Sales Systems & Automations | Ep 034

Kacie: So this is a process you need to work this into. Number one, this is the number one thing that you should implement today. Yeah. Is how do I keep track of all of these contacts? I struggle with that. Do you? Yeah. Yeah.

The Business Project podcast business can be complicated. We break it down to regular people like 

John: us can understand and find success. I'm John Crespo, accountant and consultant. I'm 

Kacie: Kacie Bryant, marketer and event planner. If you run a business or want to run a business, 

John: welcome to the show.

Sales processes. I have a struggle with that. Why? I have so many sales process ideas in my head that I just can't implement. 

Kacie: Like I Implementation is the hardest part. Yeah. Of everything in business. I feel like it for sure. 

John: And I think my, my biggest issue is I try to do 'em all at the same 

Kacie: time. Oh yeah.

That's hard too. When you 

John: throw everything at the wind and try to see what sticks when it comes to sails. It's not necessarily 

Kacie: the right approach. No. Well, and I think it's overwhelming too because uh, 90% of the time you're gonna hear no in sales. Exactly. You fail, you fail more in sales than you succeed.

And so if you try something and you're failing, you might quit too soon. Yeah. So, 

John: uh, being able to kind of like hone in on one process that you can then trial and error it. Find out what's working and find out what doesn't, will probably be the best 

Kacie: approach. What do you think? Yeah, I think so too. And John that we interviewed last week is an amazing, amazing resource.

If you guys haven't watched that episode yet, go back and watch our interview with John and it's got all of his contact information. He, he showed us through his sales processes. It is all automated. Yes, there's a, he's a one man show and it is all. I mean, it just blew my mind for real. Yeah.

John: Yeah. If you haven't seen that episode, I highly recommend going back.

Um, the guy is a genius. He does it for a living. So, um, being able to implement that stuff. Yep. It's 

Kacie: a game changer. Yeah. So don't get overwhelmed. We're, the purpose of today's podcast is to give you a couple of systems and automations Yep. That you can use in your business when it comes to your sales process.

And the goal is to just walk away today with just one thing. Just pick one thing that you can implement in your business today or this week, and then you'll be rocking it. Yeah. Just one thing. One thing at a time. That's it. 

John: One at a time. Check it off. Try it. See if it works. Go to the next one. Yeah. All right.

I like to start stuff off when we're doing podcasts in defining That's what I was 

Kacie: gonna say. You need to do the definition. Yeah. Yes, you do. You're very good at that. 

John: Like, because I know everybody's like, all right. Sales process. Yeah, that sounds great, but what is it, right? Um, sales automation. Yeah. Okay.

What is, how do you do that? Yeah. You know? Um, so go for it, Mr. 

Kacie: Webster. 

John: And you, you correct me if I'm wrong, right. Or added what I, what I leave out. Okay. Okay. Um, when I think of sales process, Right is the life cycle of when you meet a potential customer or client to, um, the close. Right? Yeah. That's what I would say.

Yeah. And then what you do in that cycle is the process. Mm-hmm. Right? So is there the meet and greet, right? The, the hello, right, like the initial, um, engagement. Mm-hmm. And then you have the, um, the solution. Right. The pitch. The pitch. Right. And then you have the close, and then you have the follow up. Mm-hmm.

That's the process. 

Kacie: That's the process. Wow. But getting specific into the process Yeah. Is the important part. Right. Making sure that you have some automations. Yep. Put in place. So let's define an automation. 

John: I would say an automation is something that runs by itself. Yep. You can, you start the process and then it takes over from there and, and runs it and completes it by itself.

So good at defining things so you don't have to 

Kacie: worry about. Yes, yes. So let's go into some systems for our sales process, like just we, I wanna give you guys some ideas of a basic, if you have absolutely zero sales, Processes in place. Mm-hmm. This is kind of a basic rundown of something that you can do that would be really easy to get started.

