In the past couple of months, I showed you how to create your ideal client definition and find clients who fit that definition. I also explained what to say to prospects when you reach out to them in your outbound marketing.
But here’s a mistake I see a lot of freelance writers make: They find a client who is a good fit, reach out to them, and then forget about them after the first outreach. The thinking often goes, “Well, if they don’t respond, they don’t need me.”
But there are many reasons why a prospect might not respond to your first message. They could be busy, they aren’t online, your message or email got lost in the mix, they’re on parental leave… the list goes on.
And let’s face it — moving on after the first message isn’t the best strategy. As they say, the money is in the follow-up. In 2024, I converted a client I’d followed up with for 1.5 years. They added $5,000 to my revenue… not bad, right?
However, following up with prospects is hard when you don’t have a system to store their information or track their progress through your sales pipeline.
So, in the final piece of this outbound-marketing puzzle, let’s build you a simple system to track your prospects and follow-ups. Trust me, this is simpler and more beneficial than you can imagine.
Let’s get into it.
How to Use an Excel Sheet to Track Prospects, Leads, and Follow-Ups
Step 1: Find a company that fits your ideal client definition. There are many places you can start your search. Sites like Crunchbase show you companies that have recently received funding. Lists like the Inc. 5000 let you sort out companies by industry and find the ones on a strong growth trajectory. You could also start by finding companies similar to your current or previous clients. Go to your client’s LinkedIn page and look for the section called People Also Viewed to find similar companies.
Step 2: Study the prospective company’s LinkedIn page and website. Find their employee count, revenue, and funding information, and tally these details against your ideal client definition. If this company qualifies, dig deeper into their current content. If you offer whitepapers, see what kind of whitepapers the company is publishing. Make notes of any gaps you see in their strategy or content. Also, note what they’re doing right. Put this information into the People sheet inside the Excel sheet downloadable.
Step 3: Find two to three key contacts at the company using LinkedIn. Go to the company page, click on the People tab, and search for keywords such as Content Marketing Manager, Content Director, or Marketing Manager.
Add these contact details to the People sheet.
Step 4: Reach out to the contacts on LinkedIn or over email using the scripts you’ll find in this article. (You can add the scripts to the Scripts sheet in the Excel file to keep them handy.)
Step 5: When someone accepts your connection request on LinkedIn but doesn’t respond to your message, move them to the Prospects sheet. Color code them green in the People sheet.
Once a month, sift through your connections list on LinkedIn. Find people from your People sheet who have accepted your connection request and move them to the Prospect sheet. Also, send them your first introductory message. Note the date of this first message in the corresponding column in the Prospects sheet.
Once a quarter, reach out to your People list again through email, LinkedIn Inmails, or personalized connection requests.
Step 6: When someone from your People or Prospects sheet inquires about your services or books a discovery call, move them to the Leads sheet. Color code them green in the People/Prospects sheet.
Step 7: Follow up with Prospects and People once a month a few times before moving them to a quarterly follow-up schedule. Pick a date, like the 15th of every month, when you’ll follow up with these two groups.
Follow-up with leads every two weeks at first, then monthly, before moving them to a quarterly follow-up schedule. What works for me is scheduling lead follow-ups on my calendar. These are high-priority leads who have inquired about my services. So, I add them to my calendar and keep following up with them as scheduled. Note the date of each follow-up you make for each prospect and lead.
Step 8: Add notes from discovery calls and messages into the Notes section. Take notes about what they’re focusing on during your conversation and other details as per your ideal client definition and what matters to you.
Step 9: If you realize at any point that they aren’t really a good fit for your ideal client definition, color code them red and move on.
Step 10: (Optional) Press the bell icon on their profiles, so you get notified each time your prospects and leads post on LinkedIn. Then, you can interact and engage with their content and stay top-of-mind with them. Make sure your comments are authentic. Being overly pitchy and sales-y causes you to lose “aura points,” as the kids would say.
Note: This system is not perfect. But it’s good enough. Use it for a while and adapt it to suit your needs better.
The Advantages of This Excel Sheet System
This simple Excel sheet makes it easy to maintain prospect and lead information in one place and gives you insights into what kind of companies you’re attracting and converting.
Over time, you’ll spot patterns that will reveal how prospects are discovering you, how often you’re getting on discovery calls, what’s common among the companies who come in ready to work with you, and what’s common among all the companies who didn’t turn into good clients.
With all this information, you can fine-tune your ideal client definition. You might look at this data and say, “Well, companies with less than 20 employees aren’t turning into good clients for me. They either don’t convert at all, or if they do, they end up asking for discounts or considerably shrinking the project size, so the revenue from the project doesn’t justify all the admin work. Maybe I should stop working with companies with less than 20 employees.”
You’ll also discover what’s working in your marketing and lead generation. “I see most of my clients find me through LinkedIn. Maybe I should post more on LinkedIn and polish up my profile.”
Use this simple system for at least three months. Then, you’ll see the immense benefits of recording all this information and following a system for your lead generation. If you’ve got questions about this method, you can DM me on LinkedIn.
