Business Directory Action Plan
In a small to medium sized orginization, the sales departement must come up with a system to efficively manage a prospecting business directory. Whichever business directory is used, there are different formats that must be considered to ensure a successful, yet practical marketing campaign.
Firstly, you must decide if you want to go paper based or electronic based. A well established business directory firm in Canada, aka www.canadianbusinessdirectories.ca recommends the following considerations:
Identify the key players that will be using the business directory data. Then it is their responsibilty to distribute the business directory records among their team members in a simple format that can be tracked. The next major consideration is which contact management system will be used to manage the business directory data. Canadian Business Directories recommend Maximizer as it has all the data management tools embedded in the program.
As the business directory leads come in, a follow up plan of action must be established. The team leader is usually going to be the one responsible for assigning the key individual roles that each team member will be doing. For example, one salesperson can ensure a post mailer campaign is underway, while another can ensure an email marketing campaign is running along side. Another individual may be responsible for using the existing business directory for making cold calls and follow up calls. As long as there is a plan in place, with proper communication, maximizing the marketing potential of your business directory is key.
One client recently wanted to purchase a list of new Canadian businesses. Before his purchase we determined that he was planning to cold call the business directory records to introduce his merchant banking services. He had a great plan in place however he was not able to start cold calling the business directory for at least another month! If he waited a month the business directory would not have been as new as he would of liked. Timing is everything. Ensure that you have an action plan in place and you will do well!
– Dana Bash is a marketing coach at Canadian Business Directories and has been working with business lists for over a decade.
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