Industrial Marketer
Industrial Marketer
CRM Implementation and Usage for Industrials
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The elongated buying journeys in the industrial sector are a great argument for using a customer relations management tool. The many touchpoints and check-ins during the journey provide fuel to power your CRM engine, and that data eventually helps you make insights about the best sources for customers and key points in their buying journey.
Welcome back, everybody to another episode of the industrial Marketer Podcast your place for the tips, tech trends and tactics for industrials who care about driving leads to their companies. I'm one of your hosts. My name is Joey, a humble industrial marketer advocate. And I, as always enjoined by my cohort, my friends, Nels on the shelf, Jensen, how are you, my man, it's seasonal time we're able to read it out and actually put you around places
Nels Jensen:It is it's good to get out of the dark places and see the light.
Joey Strawn:Exactly. Well, Nelson on the shelf. The thing that I am so excited about is it's that holiday time of year, it's the Yule tide of it all. And we are here to wrap up not only just our month on industrial b2b sales and how they intersect with marketing in the digital spheres. But honestly, we're here to wrap up our entire first year of the industrial marketer first. Right? i This has been such a fun and joyful blessing this year, Nelson, this is the last episode that's gonna go live in this calendar year. That's not to say we don't have a bunch more stuff planned. But you know, the end of the calendar year, this has been such a fun ride this year now.
Nels Jensen:It is it is. And in a couple of minutes. Speaking of the holiday season, we'll get to my own personal epiphany about industrial.
Joey Strawn:Ooh, see, I like that kind of like, Don't unwrap until Christmas, except people will get to unwrap it on this episode, which is so exciting. So here's the thing we buried the lede. It's in the title of the episode, so people know. But now we decided to wrap up this year's conversation by sort of tying some strands together from conversations we started earlier this year. We had a very special guest on early in the season. His name was deputy Dev. And he was Brent and he came and talked to us about the importance of CRM. When it came to industrials and b2b as well now, we promised a follow up episode on how people can actually implement those CRMs and work with them and make stuff happen them. And here's the gift of the season now. This is that episode is exciting. It is.
Nels Jensen:That's right, let's get into the granular benefits of CRMs. And why they're especially useful for industrials, that's sort of tipping off my personal epiphany. But yeah, so you know, this is a, this is really good, hearty industrial talk.
Joey Strawn:Yes, and it is, and we're gonna get nerdy, we're gonna get geeky. And but what I hope is that people dealing with this stuff on a day in and day out basis, or if you're listening to this, because you have to make a budgetary decision around one of these tools, and you're not sure where they fit into the scope. I'm glad that you're here. And we're going to dive in now, one of the things that I did want to start with is just a gentle reminder, because as much as I'd love to think that everybody now has listened to every single episode of the industrial Marketer Podcast, they may have missed one or two. And so I'm going to redefine what a CRM is for people just in case they missed the first part. So a CRM when we're talking about it, in this regard, we're talking about a customer or a client relationship management or a manager system. So this is a set of tools and this is a system or a technology used for managing relationships and interactions with your current and and potential, you know, your marketing customers with the goal of improving those relationships, whether that's making sure that you have positive, consistent ongoing communications with them, whether it's updating a sale or updating a contract or updating a renewal or a vendor relationship, but it's making sure that you are able to have all of the strands moving and all of the plates spinning to keep your relationships as healthy as possible between your current customers and any people that you hope to do business with in the future. Now, did I get that
Nels Jensen:I get that pretty good. Yeah. And and I also would just like to touch on one thing that it is not, you know, please yeah, so So technology platforms in the industrial sector, are just super valuable when implemented correctly, right. The the management execution system mes does a great job of helping you with your quality and processes. You know, you open up the hood, you look at your operations ERPs great job with resources, helping you from inventory to scheduling whatever, but the customer relation management tool is not a sales manager tool to check up and Make sure people are doing X number of cold calls that it is not an inspection tool. It is not an evaluation at all. But one of the one of the tough things, there are a lot of CRMs that have been bought and installed and are being leveraged. And one of the reasons is the disconnect with the salespeople where they may not see value in inputting the status. So one of the things we're going to talk about is, what is the sales job you need to do with your salespeople? To understand the value in the CRMs? And how it positions them to be more efficient and do better work? And key thing of all? What's their goal of a CRM, raise revenue, right, and
Joey Strawn:Raise revenue and in efficiency, like, yeah, fastest way to get to new revenue, from existing relationships or from exert during the relationships that you have. And I now I'm so happy that you brought that up, because you know, what is a CRM, we've talked a little bit about that in our last episode, but it's always a good reminder. Because if you have the wrong concept in your head, and if we're talking about you know, personalizing, or you know, automating some things within the CRM, and you're thinking email program, or God forbid, ERP system, that's a, that's a much, much, much different process, what we're diving into, and it's because we're gonna say, CRM a lot. And that's because it's hard to say, customer slash client relationship management system. And also, we know that there are about 1,000,000,002 as of 2021. Now, tools that call themselves CRM. So if you're curious what we mean when we say a CRM, or like what it means as a tool, like, what would you buy? This is like a Salesforce or a nutshell, HubSpot has a CRM built into it. NetSuite Monday, CRM, Zoho has one. So any tool like that, anything that's reminding you When renewals are when client birthdays are when it's keeping a catalogue of the emails and the calls and the documents and those elements of the sales and client vendor relationship? That's the tool set that we're talking about in this in this episode, when we're talking about setting those up later when we talk with Brent, about integrating those systems with your other tech stack and the importance of finding the right one? Because I mean, now, I have my answer to this. But we get asked this all the time, like well, what's the best CRM? I know my answer now, but what do you say to someone?
