In this episode, Mary Sue shares the top 5 systems that are essential for a successful CRM transition. She debunks the myth that it's a daunting task and provides practical insights on prioritizing what truly matters for your business. From nurturing emails to lead generation and client onboarding, Mary Sue offers clear guidance on how to make a seamless transition. Join us to uncover the secrets of simplifying your CRM makeover and streamlining your systems for success.
Key Takeaways:
- The importance of prioritizing systems that enable sales
- Top 5 Systems: Attracting customers, prospect meetings, client onboarding, closing deals.
- Recommendations for non-moved systems, capturing info, handling older technology.
Quotes
"Embrace the possibilities of improvement without a complete system overhaul."– Mary Sue Dahill
"Simplify and speed up your transition by streamlining processes, without completely changing what you're already doing."– Mary Sue Dahill
Featured in this Episode
Mary Sue Dahill
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marysuedahill
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:37 - Optimal Priorities, Systems, and Processes for Attracting Real Prospects
04:06 - Priority without Overhaul: Avoiding Scope Creep and System Renovation
05:29 - Effective Lead Generation: Evaluating and Moving Systems that Work
08:10 - Closing Clients: The Top Priority System
09:03 - Utilizing Invoicing Tools: Maintaining Stability with Tools like Wave
10:07 - Simplifying Appointment Scheduling for Existing Clients
06:49 - Networking and Word-of-Mouth: Key Lead Generation Strategies
11:35 - Streamlining Operations with an Automated Client Delivery System
13:10 - Efficiency through Capture, Copy, and Prioritization
14:37 – Outro
Mary Sue Dahill:
I get it. Thinking about cramming all of your current systems into 1 CRM might just give you a bit of heartburn, and then the idea of it taking months. Yikes. Guess what? Most of my clients make the switch in less than 30 days, and you can too. Hi there! My name is Mary Sue Dahill, and I'm the host of CRM Success Secrets. In this 5 part series, I am sharing how you can transition to an all in 1 CRM from setup to sales in just 30 days. We've already covered why 30 days is the sweet spot and how to create a CRM transition road map. So in this episode, we will uncover the most common systems to move for a successful CRM transition. So let's break it down a little bit because you know what? My clients tend to make this process way more complicated in their minds than it needs to be. So Picture this you're standing in front of a closet stuffed with things, and you're thinking, Where do I even start? So here's the deal: many folks worry about massive tasks of moving everything into a new CRM, but the truth is most of them don't have this crazy labyrinth of systems they imagine. Sure, they send out newsletters, but when it comes to intricate email sequences or automations, it's not that overwhelming. So why? Well, it's often because they were dealing with a mishmash of tech but felt like they were putting together a puzzle without the picture on the box, or maybe they were doing a bunch of stuff manually without even realizing it. Been there, done that, right? So now let's talk about priorities. To go from setup to sales in 30 days doesn't necessarily mean that you move everything in 30 days. It means those things that enable you to continue to close new clients. That's what we're gonna be moving, and that will help you make decisions. And I promise most of my clients, Well, all of them are definitely moved within 60 days.
There are some that have more systems, with their current applications that we need to move, but most people really do move in 30 days. Alright. So some of the things that will help you with your priorities, What brings in real prospects? What systems do you already have to support that? So maybe you created, you know, an online course years ago as a lead magnet. It was free, and you put it out there, but you haven't used it in a while. Do you really need to move to move it? Is it really bringing in real prospects? I mean, it may be something you definitely do move, but it's not something that right now is bringing in real prospects, so we're focused on what is bringing you real prospects today. Do you meet with prospects and need an online booking tool? I would say most people say yes here, so you definitely that's a high priority. How do clients become clients? Do you have a contract? Do you invoice them? Do they just fill out an order form? What needs to be set up here, to close a client, meaning they've signed your contract, they've selected what they're paying for, and they've paid. To go from setup to sales in 30 days, we are not creating brand new processes just yet, and this is where things will really go astray if you start rethinking everything, when you're setting up a new system. We are making it possible for you to do what you do currently in but in the new system. So, yes, you may make some improvements, but a whole hog renovation of your systems is not the name of the game. If you start doing that, it's called scope creep, and it will totally derail your timeline. So I've boiled down the most common, top 5 systems you will want to move pronto. So the first one is to nurture emails or newsletters. This one is really so easy. I always make this the first task, because this really gets you using the system, and you don't want your nurture marketing to stop. Plus, most business owners are sending out Email blasts so they're 1 at a time. They don't have an automated system for their nurture emails or newsletters, so it's just an easy one to start doing in the new system. The 2nd most common system is online booking, making it easy to schedule, like, networking calls, discovery calls and client calls. This will likely require you updating links in a few places, and again, it will get you using the system, and generally it's pretty straightforward.
Some clients will have some systems, you know, like a nurture sequence into a discovery call, or their follow-up may be a little customized, but basically, it's really the same over and over again. So those 2 are the easiest 2 systems to just check off the list. Now but hold on, order does matter it depends on where you actually have a bunch of stuff going on and what's the most critical for your business. From my experience, it's usually a breeze to start with moving appointments and getting those newsletters flowing out of the shiny new CRM, but you know for you, you may have to just consider what's really going on in your business. Alright. The 3rd most common system to move is your lead generation. This is where my clients do the most evaluation because we want to set up the lead generation systems that are actually working, not all of them. So you may move the rest of them later, but to get to that 30 days from setup to sales, we need to be moving only those things that are critical.
