A wise man once said, “you’re only as good as the trousers you wear” and boy was he right.

Now, the above has nothing to do with what I’m about to post and - in truth - I just made it up, but it’s a compelling thought isn’t it?

Now that you’re totally onboard, let’s talk about doing a better job of managing your database, for ‘tis the very foundation upon which your outreach lives and dies.

1) I love a list.

2) Here is one, featuring three items.

1) Don’t make your database too big. If you start off with 400 populated prospects on a list you’re going to struggle to ‘get round’ it all before the prospects you so diligently populated in spots #300 onward start to go stale.

2) Be realistic. Don’t just go for vanity clients; think about the clients you’ve done well for, then build a profile from those and go fishing with the same bait for the same kinds of companies that ‘bit’ last time.

3) Cull with wild abandon. Once you’ve hit the same prospect fruitlessly with five emails and called 15 times, it might be best to admit it just isn’t happening for you and instead move on to fresh targets. The fact that your database is shrinking is a good thing; it means you’re working through it in an intelligent way, and now have capacity for fresh, better-targeted prospects thanks to what you’ve learnt from your efforts thus far.

I hope that helps. If you’d like more of our wisdom, please get in touch.

And don’t forget your trousers.