Using the Free BatchBook On-line Contact Management System
Hale Pringle Ed.D. - 6/5/09
First – why am I doing this?
Follow-up in critical in our business and I personally find pen and paper systems awkward for handling communications among several dozen people.
Sales professionals have virtually ALL been using some time of contact management software for decades. As Market America professional distributors we are sales professionals. We sell products and we sell the system. At the same time we have two conflicting issues when it comes to contact management. First – whatever we use MUST be duplicatable and Second – we want to use the best tools possible.
The 90 Action Plan found on Bobby Canatta’s TeamGoldCoast.com (and under Resources at http://Your6FigureIncome.bis and elsewhere) has several paper forms for developing a pen and paper based system. These forms, combined with some type of daybook/calendar/PDA, provide the tools for people who feel most comfortable with a pen and paper solution.
For those who want a computer-based solution, there are numerous options. I am going to describe one of those options here. The criteria I used in selecting this tool were as follows.
1) It had to be simple. I willingly give up power for simplicity. The solution cannot meet the goal of duplicatability if it is not simple. The tool I chose is simple for our purposes, but contains lots of features for those who want to grow into something bigger.
2) It must be effective. Why waste time if it doesn’t do the job.
3) It must be web based. I wanted a solution that would work on any computer I happened to be sitting in front of. This is a mixed criteria. There is a real advantage in that a web based solution takes the burden of effective backup out of my hands. If my machine crashes, burns, or is stolen, my business is not affected. There is a real disadvantage in that a web based solution takes to responsibility for effective backup out of my hand and puts it in the hands of strangers that I don’t know. If they fold their door tomorrow, my business can take a real hit. Fortunately BatchBook has a way for me to export all of my data to a local PC. Now I have the best of both worlds. They handle the day-to-day backups and I handle the “worst case scenario” backup.
4) It must be inexpensive. It is not duplicatable if it is not inexpensive. BatchBook is free for the Baby Blue version. This version has a limit of 200 contacts. You can actually run a very large Market America campaign with 200 contacts, since it will be the rare person who is working over 200 active contacts at one time. You can delete those you are done with and replace them with new contacts. Or you can upgrade to the $10/month version and have unlimited contacts (up to 2 gigabytes of storage space.) You still only have one user for $10/month, but what the heck, I am one user.
5) It needed to have good reviews. I don’t have time to personally test all of the on-line contact management systems (after-all 80% of my time needs to be spent on “productive” activities.) BatchBook was rated very highly (five stars out of five) http://SalesTeamTools.com. The article is at http://www.salesteamtools.com/online-contact-management-software/ and well liked by several individual reviewers, e.g. http://www.chrisbrogan.com/batchbook-is-great-for-contact-management/ It was listed as “easy to use” by 101 On-line Tools at http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/2008/03/10/resources-for-online-entrepreneurs/ Bottom line for me was that the ratings were very good. Furthermore, BatchBook can be run on Iphones, Blackberry’s and other handheld mobile devices.
6) It needs to be secure. BatchBook's security and
backup system is very impressive.
7) You need to have support you can count on. So far my questions have been answered very quickly, even on a holiday weekend. BatchBook passes this test with flying colors.
BatchBook Features.
So what do I do with BatchBook?
I can divide my interests into three areas 1) My Names List – a database of contacts with their contact information and personal information, 2) Communication Tracking – when did I communicate with each person and what was said or done and 3) Task Management – to-do items with deadline dates. Here is how I manage all three tasks with BatchBook.
1) Names-list
· I enter my contacts into a searchable database. I have places for names, addresses, phone numbers, comments and much more.
The comment field is critical. This is where we store unique personal
information about each contact.
· I “tag” my contacts. This means that I can have
important groups of contacts and include each person in the appropriate
group. As an example, I have a group called status_pending, these
are contacts that I have NOT contacted yet. I can also create groups on the fly.
The importance of tagging is that later I can filter the list to just see those who have one or more specific tags. For example, I can tag everyone that I am contacting for one of my down-line or everyone who lives in the Tampa area. Each person can have many different tags.
· I can create bulk email lists if I wish.
2) Communication Tracking
· I track the recruiting process for each person. This means that I enter every contact with that person. What did we talk about, what issues did they have, what personal information did they divulge. Remembering that a daughter was in the hospital is VERY important to the contact so it should be important to you! This is one of the more important abilities for any contact management system. When I look at a contact’s communication history, I can see the complete history of my conversations, meetings, and emails with that person.
