The Side-Hustle Dad

Ep12
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Why You Need a CRM
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Bryan Steele: welcome back to the podcast. I'm glad you're joining me today. I want you to imagine this. It's the end of the day. You're lying your head down onto your pillow and suddenly you go, wait, did I email that guy from Tuesday? He was interested in working with me.

I don't know if I emailed him. That is a common thing when you start out your business, you're trying to hold all of these things in your head, run your business from your head instead of leveraging tools to help you run your business. This is a mental trap that is very common. [00:01:00] You think you can run out of Gmail, but you really can't.

What you need is a customer relationship management tool, a CRM as they're commonly known, but we're not just talking software here today. We're wanting to create a system that allows you to park information outside of your brain. You could literally do these things on a piece of paper. If you really wanted to, it's not recommended, but you could write them down.

I mean, before computers, people did this in their rolodexes and organized things in a physical way to understand where things were at. Now we just have the benefit of digital tools that we can use, and so we need to build you a system. For your business that allows you to operate this way. Now for a product based business, this may feel a little weird, so take what I'm [00:02:00] saying here and maybe look for opportunities to apply it.

Like maybe you want to build relationships with places where you could sell your products. Certainly you maybe don't always have the opportunity to. Interface directly with each customer individually. Maybe you do. Maybe that is an opportunity, but we want to develop this system in a way that is manageable and sustainable without burning you out.

We want this to be a simple thing.

Start With a Spreadsheet
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Bryan Steele: Now, as you begin, I want you to understand that you do not need to go buy software today. You likely do not have dozens of people contacting you regularly. You get a couple emails here and there. Maybe you got one on Monday, maybe one on Thursday, and you know there was somebody from last week, or you met somebody at an event, or you went to a birthday party and ran into somebody and you said, Hey, let, let's exchange phone numbers.

Those are the types of interactions you're gonna have. You're not getting a lot of [00:03:00] volume automatically, especially early on. Your first version should literally be a spreadsheet, whether you want to do that in Excel or Google Sheets, that's the only place you want to start. If you can't manage five leads in Google Sheets, then a piece of software is not gonna solve the problem.

Must Have Columns
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Bryan Steele: So what needs to go in that spreadsheet? So this, we're gonna lay it out. This is gonna be this, this is the most tactical, straightforward episode I think maybe I've, I've ever had, other than maybe the banking one.

What we capture first, we gotta capture a name. Then they're contact information. So we need email, phone number, address those pieces that are appropriate. Maybe you don't get all of those, but you gotta get some contact information when you last talk to them and when you need to take the next step of interacting with them.

So giving yourself a deadline, [00:04:00] boom. That is the first step. That's initially what we want to get. From every single person that we might potentially work with.

Pipeline Stages Explained
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Bryan Steele: Following that, we need to start thinking about things as stages. So what stage are you at with each person that's in your list? So you might be thinking like, okay, they are a marketing lead.

What's a marketing lead? They are somebody you come across that you meet that might want to hire you at some point. But they have not expressed a need or an interest in directly working with you yet, but they fit your profile. So you've met them. They fit your ideal client profile that we talked about last week.

They look like they'd be somebody who could benefit from your services, but they haven't really expressed a, a need or a desire to work with you yet. So that's a marketing lead. Then there's a sales lead, and that person is somebody who has said, [00:05:00] I would be interested in working with you.

So there's two different levels of interest. You wanna make sure you keep track of both. 'cause you might, let's say on Google Sheets, you might put a filter in. It's like, Hey, I'm gonna reach out to all my marketing leads and just see, you know, make a contact. But you may not focus on those marketing leads very much, at least early on, but you want to capture them because they may be really great people to follow up with down the road.

So we got marketing lead, sales lead. So those are two options in the stages. Then an offer is made or a proposal or is given, you've sent a price, you've sent an email, you've contacted them, you said, this is, this is what I envision working together will look like. So you've made that offer. Then there's a level of commitment.

So the next stage is they've committed. That might be contract gets signed. They say yes, they set a date for the project and they wanna hire you. Maybe they [00:06:00] pay you a deposit, but there's a level of commitment. Something has happened that says, yes, we are working together. They've paid for it.

Something like that. You've sent an invoice. So after that, you've got projects that you are working on. So maybe they commit, but you don't start for a month or a few weeks or something like that.

So then there's a, when you're working on the project and then when the project is completed, those are the bare minimum stages you need to have. You don't need. More you can add additional, like maybe you feel like, oh, I want to have a stage for following up, up with. Previous clients or I want to capture some different pieces or add a few more steps to this pipeline.

But that's essentially what we've, what we've created was we've created in Google Sheets a pipeline that allows us to move people along their customer journey. Where are they at? What is the next thing I need to do? When do I need to do it?

