Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Tracking prospects

[David G Adams (dadams]

> After meeting prosective members we are looking for an efficient way to ke
> track of them.  We wonder if there is a system of following up without
> seeming to high-pressure them. We hesitate to invite them to our business
> meetings before they have a better understanding of cohousing.  

I'm curious as to how your prospects will ever have "a better understanding 
of cohousing" without going to your business meetings.  I've always found 
that prospects are overwhelmed, but impressed by business meetings.  It's a 
really good way to filter people's interest, too.  I've met prospects who 
seem realy solid on the cohousing concept, but who aren't up to the reality 
of devoting large amounts of time to meetings.

That said, here's what Cornerstone did / does.  There's a "Mentor maven" who 
keeps a database of prospects with status information and a history of 
contacts with each prospect.  Each prospect is assigned to a "Mentor" who 
calls the prospect some time after the initial contact (usually an 
orientation meeting) If the prospect declines interest, we wouldn't bug them 
anymore.  If they express interest, the mentor calls them with meeting 
reminders.  The mentor also answers any questions that the prospect has.  If 
the prospect gets involved and develops a rapport with someone else, he / 
she can switch mentors.  All full members of the group were asked to be 
mentors for at least 1 or 2 prospects.  We even set up a voice mailbox so 
mentors could give updates to the maven, and the maven handed out updated 
prospect data sheets to the mentors at business meetings.

This may sound unnecessarily formal, but it's amazingly easy to lose 
prospects by forgetting to stay in touch or by not notifying them when a 
meeting changes time or location.  When you consider how much you spend on 
marketing, you really need to keep track of your prospects.  Personally, I 
wouldn't recommend doing any hard selling or est-like pressure; but do keep 
in touch with people.


Dave Adams
Former Cornerstoner - part of unnamed inner suburban cohousing group

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  |\/\/\/|  David G. Adams           |  Homebrewer
  |____  |  U4 Consulting            |  Cohousing Wannabe
 OO    ) |  Arlington, MA            | "I used to be indesicive,
 (       |  dadams [at] world.std.com     |  but now I'm not so sure"
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