Ben Hanvey

Day 1

Ok so I’ll start by covering off day 1 which I am delighted to say was a very good day indeed. The structuring of the day, ignoring emails side of things wasn’t altogether a success, as I did have some things crop up that needed addressing there and then. But overall, what I set out to get done yesterday I did get done and I can hand on heart promise you that having a plan with an achievable set of measurable goals attributed to it really did help.

Data

I’ve received some questions in relation to the last post on data and the procuring of. I encountered this lot in a previous role and have built up a stock list of good data partners. Data and having a good list of it is imperative to any marketing activity. You don’t want to spend weeks preparing to send an email only to find that half of them bounce and the other half are sat in various companies’ info@ inboxes. Like most things in this instance you need to spend a little more to get a better quality list.

Partners I use and would recommend are:

http://www.data-broker.co.uk/

http://www.electricmarketing.co.uk/

Both of these companies have always supplied me with high quality data and perhaps more importantly a more diverse service offering. For example, lets say you procured a list last year of legitimate companies for targeting and now a year on, you want to target the same types of companies again. You could buy another list, or you could contact one of the above and try the ‘appending’ service. Just tell them the type of contacts you want details for within each of the organisations on the year old list (e.g. marketing managers) and they will take the whole list, append it with the current – updated contact info and return. This can be a very cost effective way of making the most of your data and really making it work for you. It’s also a good way of getting better value for your money.

Messaging

You have your list, you know what the goal of the email activity is and you are now ready to compose your emails.

Differing opinions on this one, some like to send a bulk email and others like myself like to tailor each. It’s a case of deciding which is most applicable to what you are trying to do really. Personally I like to call each company first, ask for the contact on the list and have a conversation if possible. If they screen the call or don’t want to have a conversation, then the content of the email is right there for you:

“Hi Mr / Mrs X,

First of all sorry for emailing without first speaking to you, I hope you don’t mind.

I called earlier to speak to you about a potential partnership opportunity and was hoping you might have 5 minutes to discuss later this week?”

A softer approach taking into account the amount of cold calls and emails this person often gets can differentiate you from the pack and ultimately increase your chances of getting a response.

Again its trial and error. I have done it both ways and had an email go out to a list of 500 and you will get the 10 – 20 interested parties respond provided the content of the email is well written, well intentioned and to the point. No one wants to receive an essay! So get the point across, make it interesting and end the email keeping it short and sweet.

I hope the above helps in some way, would love to hear how people are getting on and I’ll be back tomorrow for Day 3!

Cheers for stopping!

@TheHanvinator

#Daysinthelifeofme

Day 1:

So here it goes! The first day of a new more structured me and so far so good…

Nothing is changing fundamentally about the way that I work. I just want to have a clear idea of what I intend to be doing at each part of each day. Now I’m not saying that this way of working applies to all jobs, when I worked in call centres I knew exactly what I’d be doing every minute of every day for 8 hours of that day <yawn>. Yes it was monotonous and at times depressing, but the pay was good and money is always welcome! But on a serious note, it’s all gotten me to this point, so if you are in a similar situation presently… have faith young warrior, it’s all going to  be just fine!

There are several things I could be doing at any one time in this role. From calling potential new prospects and speaking to existing clients, to preparing proposal documents / contracts on the back of sales meetings. There are so many facets to the role that it has become apparent that organisation and having a plan are essential to every day. Run each day like you are running your own business so to speak.

Structuring your day:

It really doesn’t matter what you do or what industry you are in, you could manage your time better. So having identified that this isn’t something I have always been that strong on, this is what I am hoping to break my days down into.

1. Prospecting
2. Account Management
3. Meetings
4. Admin

Seems fairly threadbare, only 4 types of possible activity so it should be nice and easy I hear you say. But as an example, if you look at ‘Admin’, this could have numerous subsections:

Admin

• Update CRM
• Write Proposal
• Prepare Contract
• Update Management system
• Emailing – Customers / Prospects
• Prepare E-Shots
• Expenses
• Etc. etc.

So to make things less complicated and more importantly so that I don’t BORE you to death with the nitty gritty, I will just stick to the 4 ‘top level’ categories and only elaborate on individual tasks when its absolutely essential!

Streamline your workflow:

I have also decided that from now on it’s best to have 2 internet browsers open at any one time. So I can have on the one my social networks (and I mean ALL of them) open on individual tabs at all times and my work related searching, CRM access and research can be done on another browser window. I have done this for 2 reasons… As someone who works in search marketing and who actively sells social media management, I figured it was best to ‘practice what I preach!’ and secondly, I don’t want to access social media during work times. So will be actively trying to use break periods to respond to messages and update the social side.

There are a number of daily planners available on the internet for structuring your day, but I often find that its different for each person I encounter. Some prefer to simply use the Outlook calender, for others nothing beats the old fashioned diary and pen! Regardless, any way is better than having nothing in place at all! So try a few, see which is easiest to stick too and then make it habitual.

http://www.dayviewer.com/

http://www.keepandshare.com/index.php

Having an end goal:

What are you trying to achieve today? How many times do you get to the end of the day and say ‘I feel like I have been rushed off my feet, but I haven’t actually achieved anything!’? Loads of times right? If not, you are either an organisational God / Goddess OR you are already structuring your days and therefore needn’t pay too much attention to that aspect of the blog… If so, good for you! Either way, having in your mind ‘what it is’ you are setting out to achieve on any given day makes actually achieving it a hell of a lot easier! I for one have been guilty of going off on tangents and getting distracted. So although come the end of the day I have done alot, I end up with 20 partially completed tasks and no end goal having been achieved.

So for me, today I know that I need to make a conscious effort to achieve a balance between new business prospecting and my new agency partnership prospecting.  It’s important to have ‘new plates’ spinning as it were, so this should be the focus at all times so that you never run out of pipeline. But often a more tactical approach of partnering with other companies / agencies that encounter and in some instances can actually ‘sell’ to your prospective client base is extremely beneficial for obvious reasons!

To aid me in achieving this balance, I have procured a list of potential agency partners whom I am going to target as well as a list of potential end users and I will be calling both in pre allocated 2 hour slots today. During these times I will be closing Social media windows and Outlook as well as screening all calls. If you have set a goal, stick to it. Being distracted by other tasks is paramount to failure and the first step towards having that ‘busy but got nothing done’ day! So I will apply the new approach, stick too it and let you know what I get from it tomorrow.

Have a great day all, thanks for stopping!

Follow: @TheHanvinator Tag: #daysinthelifeofme