Tracking Value and Wins
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Bryan Steele: Once you've got that in a column where you [00:07:00] can set that stage, then you will need to add a project value.

Or the potential value of the project. Maybe you don't have a exact price, but you have a good idea maybe early on of what it might be worth. Once that becomes solidified, you'll update the value. So that's the next one, the project value, and then a one or lost column. That's important for when we go back and we look at, oh, okay, I made this many offers and I lost this many and I won this many.

So we can start figuring out what our conversion rate is like. Are we getting half people to say yes, quarter of people to say yes, all those sorts of things. Those are your columns. That is what needs to go in the spreadsheet. Quick recap, name, contact information like email, phone number, address your last interaction, your next interaction date, and then the stage that they are at in your quote unquote pipeline.

[00:08:00] Then project value then won or lost. That's it. That's your starting point. That is the spreadsheet.

Weekly Follow Up Habit
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Bryan Steele: So anytime you meet somebody, you go, Ooh, they would be a good fit, or they express some interest, or you get an email. First thing you do, put them in that spreadsheet. You open it up on your phone. Punch in.

Maybe you don't have all the information yet, but punch in a few things. You can go back to it later, and then once a week you go back in there and you look, okay, am I, have I done everything I needed to do? Have I have I missed something? You've captured the information and now you're much less likely to run into the situation where you let opportunities slip through the cracks and it doesn't.

Require a $50 a month subscription to be organized. You just need to be diligent about checking this periodically, and you're gonna beat 80% of the competition because you are going to be able to follow up. [00:09:00] You're going to know, Hey, I talked to this person and I sent 'em an email. This is my last contact, but they haven't responded.

I'm gonna reach back out and say, Hey, just wanted to see if you were still interested in this. Wasn't sure if you know your plans had changed. We gotta keep it lean, we gotta keep it simple. Not a lot of extra fluff in it.

There's obviously other tools which are more automatic, that import emails and create leads for you. You don't need that yet. It's gonna be a couple people here and there. So just start with this. Develop the habit, start to understand what your sales flow looks like, what that pipeline looks like as you move along.

And then you can start to understand like, oh, hey, I, I get a lot of marketing leads, but nobody really starts expressing interest. What am I missing there? Oh, I've got a lot of offers I'm sending out, but I'm not getting many people saying yes. Or they're not responding to my emails, right? I keep making contact with them, and then [00:10:00] weeks go by, I hear nothing back when was their last interaction with me?

I keep setting a new interaction date. I keep sending emails, but I'm not getting responses. What am I doing wrong? You can start to use this as a tool to understand where you need to focus your efforts on the business so you know how you're gonna generate the most impact. So start there. Start with simple tools and use those to your leverage.

When to Upgrade Tools
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Bryan Steele: I didn't stay there. That's how I started. I started just with a list of people and I went with that. But as you grow, it becomes a little more difficult to manage. So I at least wanted to give you a few tools if you feel like, Hey, I'm already doing that, Brian, I've got, you know, I'm getting five or six inquiries a week.

I, you know, people are scheduling meetings on my calendar without, you know, I, I, it's hard for me to keep up with at that point in time. It is valuable to start looking at [00:11:00] dedicated software that can do some of these things for you. But I recommend starting with the spreadsheet until you start getting that flow going so you start to understand what your process begins to look like.

CRM Software Options
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Bryan Steele: So at this time, I actually wanna start giving you a picture of what tools might be out there and some that might be a good fit. So let's start with the simplest. The lowest barrier to entry a free CRM Now. I will say I would not recommend jumping into this without doing a spreadsheet first, even though it's free.

I recommend just starting with a spreadsheet, starting with the list, just to start getting an idea of how these things might be structured And understanding where you've got to get information, but one, and I will have links to all of these in the show notes so you can hit the link and check them out.

But the first, that's free op has a free tier for you would be the capsule, CRM. Now the reason it's free is because they have more available options later on for paid [00:12:00] services, right? So you can just scale up and get additional features and benefits of the software. But they start you with the free tier that that has a simple, has a pipeline, has some email tracking and those sorts of things so that you can stay organized and it allows you to build that first pipeline and it gets you to start to understand, oh, what are in some of these pieces of software?

Why would I need to use them? What do they do for me? That's one that I really think would be worth checking out. It's not one that I have directly used, but you know, in looking at it what is available, I think that's a great place to maybe start if you're wanting to just dip your toe in the water and see what it would be like to get a piece of software.

The second one is actually the service that I use. So this one is one that I would recommend for service providers, photographers, coaches, consultants. DJs where there's a clear like, Hey, this is kind of that sort of offering. Because what it is [00:13:00] really good at is kind of bridging a couple things together.