Yeah, there. Number one is you need a database, some sort of database to keep track of all of your contacts and your leads. I know this is something that a lot of small businesses struggle with because they go to mingle events or they go to, you know, these networking things or. Um, somebody messages them from Facebook and is like, Hey, I wanna know more about your business, or what other, what services do you offer?

What's your pricing? And they just reply to that message and then it goes away, right? Mm-hmm. If they don't respond. Mm-hmm. So this is a process you need to work this into. Number one, this is the number one thing that you should implement today. Yeah. Is how do I keep track of all of these contacts? I struggle with that.

Do you? Yeah. Yeah. What do you do 

John: now? Well, now I have a, a system, right? I, I have a system that I'm implementing, um, where my, uh, my website actually captures all that information and creates the database for me, right? Right. And implementing that system for that. That's where I struggle the most is when I'm out and about.

Right. How am I capturing that information so I can follow up, follow back up with those, um, those people I met? 

Kacie: Yeah, and it can be overwhelming because. Especially now, I feel like it's so much harder than it was 10 years ago. Because as a business, you know, we have a Facebook page and an Instagram page and an email address and a website, and we go out and about and there's all of these.

Different ways that people can contact us, and so trying to figure out how can we make sure that we're taking all of these and not losing out on opportunities. There's a saying that I absolutely love and I didn't really understand it until I started thinking about sales specifically. Yeah. And marketing.

Is that, what is it a penny? Saved. Is a penny earned? Yes. Is that the saying? Yes. Yeah. I don't know who said it. I'm sorry. It's a good one. Yeah. We can post it. And it's posted in comments. Hundreds of years. A penny saved. As a penny earned. And I think that that is so important to think of when you are talking about your sales process.

Yeah. Because. You're going out spending all of this time trying to get people to message you on your social media, trying to email, trying to reach out. That's what, that's the whole point in, you know, marketing or even doing social media or going to networking events. And if you're not fostering those relationships and taking that one person that contacted you and just like really cultivating it and taking care of it.

Then you're losing out on an amazing opportunity. You have to get another one in in order to replace that. Mm-hmm. And so if you're a penny saved, so if you're saving what is coming into you, it's just as valuable as going out and earning more. Ooh, 

John: that's good. Thanks. 

Kacie: And that's so important. I came up with it on my own.

No, 

John: I'm just kidding you. But I know, but you Did you like that? I know. The, the, the delivery. You know, because think about this, and this is what kind of irks me, right? When it comes to just social media and internet and, and all of that on these, these get rich quick, um, videos that are out there. Yeah. So many, right?

They, they tell you, Hey, establish your business. Get all this business, you know, set up business credit cards and all this stuff, and you can become a, you can get six figures for your business. They don't tell you that you, and if you're gonna be successful, you have to have a process on how you're going to pay that back, number one.

So how are you gonna get clients? How are you gonna get money to pay that back? And then how are you gonna grow? Right. You have to have a sales process if you want to be truly become a six figure business. Yep. 

Kacie: And you wanna cultivate the people that you build relationships with instead of always trying to find new ones.

Exactly. So much better way to do business. 

John: Repeat business, yes. Is like the best business. 

Kacie: Yep. Cuz then those people are also gonna be your biggest champions and your biggest. Cheerleaders. Yeah. And they are going to give you the most referrals, and it's just such a better way to do business. So let's get into some, some systems that are out there.

Mm-hmm. Specifically to where you can create automations with these systems. Love it. And it'll help you today with your sales process. One that we used for a really long time is called Inc. Insightly. Mm-hmm. And there's several of them out there very similar to unsightly. I think Salesforce is another one.

HubSpot. HubSpot, yeah. There's, there's a lot of these types of systems and I think what I would recommend, cuz things aren't gonna work for every, you know, we're all different. We all have different needs. We all have different ways of operating. Our teams are look different. And so my biggest suggestion would be to do a trial of these and see which one you resonate, resonates with you better, which one you feel like would be a better fit for your business.