Nels Jensen:I'd say it's, it's the one that your sales teams gonna use buy into?
Joey Strawn:Okay, that's a better answer than what I was gonna say. I like that quite a bit.
Nels Jensen:Yeah, you guys will use
Joey Strawn:The best CRM is the one the salesman will agree to use. But yes, because it's gonna depend. I hate that. The old marketing speak answer? Well, it depends. It depends.
Nels Jensen:Yeah. I was gonna say it depends, yeah.
Joey Strawn:I thought that's my answer is it's gonna depend on a couple of factors like size of sales team, length of sales process, you know, those types of things. But honestly, your answer of the one the salespeople will use is way better.
Nels Jensen:Yeah. So, you know, what I wondered. It's like, there's so many SaaS platforms that are really narrow verticals, you know, their technology and software is amazing. And I, you know, I always wondered, how come there aren't CRM specifically for industrials? And the answer is because you can make almost any of these CRMs work for the industrial process. And my epiphany was that, you know, the elongated buying cycle for manufacturing and industrials, the the nonlinear nature of it, the so many potential touch points in there actually plays to the strength of CRMs. It gives you more opportunities for touch points, and it gives you more opportunities to put in data and I know it can be kind of a pain, but the more data you input into the CRM, the more insights the more actionable insights you'll be able to pull out once you have some substantive data in there about not just closed rates, but what a drop off points right are, what are the two or three actions on your lead scoring that add up to Hey, they're ready to buy, you know, the the Elon gated buying cycle is a great reason to use a CRM, right? You can't you can't you need to be in touch with these folks and know where they are and know what they have done. And what haven't they done. So this the long the elongated buying process to me is a great argument for making sure your CRM is leveraged as best as it could.
Joey Strawn:I I couldn't agree more and I love that you tied that together with the it depends and because that is really the heart of in this scenario, when we say it depends on the toolset. That's what we mean is that you know, the number of salespeople that you have spread over the number of states or regions or territories that you have them laid across. That makes a difference between whether you need an enterprise system like a Salesforce tool, or you could get by with something that's cheaper and more based around small teams like a HubSpot or a nutshell, you know, the answer of what is the best one is going to be let me sit down with you and learn your scenario. And then there will be a best one for you. Because now to your point is all ratcheting up and ratcheting down the volume and the intensity of the activities. And we're talking the things that make a huge difference. With CRMs. The you know, you talk to men, you mentioned earlier that it does change revenue. Oh man, I wanted to find I had a stat here is that we, there was a study that was done, that marketing teams who have access to a company wide CRM, deliver three times more revenue than marketing teams that are acting without a centralized, you know, collection of customer data. You know, the successful CRM template implementations boost revenue, on average, 41% per salesperson, because the sales processes that are being systemized, automated, and then, like consistently rolled out across a sales team are benefits that if you have like the best sales guy in the world, and you've built an entire organization, and entire revenue book off the back of you know, this guy and his team's efforts. That's fantastic. That is fantastic. But the problem is when that guy goes away his energy level, his processes, his little book, his Little Red Book, sales tip,
Nels Jensen:All his all his spreadsheets, they go away as well. So door, right?
