Your CRM Transition Roadmap

In today's episode, we will delve deep into the creation of a CRM transition roadmap, enabling you to streamline and declutter your systems into a unified, harmonious whole. Throughout this episode, we will explore the four fundamental steps of your CRM transition roadmap. Join us as we discuss the creation of a tech consolidation list, efficient organization of your contacts, evaluation of existing systems and automations, and the seamless integration of your website or other technologies into your new CRM. Prepare to simplify your tech stack and enjoy a smooth CRM transition. Be sure to stay tuned for practical tips and expert insights on this transformative journey. Happy planning, and may you find inspiration in this episode!

Key Takeaways:

• Transitioning to an All-in-1 CRM
• Practical Steps and Techie Topics

Quotes

"It will be a straightforward process to identify and categorize the technologies in your list as move, drop, or keep."– Mary Sue Dahill

"Maximize your contacts and be pleasantly surprised by the untapped potential for nurturing relationships."– Mary Sue Dahill

Featured in this Episode

Mary Sue Dahill

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

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

00:39 - Organize apps and Tech in Nifty spreadsheet

03:26 - Prioritize apps and move, drop, or keep?

07:03 - Segment and clean up mailing list efficiently

09:38 - Filtering Invalid Addresses and Segmenting Contacts

10:49 - Prioritizing and Assessing the Need for Migration

12:09 - Integrating CRM forms onto website, sync communication

13:40 - Utilizing the Transition to Enhance Systems

15:01 - Outro

Transcript

Mary Sue Dahill:

I get it. Thinking about cramming all your systems into 1 all in 1 CRM might give you a bit of heartburn. The idea of it taking months, months, just yikes. But guess what? Most of my clients make the switch in 30 days, and you can do it. Hi there. My name is Mary Sue Dayhill, and I am the host of CRM Success Secrets. I'm here to tell you that most of my clients are able to make the switch in less than 30 days. And in this 5 part Series on transitioning to an all in 1 CRM from setup to sales, we are going to cover how to make that happen.In the previous episode, we chatted about why 30 days is a sweet spot for the transition. And today, we're all about creating a CRM transition road map to declutter your systems and organize them into one System. Doesn't that just sound great? Certainly does to me. So what's this transition plan thing, and how do you make one? So don't let the fancy terms scare you off. You have the skills to do this, and let's just take a quick skills assessment. Are you good at making lists and checking things off? I'm sure the answer is yes. So check. You have that skill. Have you ever organized your pantry or linen closet? Oh, you have? Great. You've got this. So you do have the skills to make a CRM transition road map for sure. And that is All we're really doing when moving from a hodgepodge of apps to 1 CRM. You are identifying what you have, then separating out the junk or the stuff that you don't need anymore and identifying what's good, what you really want to move. That's it, and I will walk you through the 4 key steps to your CRM transition road map. Alright. So step 1, I call this creating your tech consolidation list. It is very simple. It is making a list of all the apps and tech that you are currently juggling, And I would put it into a really nifty spreadsheet with costs, you know, the name of the app, what the costs are for that app, If you had to look it up also when your next renewal date is, so you know. Also, maybe add in the passwords because you're gonna have to go in and out of these different apps quickly. So if you have a password keeper, even better. And we said definitely add the renewal dates because that'll help prioritize maybe what you should be moving first, so that we can avoid any renewals as part of this whole transition. So Now that you have your list, and if you're thinking, oh my gosh, I don't even know where to find this stuff. Start with Your, bookkeeping and see what you're paying for, that's definitely most important. And then, you know, in a 1 week, Jot down which tools you're actually using, throughout the week so that you get a comprehensive list.

