At our Orange County IMC breakfast meeting on April 1, learn how to build sales for your consulting practice by using readily available software and online tools to manage prospective clients and ongoing client relationships so that nothing falls in the cracks. The same software tools can also help you manage actual consulting engagements.

Many management consultants run their own business by the seat of their pants, without any systematic program to manage client relationships. Don't be among them, since many business opportunities are lost due to lack of timely communication and follow-up. Sole practitioners who rely on prospecting and established consultants who rely on referrals are equally at risk.

Our main speaker will be Mark Friedman, President of The Velos Group, Inc., a consulting firm which helps companies grow sales through database marketing, direct mail, sales force automation, telemarketing, and improved sales lead management. Mark will present the leading software tools available to consultants for database marketing and customer relationship management (CRM). He will teach us how to identify our best prospects using database marketing techniques usually reserved for big companies. And he will demonstrate sales force automation techniques to automate the client relationship management aspect of our practice.

Assisting Mark will be Rich Heimann, and expert on ACT! contact management software. Mark and Rich will access an client database and display results using an LCD projector.

If you want to build your consulting sales and maintain a growing client base, this will be a breakfast not to miss. Expect a lively discussion, as attendees share their experience with software tools.

This one of our monthly Orange County IMC Breakfast meetings -- a great low-cost learning and networking opportunity for your consulting business. These meetings are held at Hof's Hut Restaurant near OC Airport on the first Thursday of every month.

• Place: Hof's Hut Restaurant, 18850 Douglas, Irvine 92612. Map
  When driving south on MacArthur from I-405, turn left on Douglas just before your reach Campus Drive, then turn left into the restaurant parking lot.
• Date: Thursday, April 1, 2004.
• Time: 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
• Price: $10 for IMC members, $15 for non-members, exact change appreciated. This includes any choice from the IMC hot breakfast menu, tax and tip included.
• RSVP: to Harald Weiss

• IMC Orange County Breakfast Meetings.
  Held at Hof's Hut near OC Airport on the first Thursday of every month.

• Other Southern California IMC Breakfast Events.
  Held near LAX, in the San Fernando Valley, and in San Diego.

• IMC Chapter Dinner Meetings.
  Held on the third Tuesday of every month at the Renaissance Hotel near LAX.