Joey Strawn:If there's a documented process that a tool can then keep in, you know, in flow for you. So you and your team aren't trying to keep 17 spec plates spinning for 45 different contracts at the same time, that's going to take a lot of the well slipping through that, well, those sales slipped through the cracks. Oh, we'll never know how many sales or how much revenue we lost last year, because we didn't X, Y or Z. Well, now you can know how much revenue you're losing. And you can stop and siphon those holes, like that's what a CRM is really, really good about, and setting up those processes, making sure that your sales cycle and now this is where I wanted to get back to what you were talking about is the benefits of it. And why b2b and b2c used it differently is it's the same set of tools, Kroger is going to use Salesforce just like a GE for a GE or you know, a an apple is going to use one, but they're going to use it in different ways. Because and I'll start with what you said, the sales cycle is way different. You may be dealing with the difference between a sales cycle of a guy finds out about a sale reaches researchers in one day, and then has a purchase decision. The third day after that. Most b2b is and people are nodding their heads are already are thinking 18 months sales cycle. Yeah, how do you manage 30 contacts across an 18 month sales cycle that start at different phases of the year?
Nels Jensen:And the possibility that okay, key contact, whatever, maybe it's a persona, maybe it's the engineering person, maybe it's the purchasing person, whatever, you haven't heard from them in a certain period of time, let's just say 60 days, whatever. Hey, drop in the reminder, email, Hey, what else? Can we help you the demo, whatever, you know, you may go back months from now and find out that you know what the people who responded to those, hey, how you been 60 days, emails turn out to be 40% better, more likely to close than the people who don't. So all of a sudden, okay, here's a here's a sort of magic point in the process that you know, you can reliably count on to move people along in the funnel, right? That right you can create it's there's, there's a benefit in creating drop off points for your prospects as well, right, you're not going to waste their time anymore or your own time anymore. Right?
Joey Strawn:And even mapping out like you were saying, mapping out what those touch points look like because, right and in a lot of industries, what they were saying, what's the old adage nails is like, if they see you seven times, they'll remember you so it's like okay, well for juicy fruit or gum. We need to hit them with a billboard and a radio ad and a magazine ad and then by the time They've hit their lunch break at work, they've seen a seven times, I would love it if b2b were that simple, but we're talking, you may have two contacts, who need to hit 40 or 50 times across the span of two months for that sale to truly, truly take hold. And that is a different level of management and a different level of assisted technological advancement. Let's say that you could implement if you know what those touch points are, and can map them across your sales team as a whole.
Nels Jensen:We'll talk with right we'll talk with Brent about that about the the mapping of your own process and make it real visual. And that's and that's where you guys can get together with the sales and marketing you can do collaborative lead scoring and figure out really Hey, is what are the truly valuable actions that people are taking? And how to get that into your system, yeah.
Joey Strawn:Exactly. I mean, one of the hugest benefits of any of any CRM, any tech stack, anything we talk about in a, especially on this show, is going to be the reporting ability and the data pulling off of it. Now, I don't want to say and now this is something that, that you and I talked about when we're planning these shows is we don't want it to sound like it's all opportunities, and kittens and roses. Because as with any reality, as with any long standing company and processing, these, there will be hurdles, that anybody b2b or b2c are running run across when trying to change any sort of techstack, or any sort of process or implement a CRM like this. And so we want to do at least identify that we know there are a few challenges and how to get around those mean, one is just going to be time, you know, any new system, whether it's you're switching from a Mac to a PC, or you're switching from TurboTax to using a different sort of software, whatever it may be, there's going to be a learning curve. And a software that is designed to help a sales process, there could be a huge learning curve for people who have just have the natural processes ingrained in them. So I would say that's one of the biggest challenges right off the bat analysis that just that that time to learn and implement. I mean, I, anything you want to add to that are there. So you want to bring up?
Nels Jensen:Right, so so there's no such thing as a singular training session. Right? Right, you're gonna train a group, you're gonna, you're gonna train a group of people on anything, especially a technology platform, you're gonna have training, then that's going to be followed by side by side, help one on ones, you're going to have follow up training, you're going to have session to share best practices and tips from the early adopters, you're going to have eventually remedial training for the, you know, laggards, you know, there, we've all experienced training that didn't work, right. Training is in itself a five or six step process. So dedicate yourself to properly training with CRMs. It's super important. We've all been to sessions where we sat through for hours, and the following Monday, somebody said, Hey, how do I do that? Again? You know, so tree trading, you know, do not underestimate the time and, and effort that goes into the treasure, but also did I tell him that don't underestimate the payoff, right? You get them. And if the fast followers reward them, recognize them, and the pack will follow, but yet drowning, and the time is essential.
Joey Strawn:And speaking of that pack, like getting that buy in, if you have like if one advocate is great, but if you have a team of people that are like we're gonna make this work, that's that's just great buy in, I would say one of the last hurdles, and we've kind of mentioned this already in the episode is make sure that they have those processes understood the idea of oh, well, we know what it takes. In general, I guess ideas that's not specific enough is, you know, we, when we're talking about mapping it out, we mean, on paper, okay, the first thing they do is they get a phone call from so and so about these things. And then usually, we see at work if we, you know, have a face to face meeting within the first month. And those are the phases of this sales process that you need to map out. And it needs to be on paper.