But so we used in Insightly for a really long time, and. Why I liked Inc. Insightly was because you can set up, it does the whole like sales funnel for you. Mm-hmm. So you're like, okay, I have a new lead. And then you take that lead and you can create processes after that lead and it automatically goes in your task thing.

So you create this lead, you add this automation to it, and then it'll automatically create a list for you. Like follow up with them in three days, send them a card. Follow up with them in six weeks, like whatever. And you create all of that process yourself. And so that is really, really nice. It also gives you the ability to take notes.

So like you can go in and say, Hey, I talked to so-and-so at this networking event, they have a dog named Spot. And so next time when you follow up with them, you pull up the little note and you're like, Hey, just checking on how's your dog spot doing? Yeah. And it just helps build that relationship with them.

I like that. The, um, we stopped using it. We, right now we're using Trello. Okay. Which is interesting. Um, I feel like Trello is just a better, I like certain things about Inc. Insightly better, but I think what we love about Trello is it's not just our sales stuff. Trello is workflow too, right? Everything, workflow, everything.

And Trello is a little bit harder to set up because it's, it's almost like a whiteboard. Like they're handing you this whiteboard and you pretty much have to create all of it from scratch. Mm-hmm. There's templates and things in there, but, um, when you use things like Salesforce and Inc. Insightly, it almost does it for you.

It's like it has that setup for you. But I do, I really like Trello and um, so we had mentioned unsightly, Salesforce, Trello, HubSpot, all of those. But that is something that I think you need to walk away with today. If you don't have something in place to keep track of all of your relationships and all of your leads, that's what you need to do.

What 

John: do you think a good system would be for like a retail store or a pizza place? 

Kacie: That's a good question. Um, I say there's a lot of 

John: those out there, right? Say there are that want repeat business. Yeah. But don't reach out to their. Previous customers. 

Kacie: Yeah. So one of the things that I was gonna get into next, which is a good segue into that, look at, look at, see how we bond.

Look. Yeah. Is a text club or an email club? Yes. An email list. Yes. That's what I was thinking in my head. Yep. All right, good. Those are, um, this is another thing that is so incredibly powerful. It takes a lot of work to do in the front end, just like building a sales system, uh, takes a lot of work to do on the front end, but once you get it set up, It's cheesecake.

The hardest part I must say about all of this, and I know you can relate cuz I know that this is something that you struggle with, is using it. So, oh, that's me because, uh, those of us that are, why you calling me out like that? I know. I'm sorry. I struggle with it too. But those of us that are business owners are wearing a hundred different hats.

Yeah. And we'll be in the car and somebody will call, or we'll answer a message in the middle of a meeting and, and then we'll just, like, it'll go away and we'll forget, oh, we have to actually use the system that we put in place. Mm-hmm. I have to take two seconds and put that into this funnel to get it moving forward.

John: Yeah. I think a lot of people don't realize that you, there is some front end work that has to be done to create a good system. Mm-hmm. Take time outta your busy schedule, right? And if you truly want to grow, listen to, if you truly want to grow your business, take time outta your busy schedule. And I'm talking to myself at the same time.

I'm talking to the camera, right? And, and put the work in to set it up so that then you can save time. In the long run. Yep. You gotta to give time to save 

Kacie: time, not just save time, but, um, get missed opportunities. Mm-hmm. Like, you're missing on so many things by not having these systems set up and put in in place.

For sure. Missing sales, missing sales, missing income, missing a lot. So with emails, this is something that is. Very, um, like for me right now, because for both the business project and for my other company local, we are, I have two separate teams working on both of those. We've revamped our platforms for both of those.

Mm-hmm. And so we are completely redoing our entire email, um, strategy and just with local, I think there are, 70 or 80 emails that we're having to write. Yes, it's a lot and it's, again, it's so much work from the front end, but once you get it set up and running, All you have to do is just maintain it. You know, go in.

Mm-hmm. Make sure it's still relevant. If something changes, you change it. Tweak something here or there. I mean, you can even get crazy with it. Like a lot of these email platforms, you can create split campaigns. So you create two separate email strategies and then it'll split it off and then you can see which one does better.

