Hello,

I am an outside sales rep, working from my home and travel the Western US. I am at my desk 50% of the time and spend the other 50% on the road.
Current setup and tools:
Blackberry 8300 : Used for contacts, calendar, email
Laptop: Used for tha above, along with Salesforce.com (CRM)
Levenger Circa Zip Binder:Have "Today", "Notes", "Waiting For", "Desk" tabs, along with A-Z tabs (just added) for working prospects

My dilemma: I must use SFDC for tracking my leads, prospects, follow up etc., but when I'm on the road, and a prospect returns my call I had the toughest time remembering who they are and what and when we last spoke about. I get maybe 10 leads a day, many without phone numbers so I email them requesting that they call me to discuss the opportunity. I used to just keep a "Phone" tab and put the lead or prospect for follow up on that list. Problem was that when they called, I'd be scanning the list, to find them, then have no room to take notes in that same area.
Just this week I decided to try something new and I wanted opinions, suggestions, ideas, etc.

When I get a new lead my lead coordinator puts it in SFDC for me, I then creat a brief contact/profile sheet in my Levenger Circa binder and place that lead in the A-Z tabs. After contact with the lead I update SFDC which syncs to Outlook & Blackberry and schedule the next follow up call.
Each eveening as I plan the following day my BB or Outlook will remind me who to call tomorrow. I then go through the A-Z tabs pull out the profile sheets and move them up front to the "TODAY" tabs (the beauty of Circa!).

After I call and follow up, they go back into the A-Z, and my next follow up is scheduled in SFDC,Outlook, & BB.

SO far so good, but it seems like extra work, and I hope my binder doesn't get too big. Of course each day prospects are added, but many are deleted due to just "dying" or being closed.

Sorry for the long message, any ideas appreciated.!!
 
Nice! Seems like a reasonable system.

In your case, I think you may have to duplicate your system as you have. I like the idea of a separate sheet for each contact, with plenty of space to write notes. That's clean.
 
1. Looks good to me. If you cannot get Salesforce in your car, you have to duplicate. But I can imagine it is good to have this double, because you may not want your boss see every and _all_ of the notes you take on your papers. And by re-entering the notes into Salesforce you get a chance to clean them up. Alternatively you can take a Laptop with you all the time. But then again, in case a prospect calls you, aren't pen & paper much more convenient than balancing a keyboard on your knees?

2. If your binder get's too full this won't be a problem wih your binder. This will be a sign that you have a real work problem ie to much to do, to many passive prospects with no real intend to buy and so on.
 
Just one suggestion

gator;59941 said:
Each eveening as I plan the following day my BB or Outlook will remind me who to call tomorrow. I then go through the A-Z tabs pull out the profile sheets and move them up front to the "TODAY" tabs (the beauty of Circa!).

After I call and follow up, they go back into the A-Z, and my next follow up is scheduled in SFDC,Outlook, & BB.

SO far so good, but it seems like extra work...
Click to expand...

Save some of the extra work and do not move the sheets around. Use Post-it Flags (http://www.mmm.com/us/office/postit/products/prod_ft_port.html) or something similar to flag the Today sheets.
 
Thanks for the few replys!.

One change I made ws instead of moving the "profile" sheets to the "Today" tab, I just use a "Levenger" 3x5 card labeled "Today" and jot the contacts I need to follow up on the card. It fits niceley up front in my Levenger Circa Binder, and it keeps the profile sheets from getting all "messy" from constantly moving them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top