For me, networking and word-of-mouth are my main lead generation, so, yes, I have lead magnets, but my warm prospects come from networking word-of-mouth, so I move those systems first, and that's, you know, pretty straightforward. It's just my appointments, and the referral piece is really just a form I fill out so, you know, it's again, it's not that complicated. I do have a lead generation that I'll pull over that's on my website that would be something that I would do in this step too. And hey, if you got multiple types of lead magnets, now's the perfect time for a bit of digital spring cleaning. You don't want to drag along those things you're not using anymore and trust me you will thank me later. I've had clients with a lot of lead magnets only to discover they were rocking with just 1 or 2 of them, so we're like, Leave those other, you know, Lead magnets where they are, and let's really focus on making the ones that work for you shine. So, it's pretty straightforward here, but it's a great opportunity for spring cleaning, and Marie Kondo would be so proud. The 4th system is your client onboarding. So closing clients is a number one system, am I right? And this is where most business owners get the most nervous for sure because they don't want to slow this process down, But the fact is, moving to an all in one CRM for client onboarding is pretty easy, and, This is where we will spend some time making some improvements because usually my clients this is where they're using a bunch of different tools they're sending an invoice from 1 system, they're sending their contract from another and, they're sending their welcome email manually, so we will spend some time automating this and streamlining this piece, in the 1st 30 days, but it usually gets way better and once they see how this works in the new system, They absolutely fall in love. This is where the momentum really gets going. Alright. Now let's break this down, the client piece, into 2 steps. There's the existing clients versus new clients, because again, I see my clients lump both of them together, and it makes it feel much more complicated and too big to tackle. So when you break them into these 2 pieces, alright, we're gonna start with existing clients first. Generally, once they are a client, the only piece to consider is their future, automated payments. You know, they signed up for a 12 month program, so they're paying you on a monthly basis. There is no reason to rock the boat on, their automatic payments. If you've been using.
What's a great invoicing tool like Wave to do your invoicing for that? Just leave them and let them run; there's no reason to change that. So most of my clients will continue charging their clients in their existing way, and, if they want to switch them over to the new payment plans, I always recommend doing it at a natural transition point, like when they renew with you or maybe their next manual payment, so that's pretty straightforward. And, you know, as far as the client systems here for existing clients, it just depends on how you deliver your services, but there are many , many coaches and consultants. It's just allowing them to schedule appointments, so we've already done that part. Check. Alright. Now let's talk about onboarding new clients using the new system as quickly as possible. I already described most of my clients as having a very simple onboarding process. The issue is more that they have a bunch of technology that they're using at this step, and we will spend a little bit of time streamlining it to make it, I promise, 10% or not 10%, 10 x better. They tend to wanna throw everything they've been doing out and totally revamp, so I guess just caution you here that look at streamlining to make it faster or easier, but don't look at totally changing what you're doing because that will just slow down your whole transition. Alright. The 5th system to move is your client delivery. So do you have an automated system to stay top of mind with your clients? Maybe like a nurture sequence, you know, a monthly Tip of the month for clients only, something like that. Do you need to move online course content? Most of my clients are doing a lot of this delivery piece by hand or manually, so there's not actually a lot to move, but you definitely want to make sure you aren't missing anything here. The client delivery piece is also the place where we end up spending a lot of time on proving things in the future. So those are the most common 5 systems to get up and running first so that you can do the setup to sales in 30 days. You may be wondering what else is there, and if you have launch campaigns or promotions, or you know you have this cohort for a group program that you run periodically, those systems we generally schedule after the 1st 30 days to move because they're more complex, and they don't run constantly so those are some things that may wait. Another thing that may wait is if you do have online courses or, A community of source that you want to integrate into the all in 1 CRM, that may wait after the 1st 30 days as well.
What do you do with systems, emails, landing pages that you've decided not to move or to move later? So here's a little hack for you: Capturing info without the heavy list lifting of moving everything. Take a screenshot of those landing pages for future reference maybe you don't want to move them, but you want to be able to reference what you had talked about before take a screenshot, Copy the email text into Google Docs and, because you never know when that brilliance may come in handy again, but if you don't actually want to move it into the system and automate, you know, put the content into Google Docs, a great place to host host to that data, and definitely take a picture of any automation, you know, the actual automation, that you wanna create. So we do this when a client is really wanting to get off of their old technology, so that they're not continuing to pay for it, and this works really well. It's a little bit of work in the interim, but it is something that you can have a virtual assistant start doing right off the bat after you make that list of priorities, and again, you know, most of my clients Don't have a bunch of systems that they're, moving because they just decide it's it's old, out of date, I'm not using it anymore let's start fresh. So there you have it, my friends keep it simple, prioritize like a pro, and let's get that CRM makeover rolling. In the next episode, we're gonna be covering connecting all of the technology dots, which I find fun, and again is usually pretty straightforward and much simpler than you think.