Situation:
Our client was struggling to keep up with their numerous personal and professional connections. Despite having a large network, they found it challenging to remember important details about their contacts, such as when they spoke last and what it was about, anniversaries, alma maters, and key interests. This lack of organization led to missed opportunities for meaningful engagement, relationship building, and new business.
Solution:
We developed a personal CRM system tailored to our client’s specific needs. The system included a comprehensive contact database where detailed information about each contact was stored. The database included the usual information (names, phone numbers, email addresses), as well as social media profiles, anniversaries, alma maters, key interests, family details, favorite restaurants, etc. We also tagged contacts based on relationship type, interests, and location.
To ensure our client could easily track interactions, we synchronized the CRM with email and calendar to log the communication. The system also allowed for adding notes and annotations to remember important details from previous interactions. We set up follow-up reminders for significant dates like birthdays and anniversaries, major sporting events, etc. to ensure timely communication.
Outcome:
With the personal CRM in place, the client developed a regular cadence for outreach and was able to engage in spontaneous interactions based on travel, current events, and more. Friends and colleagues would comment on how thoughtful he was about staying connected. This structured approach to relationship management led to a noticeable improvement in the quality of their interactions and helped them stay connected with their network more effectively. The client’s business development efforts flourished, doubling referrals from their network and tripling meaningful conversations year-over-year. As importantly, the client was able to make regular referrals between connections, which provided great personal satisfaction.
