How to keep track of your clients.

I’m often asked how do I keep track of numerous clients at once and make sure I fully understand everything about them without having to spend hundreds of hours looking at all their details. This can be for both current and new potential clients. 

To help with the above I use excel and combine the fantastic features of apply filter and conditional formatting. Some of these are more self-explanatory than others – but here’s why I have each column. 

Name, email, contact number: 

These three are very simply an ease of life factor. Whenever you have an important project or a quick question for the client you want to make sure you can very quickly find their details without having to sift through any website or find their signature in your inbox. 

I know some people have a folder for each client in their emails, however I have found this does result in some emails not showing up and going straight into a folder which could mean you miss something important. 

Another basic aspect of this is it clearly makes you aware of who’s details you do and don’t have. For example, are you missing their personal email or contact number – if these are missing how else are you contacting them/ making them aware of your presence? 

Industry:

In a nutshell, what industry are they in, this could be anything from Marketing/ Social media to Finance, Technology or Consumer. This will depend on your service/ product but you may like myself work across multiple industries. Therefore it is imperative to make sure you immediately know exactly what area they sell into. 

–Note: you could be more specific here for example – Soft drink, chocolate, website builder or cake maker

This means you can tailor emails far more effectively as it helps as a quick reminder of what their website is based on and why you can align to their needs and add value to their business. 

Type (Size):

Okay but seriously this is important.

Are they a solo entrepreneur, consultant, small-medium business.

For myself, it allows me to assess what potential budget they have for my services. But also from a time management perspective by having this filter I can focus on the clients who are a certain size and focus my mind on a specific language relevant to that target market. In the end, your tone will change depending on the size of the business you are talking to – as well as the way you position yourself. 

Bonus filter – Company:

If you work with larger companies who have multiple individuals you could/ are working with, you 100% want this to quickly bring up anyone in that specific business. You never know what memory a name could bring up to help with a conversation. People buy from people. 

LinkedIn:

Unless you have the paid version of LinkedIn you very much want to keep their profile on hand so you can easily find it again in case you want to message or like something they have recently done. If you keep on searching them in the search bar and they are not a connection or in a shared linked group you can quickly go over your free monthly limit. This is especially true if there is more than 1 person with their name. 

It also serves to save time as you can just click and bring their profile up. 

Website/s (online presence):

This is the main time save – here you will place any and all websites they have (company, personal, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram). From here you can not only tailor emails but also bring up topics during calls as well and mention recent posts/ changes you noticed on their online platforms. People love being told about themselves – the more you pay interest in them the higher the chance they will work with you/ continue to work with you. 

-On a personal note, I actually can’t stand if the communication I received isn’t tailored as it just comes across as lazy. 

Value (to you) – or how qualified:

Here we are effectively putting down the potential of the client successfully converting. 

For this to work you need to of done a client avatar – without you cannot possibly know how to qualify a potential client as you won’t have any indicators of who’s more likely to purchase from you. 

I do this as high, medium or low but you could implement 1-10 score basis depending on certain milestones achieved with a specific client. For example – email reply, connected on LinkedIn, booked in a call/ face to face. 

–Top tip – use conditional formatting and create rules for certain values – make it easy for you to see who’s a high potential client compared to low. 

Follow up (Type):

How many times have you followed up and when. You could also use type here, such as liking/ commenting on a post of theirs, however, I keep this simple to when I personally reach out via email or phone call. 

I put number of times you’ve contacted them (eg 3) and when (3(21/02)). Or like me just do how many times and make specific days for contacting new people and others for re contacting others. 

–Top tip – Nudging – send 4 gives without asking for anything back whilst relating to there work and how you can help, then on the 5th contact ask them if you are on the right track – more than likely they will of gotten back you by then – but this comes across far more professional and less ‘salesy’.   

Active / Inactive:

Active: They have signed up with you and working together ‘smashing!’ – You may create a separate spreadsheet/ document/ folder for these clients to help more with the above. Can also add specific dates here if its a project/ hr basis work. 

Inactive: They have told you they don’t need your services currently, have no budget or have simply not made contact after numerous attempts. Keep this list and note the reason so you can reach out again in 6 months or so to see if anything has changed. You may do this before, should you notice any change in their online activity. 

Bonus filter – Bought before:

If you having a dry spot and need to find some work quickly, there is no one more likely to purchase from you than someone who already has. With this filter, you can very easily bring these people up and start reaching out. 

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Personally I very much enjoy keeping track of everything in an organised manner. If you have any questions or would like assistance with getting your client base in check and being ahead of the game with their details please feel free to get in touch and I will see how I can help.