· BatchBook has a very sophisticated (and yet simple) system that tracks emails that you send to a contact and adds them to the communication history. You can also forward emails that you received from a contact to BatchBook and they will be added to the communication history of the correct contact. This ability to track phone conversation, meetings, and emails gives you the ability to have a complete history of your interactions with each contact. As you deal with more and more people, this written history turns you into a real professional. People feel that you really care when you remember their personal history. You can easily accomplish this if you have a place to record these items and then you review them before your next conversation. (Of course you have to be compulsive about entering things, but that is true in any case.)
3) Task Management
· I set up action items for each person. This generates an integrated to-do list. The computer prompts me when it is time for the next step. If I set up a follow-up call with a contact for next Friday, I enter a to-do associated with that contact. Next Friday, BatchBook shows me that I need to make the call in its own Dashboard.
· BatchBook can also send me an email with everything I am supposed to do on that day.
· I have BatchBook send my TO-DO items to my Google Calendar. You will need to look at the BatchBook FAQ to see how this is done. I’m not going to cover it here. (You have to be using the paid version to do this.)
Getting Started
The setup process is very easy.
1. You use your browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox) to go to BatchBlue.com. (Note that the website is BatchBLUE.com)
When you get to the page, there is an option to “Take the Tour.” You can do this, but most of it is NOT relevant to what Market America distributor's typically do. If you choose to take the tour, it will give you an idea of the power that is there, when and if you ever need it. I suggest you go to the following page and look at the video called “Using BatchBook for Fun and Profit”. You can stop when it gets to the section of Supertags. The system gets more complicated at that point. I will note that at the end of the webinar there is a section on how to have the TODO items you place in BatchBook show up in your Google Calendar if you are using Gmail from Google.
http://www.batchblue.com/screencasts.html#freshbooks-video
The webinar listed above will show you the basic steps for entering a new contact, recording a conversation or meeting with the contact and creating a TO-DO item. It also tells you about a special email address (a special code sent to BatchBook.com) that you can use in the Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) field of your emails. Any emails sent with this code in BCC field are also send to BatchBook and connected to the contact with the email address you are sending the message to. This is extremely powerful since you have a single place to look at the history of telephone calls, meetings and emails you have had with a particular person. BatchBook will create a new contact if it receives an email address that it doesn't already have.
The webinar right after the one I recommended is on Sales. It shows a more sophisticated way to use BatchBook to monitor Sales Leads. The features shown require you to use one of the purchased versions.
When you are ready to get started, click on the Pricing Tab at the top of the screen.. You will see a page full of options. At the bottom of the screen you will see this line: “Or sign up for the free Baby Blue account (1 user, 200 contacts, 1 GB storage, 1 SuperTag, and no 3rd party integration, industry-specific versions or one-on-one consultation.” If you click on the link, it will ask for your name, email address and a password. It will also ask for a name for your BatchBook account. I called mine Hale and it immediately told me that no-one else had that name so my account became Hale.batchbook.com. To use BatchBook, I send my web browser to that URL (http://hale.batchbook.com) and I see a login page. By-the-way, they will convert my connection to a “secure” (https://) connection so that all traffic between my computer and BatchBook is encrypted. To create your account, you will enter a name you like and if it hasn’t been used before that will become the URL to get to your BatchBook contacts.
When you log onto your BatchBook account for the first time, I would suggest clicking on the My Account link at the top of the screen. The Email Settings tab is of particular interest. Here you can tell BatchBook that you want an email every day that lists your TO-DO items for the day. The BCC code mentioned above is shown here. You can cut and paste this as a fake "person" in your current email system. Then you just include this “person” in the BCC field of emails that you send. Emails sent to this address will be stored in BatchBook.
I also happen to use Gmail – a free web based and VERY powerful email system. By clicking on the Gmail option at the bottom of the page, Gmail gets integrated into BatchBook. What this means is that when I click on an email address in BatchBook, it opens a Gmail send screen from my account to send the message. It also automatically adds the BCC code that sends a copy of the email to communication history section of BatchBook. When I look at the communication history for the person I sent an email to, I will see a copy of that email right along with any telephone calls or meetings that I logged in BatchBook. In the FAQ section there are also instructions on synchronizing the contacts in your Gmail account with your BatchBook contact list. This is very powerful. The paid versions allow you to automatically synchronize names between your Gmail Contacts and BatchBook's Contacts.
There is also a special email address on this page that looks something like this: batchbox+55983212@hale.batchbook.com. By adding this to my contact list in Gmail (or any other email system), I can forward emails to Batchbox, or add BCCs to emails that I initiate inside Gmail. I can also send emails right to this address and put the following on the subject line TODO 1/1/09: finish web page about Using BatchBook with Market America. When I send this email, a new TODO item shows up in my BatchBook list of to-dos.
