Next-level systems for smart consultants: Why you NEED a CRM

Leah Neaderthal0:02

I mean real talk. I've been wanting to run this boot camp for years because I know what a game changer it is. And finally, we get to do it. Welcome to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah Neaderthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their independent consulting businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created the sales approach that I now share with my clients so they can feel more comfortable in the sales process, get more of the right clients and get paid way more for every client contract. So whether your client contracts are $5,000 $100,000 or more, if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love, and get paid more than you ever thought you could, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to rate, review and share, hey there, Leah here and thanks for joining me in this episode. I hope that wherever you are, wherever you're listening to this, I hope you're having a good week, making some good progress in your business, and also taking some time for yourself. So when you started your consulting business, you probably weren't thinking too much about where you kept track of your potential clients, because at that stage in the startup stage, your priority was just getting clients like it didn't matter much if you kept track of your conversations in a spreadsheet or on post it or on a whiteboard or scattered throughout your inbox or even in your head. But now when you're a few years in, you find that it does matter, because when you've been running your business for a few years, when you're in what we call the messy middle, your focus is not just about getting any client anymore, because now in that messy middle, you want to be more intentional about who you work with and some of the projects you're saying yes to. You want to make sure you're attracting the right potential clients. You want to keep track of where you are in the sales process with each client, so that nothing slips through the cracks. And you want to present yourself and your business in the best, most professional light possible. I mean, you're not flying by the seat of your pants anymore. You really want to be buttoned up because you're running a big girl business. And when you reach that point, there's one thing that really helps you make that shift, and it's the thing that most women consultants don't have, but all women consultants need. It's a CRM, a customer relationship management system using a CRM is the difference between being haphazard about business development and being intentional about business development. It's about being strategic and being focused. I mean, at this point, you've probably heard about CRMs. Maybe you might even know that you need one, but maybe you've put it off because it seems, maybe a little overwhelming to set up, or maybe you've tried one and it just didn't work, or didn't click. Or maybe you're telling yourself that you're too small for one, but I can promise you that you aren't. And so in this episode, we're going to talk about what a CRM can do for you, why most women are making the mistake of not having one, and what's possible for your business when you do have one, we're talking about being able to streamline your sales process, build and nurture relationships with potential clients. Actually land more clients and have more calm and less stress. All right, so join us for that right after this. So when I first started my consulting business, I knew that in terms of, like, doing the marketing, you know, like what we actually did in our business, I was really confident, but in terms of getting clients, I didn't know what I was doing. And so as I was reading, you know, all the books and trying all the things in my conversations with actual clients, I also did something else that helped me go from not feeling very confident to feeling more in control. I set up a CRM for our business. And mind you, this business was like me, my then partner and a handful of contractors. I mean, this was not a big business, but I was juggling, you know, doing the work, trying to figure out how to do business development and land new clients, and I wanted to stay organized. It's like, you know, life sort of felt a little crazy at that point, but I wanted to control what I could control, which is my systems and my sales process and my ability to stay on top of things. So fast forward, a few years later, and I started my coaching business, and I'm so embarrassed to admit this, but in those early years, my painkiller statement was, I help small businesses grow, which is a terrible painkiller statement. It says absolutely nothing, but it's sort of indicative of the fact that in those first few years, I was like, I will do all the things for marketing and selling, which, by the way, you totally should be doing. The first couple years of your business, like, take any client that comes your way. But anyway, for many of those clients, as part of our work together, I was either setting up or refining their CRMs. And, you know, I've always sort of been like a tech geek, like I've either, you know, tested or used a handful of other CRMs, either for myself or on behalf of my clients. I think I added it up one time, and I've implemented like 12 different CRMs for my clients, because I've seen what a game changer they are for a consulting business, and through doing that, I've also seen what makes them not work and what some of the pitfalls are, and I've learned how to help my clients avoid those pitfalls so they can really start to use a CRM as the engine for their business development. So why am I talking about this now? Well, in the

