Use Your Signature Line for Creating Templates

With the eclectic client base I work with, I must have ran across practically every CRM application out there, from out of the box to web based. And one consistent question I hear when discussing ways to leverage your time, develop systems and become more efficient is, “I notice I’m re-creating a lot of emails that I send out. Is there an easier way to streamline this?”

Yes there is. Develop templates; a solution to avoiding time consuming redundancy in your work. While many applications have a template functionality, some out of the box solutions such as Outlook do not. Here’s what you do, especially if you’re an Outlook user.

Use Your Signature Line for Creating Templates

If you use Outlook, you can easily create templates using your signature line. That’s right, the same tool you used to create the signature line that has all of your contact information.

Here's how you can save literally hours out of your week. Think about those emails which you type over and over again each day or even week. For example, if you're a salesperson or manager, you may have certain types of emails you send out to a variety of people as well as those prospects, depending upon where they are in your selling cycle. As such, here are just a few templates you can create.

1. Cover letter for proposals
2. Follow up and reconnecting
3. Thank you for your referral
4. Initial contact in your prospecting/cold calling process (and secondary contact and so on.)
5. Links, collateral materials that prospects request
6. Asking for referrals
7. Thanking clients for their business
8. Initial analysis/form to send prospects
9. Weekly sales meeting agenda
10. Scheduling meetings with clients
11. Voice mail templates
12. Opening statement and questions used for cold calling
13. Invoices
14. Inbound inquiries about your product or service from prospects via phone, email or website.

What a great way to save precious time and energy. Stop creating more work for yourself. Once you have created your template system for emails, you'll be able to spend more time on productive, revenue generating tasks and less time reinventing your emails.