How Much Business Do You Leave On The Table?

Sometimes it’s the little things that turn an average month of business into an outstanding one.

We all have our systems for going about our business.  Things like your to-do list app and other GTD products you use to keep track of things.  Your calendar of upcoming appointments / reminders, whether that’s Google Calendar, iCal, Outlook or an old-school paper wall calendar.  Your systems have been working for you for months or years, so why change them?

Well, if it aint broke, don’t fix it.  But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be on the lookout for minor improvements.  Things that don’t disrupt your entire workflow, but may have huge unexpected benefits.  Like a baseball player who’s batting average suffers for a week or two.  He doesn’t want to re-learn how to swing the bat in the middle of the season.  But he might make a tweak, like moving his back foot 2 inches closer to the plate or his elbow an inch higher than usual, and all of a sudden he’s seeing the ball again and finishes off the season with a hot-streak.

So what does this have to do with leaving business on the table?

This week, I came to the realization that I may have been missing out on some projects I should have signed.  Lately, I’ve been receiving inquiries for new projects more frequently than I have in the past.  Usually, the process would go something like this:

1. Potential client sends me a message via the contact form on this site, CasJam.com or ThemeJam.com.
2. I respond and we usually set up a time to chat over the phone or Skype.  At this stage, I conduct a needs analysis and discuss the goals for their website project.  Sometimes this is done over the course of several emails.
3. Once we’re both clear on what the project scope will be, I open up WP Bids and whip up a project proposal.  I send it to the client via email and wait for their response.

Most of the time they respond with a “Thank you, let us look this over and get back to you…” which may or may not result in them actually getting back in touch.  Sometimes, they don’t respond at all – possibly a sign my proposal was way above their budget.  Or perhaps they never even received it (that would be bad).

The key to securing these projects is to follow up.  I usually wait about 1 week, then check in to let them know I’m available to discuss the proposal and any questions they have.  Many times, this additional effort to touch base is all they need to know I’m reliable and ready to deliver on their needs.  Sometimes not, but that’s how this business goes.  You can’t win them all.

Earlier in my freelance career, I did a pretty good job of keeping track of all my ongoing new business leads.  I basically relied on no system but my own memory.  A few days after I send a proposal, I’d simply remember to check up on it and see if it requires a followup.

As time went on, I began taking on more and more projects simultaneously.  Needless to say, my memory system was beginning to crack.  So about a year ago, I added my first tweak to the system:  A GMail label called “LEAD”.  Every time a new email conversation with a potential client came in, I marked it with a bright red label, LEADS.  That way it would stick out like a sore thumb in my inbox.  I would periodically check my list of emails marked LEAD to see if there are any that need attention.

But over time, this system got tired and unreliable as well.  I would forget to mark emails with the “LEAD” label, and also forget to check up on my LEADS emails.  I was getting busier and busier and the Gmail label system fell to the back of the line of priorities.  Not good.

So I decided to stop relying on my own memory altogether.  Enter Google Calendar with email reminders

I’ve been using GCal for setting reminders that are crucial not to miss.  I set them up with email alerts because since I know I check email daily, I won’t miss it.  This system is perfect for setting reminders months in advance that have a high probability of being forgotten.

This week, I’m kicking my GCal usage up a notch by setting up reminders for all new business leads.  Every time I send a proposal off to a potential new client, I set a GCal reminder for a week later reminding myself to follow up on that lead.

But here’s the trick…

The system has got to be as fast and easy as possible, so that it’s effortless to add reminders.  Otherwise I’ll eventually forget to do it.  So here’s my set up:

I installed the add.2.cal FireFox extension.  This places a little calendar icon at the corner of the browser, which when clicked, launches a popup to quickly add a Google Calendar event.  The cool thing is that it pre-populates the title and description with the title and page URL you’re currently viewing.

So if I’m viewing a particular GMail conversation, I click the calendar icon, and within 10 seconds I’ve added a calendar event which contains the subject of this email as the title (usually a reference to the client’s project) and a direct URL strait to this email conversation in GMail.  In a week, I’ll receive an email reminder with a link strait to that conversation, ready for me to follow up.  Perfect.

One last note – I recommend you set up your Google Calendar to have an email reminder as the default notification for new events.  That way you don’t have to manually set each event to have an email reminder.

So far, it’s been working like a charm.  GMail + WP Bids + Google Calendar is my perfect client relationship management (CRM) tool.  And it requires zero monthly cost I might add