About the Author

Martin Gomez is a creative director and the co-founder of Working Creative. He is a former agency owner, design school professor, and as a freelancer, has worked with household brands for Canada’s top marketing agencies. 

I’ve got a good friend named Dan. The kind of friend where you smile hitting send on an email and look forward to their reply.

It just occurred to me how many friends I have named Dan and any one of them could be reading this. I love you all, boys. 

This Dan is the Dan I met when the company I worked for wanted to work with the company he worked for. The two of us met a half-dozen times to exchange hockey chirps and maybe make a deal happen. And the deal did happen. And then it didn’t. And then I thought the new friendship was over. 

But I made a note to reach out to Dan again. I actually plugged it into my CRM - a Trello board I keep to manage sales leads - except I wasn’t looking to sell him anything. 

When I reached out to Dan it was like no time had passed and no deal had un-happened. The chirps picked up right where they left off (Dan always comes prepared with copious notes on the Ottawa Senators) and soon enough we were exchanging advice, intros and referrals.

You’re in their DMs. I’m in their CRMs. We are not the same.

If you’re just starting out in business you’ve heard “CRM” (Customer Relationship Management) get thrown around a lot - and if you’ve been in the business a while you may dread the term. 

“CRM” calls to mind automated cold calls and dense sales software when all you need sometimes is to send someone a text. But a CRM is a process. A lifestyle, really. A way of keeping track of your relationships in whatever way is most natural to you.

As a freelance creative (and formerly as an agency owner) I don’t need a complex system or CRM software - but I definitely need something. Even a small handful of leads can wilt when you get distracted by nonsense like actual creative work.

I personally use Trello but it can be as simple as post-its or a Google Sheet. My format is very unoriginal and very simple: 

The Recipe

Five columns (left to right):

• Leads - people you think there might be an opportunity to work with

• Contacted - people you’ve reached out to

• Scheduled - people with which you have an upcoming meeting scheduled

• Delivered - people you’ve pitched or delivered a proposal to

• In Progress - people you are actively working with

Whenever you meet someone you might be able to work with, drop their name and contact info into the first column. Then start working them across the board. 

The Game

Every Monday, which I (in a cool way) call “Biz Dev Mondays”, update the board with new leads and try to move as many people as possible over to the next column.

I also have special columns:

• Contact Again - for when projects have finished up

• The Warmer - for when there’s nothing really going on but I don’t want to forget about these folks

• The Cooler - where I banish people who ghost me. Do you know who I am?

The way these columns work, is every Biz Dev Monday I challenge myself to pull 10 people from these columns (even ghosters!) and put them in my Contacted column. 

How to Make it Not-Weird

By now, you’re only reading down this far to find out where I put Dan. 

Dan’s a cool guy, and it would be lame for me to set schedule to check in with him. Plus he’s actually a business development executive and he would detect it. 

I put Dan and many other friendly folks in the Contact Again column and when it feels like it’s been just long enough, I reach out.

On some Biz Dev Mondays, it can feel like you’ve emailed everyone you know and you start to feel like a worthless scammer looking for Xbox gift cards. On those days, it can really help the mood to have a few warm contacts to send a hello to. 

You’re not worthless. You’re organized!

How to Build Your Own CRM

1. Start with Google sheets, an Excel spreadsheet or an actual sheet.

2. Make your columns (Lead, …)

3. Drop everyone you know into the leads column. (If you’re not sure if you can get work from them, drop them in Leads anyways)

4. Email/Call/DM 10 people (or more) from the Leads list.

5. Start moving them along as they reply.

When you get a meeting in the books, choose what you want to propose:

• Pitch some work together (ideal)

• Ask for advice or feedback

• Ask for an intro

• Just let them know what you do

Or don’t propose anything at all. The magic of meetings is how sometimes you just want to catch up and the wildest idea or juiciest lead emerges entirely on its own.

Speaking of The Magic of Meetings™ , in our next issue we’ll cover a strategy for when things are down real bad and you feel like you’ve got no one to drop in that first column. 

For now, email your friends, email your Dans, and go ahead and drop me in your first column and let’s meet again for the first time: [email protected]

The One-Question Interview

The plot-twist to all of this is Dan has had a career full of titles like Chief Growth Officer so he definitely has a system that makes mine look like sticks and gum. His ability to keep a conversation going across chance encounters remains an inspiration to me and I’m happy to share his insights here.

Working Creative: What value do you see in business relationships that extend beyond immediate opportunities?

Dan Clark: We're human first and while we are all working towards financial goals, we should be empathic and supportive.

After 25 years, I'm continually blown away at how closely linked "new business / growth" and "new gig / talent acquisition" are.

It's a reminder that we should consider that every "new business prospect" could be a future colleague, and most importantly a human going through a ton of non-business stuff: be kind and give without remembering (stopping short of spec creative, of course!)

Bonus Question:

Working Creative: What do you imagine/picture/visualize when you hear the words “Working Creative”?

Dan Clark: Breaking the theory to reality threshold: someone who is equally thinking abstractly on a creative solution, while still "on the tools" to make it happen. 

Further Reading

This strategy ties back to our handbook The Five Most Effective Ways I Learned to Get Creative Work I Love. Specifically, it ties to Effective Thing #1: Understanding (and Riding) Sales Cycles because it provides a simple solution for blipping on all the right radars in your network. You can also use it as a tool for Effective Thing #2: Creating Genuine Connections. A big part of making a connection is maintaining it.

Parting Thought

Being a freelance creative is just about the best job I can imagine. No two projects are ever the same, you meet new people all the time, and you can choose when you want to take time off.

The hard part is you can’t choose when you get to work and it can be tough trying to get in front of people when you need to pick up some projects.

The CRM process above has helped me so much that it might be the single most valuable strategy I have to share on how to get work. But it doesn’t work overnight. It’s a process and it needs time and maintenance.

Don’t take it personally when people don’t reply. You never know what’s going on over there. Even the ghosters! It can be satisfying to banish someone to the Cooler column (or whatever you choose to name it). But don’t keep folks in columns too long. Remember that you’re great. Keep your chin up. Email your people and get busy getting busy.