HighRise for Relationship Building

(For future posting on my Marketing Tips blog (http://www.volcanicmarketing.com/blog/)

HighRise is a contact manager from the award winning developers at 37 Signals, a leading Web 2.0 company. What makes HighRise different than Microsoft Outlook, Act, SalesForce, or other systems is simplicity.

It gets rid of many complicated screens & features that you’ll find in a traditional CRM. What’s left is a beautiful system (very Apple’ish) that is a pleasure to use.

I have found HighRise to be great tool for relationship building so I’d like share exactly how I use it.

1. Have a Freakishly Amazing Memory by Adding Notes About People

The best part of HighRise is the ability to add notes/comments to people. Outlook, SalesForce.com and everyone else has this ability. What’s different about HighRise is that you’re always 2 clicks away from adding notes for people.

1. Find the contact using the live search directory on the left
2. Type your note and yes it defaults to the notes box so you can just start just start typing as soon as you get to someone’s contact page
3. Click save and it adds it into the persons history

With such little work required, you can easily do it every time you have the phone ring.

2. Place People Into Lists by Tagging People

During my Relationship Rockstar coaching program, one of the first tasks I give to my clients is to make 3 lists: “List A – Family & Friends”, “List B – People Actively Helping You” and “List C – People to Build Relationships With”.

Think of a tag as a list of people. Let’s say you tag 20 people with “build relationship.” You can later go and click on “build relationship” and get a list of the 20 people you tagged.

Here are some tags I use often:

• aspiration contact – for people who have nothing to do with my success but I still want to know, such as my favorite artists and political figures.

• 300 – for people who are my best clients, refer me business, help me out regularly somehow and will be important to my future success.

• did Blah Blah – I use this to tagging format to quickly identify activities of people. For example, everyone who attends my Relationship Building Web Secrets Seminar gets tagged with did RBS Web Seminar and people who have commented on my Marketing Tips blog get tagged did Comment on mTips blog. This way I can later in and do things with that list… such as import into my Constant Contact and send a personalized email.

• Don’t Know – For people who somehow got into my contact database but I don’t remember who they are, I use this tag to quickly identify them. This way I can work on getting to know them (if appropriate.)

• for Blah Blah – I use for to identify topics people are passionate about. I met a woman named Edna Campbell recently. After a quick search online, I found out she was involved with the Susan Komen Breast Cancer foundation… so I tagged her for Breast Cancer Fight.

• from Blah Blah – I use from to identify where people have lived. For example, I moved to the United States in 1997 from Fiji Islands. I would tag myself from Fiji.

• has Blah Blah – I use has to identify people who have certain things, such as an has MBA or has Connections. After I give someone Ponder Pearls, I’ll tag them with has Ponder Pearls.

• in Blah Blah – I use in to identify the industry people are in or have been in. Some examples include: in Associations, in Automotive, in Business, in Communication, in Community Building, in Construction, in Consulting, in Economics, in Engineering, in Events, in Fashion, in Financial, in Furniture, in Graphic Design, in Health Care, etc.

• is Blah Blah – I use the is tag to identify the roles someone plays. Some examples include: is Assistant, is Author, is Blogger, is Chef, is Christian, is Client, is Consultant, is Dancer, is Dentist, is Designer, is DJ, is Electrician, is Entrepreneur, is Executive, is Family, is Founder, is Friend, is Greek, is Indian, is Islamic, is Man, is Married, etc.

• likes Blah Blah – I use like to identify their likes. Some examples include: likes Cars, likes Meditation, likes Montreal, likes Never Eat Alone, etc.

• plist Blah Blah – I often identify people I want to know using lists that are published. Some examples include: plist Fast 50 2006, plist Sacramento Business Journal Top 25, etc.

• prospect Blah Blah – I use prospect as a way to quickly identify prospects for the various products & services we offer at Volcanic. Example uses are: prospect Email Marketing, prospect Ponder Pearls, prospect Sales Presentation, prospect Web Design, etc.

• school Blah Blah – I use school to identify universities they have attended. Ex. school UC Davis, school UC Berkeley, etc.

• via Blah Blah – I use via to keep track of how I got introduced to someone. Ex. via Metro Business Expo, via Michelle Binod, via Money Singh, via mTips Blog, via Project Play, via Reaching Out, via Starbucks, via Tania von Allmen, via TechCoire, via Tripp Kuehnis, via Website, etc.

3. Link Incoming Emails To Contacts… And Get The Complete Picture

HighRise has a very unique feature called a DropBox. A DropBox is an email address that you can forward other people’s emails and it will get connected with their contact inside HighRise. And if that person does not exist inside HighRise, HighRise will create a new contact for you and connect it to that person.

I have my Outlook setup to forward emails from everyone in my address book to my DropBox so I can at any point in time go to my HighRise, open up a person and see all the email communication I have had with them… in addition to the notes I have taken for them. This feature is really handy.

4. Never forget a task

HighRise allows you to create tasks for people… and it can send you reminders on your cell phone via text messages. Let’s say you call someone and they say they can’t talk right now. You ask them when you should call back. They give you a day and time. You add a task into your HighRise as “Call Person X RE: Blah blah P: (555) 555 5555” and you give it a time and date. On that day at that time, you will get a text message on your cell phone with their name, what the call is about and the number you need to dial. I love it.
Add a photo to their account

HighRise lets you add a photo for each contact you have in there. I love this feature because it makes business a lot more personal. Photos are easy to find on corporate websites and if you can’t find ‘em, just ask for them. The mere act of asking makes the relationship more personal. If people ask me why I need their photo, I just tell them I need it for my contact manager.

Your turn…

How do you use HighRise for relationship building?

One little thing we do for the clients/contacts that refer us to an opportunity is give them a bottle of wine to say thanks.

Only a small gesture and a simple thing to do but it began opening up issues like: what wine do they prefer, what have we given them in the past, what was it for etc.

Highrise is just perfect for helping with this. Wine preference goes in the contacts “About” section and the gift transaction is logged as a note. Everyone on the team has access to the information. Nice, neat and easy to manage.

Thinking forward, it would be great to be able to sift all notes on a particular contact according to a tag or a search.

We also use Highrise as a phone message system by using the allocated tasks.