Nels Jensen:Yeah, you can, yeah, you need to document it. And Brent will talk a lot more about this, but you can, you know, you also want to avoid friction, because some people on your team may do it one way and other people may do it another but the CRM, you know, you know, there, it's gonna rely on certain standards and standard ways of doing things. And that's very important, again, the communicate the big picture, why we're doing this, why the outcomes matter, and how they're, you know, in many cases are no shortcuts to getting the data into the system. You know, it's all about the actionable insights. And the more data that goes in and the cleaner that it goes in, the more accurate Will inside she'll emerge with.
Joey Strawn:I agree and and to be in to be quite honest and to wrap this up with a little bow, a holiday bow, if you will, before we go and on down on the shop floor. And see what Brent has to say is that that is really where a lot of the benefits from this come in. I know we've harped on this a lot. And you could be saying, well, Joey, of course, we would love to have something like that. But we always get shut down. And it's just an uphill battle and no one's gonna use it. And it's really probably at the end of the day not worth it. And I would always err on the side of it is going to be worth it. It may be an uphill climb. But I know that I promise you the automations that you can find in the efficiencies that you can iron out without losing deals falling through the cracks that have always been there. Their reporting ability to pull out what works at which stages of the funnel, and where different elements can be added in to increase revenue or increase contract values. Maybe, maybe you could find ways to increase the velocity to close there just understanding the data around what happens when money is coming into the company is invaluable. And honestly, and here's the secret everybody listening to this on the sales side, or on the marketing side, or on the C suite side. Here's a huge secret. Don't tell anybody about this. But here's a huge benefit of getting a CRM and taking the time to map all of this stuff out. It forces your marketing and sales teams to work together and understand what the other side is doing more, so you can make more money faster. Don't tell anybody because that's a huge secret. i Now, are you going to keep your mouth shut? I love to help brands. I love it. Well, we'll see if Brandon
Nels Jensen:He'll be surprised to hear that. Yeah,
Joey Strawn:Exactly. So that's what I would say is is the juice in this case is worth the squeeze. Brent is going to get so much more into detail about how it works and things he has seen companies run up against in ways to get around that but Nels before we wrap up this this first segment, is there anything more you want to say about the joys of the benefits of CRS?
Nels Jensen:You know, I think one one other thing it too is, you know, this helps turn assumptions into knowledge or disprove assumptions, right? Or somebody who just says, Hey, Facebook's the only way for us to go. In the end, you'll have a good idea of how many actual deals did you close that originated with Facebook? You know, not a great example. But you know, yeah, the CRMs help turn assumptions into knowledge. And that's possible.
Joey Strawn:And I I love that. And another thing that helps turn assumptions into knowledge is Deputy Dev and Brent on the shop floor. So now, let's head on down there for the last time this year. And head on down to the shop floor suffer some real actionable advice from deputy dev Brent. Welcome back Nels. We have taken the long journey down to the shop floor. And as promised, this is our holiday episodes right around the holiday season. I have a gift for everyone else would you like to help me unwrap this gift?
Nels Jensen:Yes, the gift that never stops giving to
Joey Strawn:The gift that never stops giving. As promised everybody we have brought Brent Lathrop, Deputy dev back to the industrial Marketer Podcast earlier. We had John earlier in the season Brent and we promised to bring you back for CRM talk specifics. Brent, welcome back to the show.
Brent Lathrop:Well, thank you, um, have lofty expectations being labeled a gift now. So we'll see how this goes if I can live up to those expectations now.
Joey Strawn:I was very surprised that you let me put you in a box and actually wrap you up considering this as an audio medium, but you went with it and I was so happy. So that was a gift to me. But you and your knowledge and your wonderful brain Brent are the gift to the industrial marketer listeners. Nelson, I have just spent a handful of minutes talking about what CRMs are, you know, so people know that their customer relationship tools, and sort of some scenarios in which you might want to think about using them and how they differ from b2b and b2c usage. But we wanted to get you here because you're you deal with this stuff for clients day in and day out. And I know specifically, because I've worked with you that you dealt with CRM implementation and getting companies and clients that may not have been using it before using it in a way that's beneficial. So your knowledge is just going to be really key to putting This into use for some of our listeners.
Brent Lathrop:I hope so
Joey Strawn:So I'm really excited that you're here. So just start off, you know, when you're training a client like, let's, we've got the buy in for the CRM, we've already sold them, they think, oh, we should have this or in a likely scenario, I know yours that they already have it, but just kind of aren't using it. Where do you start with clients that need to need help getting trained on something like this, or need help setting something like this up? Like where? Where do you kind of start with them and getting their headspace in the right place?
