| When was the last time you gave a hoot about | | | | - Understand what portion of your business |
| the state of your contact database? If your | | | | comes from new clients vs. referrals |
| professional services firm (accounting, finance, | | | | - Understand which of your target market |
| architecture, engineering, legal, management | | | | sectors is most profitable |
| consulting, technology, etc.) is like most, it's | | | | - Track the various types of "touches" you have |
| probably been a while. If you are not losing sleep | | | | with your client |
| over how your contacts are segmented or how | | | | - Maintain your ability to communicate with clients |
| often records are validated, you're not alone. | | | | on a regular basis and grow the relationship. |
| Contact databases are easy to neglect, yet they | | | | - Add value to your clients' businesses by giving |
| contain your riches intellectual property. | | | | you ability to target different segments with |
| If you are the CEO of your firm, you don't have | | | | relevant content. |
| time to worry your contacts.... you've got a | | | | Because of their long business development cycle, |
| company to run. Besides, you always have the | | | | service firms need to be able to nurture |
| holiday card list as backup. | | | | prospective client relationships over a period of |
| On the other hand, if you are responsible for | | | | months, even years. The trick is to maintain a |
| marketing at your firm, you probably recognize | | | | clean list that can be tapped with confidence at |
| the value of maintaining a clean contact database. | | | | any time. I recently spoke with a professional |
| But the thought of scrubbing a list of hundreds or | | | | services firm executive who had this to say |
| thousands of names makes you cringe. Given the | | | | about maintaining her firm's contact database: |
| bandwidth required for such an undertaking, the | | | | "Every January we say the same thing... this year |
| work will never gets done. | | | | our firm will focus on routinely cleaning our |
| A firm's technical subject matter experts (SMEs) | | | | contact database and not waiting until the |
| may use contact lists on a daily basis, but their | | | | end-of-year holiday card season. This year, our |
| needs are basic. As a result, they are unlikely to | | | | firm will implement a data hygiene program that |
| worry about the quality of a contact database. | | | | everyone in the firm participates in. Of course, it |
| Keeping your contact database clean and properly | | | | never happens that way." Sound familiar? |
| segmented, however, is a critical first step to any | | | | Entering and validating contacts is tedious |
| successful marketing program. | | | | business, but the tangible benefits are well worth |
| A well-maintained database can help you in a wide | | | | it. |
| variety of ways. For instance, it allows you to: | | | | |