Learning to use a CRM for tracking new work in the best and worst of times.
I’m sure you have heard the old adage, ‘Feast or Famine’. As the economies, realities, and life flex over the months and years, you may find yourself in one of these two modes. I’ve been here too — just starting out, in the 2008 crisis and other times here and there between major events, holidays, and summers. In the last few years, I have learned that it doesn’t have to be this way.
If I can share two critical things with you in your creative business, it’s to have a clear chart of open projects and a clear pipeline of possible work coming in. For most, this all starts with a Contact Relationship Manager or CRM. Your CRM should be everything about all customers for all time — ast, present, and future. It should have a name, contact info, birthday, social profiles, co-workers, how you met, what work you have done for them over the years, spouse, kids, etc. It’s all there. The test here is could someone other than you look at this contact, and know as much about them as you do to complete work for them. I know that’s a lot. You don’t have to start there, but it’s a good goal.
Many CRMs will have a deal board or pipeline. This is usually in stages, from the lead-in, to ready-to-buy. To help, here are my stages that I have come to rely on over the years:
Prospect / Lead — This is the first touch point for a potential project. Any detail you can find out, should be added here in the notes. Again, think as if someone else needed to review this, would it make sense? Track notes from calls, links, files, etc. because we know that emails get messy over time.
Qualifying — This is where you may need to evolve a process to see if they are a good fit, are you the right partner for the task at hand, do you even like them, and a few other items. You really should use this phase to cover the first few calls that are exploring the needs of the project and if you are on the same page.
Qualified — This means it’s a good fit and it’s simply a matter of working out details of a proposal. You really shouldn’t have people sit here too long, but sometimes things are slow with final details and you just need a place for them to hang out.
Must close 30 — This is an established “good fit” project, and it should close any day now. It could already be scheduled or it could be that the project has a timeline that needs to begin within 30 days to be realistic. Project win expectations here should be really strong. You know it’s a good fit for you, you are the right person for them, there is budget alignment, etc. They have a proposal in hand and you are ready to work once they sign off.
Must close 60 — Almost the same as the “must close 30”. Dates line up and you are making sure you have the right timing in place. 60 days is a bit of time but maybe this actual project is a few months away and this client is a planner. This is a bit softer of a sure thing. It’s close, it’s pretty much in the right direction, but things can still change. This is likely a written proposal but maybe you are still playing the back and forth game.
Must close 90+ — This is an identified great lead and project, but the deal isn’t there yet. You maybe aren’t sure of the budget, or there is no clear urgency from the client. You have work to do. Deals in this stage often don’t yet have a proposal but you have the details needed.
You’ll notice the must close 30 is more in the middle. It’s not really a true linear path and that’s okay. See, most of the time projects come in pretty warm for me. If they are a good fit, it’s likely to close in 30. Very few projects get 60–90 days of planning. Maybe they do, but that’s before the client brings you in. So I put the 60 days and 90 days out columns on the end. You can do what you want, I’m not your mom.
So now you have a CRM with contacts well populated and are tracking the deals. Now what? Well every day, you need to dedicate time to review this. What’s out there, what’s moving, and what’s the next action on each deal? No deal should ever be without a planned action, even if it’s weeks or months away. I have deals on my board that are pretty far out. Sure they are leads that could be ready in 6 months. I think the longest lead I’ve had was 2+ years. We met, they loved us but it wasn’t the best time for them as an organization. Some years go by and they are finally ready to get started.
What I haven’t shared about that story was that I kept in touch every month. At first, I was hoping it would be a project sooner rather than later, but the Marketing Director told me it would be a long while, not a short while. So I put them on a slow email cycle. Once a month or so I would send something useful, share a resource, industry news, or some work we did. If I saw something that I thought would be interesting to them, I shared it. Every month. For 2 years. But when they were ready, they were sold. No bids, no other companies to compare my proposal with. It was a done deal before I wrote a proposal.
The only way this could have worked was with a CRM where I could see the last time I reached out, what I sent them, etc. If I sent them a note on LinkedIn, I would add that note. It’s time-consuming, but If you do it right you will have better projects over time, and when times are a little lean for others you know, you will have enough in the CRM to lean into.
Pro-tip on leads/prospects: You don’t have to wait for someone to call/email/DM you with interest. This list is yours, you can put people on it out of the blue. The only difference between a lead asking for your help and someone you know that needs your help is you helping them realize the need. You don’t need a fancy, new phone, till Apple, Samsung, or Google tells you that you are missing out on all the things you didn’t know you were missing. I regularly comb through the contacts in my CRM and look for people that I think could use my services. Maybe its been a few years and it’s time for updates, maybe their industry has changed, or maybe they have changed jobs. Whatever the reason, if you have a list of contacts, you have a list of prospects.
Did you find this helpful? What else do you want insight, advice, or coaching on? AIGA Arizona is committed to helping freelancers and solopreneurs like you grow your business savvy skills.
