| If you are involved in sales, fundraising or just an active | | | | new years day and you have been working hard to |
| networker, you have probably tried a variety of tools | | | | create your new sales system and you attended a |
| to manage your contact list and remind yourself to | | | | networking event.So, you arrive at work on January |
| stay in touch with all of the prospects and people you | | | | 2nd. and open up your tickler file. The first thing you |
| meet. This tickler file is designed to be an inexpensive, | | | | should do is move the "1" tab back behind the |
| effective, tool that can be used by salespeople in a | | | | February tab. You will always be rolling the system |
| variety of different types of organizations.This tickler | | | | forward like this, so that the first tab you see in the |
| file uses inexpensive index cards and a simple file box. | | | | box represents the most current month, then the most |
| You will need the following items to create your own | | | | current day.Now, you go to the tab for today (Jan |
| index card sales tool. I found everything I needed at | | | | 2nd.) and find the card for the lead that you met at the |
| my local office supply store.The total cost was around | | | | networking event yesterday. You call the lead and |
| $25.00. | | | | learn that he/she is out of town until January 6th. so |
| - A box to store the index cards | | | | you make a note which says, "1/2/05 - Mr. Lead is on |
| - Monthly 3" by 5" index tabs | | | | vacation till 1/6". Now you drop the card behind the "6" |
| - Daily (1-31) 3" by 5" index tabs | | | | tab for the month of January.You will continue to roll |
| - Alphabetical 3" by 5" index tabs | | | | this lead forward in the system, making notes at each |
| - A ton of white ruled 3" by 5" index cards (you don't | | | | step, until the lead either turns into a customer or asks |
| need a photo, right?) | | | | you to leave them alone.When the lead turns into a |
| - A bunch of colored 3" by 5" index cards (pick your | | | | customer, I staple their business card to a colored card |
| favorite color) | | | | and place it behind the appropriate alphabetical tab. If |
| - A small case to carry your in your pocketOnce you | | | | their is another opportunity with this client, I move the |
| have purchased the required supplies, you can | | | | colored card back to the dated section and move |
| organize your 3X5. For the sake of simplicity, let's | | | | them through the process again.Of course, as you add |
| assume that you are assembling your 3X5 on January | | | | more people to your pipeline, you might not get to |
| 1st. If this is the case you would first organize your | | | | contact everyone on the day you have them slotted |
| tabs in the order below (front to back):- January tab | | | | for. Just move them to the next day's slot at the end |
| - Daily tabs 1-31 | | | | of the current day so you contact them tomorrow.You |
| - February - December monthly tabs | | | | will not want to carry around a huge metal box full of |
| - A-Z alphabetical tabs | | | | index cards, which is why you want to have a small |
| - Blank index cards - white and your favorite colorAll | | | | index card wallet or box, so if you are going to be on |
| of your cards should now be in the file box and the | | | | the road or out of the office, you can simply grab your |
| first thing you should see is the January tab.Next, you | | | | cards for the day and go.Not just for |
| should start creating cards for your leads. In the | | | | salespeople.While the system is great for salespeople, |
| beginning, this is going to take some time (assuming | | | | it also is a great tool for those of us who are focusing |
| you have a lot of leads). You might choose to use one | | | | on networking. I actually use three different colored |
| color card for prospects, one color for customers, | | | | cards and use white for leads, blue for clients and red |
| another for personal contacts, etc. If you are not going | | | | for my networking contacts (patriotic, I know). On the |
| to organize your contacts by color, you will only need | | | | red cards, I write either 7, 14, 30, 45, 60, etc in the |
| white cards. Nonetheless, you can either copy your | | | | upper right hand corner of the index card to remind |
| contacts information onto the cards or simply staple | | | | myself how frequently I want to contact the person, |
| their business card to one of the index cards.The | | | | so I simply move the card forward based on the |
| system works like this.Let's imagine it is January 1st. | | | | number on the card. If I want to contact someone |
| and you attend a networking event where you meet a | | | | every seven days, I move the card ahead a week |
| potential client. You get this lead's business card at the | | | | after I make contact.More information about Stephen |
| event and you want to contact him/her on the 2nd., so | | | | can be found on his blog at Stephen is also a frequent |
| when you get to your office, you staple the leads | | | | contributor and consultant to where you can find tons |
| business card to a white index card and drop it behind | | | | of sales articles! |
| the "2" tab and then go home for the day. After all, it is | | | | |