Summary

Previously, in Episode 46, Peter Liston from “Trust The Process” explained how business owners can figure out “How To Work Smarter, Not Harder So Your Business Can Grow”

Today Peter joins us to talk about what CRMs you could use in the different stages in business and how to get the most of whatever platform you’re using. 

When starting out in business, centralising or centring on a handful of key tools is important.  Keeping things simple in the tools/software department is more cost effective, both from a money perspective and in terms of time savings.  One of those key software tools would be a project management tool, such as Trello, Asana, Monday or Click-up.  The second key tool you need is account software (Xero and MYOB both work well).  And the third key tool is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool such as HubSpot or Active Campaign. 

CRMs help you set up and automate processes to track your customers along their buying journey.  Although it takes time to think about and set up your processes, using a CRM will save you time, effort and money in the long run.

The two main things you want a CRM to do for you is to remove bottlenecks (anything that slows your sales process down) and wasteful wait time.  Because when you start getting unnecessary wait times in your processes it’s time for re-assessment.

Once your business grows then you can then move onto the larger platforms, but you’d be surprised how much growth Active Campaign or HubSpot can handle.

There are different stages in the customer journey and you want to be able to find a good balance between running marketing campaigns and being able to guide customers in the different stages of the customer journey.

Trudy & Peter also talk about – 

1. Active Campaign & HubSpot are the preferred CRMs for growing businesses – the reasons why
2. Utilising all the features of whatever CRM you decide to use
3. The importance of support from the platform – Are they responsive in live chats? 
4. Depending on your business the key decider is which one is going to be fully functional for your business? 
5. What is Kanban? The different buckets your audiences are in and how this structure can help your business
6. It’s also about being able to set up your CRM correctly so if there is a team member that’s sick there isn’t a need to bother them
7. 3 things to automate with a CRM – Trigger a “pre-populate” in your accounting software, automate your delegation and automated messaging, which is all about sending a specific message to the right person at the right time

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Resources 

Trust The Process Website

Today's Guests

Peter Liston 

Peter brings military precision to small business.  Learn to delegate with control and trust to work in your highest space.  Build a system to run your business, then you run your system.  Don’t just get a CRM, get one that works for you.  Use Virtual Assistants to reduce your admin.  Fall in love with your business again.

Trust the Process.