Brent Lathrop:Well, first, it's deciding what platform to use. Salesforce might be the big name and the cool the Tesla out there, right. But not everybody needs or can afford a Tesla. Right? Right. It's, it's the it's the big name. And sometimes that's overkill for especially if it's a company that's just starting in the CRM business, it can be overwhelming, because there are so many different options out there these days. But just figuring out what you need from a CRM, if it's just something simply to bring all your contacts and all your clients into, you know, a client relationship management tool, just so you can log notes, when you're calling them, you know, for a smaller company, that might be good, a small Salesforce of one or two, you don't need something like Salesforce. You know, once you once you start getting into a bigger team of sales sales team, you might need something like a Salesforce or HubSpot or something with a little bit more power. And I'm through it. Right. Right. So yeah, the first thing is, is figuring out what your business needs are, and figuring out which tool to use. Because if you go into something, and you start getting down, you know going down that that trail, figure out that you don't need that or it's not a fit for you, then then you've wasted your time. Yeah, yeah.
Joey Strawn:Or money. I mean, Salesforce is not cheap. So you could be wasting a handful of money there, too. i Yeah, I agree. I mean, even in the first segment, we talked a little bit, you know, HubSpot has a CRM now. You see ads for places like monday.com, they have their has a CRM, like there are options out there. So you know, Zoho is something
Brent Lathrop:Yeah. So it was like, Yeah, everyone, now they have a suite of tools. And I've seen a couple of our clients go that route as well. That it's not as robust. But if you're just dipping your toe and trying to see if it's something that you want to get into, you could use that for a couple years. And then once that, that you outgrow that, that system, then you can jump to something more like a HubSpot or Salesforce, it's a that's a little more cost to it, but has more patrols and more power.
Nels Jensen:Right. So so you've got somebody on board, you've got a system in mind, then it's time to actually get the training scheduled and get rolling with with the, you know, eventual implementation. So where do you start with the training.
Brent Lathrop:Um, usually, I like to document that we'll have a meeting with our client. And we'll we'll go through that process before we're even set up. So we're going in, we're setting it up. And then we're kind of documenting that process. So not only the people that are currently at the company, when we have that training, because we'll eventually have a training meeting and going over, you know, how you put somebody into a lead and convert them into, you know, depending on the system and opportunity or a deal or whatever it is. So, so we could document that. So if somebody comes and is hired, a year later, you can give them that documentation as a company. And then they'll know the processes that you have as a company and they can adhere to your the workflows and the vernacular and the way you name things, you know, stuff like that.
Joey Strawn:I want to keep I want to key in on that really quick, Brent, because you mentioned processes, and that something that we talked about earlier in the episode is that understanding what those processes are, and mapping them out can be critically important. And what I'm hearing you say is that, that you should go so far as to actually document or flowchart what those processes look like. So everybody can be on the same page. That's Is that what you're saying?
Brent Lathrop:Oh, absolutely, yeah, you know, people are visual, most people are visual too. So being able to see that documentation and going in there and seeing you know, seeing the buttons that need to be clicked or right, you know, the the process going from that, that you know, if it's a lead that comes in and you're going from from lead to opportunity, like seeing those steps is very beneficial for people when they're first starting instead of kind of telling them what to do walking, walking through it with them one time over the phone or you know, over zoom or something like that, and then forgetting it taking their notes, you know, people taking their notes beneficial, but if they have their own notes, and they have a piece of documentation to go with it is definitely useful
Joey Strawn:Or you make it you know, like get get futuristic with it, make it a little video, a screen share.
Brent Lathrop:I've done that as well, yeah,
Joey Strawn:Walk them through the different elements, because you know what, what I so what I hear you say Brett is, it's probably not a great idea for a company to drop, you know,$400,000 on Salesforce, just implement it and set it up and then just tell their salesmen use it with no, with no direction and no guide and no help. It's just, you know, get in there and they'll figure it out. Right, everything is super easy in all CRMs eyes, what I that that's not what I hear you saying?
Brent Lathrop:Correct? Yeah, we've dealt with a couple of several companies that come in, and like, our sales team doesn't use our Salesforce anymore. And that's one of the reasons why they don't have those processes set beforehand. And it fails. And I think it's, you know, 60, or 70% of companies fail with their CRM implementations, because they don't do things like that. They don't come in and they don't set themselves up for success. And then, you know, a year later when their sales reps aren't using it, because they put in like 30 different steps for the process, instead of simplifying it upfront. It just, it's bloated, and they don't, they don't think about that upfront. So it's definitely something to think about before you get into that game.
