Handing out a business card with one’s contact details on it illustrates an investment towards establishing a business relationship. It is the most effective way of getting your contact information out to customers, suppliers or supporters. Similarly, receiving a business card is central to establishing your network of business connections and is the most common way of obtaining contact information as well.
An exchange of business cards is a powerful opportunity for growing business relationships. Here’s how the proper management of business cards can make your company more efficient and the benefits that can be derived from it.
Establish a reliable database of suppliers or sources
Business cards collected at personal meetings are a reliable source of information. However, related details may have also transpired during the occasion: Does this contact offer something special? How long does this contact take to deliver?
These little notes collected at personal meetings, when fed into a contact management system together with contact details, can help the concerned personnel make informed connections with suppliers.
Provide a potential sales lead
Business cards provide a valuable opportunity for increasing sales. By exchanging contact and business information, you are establishing a personal connection that can be used to open opportunities for selling your product or service and building a database of potential customers.
Once more, related additional information adds value to the contact. For instance, having access to details such as launch anniversaries or customers’ birthdays can provide an opportunity to get in touch with a person, making your product or service top of mind and offering a chance for a potential sales conversation.
Build a relevant audience for business communication
Promoting a product or service entails getting your message across to a relevant audience and sharing interesting updates with them. Business cards provide a good database for sending such messages, making for effective communication. This can help build credibility for your business and play an essential role in creating digital marketing success.
Send email blasts
Another advantage of efficient business card management is that a company can send customised bulk emails to all its contacts after they are saved in a centralised database. Sansan, for example, makes it possible to attach tags to a contact when it is saved. For instance, one person’s contact could be tagged as ‘chemical industry’, while another could be tagged as ‘telecom industry’. When required, a customised email can be sent out to all contacts marked with either tag, making it possible to inform them about specific seminars or new services your business can offer them, thus creating new sales opportunities.
Share contacts to enhance sales opportunities
Business cards are extremely beneficial to an organisation. However, companies collect business cards at various events and through several staff members working across different departments. This results in scattered, unorganised data. Instead, if these business cards are shared within an organisation, they could provide opportunities for the company’s employees to use the information to potentially enhance sales by forming connections with those contacts. Effective storage as well as ease of access across the organisation will mean that contacts will still be safe even when employees leave the company because they are safe in a centralised database. This way, the company can safeguard its contact database and not suffer any loss of contact information due to employee turnover.
Contact management systems are effective and safe ways to address this challenge and create an accurate database. They allow business cards to be scanned and stored in a way that makes it easy for anyone in the company to access the data anytime, anywhere. This in turn helps to maximise opportunities and transform business contacts into successful business resources.
