When it comes to data, there can be too much of a good thing. Purchasing a big data list of potential new customers may seem appealing upfront, but don’t forget about the cost of your time and energy putting that information into a contact list or creating a marketing plan. The reality is that many of those contacts might hit “delete” before even seeing your message. Some may even reply “unsubscribe” asking to be removed from any emails you send, which ends the line of communication and creates more work deleting the contact from the list of viable options.
When you first receive the data list, it looks like a gold mine of potential information. Once you start weeding out what’s unnecessary, though, a good portion of those contacts will be deleted for a multitude of reasons. Sales prospecting is much more effective when you “know” your customer! Whether you realize it yet or not, your best database is already in your computer or in your files.
In business today, yes, prospecting is important, but there’s a more efficient way to do it and a better way to spend your time. A huge part of B2B sales prospecting simply involves taking care of and following up with your current clients.
A truly valuable use of time can be spent setting up a system that regularly follows up with both current and new clients. Since this is a task that can be easily delegated, find an assistant with solid consistency who can handle setting up and maintaining this system for you. Your part will be making the personal calls, attending the meetings, and writing the follow up e-mails, but the majority of the tracking of referrals and data contacts can be done by someone else.
Spending your time doing the portions that provide a personal touch will set you apart from your competitors, and your clients never even have to realize how much work is done behind the scenes by an assistant. The assistant will control the flow, and this frees you up to work on higher priorities.
The conclusion is that it may not be worth your time to sort through vast quantities of data. Your ability to parcel out projects and maintenance could be the deciding factor in how valuable that data can be for your business.