So this is all advanced stuff. Don't get overwhelmed. Yeah. But, um, work your way up to that. Yeah. Yes. Step by step, step by step. But there are so many things that you can do. So if you are a retail store or a restaurant, I mean pretty much any business, you should also have an email list. Yeah, and you should also have some sort of text club list because this is an essential way, again, a penny saved.

As a penny earned. This is an essential way to capitalize on the people that have. Come into your business and that pizza and that are fans of yours already. Just a reminder, Hey, we're still here. Yeah. 

John: How so? I'm, I'm thinking in my head, you know, there's probably a lot of people saying, well, okay, I know we do sell some stuff when we're, when people are coming in to buy something.

How do I gather that information and your p o s system that you use to do the sale? Gathers that information for you. Mm-hmm. You can download a spreadsheet. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The majority of them probably do. Uh, I, the ones that I know that are out there right now, um, the squares and the, what's the other popular one?

There's another popular one. Clover? Clover? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, those gather that information. You can download a spreadsheet and upload it to a texting service. Or your email campaign service and reach out to those clients and get them back. Mm-hmm. Offer specials for return customers, you know, it, it allows you to create a campaign.

Right. Isn't that what they're called? Sales campaigns? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Campaigns to get those clients back. Yep. 

Kacie: Yeah. Just to remind them, Hey guys. We're here. Remember that yummy pizza that you ate? Yeah. 10. Now you can get 10% off. 10% off your next one. 

John: Yeah, exactly. Okay. Yeah. Or invite. Invite your neighbors.

Yes. For a 10% 

Kacie: off. Yeah. Yeah. So those are, I think, We're not gonna go into a whole bunch of detail today. We have several videos in the series, um, or several podcasts in this series that we're, we'll go deeper into some aspects of sales. We're gonna talk about how to handle rejection and all of that. I don't remember exactly what, but there's a whole, there's like five or six more Yeah.

In this. And um, and we don't wanna overwhelm you guys, especially if you're just getting started. And even if you are started and you have all of this in place, I think right now is a good time to. Whiteboard it out. Take a look at what you have, how can we improve it? Do our emails need to be updated? If you don't have a text club, let's get a text club going.

Um, you should really get a text club. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Clean out your database of your, of your, um, contacts that you have. Yeah. And just do something I want 

John: to ask you real quick. Um, what do you think about newsletters? 

Kacie: We do newsletters. For local. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And I, um, I love our newsletter. I think people love our newsletters.

Yeah. Yeah. I think newsletters are great. The, so my biggest advice when it comes to any email, any text club, any email, any content that you're putting out there, especially if it's invasive, like by invasive I mean email or text club. It's not like they're randomly scrolling through Facebook. Um, it's kind of interrupting their, their phone.

Right. Um, make sure that it's worth their time. Worth their time. Yeah. You don't wanna write an email just to write an email. Make sure that you provide value in all of these things that you're doing. You, and you don't even really wanna sell people. Right. Quite honestly, everything that you do, especially from a sales perspective, needs to provide value.

Yeah. Relationship 

John: building. Mm-hmm. Right. Getting that. Um, what, what is the, um, the like No. Or the no. Like, and trust. And trust, trust. That, that is, uh, kind of like the focus. So what I like about this actual, this podcast today is, um, we're throwing out there different things to think about so that you can come back to the next ones as we drill into to, to them a little bit more.

Mm-hmm. Right. Um, there's a lot that goes into selling your product or your service. Are you willing to put in the work? Yeah. If you're not willing to put in the work up front. You're always gonna struggle in, you're like, you're gonna be the hamster on the wheel. Mm-hmm. You know, saying, why am I not increasing my sales?

Why are my sales going down? You're gonna be asking yourself that question all the time. Get off that hamster wheel. 

Kacie: Yeah, and I think that this is just a very similar thing with pretty much every aspect of business for accounting. You have to take time beforehand. Mm-hmm. You have to make it a priority to sit down, set up a good accounting system.