Leah Neaderthal5:47

short term, I'm running our first ever CRM setup boot camp, just for women consultants. It's October 28 through 31st and we're going to get your CRM set up and working hard for your business. And you'll hear more about that in a little bit. And you may be listening to this before the boot camp, or you may be listening to it after the boot camp happens. But long term, enabling women consultants to land more clients, to get paid more, to have more time for themselves and build businesses they love, like that, is my ultimate goal, and having a CRM in your consulting business is the killer app that makes that happen. It's been a game changer for me and for my clients, and so in this episode, we're going to talk about what it can do, why it's important, and maybe some surprising things you might not know about CRMs. So you might already know that CRM stands for customer relationship management, and it's a tool or a software or platform that lets you manage relationships, streamline the sales process, and helps you land clients more easily, and really for consultants, what a CRM does is it creates a single source of truth for your sales process and all of your business development. It's a single source of truth for who you know for who you're talking to, your sales process and your pipeline, and it really becomes the engine that powers your relationship based business development. Because let's just look really quickly about what happens in a small consulting business when you don't have a CRM. Because I'm sure, you know, at first, in those first few years, you're thinking, like, I've got this, you know, this is just a few clients. It's no big deal, like, I can handle it. But as you go on and as your business grows, things can start to go a little sideways. And so I'm going to talk through a few of these. And as you listen to these, you know, don't be like that. One thing hasn't happened to me, like, Don't be that guy, right? Not every one of these may have happened to you or may be happening, but they do happen. So okay, so a few things that can happen. First, you can lose potential client opportunities, and it's not really a question of if, but when you know, somebody says, like, you know we're not ready, but like, reach out to us in a few months. And then a few months later rolls around and that conversation is a distant memory if you don't have a good way to really follow up with them. And then there's just other types of follow ups, like without a system reminding you to follow up. It's kind of like trying to juggle with one hand tied behind your back. You might miss a follow up, or you follow up super late with somebody who's in your sales pipeline. And so not only are you not top of mind anymore, but actually by not following up, you are communicating something about how buttoned up you are. So let's talk about clients you know, people you've already worked hard to bring in, and people you might know but haven't worked with yet. Without a CRM, it's really easy to lose those little details, like you might forget that a client told you that you know they have a different pain point that's coming up for them, or they have a special project they have coming up. Or you might forget that this particular guy you worked with 10 years ago is now at a new company, in the exact role that would bring you in as a consultant like you just don't know who you know, and that's not because you have a bad memory. It's because it's literally not your brain's job to remember all those things all the time. So that's a big one, and another big one is scaling without a CRM. You're kind of stuck. You can get more clients, you can get more in your sales pipeline, you can get more things coming in, but you still have the same sort of messy process you started with, like you just can't scale that, so things might fall through the cracks. You know, you lose track, and your business is sort of stuck in reactive mode. And with that broken or messy process, you absolutely cannot scale business development to anybody else on your team, because the process and the system can't grow with you and with revenue. I mean, it's really just hard to stay consistent when you're just kind of winging it. When you don't have a CRM to track your sales pipeline, you end up in this like. A feast or famine cycle, and then you get caught flat footed needing to make something happen in your sales pipeline, which is very difficult to make happen when you're selling B to B. And then there's efficiency, or, I guess, sort of lack of efficiency. It's really easy to find yourself bouncing between your inbox and spreadsheets and post its and Google Docs and trying to sort of piece together where you left off with this client or that client or whatever. And you know that might be like seconds or minutes here and there, but it really does add up, and that's time that you could be using to actually deliver value to your clients. So like, the bottom line is, like not having a CRM is like trying to build a house with a handful of nails and no hammer, like you might get it built, but it's not going to stand for long, because, like every time you you know, follow up late, or miss an opportunity, or forget that you know somebody important who could help you get business, that is just money walking right out the door, and when you're running a consulting business, and it's just you, you can't afford that. And the point here is that it's not just one of these that sort of breaks things. It's the combination of these, you know, a little bit here and there, over and over, over the years, that really start to affect things. But, I mean, let's talk about what's possible when you do have a CRM, because when you do, I mean, things start to get really good, really fast. I mean, first off, nobody slips through the cracks when you've got a CRM. Like every potential client, every follow up, every conversation is there. So you know that person who said, like, can we talk in a few months? Now you have what you need to actually follow up. So you actually do call them. You know, you do follow up in a few months, and then you know that potential client doesn't get lost in the shuffle, and follow ups are so important. I mean, imagine, like, you know, never missing a follow up again, because every time you promise to check back in the CRM is, like, it's almost like having a personal assistant being like, Okay, today's the day they send that email. And when you do that, and when you show up consistently, and you do what you say, you will potential clients notice, like, it builds trust. And in terms of clients, when you have a CRM, you have a single source of truth for client information. So that's where you know, you remember that the company is about to launch something, or that they were struggling with a specific issue last time you talked, and when you can follow up on those things like that's how long term relationships are built. And then when you have a CRM scaling actually becomes possible. You're not going to be overwhelmed by a flood of new clients or projects or leads, because your system can handle it, which means that you can handle it, and it also means that you can offload business development to somebody on your team. They're able to manage it, and nothing slips. And in terms of revenue, you know, with a CRM, you're not guessing anymore where your next deal is coming from, you have a really clear pipeline. You know, which potential clients are, you know, hot, which ones need nurturing, which ones are on the verge of closing, and that helps your cash flow become predictable, like you're not living in that feast or famine cycle anymore. Instead, you're building consistent, reliable revenue. And in terms of efficiency, you know, you're not bouncing between like five different tools or digging through your inbox, because you have a single source of truth for where to go. And the time that you save, and really the attention that you save really adds up. So bottom line, I mean, when you have a CRM, you're just not winging it anymore. You're running your business with intention. You're building stronger client relationships. You're closing more deals than you're growing without chaos, and I see the benefits of this every day. So when it comes to things like juggling business development and doing the work, one of my clients, who's an organizational development consultant, was having a really hard time like dividing her time between the two things, which is understandable. You know, they both take time, and there's just limited time in the day. She said, I've always had a tough time with sales because it was impossible to juggle selling with everything else on my plate. It was also really hard for me to prioritize where to spend my time she goes. I kept everything in my head, which makes it nearly impossible to do business development in any thoughtful way. She went on. She goes with Leah, helping me with my CRM. I feel like I've really unlocked an important tool. I have a way to stay organized, and I know exactly where to focus my energy. She goes. I also have incredible visibility into my pipeline, so I know how much revenue I stand to make in a way I never have before. And this is actually I love this part. This is the best part. She goes. But beyond what I can do now, I think the biggest change is in how I feel more confident about selling, more in control, and finally, able to go out and grow my revenue. So that's just one example of, you know, the. Real impact it can make, both in the business and personally, another one of my clients, her business was growing really quickly, and she needed to scale, but she didn't feel like she had a handle on things. And she actually had a CRM, but it wasn't really set up very well, and so it wasn't really helping her. And so when we actually got her CRM dialed in, she said Leah helped us realign our existing CRM, which wasn't doing very much for us to meet our business objectives. She goes, now that I have visibility into our back end operations, I'm able to prioritize efficiently, and I feel on top of our work, even though we're busier than we've ever been. And I think there are definitely, you know, of course, benefits in terms of time and money and growing your business and all of that, but we have to look at another benefit that's just

