Who should have a CRM?

Welcome back to another episode of the CRM Success Secrets Podcast! In our previous episode, we covered the definition of CRM, and now we'll focus on the important question of who should utilize a CRM. As a business owner, incorporating a CRM into your operations is vital for effectively managing relationships and streamlining your business processes. I firmly believe that a CRM serves as the pulse of your business, particularly in industries where word-of-mouth and referrals hold significant weight. If you're a coach or consultant seeking strategies and proven tactics to enhance productivity and streamline your business using CRM and automation, you've come to the right place. Let's delve deeper into why having a CRM is essential for your success.

Key Takeaways:

• Who Should Have a CRM
• When Should You Have a CRM
• Benefits of a CRM

Quotes

"CRM is essential for managing relationships, converting clients, and tracking prospects on their journey to becoming clients.” – Mary Sue Dahill

Featured in this Episode

Mary Sue Dahill

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marysuedahill

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

02:15 - The Chaos of Using Multiple Tools for Business Operations

03:58 - The Value of Investing in an All-in-One CRM for Relationship Building

04:50 - Using Appointments and Notes in Your All-in-One CRM

05:46 - Progress Monitoring: Utilizing Sales Pipelines for Tracking

06:55 - Outro

Produced by http://www.heartcastmedia.com

Transcript

Mary Sue Dahill:

It's the CRM success secrets podcast about productivity with a twist. Hi there. My name is Mary Sue Dayhill, your host. This podcast is for business coaches and consultants tired of working nights and weekends. They are looking for strategies and proven tactics to streamline their business using a CRM and automation. Let's get to it. We're talking about my favorite subject, CRM. And we're gonna cover the 5 w's of CRM. What, who, When, where, and why? Hi there. My name is Mary Sue Dahill. I'm the host of CRM Success secrets. Those are the questions I always get from coaches and consultants when I tell them what I do. Most have heard of a CRM, but they really don't know that much about it, and they feel like maybe they already have one. So let's dig into the 5 W's of CRM. 


In the prior episode, we talked about what a CRM is. And in this episode, we're really talking about who should have a CRM.So, of course, my bias is that you should have a CRM. If you're a business owner, that's something that you should invest in, for sure. I see the CRM as the heartbeat of your business because all small businesses are really about relationship building. When you talk to business owners about where they really get their clients, most of it is through word-of-mouth and referrals, and that means that your business is definitely relationship based. And so a CRM is the best tool to help you manage those relationships. So that was easy. I like the 32nd episode of CRM, but let's dig in a little deeper. So when you're a small business, obviously, everything counts, your time, your money, your peace of mind, and your stress level. And when you start your business, you're using a bunch of different free tools, and you kind of incorporate them into your business as the need arises, so you're not, you know, it's just very organic, which, you know, makes sense. But there's definitely a point at which you need to take a step back and reevaluate and be more intentional about your technology. 


When you have this organic growth of your technology, it creates a Frankenstein technology ecosystem, and that's what costs you time and money. And I'll just give you an example of what that looks like. If you're a business owner, you have an email marketing tool like Mailchimp. You have an online appointment tool like Calendly or Acuity. You have an invoicing tool, and, let's see what else, and maybe you're taking notes in Evergreen, or sorry, Evernote or OneNote. So you can just see right away that there are 4 places that you would have to look to see when was the last time I met with Sally, What was our conversation about, and what was the next step? So, you know, you're looking in a bunch of different places, and then maybe you need to find your phone number, you know, and that was who knows where? Was that in your email marketing? Was it in the online booking? Did you just take it as a note so you can see where you're spending a lot of time searching for information. So you need a CRM in that instance because you're looking in a bunch of different places. So if you're doing, a lot of networking, and you are working with a lot of partners, And maybe you're doing a fair amount of email marketing as well or hosting events or speaking at events. 


Then it's time to invest in a CRM because you're having a lot of new contacts come into your orbit, and you need to be able to track, you know, where did they come from, who do I need to thank maybe for introducing me to them, taking the next step in the relationship process. And then, you know, as people book Appointments with you being able to take notes, and again, tasks, for next actions. So all of those things when you're using a CRM, and we're again focusing on the all in 1 CRM because you will learn that I think that the best tool for a small business owner is an all in 1 CRM. So you have 1 login, One app, one support team that you can contact when you, you know, when you need help with your CRM, but it makes it much easier to find data because it's all in 1 place. So what when I say CRM, I'm talking about an all in 1 CRM. So your CRM, again, is for you to build relationships with new contacts. And when you're using a CRM, you'll be able to do that in multiple ways. You can create tasks to track, you know, your next follow-up. Maybe you can use it also to schedule your next appointment with them ahead of time. 


Maybe you're using the sales pipeline to actually track where they are in your process. Some of my clients have a very defined relationship building process, which is awesome, and so they use that sales pipeline to make sure they know where that person is in that process. So you need a CRM because the purpose of a CRM is to identify, nurture, and track prospects on their journey to becoming clients. This is not the same as having an email marketing solution, which simply sends out emails and keeps their contact information. A CRM is a tool to help you manage relationships and convert more clients. So if your business is reliant on word-of-mouth and referrals, then you really are someone that needs a CRM in your life. So thanks for listening. In our next episode, we will take the 5 w's the next step down the road. Are your business systems a hot mess? Take the system scorecard quiz atwww.worksmartyrdigital.com/quiz. You will receive proven strategies to leverage technology in your business. And when you schedule a system strategy session with me, I will personally provide you customized recommendations for your business. So, again, that is www.worksmartyrdigital.com / quiz. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the CRM Success Secrets Podcast. Cheers to you, and I hope that your systems are