Next, on your spreadsheet, I would like you to prioritize each app, and I'd like you to say either move, Drop or keep? So, move if you want to move the systems, from that 1 app into the CRM. So, like, a great example, an all in 1 CRM usually has an appointment setting tool. Are you moving your current appointments in Calendly or Acuity into the CRM? So if the answer is yes, you say move. If you've decided you don't even you don't need to move whatever you were doing in that system before, You're just gonna drop it. And I have definitely seen this where, especially people that are paying for a Leadpages Type system, where they have a lead magnet that they've been paying for the Leadpages for years, but they really haven't been promoting it, and it no longer really Works. So they're just gonna drop it. They can stop paying for it. They don't need to move the content or the systems into the new system.And then the third one is kept. So there are situations where you may need to keep a specific application. A great example is a bookkeeping accounting type solution. Those are usually not in an all in 1 CRM, so you're gonna Keep those. Or another is if you have a niche app. So I do serve several EdTech, or education consultants, and their technology is very specific to working with students, So they generally are keeping that application because that's more about the delivery of their service to their students and not and not their, sales marketing relationship stuff that you would keep in a CRM. So, again, You're going to identify in your list of technologies to move, drop, or keep. So that's easy.Right? Check step 1. Done. Now we're gonna create a complete List of your contacts. In contacts, this is where things often get messy. But again, it's not hard. It just takes a little bit of time, so I probably plan an hour to do something like this. First, what you're gonna do is, export your contacts from every nook and cranny. Your email marketing tool, your landing page tool, your appointment setting tool, your invoicing tool, even possibly just your contacts with your email system.So now you have a complete list of all of your contacts, and I'm sure there are duplicates. Again, we're putting it into a spreadsheet. You want each column to be separated. So first name is a column, last name is a column, email, business name, whatever your fields are that you capture information about your contacts. And why are we doing this? Because your mailing list It really is that 1 asset that you truly own, so you don't wanna keep this step. You don't wanna say, oh, I haven't emailed them in a long time. I don't, you know, I don't wanna move them. You want to keep all of your contacts.You worked hard to collect those names and to opt them into receiving information from you. So once you have the list, you may segment them into groups. You may choose to segment people that you haven't, contacted in a long time into a separate group, where maybe in the future, you can do a, what's called a reactivation campaign with that group, but you don't wanna You don't wanna delete it and get rid of it, but it is a great time when you're moving to a new system to review, Segment and clean up your mailing list. Most business owners segment their list into a client list, Former client list, partners are, like, centers of influence, and then they're, like, newsletter subscribers. Now you may have other segments, like I said, this reactivation campaign, but at a minimum, you wanna segment between who has opted in to receive emails and who has opted in to receive emails and who has not. So if you don't know how to get your contacts out of a system, go to their help and look up export or export contacts. Most systems have a way for you to export your list. I've literally only come across 1 that doesn't make it easy for you to export your contacts, so most of them will allow you to do that.And at the end of this step, you are going to be surprised by how many contacts You actually have, and, how many you haven't been nurturing. The other piece of this is once you get it into one list, you're Gonna be really surprised that you're kinda missing out on opportunities to connect with people. So, I said you probably need an hour for this. Depending on your contacts, you may need a little bit more as you go through and segment. But, you know, at a minimum, it'll probably take you an hour to go to all your different apps and collate them into 1 spreadsheet. That is definitely really important. The segmenting is also important, but, if it feels overwhelming, just simplify it for yourself. And then, the other piece that I do with my clients is I will run that spreadsheet through an email validation tool before they actually spend the time Segmenting them into groups, and what that does is it makes sure the emails are actually valid.

Because, you know, if you've had these emails for a long time, people's emails may have changed. They may have left companies. So just get rid of all the ones that won't deliver at all, and then, you can focus on segmenting the rest. That usually gets rid of, you know, 20%, and obviously, you wanna remove duplicates in your spreadsheet so that you're not segment you know, going through a list with lots of duplicates. Alright. On to step 3, which is Looking at your existing systems and automations. Now this is where my clients Way overestimate how many systems and automations they have or actually use, and you will probably be surprised by this step as well. So you wanna look at, you know, what lead magnets do you have, Any autoresponders that you're using, onboarding, emails for those shiny new product purchases, Those are all systems, and those are all things you're gonna wanna move into your all in 1 CRM.

So, again, I would have a spreadsheet where you're making a list of the automations, and I would include what the name of the automation is, which tech or app it is in, and go through and prioritize. You know, is this something you even need to move anymore? Because, again, have you been using it? Does the branding match? Does the messaging still match? Is the content still valuable to your current ideal client? So important. And if you're struggling with this step, I will cover this in more detail in the next episode, so definitely listen to that one. I will share some of the most common systems to move and the best order to move them. So I know this step in particular can feel a little Overwhelming, but really, again, is very straightforward and simple as long as you're covering those common systems. Alright. Onto the 4th step, which is connecting your website or other technology. So when you move into a new CRM system, the forms on your website need to feed into this new CRM, and it's actually pretty easy.

You create the form in your new CRM, and then you usually embed it onto your website and replace the existing form. That means that when someone fills out your contact us form, instead of it emailing you, telling you someone contacted you, It will actually submit it into your CRM so they become a new contact, and maybe you tag them as a new subscriber, and you can even follow-up with Some sort of a email like, hey, thanks for contacting us. I'll get back to you soon, but in the meantime, if you wanna schedule an appointment, here's my scheduling link. The other thing to consider is if you do have other technology that you wanna connect your CRM to, this could be as simple as putting a form onto some other lead magnet page. It could be creating a zap between 2 systems, but, you know, it just depends on what that other technology is. And in this 4th step, timing is really important because if you replace forms on your website, for example, You wanna make sure that you've already moved the systems for auto response if you have them. If you don't have them, It's not gonna really matter, so you can replace the forms right away. So just it's based on the underlying systems that you already have in place.And, again, I will cover that in more detail in a later episode. Okay. So you probably have 2 spreadsheets, 1 with all of your technology and what you're going to move, drop or keep, and a second spreadsheet of all of the automations or systems that you have, and, again, which ones do you wanna move, move over or just drop. So that seems like a lot, and it is, but it really will make everything else feel so much easier. So if you have, you know, thoughts or notes as you're building the spreadsheet, definitely put them in there because you don't wanna have to remember later. And again, you wanna make sure that you're prioritizing at this point. What do you wanna move? What do you wanna drop? What do you wanna keep? And most of my clients have a handful of systems that need to move, so maybe 3 or so, and moving your system is a great time to do some cleanup, update, and improvement. I want to just reiterate that this is not the time to create a bunch of new things because that will definitely slow down your transition in 30 days.If it was good enough yesterday, it's good enough today. So you wanna move it over unless you are planning and you already know how you're gonna do it differently. I wouldn't slow yourself down with the transition. So now once you've got all these list downs, take a breather, pat yourself on the back, you've made A CRM transition road map. Congratulations. You have already started creating order in this chaos and setting the stage for a smooth CRM transition. So stay tuned For the next episodes where we will dive deeper into some of the practical steps and a little bit more techie topics. So until then, happy planning.