If you’re like me, you’ve been binge-watching Marie Kondo’sTidying Upon Netflix. I have completely torn up my home, made my husband, kids, and dogs miserable, and realized that very few things I own “spark joy.” Despite all of the hard work and turmoil I have created, I feel amazingly prepared to tackle the next project and definitely feel happy when I look at my organized closet and drawers now.

All of this tidying up got me thinking about Online Sales Specialists and their CRMs. Some of you have thousands and thousands of prospects you’ve accumulated over the years. It can be a daunting task to organize your leads, let alone think about prospecting and calling them! And I’m pretty sure this is not sparking joy in your lives.

Here are some tips on how to tidy up and organize your prospects:

1. Segment by rating or current prospect status.I suggest separating into non-responsive, responded (actively engaged), long term or nurturing (I’m retiring in 2 years), and special groups (Coming Soon Communities and Realtors).

2. Segment by date.For non-responsive, responded, and long-term or nurturing, I recommend segmenting by lead created date.  You’ll want to pull leads that are 45 days or older for these lists. The special group lists don’t need date segmentation.
   
   It’s important to consider dates because secondary to segmenting our leads by rating, we want to be thinking about using our new segmented lists for prospecting. And we don’t want to prospect – “Would love to reconnect!” – to newer leads within the last 45 days. That really wouldn’t make sense!   

3. Segmenting by date – Part 2.For those of you with a huge database of leads, I recommend taking your date segmenting a step further and create a separate aged lead list. For example, this list would consist of leads from 2017 and earlier. This segmentation will help define your prospecting a bit better.

4. Accountability list- Responded with No Activity Planned.Stuff slips through the cracks. Especially when you’re runnin’ and gunnin’ and oh yeah you were in the middle of working in your CRM, and you receive a prospect call.

I recommend creating a list of current responded or engaged leads that don’t have a future activity scheduled. Reviewing this list every week will ensure you don’t miss any opportunities. And it feels good to reach out and get their current status. If they’ve bought elsewhere, release them because they no longer spark joy!

Now is the perfect time to get your prospects organized. We’ve got to weed out the suspects and focus on the prospects. Think of your CRM like your home. You’ve got to create a little turmoil, dump out everything, and put it back together to create something really special. Once you get organized, you’ll feel better and be ready to tackle prospecting in an intentional way.