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Just about everyone you know is short of time, right?
There is always more to do. It’s ok to not get everything done as long as the things you are missing aren’t those critical, high-payoff items that will have a serious impact on your business.
Establishing, nurturing, and maintaining fantastic relationships with your prospects and clients is one of those critical items. Business relationships mustn’t be left to luck and chance. In short, they must be systemized.
This guest post is written by Nick Howes, Managing Director of Leadership Management International (LMI) UK. Nick’s experience spans across leadership and executive coaching, public speaking, and team development.
You’re only as good as your systems. As James Clear, author of Atomic Habits says, “You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”
When we are clear on the outcomes we want—forming and nurturing great relationships—we then need a system by which we consistently do the right things in the right way and at the right time in order to get the results we want.
This is where a proper CRM strategy comes into play.
A good CRM strategy will incorporate these four elements:
A CRM strategy will define things such as the information you need for each contact, the means and frequency of communication, and your criteria for data segmentation so you can create relevant lists of contacts, and who in the team requires access to what data.
It would be easy to think, “We don’t need a strategy; let’s just get on with using the software.”
This is a common mistake and can lead to gaps that might harm your ability to understand and serve your customers.
As a small business owner or a sales rep, you don’t have time to create elaborate plans. You have to act quickly and deliberately to grow your business.
Here are 6 very simple tactics to integrate into your everyday CRM routine. They are very easy to implement and won’t disrupt your usual workflow.
Incredible amounts of time can be lost trying to recall that important thing that important person said when you had that important conversation two weeks ago.
It’s worse than just the time though. Often those crucial pieces of information are never recovered and your ability to effectively nurture that relationship is diminished.
What’s the solution?
Your CRM system should be the place where you record every single piece of valuable information relating to an individual contact, organization, or specific deal you are working on.
Here are a few things to record in your CRM:
When did you meet? Where did you meet? What was discussed? What did they tell you about X, Y, and Z? What solution did you offer? What price did you quote? What was their fellow director called? When was their budget review taking place?
Your CRM is not just another tool. It’s the one place to keep everything together rather than having various pieces of the jigsaw scattered around in different places.
That’s why you need to integrate your CRM with other services, such as emails and finance software.
Integrating your CRM with other apps helps you easily access everything you need in one place i.e. within the contact page for that person.
It’s so easy to get lost in everyday chaos. Back-to-back meetings leave little time to reflect. Even waiting just an hour after a meeting can significantly impair your ability to recall what happened compared to addressing it immediately.
That’s why it’s so important to book in buffer time, at least ten minutes, after every call and meeting. Use this time to reflect and take notes, collating all the important information into your CRM system.
Then use your CRM to set a Next Action. When the reminder comes up for that action (be it a follow-up email or a catch-up call), you can easily see what took place previously and prepare for your meeting.
Having a CRM system is of little use if you keep finding yourself too busy to use it. It can be hard to get out of firefighting mode. There’s always an ‘urgent’ issue that can derail your day.
There’s an old adage that will serve you well here:
“You don’t find time, you schedule it.”
Put in a recurring block of time (and rigorously protect that time) to work on the daily tasks from your CRM. The business of relationships is far too important not to systemize.
If my client Joe and I agreed that I’d give him a call on the first Monday of next month, I should deliver on this promise. Doing what is planned is essential for building trust and conveying competence.
Creating a follow-up process and sticking to it is imperative to have solid foundations for long-lasting business relationships.
You don’t need an extra tool to remind you about these follow-ups. Ideally, your CRM should have this feature.
Staying focused in a world full of distractions might seem like a mission impossible. This is where the ‘Land one plane at a time’ concept can be helpful.
There’s a myth that some people are especially good at multitasking, but it’s not true. Research shows our brain can only focus on one thing at a time, and switching between tasks causes a lag. It’s like getting on a bicycle—it takes a few hard pedal strokes to get going. But when you switch tasks, it’s like dismounting, remounting, and pedaling again. Switching tasks takes time and slows you down.
Since your customer relationships matter, don’t allow the impact to be diluted by constant interruptions. When you’re checking off actions in your CRM, put your phone on silent, or preferably airplane mode, and close down your email client or anything else that might distract you with the constant noise of ping notifications.
These six tactics are very easy to implement.
If you adopt them in your CRM strategy, you’ll always know what to do and when. These simple tactics allow you to save time and mental energy that can be used to establish and nurture business relationships and deliver outstanding customer service.