Nels Jensen:Yeah, but you know, change is hard. And I'm going to assume that a lot of the time this is the process that leverages the CRM the most is different than the current sales process, or sales and marketing handoff. And so how important is it to be able to adapt the CRM a little bit to the current operation? Or is it? No, we really need to leverage the CRM to make it work, we really need to go through a change management process.
Brent Lathrop:To be honest, I don't think about that part.
Nels Jensen:But that's but that's the big, that's the big hurdle. Right? Is that Yeah, you know, if people aren't using it, it means that the, the hurdles were too big, you know, and that they're, the company hasn't done a good enough job of changing the culture to take advantage of the technology.
Brent Lathrop:Correct. But usually that that is because they have too many cooks in the kitchen, they come in, and they try to do everything at once, right, stead of just, you know, going into that, you know, like using training wheels, I guess, you know, using a bike, you know, if your three year old, three year old, five year old, you're not going to throw your kid on there and just start running out, send them out and send them out into traffic and hope they...
Joey Strawn:That's not how you do that. No, that's funny at the ER that year.
Unknown:So you got to use training wheels, right. And most companies get excited about CRM, because it's a great tool, it can be an absolutely amazing tool for managing your business, manage your sales pipeline, right? Managing your customers, but if you don't do it, right, you're gonna get hurt, or you're gonna not do it right. And you're gonna regret it, you know, later down the line, because you're not, you're not setting yourself up for success. Because if you're taking those, if you're taking those steps, you should be able to account for simplicity, that will mean you're referring to like an older generation knows, right? And that that has your trouble. Yeah, that has trouble with with technology or, or that change, right. So making sure that it's it's simple to use up front. And then once people get in there, and they're used to it, then you add little things here and there that make it more a little bit more complex, and make it more powerful, I guess you could say as well.
Joey Strawn:Well, and one thing that that I wanted, and this is just for my experience, too, is in that question of well, where does the decision come from? Does the company adapt to the tool? Or does the tool adapt to the company? Unfortunately, it's that old marketing answer of a kinda depends. But one of the things that I will say, that I have seen over and over again, is that a lot of times there isn't a singular company way to for the tool to adapt to everybody in the system, the company sort of does it differently. And so most of the time, it's the company having to adapt to the tool, because the company has to adapt to everybody doing it a singular way. And that just happens to be manifested by, you know, the introduction of that tool. So, if I have seen it work, though, where if sales teams are really in line and this happens a lot you know Nels, you and I talked about this in the first half of the episode with the difference between a b2b CRM and a b2c usage A CRM, because the b2b sales cycles, as we talked about are very different, they can be a lot longer, they can involve a lot more steps, which is where a lot of the CRM customization comes in, very, very heavily into play for b2b is, okay, well, we don't have, you know, an awareness, interest consideration and purchase. It's not that straightforward and b2b, we have, you know, awareness, research, consideration or research, part two, you know, io, P O submission legal in, you know, legal introduction, there's, you know, 12 steps, and then the journey takes 18 months. So having a system, and that's where brands, you know, I want to bring it back to what you were saying is identifying the correct system, and understanding what your processes look like, you can tie those together to say, Okay, well, we don't need a super complicated system with 1000 features, because we only need it to do this for this group of people. And that's where the success and that's where those training wheels come into play is to say, Okay, we have these pieces that we know, and we're going to grow into the rest of the pieces.
Brent Lathrop:Yeah, exactly. That's a good point, too. Because, you know, using the analogy before, you know, everybody wants a Tesla, right, but can't afford it. If you don't have a Tesla budget, you can, you're gonna go out and you want electric vehicle, but you got you gotta leave, or you get a bolt or, you know, the Chevy one. So yeah, it's Don't Don't try to overcomplicate it if you don't need to.
Joey Strawn:I mean, Brent, one of the things that they say go back to the processes, because this is, you know, this, we want the industrial market or listeners to be able to take something away from these in the shop floor segments. And one of the things that we've talked about is mapping those processes. Do you have any tips, like whenever someone, you're working with a client, you're like, Okay, well, we need to map these out, we need to get this documented. And they're like, well, we don't have any of that. Like, do you have any tips? Are there tools that you prefer? Is there is it a write up? Is that a sketch? Like? How do you get people to think about what they need to document those processes to think about that,
Unknown:Um, I guess there's a thing that don't overcomplicate it, usually, I just use the word doc, to go through those steps initially. And then I'll use screenshots to put in, you know, the screen that the person is going to be using or the button, right, they're going to click on, you know, being able to use something like preview and Mac or, you know, Microsoft Paint, if you have Microsoft Paint, you fill a circle around the button, or, you know, something simple like that. Or if you have a designer, you can have a design or just, you know, mark off where that button is going to be or the location that you're in go the next step, you know, that stuff. You know, sometimes I'll do I kind of alluded to it earlier, I'll do a screen share, capture video that helps out in addition to the documentation. And there's, you know, QuickTime, there's all kinds of different screen recording software that you can use, I don't really use anyone, specifically, just depending when you know what I need to do for that specific screencast.