Put some automation in place. So True. Otherwise, you're gonna be at the end of the year and spend three weeks and all stressed out trying to figure out how to turn in your taxes. Right. Right. Yeah. And hiring an employee, that's another great example. As business owners, we struggle. We don't wanna hire people or delegate things cuz we do it better.

Yep. And we don't wanna take time to train people and Ooh, that's a struggle for me. And build out, yeah. Those systems for them. But even though it takes time at the beginning, it's an investment. These are all investments in your business because you're putting something in, but you're gonna get more out of it later.

Right. 

John: Exactly. Yeah. It's all about, um, sustainability too. Mm-hmm. You know, you're setting yourself up for the long haul. And I was just having a conversation about this the other day, um, with, um, one, some of my people is like, when we're talking to potential clients, Don't think about the short term benefit or the short term.

Hey, let's, this is the sale I need. Think about the long term relationship that you want to build with your client or your customer, um, because you may not get the sale today. But as long as you stay in communication and you build that relationship, you could get a sale tomorrow. Mm-hmm. You know, or down the, the road continue to provide value, right?

Mm-hmm. And, and multiple times. Mm-hmm. You know? Mm-hmm. They'll continue to have you top of mind. And I think that's the best thing when it comes to sales is, um, putting yourself top of mind of who your customer client is. Yeah. That's 

Kacie: good. Wow. Cool. Hopefully this wasn't too much for you guys. Hopefully it was helpful.

John: They helped me. Yeah, it helped me a lot. Good. And because sometimes you gotta talk it out. Yeah. You know, we we're business owners. But we're not experts. Right. We're not necessarily experts cuz we're, we're doing this podcast cuz we're going through what we're talking about. Mm-hmm. And that's why we're sharing this with 

Kacie: you.

Yep. Yeah. Making it, we make it simple. Yeah. We do all the research and we mess all up all the time. Yeah. So that we can tell you what not to do. Let 

John: us mess it up so you don't have to. 

Kacie: Yeah, exactly. Yes. So your takeaway today, Is to find if you do not have a process in place for your sales mm-hmm.

Specifically a, um, something to track everybody that you talk to. Whether it be somebody that bought from you, somebody that you meet, uh, an event, somebody that message you, messages you through your social media. Or emails you, you need to find a system that works for your business and put that in place.

John: Yes, that's great. Begin tracking everyone you speak to, everyone you come in contact to begin tracking it. Yep. Good 

Kacie: takeaway. And then after you just start tracking them, then you can build out your system from there. So now we have all of these people in one database. Now what are we gonna do with them?

Yep. Are we gonna put them on a email list? Are we gonna put them on a text club? Are we gonna, you know, um, call and follow up with them. Yep. So that, that's what comes next is figuring out what we're gonna do now to keep them top of mind. Ooh, that's good. 

John: Write that down. Mm-hmm. That's your, that's your takeaway.

Start today, today. Wow. This is good. Yeah. Yay. We had a good one. Hope's good. Hope you enjoyed. It's 22 minutes. Yeah, we're good. Yeah. Awesome. So look, we're right on time too. Yep. So hope you enjoyed this and just follow along because we're gonna dig deep and you know you're gonna get some good tools out of this.

And if you want even more, the business project.com is the place to go. 

Kacie: Yeah. The business project.com. I think in the intro, the, I think we need to change you guys. In the intro it says, you say business project.com. Ooh. Yeah. It's the the business project.com. 

John: TB p TB 

Kacie: p. Dot com lots. No, not com of great resources on there.

Don't put tp.com. No, don't do that. That would be a good domain to own. We probably wouldn't even need to do this. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. All right. We will see you guys next week. I don't remember what the topic is, but it's gonna be a good one. It is sales related. Yep. Look, come prepared. 

John: Anytime you wanna make money, you gotta watch.

Listen to the sales. 

Kacie: Yes. All right, you guys have a good rest of your day. We'll see you next week. See you next 

John: week.