What to do with all your business cards?

How many business cards have you gathered since you’ve been in business? I’ve seen business owners with hundreds if not thousands of business cards stored in card boxes, in jacket pockets, stapled to diaries and contact details scribbled on bits of paper.

Are you the same? Do you have hundreds of business cards lying around in various places?

I’d like you to ask yourself a question…how effective are these business cards for you at the moment?

A few years ago, I was in the same situation. I had piles of business cards. In fact, I remember I had to go out and buy two more business card boxes because I just did not have the space to hold them all.

But I didn’t actually do anything with them. They were just sat there looking at me.

Occasionally, if someone asked me for some contact details, I’d go through them quickly to find the right person, but rarely found the card I was looking for.

Then I began to realise the power of contacting past contacts and it dawned on me that I would actually need to do something about my business cards. So, I painstakingly sat there and typed them all out onto a database on excel.

Just putting these contacts somewhere made it possible for me to do something with them. For instance, I could:

· Touch base with these contacts to find out how they were getting on.
· Make notes and colour code excel to show what was happening with each person.
· Find people quickly and easily.
· Produce reports and statistics if I needed to.

The most important difference though was that I was able to follow up with people and start to build a relationship with them. Because I could touch base with people properly, I found it had a dramatic difference on my business and got me new customers.

Next time you collect business cards, make sure firstly that you jot down where you met the person and the date. Then, when you get back to your computer, put the person’s contact details onto your database and follow-up with them. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.

I’ve just released a free audio recording on marketing your business. If you’d like a copy, go to www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/clients1.htm

Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small businesses on their marketing and to people who are starting up in business.