Joey Strawn:Just making sure that it's easy and easy to follow.
Brent Lathrop:Yep. Yep. And then you could also, you know, search for documentation tools, potentially find something like that. I've done that in the past as well. So there hasn't been just one. One process for that, that fits everything that I've done in the past. And then, as far as other tips is in, we already already talked about keeping it simple implementation, you don't just jump right in, make sure you have those meetings having those discussions. Yeah. And then, you know, once, I think one thing that that would be important to, to note is to have a ambassador at the company that is kind of like that, the one that makes the decisions on things. Because if you have too many people getting in there and changing processes, changing the way the way it works, I've seen that in the past, though, they'll come in and if they have admin access, so they'll change things the way they want it to be, but they don't think about the other parts of the business. And then I'll get an email, you know, a couple days later, like, hey, this isn't working anymore. And I go in there, and it's good. You know, it's because you know, Bobby or whoever it was, it went in there and made his changes. So making sure that that you guys are communicating internally, when you're when you're making those changes and implementations and also just having that one person internally that can kind of make that decision, like, Okay, we need to do this. But let's see what the effects are for everybody else, and then create a process for that and again, document it to make sure that people know that that process has been implemented or that change to your system has been made.
Nels Jensen:Yeah, yeah. Training is complicated, there's always going to have to be follow up, there's gonna have to be side by side, sharing how to use best practices, remedial training, right? But moving the pack, you don't need to cover everything with everybody just you get the, you know, you you praise the early adopters and give them what they need and the pack tends to follow. Right. So how about tips for buying? I would assume, and I shouldn't assume but I do that if you've clearly identified benefits of the CRM, you're also showing how it helps sales people, right? What's, what's in it for them? Right, what What tips do you have for for getting buy in for adoption and implementation?
Joey Strawn:Yeah, you mentioned the ambassador, and I would imagine like finding that person would be would be key. But you know, how? I guess like, what, what hurdles? Have you seen people run into against, like, I need a system like this, but they just they don't they don't think it's important? Or like finding, finding?
Brent Lathrop:Yeah, trying trying to find that common ground for everybody to want to use it now is, is that kind of what you're, you're getting at? Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's gonna be some that one and some that don't. Yeah, that's, that's actually a good point, too. Because you're, you're having to be a politician at that point in trying to come in and making sure that everybody's needs are met. And I think it's just being overly communicative about it. And upfront, you know, don't try to hide anything, don't try to have the ball, just come in and say, This is what we're doing, you know, if you have issues or if you have any trepidations about getting into this, or concerns, you know, come to me, and we can talk this through because overall, this CRM is beneficial for the company, it's so it's gonna be beneficial for you, especially as a sales rep. You know, if you want to get these get credit for all the work that you do, this is where it's going to be, you know, it's not like be like a piece of paper or a spreadsheet. You have proof, you know, when it comes to the end of the year and your, your review or if you're you know, relying on the name is escaping me right now. Your your paycheck.
Nels Jensen:Your spreadsheets, billing,
Unknown:Yeah, things, your money, your money, you're getting paid. Right. Exactly. So yeah. So when you're getting you're getting paid for your, for your work that you're doing. You have proof right there matters.
Nels Jensen:Yeah, exactly. But the proof is right, the outcome, right? That what is the output of the CRM could tell you that product A tends to be go through this type of decision maker versus product B devs, to you know, have a drop off point, x or y, really helping the sales people use their time more efficiently, help them get more aligned with marketing, you know, I think the the selling has to be around what's in it for them. Right?