It's not purely a CRM, it kind of bridges the gap between CRM and finance. And I can use HoneyBook to. Send, information, they can schedule meetings with me. We can have that initial CRM piece where I'm following up with people and putting them through my pipeline, but I can also send them a contract and invoicing and follow up and all of those sequences automatically on the backend.

So it does some financing has. You know, project based things. For client interaction so they can get deliverables and stuff like that. So that's one that I use personally that I've enjoyed. It's not perfect. I have certain things that I don't like about it, but overall I've been really happy with it.

So if you're interested in that, hit the link. If you do choose to use that one, I've got a special referral code that I believe can get you some additional benefits as well. So use that link in the show notes.

When you're starting to get high volume, you're trying [00:14:00] to manage a lot of contacts. Pipe drive and HubSpot are two really good options for that. HubSpot is another one that has an entry level. That's free, but it adds, can really get expensive as you add on features. And so like you bolt on the different things that you want for marketing and it can get a bit complicated, but it is, it is a, a good one.

And there's lots of businesses out there that use HubSpot. Pipedrive is also another CRM that's really a sales drag and drop tool. It has pipelines in it as it's kind of in the title, so it's managing that relationship, and really helping you follow along with that. Now, there's another one called Go High Level, and this one has been making a lot of noise in the CRM space.

It's been talked about a lot. It can get really expensive. It is. I think about it this way, [00:15:00] people often get seduced by these really fancy tools that can do all of the things, all these automations, and that is what go high level is it is a Ferrari of a CRM, but I. It's costly. It costs more money oftentimes because it's a Ferrari and it can be a steep learning curve to get things set up the way it needs to to be really effective for your business.

It's a bit of a beast, but it is really good for high level agencies that you're like, we've really gotta automate things. We've gotta streamline things so that we're not having to take a bunch of manual steps. Don't be freaked out by that. I just want to point that out. You know, it may not be initially, but if you've been in this for a while, you've been building your side hustle and like you're not afraid of spending the money or the time to build these systems and tools, go high level could be the right tool for you as far as a, a automation feature that.

That saves you time, and I've [00:16:00] heard good things about it from a couple of other business owners who use it. I have not used it myself, but I, I have heard some good things, so I've got a link to that as well.

Switching and Next Steps
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Bryan Steele: The question I get asked is, when do I move away from the spreadsheet and start looking at one of these options?

And I would say that moment you start to feel like the spreadsheet is taking more effort, it's more work. You feel like you're a professional, you're coming across, you're following up with people, but. You know, there's enough things in there that you're, you're spending an hour moving pieces around and changing what stage somebody's in and, oh, I'm gonna email this per, it starts to get a little more manual and take more of your time managing that piece.

That's the moment where, you know, a tool like a HoneyBook or a pipe drive really starts to become an equalizer because you can then start building in [00:17:00] automations. We probably will talk about that on a future episode that do things for you, follow up with that client, send that invoice, close that lead, you know, hey, they haven't responded, so we're gonna reengage and you can start to build these systems and tools around.

Somebody fills out a form on your website. It automatically goes into the pipeline and maybe sends the first couple of emails for you. That's what those tools can do. Start to allow you to put a little bit of an investment in.

That allows you to then save you several hours of admin each week. So once you're getting the business running, there is some income that you can invest in some of these tools. That's about the time I would start thinking about an actual dedicated CRM software to then automate things, take things off of your plate so you don't have to do 'em.

Makes that process a lot easier. So don't. Necessarily feel like you have to jump to that, but that's the inflection point we're thinking about. Right? Don't feel like you have to jump to [00:18:00] the finish. I've actually changed CRMs before I had a different one before I, I switched to HoneyBook just 'cause I, I needed some different features and don't feel like you're stuck in one or the other.

You can export data to move to something else. If you start with the simple one. And you think, oh, this other one actually does more of what I need it to export data. A lot of times these CRM softwares will ingest data well from other softwares, so, you know, do that in the, in the transfer process.

Final Encouragement
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Bryan Steele: Don't be afraid of switching, but the goal today is just to set up a system that allows you to follow up.

So create that spreadsheet if you don't have something yet and put in. Your first five people that are your leads or your clients or people you know, you need to reach out to put in those people and then just start going from there. Use it, leverage it. It's gonna be so valuable to make sure that [00:19:00] people do not fall through the cracks because that is so.

Underrated that you know, you might send out messages and then somebody just doesn't get back to you. Somebody doesn't answer the phone, somebody doesn't send that response or that follow up. If you continue to make sure that you use these tools and re-engage people, you're far more likely to get the deal down the road because you have proven yourself as a professional that's really going to deliver on what you promise.

And that's what we want. We want you to be successful with the, the limited time that you've got. So take that, use it, build it and I wish you all the success in the world. If you want to check out some of those pieces of software, check the show notes, I've got links to everything in there, and I will see you all again next time.

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