If the term “CRM” is an unfamiliar term to you, then you are in the right place.
For now, let’s forget all about CRM’s and talk about the Magic Filing Cabinet.
The Magic Filing Cabinet
We all know what a filing cabinet is, but this is no ordinary filing cabinet. This one is magic! Let’s open up the top drawer and take a look inside. The top drawer is labeled: “Current Customers”
Hey! All of your customers are there! They are all in individual files sorted in alphabetical order – wow – easy! But wait, there’s more! This magic filing cabinet is…well…magic. So just say the words: “Show me all the customers who live in Dallas, Texas” and watch what happens…. Poof! A puff of smoke emerges from the files and when the smoke clears you see 17 files have jumped out and have landed on the top of the cabinet. You open each one of these file folders and sure enough, every one of these customers lives in Dallas.
Now you push a button on the top of the cabinet and all the files go back in – all in the right order.
Now let’s open the second drawer down. It is labeled: “Future Potential Customers”.
That first search was fun – but let’s try something a bit more complicated. Say: “Show me all my prospective customers who were added to the filing cabinet in the last 90 days, and who are looking to buy a house in the Oak Hill subdivision, and who have over $1 million dollars to spend.” Poof! Another puff of smoke and 3 files appear on the top of the filing cabinet. Just to be sure you open them and find that yes, indeed, these 3 prospects were added to your cabinet within the last 90 days and are looking to buy a property in Oak Hill and have over $1 million dollars to spend!
This is so fun!
Press the magic button to re-file these and let’s open up the third drawer down. It is labeled “Past Customers”. Let’s just see how magical this filing cabinet is! Say this: “Send the email template called ‘Come Back and Buy Again’ to all my past customers who are interested in Blue Widgets and haven’t made a purchase in the last 6 months.”
Poof! When the smoke clears, there is a stack of files on the top of the cabinet. But this time there is a note on the top. Here is what the note says:
There are 1347 folders in this pile.
I just sent the email called “Come Back and Buy Again” to each and every one of them, just as you requested.
Finally, these past customers are interested in Blue Widgets and haven’t made a purchase in the last 6 months.
Best Regards,
Your Magic Filing Cabinet
Whoa – That is Magic! Press the button to re-file these and take a step back and have a seat.
As you might have guessed, what you just witnessed was not really a magic filing cabinet, but a CRM in action. If you look closely at the metal tag on our Magic Filing Cabinet it doesn’t say “HON” or “U-Line”, it says “AllClients CRM”.
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. That is just a fancy way of saying this is a tool to help you keep track of your customers: Past, Current, and Future.
If you own a small business you have a million things going on: all at once and every day. You have done your best and figured out a way to keep track of your customers. You might use an ordinary filing cabinet or spiral notebooks or sticky notes or you might use other tools like Gmail or Outlook to help you. In any case, if you are like most small business owners who don’t yet use a CRM, your customer information is in several places and you can’t perform simple searches and tasks that a magic filing cabinet, (or CRM) can.
3 easy things your CRM can help you with:
- Get Organized
- Reconnect with Past Customers
- Start Easy Lead Generation
Let’s take a closer look at each of these.
1. Get Organized.
The most basic thing a CRM will do for you is to get you organized. You will put all of your contacts in the CRM: Past, Present, and Future. Gather up all your contacts from all the nooks and crannies you are storing them in today. For example, exports from old CRM’s, notebooks, sticky notes, your memory, Gmail, Outlook, ordinary filing cabinets… find all the places you have them hiding and put them all into your CRM.
Just this one step and you are way ahead of the game!
Now that we have all of our contacts in one place, you will categorize them as follows:
- Current Customers
- Past Customers
- Future Customers
(Depending on your business, you might call Customers: Clients or Patients or Contacts or something else. You will just replace the word “Customers” for whatever is most appropriate for you.)
You will go through each of your contacts and attach a category to their contact record. This will be a bit of work now but will be a huge time saver for you once you have this done. AllClients makes this as painless as possible and you can categorize your whole database in minutes.
If you have 1000 contacts, in AllClients you can Categorize your whole database in under 17 minutes! Oh, and you want to do the same thing in Hubspot or SalesForce? Settle in and get comfortable. You are going to be working on this for a long while!
2. Reconnect with Past Customers
If you have been in business for any length of time you probably have some past customers. Past customers can be a goldmine that many small business owners overlook. Businesses often think their new business comes from strangers that have not yet been introduced to them and they think they have to go spend a bunch of money to find them.
Let’s consider our past customers. Past customers can be a great resource for repeat business, referrals, and even social media testimonials. Most businesses can continue to market their offerings to their past customers. These people already know you, like you, and trust you. They are much easier to convince to do business with you again than are complete strangers.
They can also be a great referral source. Imagine if every one of your customers referred just one new customer to you. That would be enough new business for many small businesses. They could then stop wasting money on ineffective marketing. Here is a white paper teaching you to double your sales by using referral marketing.
In AllClients we have an easy way for you to reconnect with your past customers. You already know exactly who they are because you got organized in Step 1. We also have a reconnect letter template you can use to renew your relationships quickly and easily.
With AllClients, in less than 5 minutes you will be well on your way to re-establishing valuable relationships with your past customers.
3. Start Easy Lead Generation
Many small businesses are so busy delivering great service to their customers, they don’t have time to figure out marketing. If you want to get started doing some basic lead generation, you want to start collecting names and contact info for prospective new clients.
Let’s take the example of a Real Estate agent.
The Real Estate agent has a million things going on as they are working with several buyers and sellers at the same time. When they think about finding new clients, it is natural to look for people who want to buy or sell RIGHT NOW!
That’s the hard way – Here’s the easy way.
Find the people who are going to buy or sell in 6 months or in 1 year. Those people are probably not looking for an agent today, they are just thinking about things. This is a great time to insert yourself into the conversation they are already having in their heads.
AllClients makes this easy to do.
Picture this…
- You offer a FREE REPORT called: “How to Prepare Your House So You Get Top Dollar When You Are Ready to Sell”
(This can be a short 1 page Tips and Tricks write-up or a several-page PDF. You can even get someone else to write it for you.) - Build a simple Landing Page to distribute your Free Report collect contact info.
- Once you get their contact info, you basically know that they may buy or sell in the next few months.
- Start them on a simple email drip campaign to stay in touch with them every couple of weeks…
Let’s say you have 100 prospects who got your Free Report and are getting your emails on a regular basis. There is a small percentage of those people who will call YOU when they are ready to do a transaction.
Easy-Peasy-Lead Generation!
CRM’s don’t have to be complicated. Just remember The Magic Filing Cabinet.
Find an easy-to-use CRM, like AllClients and you will be well on your way to reaping all the benefits a CRM can offer your business. In fact, sign up for a free trial of AllCients right now and get started today.
