For many, it can be difficult to fully understand what the daily routine and work flow looks like for a career-oriented freelance factoring consultant. In the short lesson below, we provide some ideas and examples. Understand, everyone works differently. Some factoring brokers will focus more heavily on networking. Some, in fact, invest their marketing time 100% towards networking. Others, and especially those with limited experience with social media or who are in more rural areas without a lot of networking opportunities, will focus more heavily on direct marketing. We try to give a balanced example below for an average broker that utilizes both networking and direct marketing for lead generation
All brokers will generate leads uniquely and much depends on their “soft skills” and how well they are developed. Below we provide an example of an average daily workflow for a successful broker.
Additionally, be on the lookout for notices from SCORE, your local SBDC, your Chamber of Commerce, or any other incubator or business support organization that might be scheduling face-to-face networking opportunities in the form of after hours get togethers, luncheons, live seminars, etc. When you find upcoming face-to-face networking opportunities, ALWAYS make room for them on your daily calendar. Plan other marketing campaigns around them. They are too important to miss.
Follow up calls to your mailings are essential and are “qualifiers”. When you find there are fewer and fewer empty label fields, it’s time to generate another mailing to 60 – 120 new businesses. Always try to maintain a workload of 50 or more suspects at a minimum to call for follow up. When the number falls below that, it’s time for another mailing campaign.
When you make a call and find the owner rude and obviously not interest in any further follow up, label the business as a “pit” and delete the record from your Avery mailing list. Keep the record, however, in Pipedrive and do NOT delete the business name. This will keep you from adding that business into your compiled list at a later date.
Although it will take a little time, build a network of local bank loan officers. You will meet them through the Chamber of Commerce events you attend and through LinkedIn. Local bank loan officers are the number one primary source of great clients for you. As you develop that networking list, try to get together for lunch about once a month to help build a solid relationship with each individual. Having lunch by yourself is non-productive. One your goals as a broker is to “never eat alone”.
Just as eating lunch alone is non-productive, not investing time in after hours networking can be looked at exactly the same way. Fill calendar space up as it presents itself.
Evenings are typically the time for writing articles for your blog and networking on social media. Blogging is fast becoming one of the most productive methods of lead generation and you should try to get an article out about once every week. Post your articles on social media to drive visitors to your website. You can typically get great ideas for your articles from the emails, bulletins you receive from the many factors whose newsletters you subscribed to when building your lenders directory. The more visitors your website has, the greater likelihood you will generate a form response from a small business owner as a lead. Building a blog following does not happen overnight. In fact, it will take many months before you begin to see results. But the earlier you start, the sooner you will begin to see the leads trickle in.