How do you want your customers to remember you? Do you want them to remember you for excellent customer skills, with the ability to deliver friendly service in an efficient manner? Or would you rather them remember you for sloppy, panicked service because you run your business in an unorganized way? Think about how you like to be treated when you’re buying goods and services.

As you can see, running your business in an unorganized way can have a spiral effect on your income potential.

Getting organized is a daunting challenge. Like anything, it’s always best to start with baby steps. So, start with the most important aspect of your business, your contacts.

There are a number of ways to organize your contacts. The idea is they need to be easily accessible at all times. If you’re able to find one system of organizing your clients and potential clients, you’ll more easily be able to track everything from current orders to shopping habits to your customers’ preferred communication method. So, let’s take it step-by-step:

• First, you’ll need to gather all of your contacts in one place. Whether they are on separate slips of paper, in your phone, scribbled sporadically in a notebook or they are business cards scattered throughout your house, make sure they are all in one place in front of you.
• Now that you’ve collected them in one place, you need a way to store them. You can do this with a simple notebook or digitally. If you go with the notebook method, Bullet Journal or Moleskine Professional are good ones.
• If you go digital, your setup can be as simple as an Excel or Google spreadsheet, or you can use a CRM. We recommend Capsule, which is easy to use and inexpensive, and it’s available for your mobile device.
• We recommend storing your contacts alphabetically. Or, if you’re going digital, at least make sure there is a search function within your contacts for easy lookup.
• Once you’ve figured out how you want to store and track your contacts, you need to think about the kind of information you’d like to include with each client. Consider the following:
  • Who’s interested in buying what?
  • How many of that particular item do they want to buy?
  • What other items can you suggest to them based on that purchase?
  • Which contact has friends or family members who might be interested in buying from you?
  • What’s the customer’s preferred communication method – email, phone call, text, or social media?

Remember, the idea behind organizing your contacts is so you can proactively market to each customer’s unique preferences, wants and needs. And if you successfully keep your contacts organized, then, like the Simon & Garfunkel song, you’ll “keep the customer satisfied.”

Need other ways to help keep your direct sales business organized? Join NFICA now to get valuable discounts for Intuit and Smart Office Solutions.