BatchBook for MA Prospecting
The following simple steps will give you a basic system for tracking and prompting yourself to do follow-ups.
1. Add a new contact (Click on the Contacts Tab and then Click on Add New Individual)
· I use a set of tags to identify where prospects are in the pipeline. One major reason for using tags is that you can filter the list of contacts based upon the tags. It would be nice if you could see them in the main contact list, but you can’t have everything for free. You can certainly develop your own list, but here is the list I am currently using. I start each status tag with the word “status_”. When I enter an “s” into the box beside the button Add Tags, I immediately see a drop down list of tags that have the letter “s” in them. If you enter as much as "stat", you will probably see only "status_??" Tags. This means I only have to remember “sta for status.” Here are the codes I am using:
o “status_call_again” - contact has been attempted or made, but needs to be done again
o “status_check_back_later” -they said No, but there is reason to try again next year or when you can show a bigger check, etc.
o “status_custormer” - This is a customer and needs special handling.
o “status_distributor” - signed up
o “status_follow_up”, - plan shown, working with the person
o “status_forget”, - for what ever reason, I have decided I don't want to work with this person - ever.
o “statis_not_interested” -not interested in this person any further.
o “status_pending” -nothing has been done yet,
o “status_plan_scheduled” – oh joy!
· I also use a tag to indicate whose prospect this is. This helps me when I am working a contact for someone in my down-line. I start these with “distrib_”, so that I can type “d’ and the list of distributors will appear. I will probably start using “d_katie_jim_bill” to indicate a path down to the final person once I get to that point.
· Some other tags I find useful are cross_line (for other distributors I deal with you aren't in my organization), MA (for corporate MA people), upline (hmmm, I'll let you figure that one out), rank_1 (my top prospect) and Top10 for marking a group to target or talk to my upline about.
· I didn't originally use the Super Tag. This tag allows you to create a whole data entry screen of information that is unique to our business. The free account has one of these. I have found a use for it. I turned it into the Prospect Biography sheet. There are paper sheets in several of the 90 day action plans for you to use when you document what you know about a prospects. Many uplines will not talk to you about how to approach a difficult prospect if you have not fill out a FORM (Family, Occupation, Recreation, Message/Money) form. Here is how you use the Super Tag to create a FORM document
Click on the Tags and SuperTags tab at the top of the screen.
Create a SupperTag and call it "Bio" (You need short names, since all reports will include the SuperTag Bio <name of field). Long names for a Y/N field mean lots of wasted space,
It will show you a box to enter a field name in and a drop down box for the type of field. If the type is "Text", you will have a third field where you can select a "Long" text field or a "Short" text field. Here are the fields I use. Fill one in and then click on the "Add a field" and add another. You can edit these later if you decide to make a change.
# Family - text long,
# Occupation - text long,
# Recreation - text long,
# How did you meet this person - text short,
# Present status of the person Where in funnel - text long,
# Interest supplemental income - Y or N,
# financial independence - Y or N,
# residual income - Y or N,
# college fund - Y or N,
# retirement - Y or N,
# time freedom - Y or N,
# more vacation - Y or N,
# career change - Y or N,
# sick and tired - Y or N,
# Characteristics bus owner/mgr - Y or N,
# great salesperson - Y or N,
# entrepreneur - Y or N,
# business minded - Y or N,
# well connected - Y or N,
# well respected - Y or N,
# professional - Y or N,
# ambitious gogetter - Y or N,
# sharp dynamic - Y or N
Save the Super Tag.
Now. if I add the "bio" tag, these fields become available for me to fill in.
· I fill in any personal information I know about the person in the Comments area. As I have said in other places, this is critical!
· I fill in email addresses, phone numbers and any other contact information I might have.
· Save the Contact.
2. On the right side of the screen click on Log Communication icon and call the person. Fill out what happened during the call and save. Note that most of the items in the screen that appears are already populated. When you click on the Subject line, a list of subjects you used before will popup. You can choose one of those. The screen default to “Note” as the type of communication. You can click on the item an choose “Phone” from the lest that appears. In the details section, fill in what happened. Be sure to fill in any personal information that you hear during the conversation. “Remembering” that a person has four children during the next conversation makes the person feel very special. “Remembering” is not hard if you review your last communication before you make the next call and that screen reminds you about the children.
3. You will need click the small “x” beside the “status_??” tag and enter a new status tag (clicking on Add Tags after you enter the new status), if the person’s status changes.