Joey Strawn:It's and I do. And I think that's an important narrative. As you know, we talked about this early, one of the biggest benefits, especially for a b2b company, in industrial companies, specifically is the alignment and communication between what the sales team is doing, and what the marketing team is doing. And so that way, you have good leads that are being vetted and qualified coming into this system. And then once they're in the system, there is a streamlined and processed way that those leads are engaged with that is shown to drive revenue. Like the whole point of this is to streamline and make everybody's jobs a little bit easier, and get the revenue in the books faster. And so you know, as I've heard, you explained it, Brendon, kind of, I want to put all the pieces together that we've talked about here with you is that if you're taking the time to understand your market, so you know the types of relationships and the journeys that your customers are going to be going on. And you understand the needs of your sales team and the you know, the types of communications they need, you should be able to piece a tool together. And then once you have that tool in place, having your understanding your internal processes to the point where you can map them out and train everybody on them will be key to keeping things streamlined. So then it's just a matter of using the tools that they're how they're meant to be used for you. So you can tweak and benefit and grow and optimize along the way. Yeah, like, kind of like stringing it all together to say, Listen, this is a big, you know, these are big deals. These are big projects. These are big, scary tools sometimes, but the reality is, is that if you understand why you're using them and understand what you need to get out of them, then you can really find that through line to get you to the results pretty quickly,
Brent Lathrop:I think you made a good point there with no big scary tools, and sometimes they are for some people, but you don't grow without pushing yourself a little bit. And I think, you know, kind of talking through that honest conversation that I mentioned before just having, like, be honest with your team, like, yeah, this, this might be tough up front, to get into this and learn some of these new workflows, you know, it's hard to teach a dog new tricks an old dog new tricks, sometimes he's not the same. But you know, once once you get this in there, you know, you're going to we talked about, you know, seeing your sales, you're going to be able to your nails, you alluded to this, see the stats behind your sales, you know, how, what's your rate of close, how long it's taken to get through your sales funnel, you're going to be able to see all those numbers, it's going to help fine tune you as a salesperson, and help you make more money because you're going to be spending time on the proper sales in that pipeline, instead of, you know, running down this trail over here, because it's a it's a big, shiny object, but you know, that your chance of closing that one is much, much less. Hmm.
Joey Strawn:Wow. Well, that was very helpful. Uh, that that really does feel like a gift that you just gave everybody. Today to wrap out this year of 2021. I mean, Nelson, are there any final questions that you want to? You want to ask Brent, while we have him here before we give deputy dev his leave?
Nels Jensen:No, I think he's articulated the, the benefits and the challenges very well. And the opportunity, right growth. That's, that's so true. Growth is not easy, or we'd all be growing constantly, right? Yeah, yes, this, this is a challenge to an organization. But the benefits, the long term sustainable benefits are huge. For a lot of industrial companies. Absolutely. Yeah. Especially with the crazy elongated buying cycle we have, there's so much more data you're going to get about where people drop off and what ranges close and what what revenue, you know, potential isn't there, it's just that, you know, you get so much more data during the buyer journey.
Unknown:Yeah, and you can even put some, going back to talking about processes, you can even put some something in your sales opportunity pipeline, to where, if it is that longer sales cycle, and you know, somebody has buying interest, but they're not going to buy for six months. Instead of putting that on a post it note somewhere and putting it in a drawer.
Joey Strawn:Or emailing a reminder in your email
Unknown:Yeah, or task lists or something like that, you have an ecosystem that that does that for you, that you can put a state step in that process. And we've done it in the past, because we see, we see that, especially in industrial there, there's a long buying cycle. And if they go off the path of that normal buying cycle, and I say I'm going to buy but I'm going to buy in six months, you put them into that that part of the funnel, and then, you know, in six months are reminded that, hey, I need to contact this guy. And so he doesn't go to the competitor. And you know, when he comes back, and is interested again.
Joey Strawn:I, I can't I can't, there are so many ways that you can automate. And then we talked about automation as a big benefit in the first half of this. And there are so many ways. And again, I'm gonna say it again, we're gonna have to have you back next year to talk even more about this, because figuring out how the CRM aligns with the customer journey and then how to automate steps and that to increase or decrease the velocity of those sales is a huge benefit that most industrials that we work with aren't even considering. And so there may be to your point, if the six months I'm going to buy in six months, well, maybe we find out that if four months, if we send them an email of a reminder, 90% of the time, it leads to a conversion, you know, 30 days faster. That's very important that and so that is something that is definitely worthy of an entire episode of exploration in my mind. So, Brent, thank you as always, for being here. We're gonna have to have you back on more and more episodes so we can keep so picking your brain.
Unknown:So January 1, but on my calendar.
Joey Strawn:Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, it'd be we'll be right there. First episode of the yes, you better believe it. Oh, and you better believe listeners to industrial Marketer Podcast that we will be back in 2022. We are coming with all new episodes with all new topics with all new guests. And it's going to be spectacular. So if you're not subscribed, what are you doing? It's the time of year of giving, give subscription, and we'll give you free podcast episodes. It's just that simple. The holiday season we're filling ourselves with joy filling ourselves With knowledge and we want you to be along for the ride so if you haven't already gone to industrial marketer calm and filled yourself with the knowledge and the joy and the good tidings of education about industrial marketing, then go over there and do it. It will be things you can give send them to your relatives for their Christmas gifts, they're going to love them. Articles are spectacular, but I cannot thank you guys enough. This has been a fantastic year of the industrial Marketer Podcast and I am so very excited to go into next year and learn more now with you by my side as we ride on this industrial marketer journey together