Log Your Business Development Actions and Feel the Power

When you’re feeling stuck with your business development, it can feel like you’re spinning your wheels. Besides tracking the metrics that matter, another effective strategy for gaining traction is to meticulously log all your efforts. This practice has four key benefits:

1. Looking back: You have a quick reference for what you’ve been doing, which is especially helpful when you feel like you’re not making progress.
2. Tracking movement: By logging interactions, you can see how relationships with potential clients evolve over time, from lukewarm initial calls to warmer, more engaged conversations.
3. Revealing patterns: When I started logging everything, I was shocked at the amount of marketing and sales activities I was actually doing. It gave me a chance to take a deeper look and identify gaps or areas for improvement.
4. Strategic planning: Logging allowed me to categorize my efforts and envision where I wanted to expand. For example, I realized I wanted to reach more hospitals, universities, and international clients.

One powerful tool in this logging process is what’s called a “single source of truth” (SSOT) document. This is particularly useful if you’re working with a team. Everyone documents their activities in the same place, allowing you to see what everyone else is doing (or not doing). It helps prevent duplication of efforts and can facilitate introductions or collaborations within your network.

Lastly, consider implementing a weekly planning session at the end of each week. Instead of starting Monday morning wondering who to contact, you can hit the ground running with a pre-planned list of key contacts and activities for the week ahead.

By implementing these strategies—creating meaningful metrics and diligently logging your efforts—you’ll start to feel the traction in your coaching business. Remember, it’s not just about the destination, but also about recognizing and celebrating the journey along the way. So start tracking, start logging, and watch your business gain momentum.

P.S. As we approach the end of the year, it’s a great time to reach out to people you spoke with earlier who weren’t quite ready. As Pam Slim suggests, a simple message like, “Hey, the year has flown by. Whatever happened with XYZ? Would you like to get on a call and talk about it?” can reignite conversations and potentially lead to new opportunities.