4. Click on the TO-DO icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Indicate when you should contact this person again (or show the plan, or pick them up to take them to a meeting, etc.) Again, most of the fields are filled in or have drop down menus that let you click on an existing option instead of typing the same thing over and over. There is a small calendar beside the Due Date field. Click on this and click on a date and the date is filled in automatically. You can check the Flagged check box to mark high priority item. Click the Save Button. Virtually every contact should have a to-do item beside them.
5. You can click on the Contacts tab and leave the Filter Individuals alone, but change the All Tags to status_pending, to see the list of people you are ready to contact for the first time, or status_call_again to see those you need to call again. You can view the members of any group this way. For example you might want to tag everyone who lives in Tampa with a Tampa tag. You can then look at a list of everyone who lives in Tampa before you take a trip in that direction. This could help you set up showing the plan or holding a counseling meeting with one or more of your team that live in that area.
6. When you click on the Dashboard Tab., you will see your TO-DO items. You will also get an email on the day reminding what TO-DO are scheduled for the day.
7. When you have done the TO-DO item click on the Check-mark box beside the item on the Dashboard and it will turn yellow with a check mark it. This yellow box/check mark indicates you have finished the item. You can also edit a to-do or change the date that it is due. When you finish an item, you should usually create a new to-do item indicating the next time you plan to contact a person. This might be a year from now to “check-back” with someone who said NO or next month to discuss their product order.
8. In day-to-day operations, I follow this procedure. a) I open the Dashboard and see a list of to-do items. The name of the person related to the first TO-DO is highlighted as a link. b) I click on this link which opens the person's contact record. I click on the Communication Log icon and open a log record. C) Then I call the prospect and record what transpires in the log record. D) I click on the check box beside the TO-DO item which closes the TO-DO. E) Depending upon what happened, I may delete the current status_??? tag and replace it with a new one. F) I usually click on the TO-DO Icon and create a new TO-DO item with a new due date. Note: If I want to edit the current TO-DO item, I go back to the Dashboard. There is a small pencil beside the TO-DO item. You can click on this pencil and edit the item.
9. The last thing that I do is regularly export everything to my local PC as a backup. To back up virtually all of the information in BatchBook, follow these simple steps.
* Click on the Lists and Reports tab at the top of the screen.
* Create a new List. Call it "Backup Everything."
* Open each of the areas that it shows you and make sure all of the boxes are check.
* Save the list
* Click on the Export CVS button and save the file to your local PC. You can open it in Excel if you wish, but be sure to save it.
10. Another useful list is a phone list of all the contacts. I print this out now and again and carry it with me. The reason is that every day BatchBook sends a list of TO-DO items for the day. I can print this list. It tells me who to call and why. It just doesn't tell me the phone number. Here is how I print the list. A) Click on Lists and Reports and B) Create a new List called Phone List. C) Edit the items to be included to the following: First Name, Last Name, Tags, Phone, Cell Phone and Comments.. D) Save the list and E) export to CVS. F) Open the list in Excel.
Here are the steps in Excel. A) You can hover over the right side of a header box until you see a little double ended arrow. Click the left mouse button down and drag the edge of the header right to left to make a column bigger or smaller. Make each column larger enough to read the data. You cannot do this with the Tags column and comments column. You just make these columns bigger. B) Click on a cell in the Last Name column and then click on the Sort button. The picture on the Sort button has an up Arrow beside a small book shape. Now the list is sorted alphabetically on Last Name. C) Highlight the whole Comment column, right click and click on CUT. Move over to the first empty column. Click on a cell, right click and choose Paste. The comments are now at the extreme right of the report. D) Right Click again and click on Properties. Put a check mark beside Word Wrap. E) Set Word Wrap on for the Tags column as well. F) Click on File (upper left corner) and choose Print Setup - Choose the whole area with words as the print area. G) Choose Print Preview and look to see if you columns fit left to right on one page. If they don't, close the Print Preview and make some of the columns narrower. H) When you are ready click Print.
The bottom line is that you can print out the Email that BatchBook sends you in the morning and make calls when you away from your computer.
Here is one more trick you might find useful. I downloaded a file called CUTEFTP (use Google to find the download site.) Once this is installed, you have new printer called CUTEFTP. You can create a report and "View" it. You can then "Print" it and use the CUTEFTP printer. If will ask you for a file location and name. You now have an PDF file of the report.
These simple steps will help you manage your contacts, your communications and your follow-up tasks.
Regards,
Hale
Distribuidor independiente con el mercado América. Número del registro del Web del mA: 0906019
Independent Distributor With Market America. MA Web Reg Number: 0906019