Spring Cleaning

If you are not doing any spring cleaning in your own home, it is certainly time to do some at work. It is often during spring cleaning that we find things we did not even know were lost or decide to toss out some items that are no longer being used.

First, let me tell you that I am not talking about tossing out some staff! As your business grows after you complete your company spring cleaning, you are going to need them. You may need to provide them with extra training and support, but they are not part of my spring cleaning plan. Just thought I would clear that issue up.

So where should you start cleaning, moving or tossing? Here are five focus areas for your spring cleaning initiative:

1. Your Account List It’s time to sit down with your entire account list. Are there accounts on the list that are not really accounts? In other words, do you see companies that have not ordered any products or services for more than six months? If so, then it is time to place their names on your priority call list. It is possible they have decided to take their business somewhere else, and you need to find out why. Did they have a complaint they did not share? Have they gotten better service from someone else? Have they signed a contract with another provider? While you may clean these names off your account list, they should not be tossed aside. There has been some change in that account, and you need to find out what it is. Maybe the person who ordered from you has taken a new position. Take the time to find out where they have gone.
2. Your Product Inventory Look at a list of all the products you carry, and think about the reasons you are not selling certain products. Are you forgetting to tell referral sources about your retail store, your new disease management program or the new products you now carry? What about looking at the products that simply do not sell? If you are really cleaning house, it’s time to eliminate those products that are not of interest to your customers. You do not have to be all things to all people.
3. Your Marketing Materials A closet full of outdated materials needs to go. Make sure your brochures are correct and up-to-date. You do not want to give out materials that present pictures of products you no longer carry. Also, make sure that your materials actually describe and present to the customer the products and services you want them to know about. Since time with referral sources is limited, don’t waste it with marketing materials that do not make the most of your time and efforts. Clean out that marketing materials closet, review your brochures for content and, if you need to, start over.
4. Your Marketing Events It could be time to take some of those events off your marketing calendar. There’s no need to attend events that do not provide the visibility or contacts you want. Sometimes, attending the event as a registrant will work just as well. Review where you went in 2005 to see what can be eliminated and what should be added to your list of marketing events. As you clean up the list, think more about the investment you make to attend events and the return on that investment of time and money.
5. Your Appointment Schedule Look over your upcoming appointment list. Do you see names and potential referrals that you have not met with before? If not, you may need to clean up your appointment calendar. Are there clients you do not need to see each week? Could they be called instead? Are you scheduling too many appointments in the morning and not leaving an appropriate amount of travel time? Now is the time to get out those product lists, marketing materials, event calendars and appointment schedules and polish up your sales efforts. In fact, you may just have more money to take home after your have completed your spring cleaning program at work!

Louis Feuer is president of Dynamic Seminars & Consulting Inc. and the founder and director of the DSC Teleconference Series, a teleconference training program. He can be reached at www.DynamicSeminars.com or by phone at 954/435-8182.