Leah Neaderthal15:44

as important, and that's reducing stress and creating more calm in your business. So one of my early coaching clients came to me and we were having a session one day, and she was so anxious about her business, and she was really anxious about her pipeline, like I could tell from the first moment that we started talking, she was freaking out a little bit, and she was convinced that she needed more everything. She needed more leads. She needed more clients. We needed to do this. We needed to do that. I mean, like I said, she was kind of freaking out a little bit, and she was going purely on feeling in her business, and things felt not that great. But when we sat down and we organized her pipeline in her CRM, and we actually looked at what was in it, we saw that she had about $600,000 in outstanding contracts, like she had $600,000 in her pipeline. And I was like, How do you feel now? And she was like, Oh my God. Like, so much better. So when you finally get a clear picture of your business, and when you're going on actual data, and you can see it right there in front of your eyes, then you don't have to go on feelings, you go on data, and you can actually make data driven decisions. Now, when most people think of a CRM, they think of Salesforce, which is arguably the most well known CRM out there. And you might have even used Salesforce at other companies or organizations or clients that you've worked with. But I just want you to know I'm not talking about Salesforce here, and in fact, I don't recommend Salesforce for small businesses and for consulting businesses. And there are, you know, a lot of reasons for that, but it sort of boils down to the fact that it's just too much like you just don't need that much functionality to really get the value. It has to be customized, and it's just overwhelming for a lot of small businesses and specifically a lot of consultants, and there are so many more CRMs out there that are right sized for consulting businesses. But the fact remains that when most people think of CRMs, they think of this like big software that's for enterprise companies, and that's where actually a lot of the misconceptions about CRMs come from, which we're going to talk about in a few minutes. Now, on the other hand, there are CRMs that are just too small for consulting companies, or I should say not too small specifically, but they're just not right for consulting businesses. And those are ones like HoneyBook or dubsado or 17 hats or others that are sort of integrated with services and proposals and Doc signing or whatever. All of those are marketed to small businesses, but they aren't right for consulting businesses, and here's why, when you run a consulting business, you're selling engagements in the 10s or even the hundreds of 1000s of dollars, right? And those proposals, those contracts they have to get approved. They go through rounds of approvals. They go to finance or whatever, which is to say, nobody is purchasing a consulting engagement worth 10s of 1000s of dollars or hundreds of 1000s of dollars. Nobody's purchasing those on their credit card, right? And that's what these tools are designed for. They're really for situations where the client or the customer can say yes and then purchase right away. So that means that they're really good for coaches where you know, the person you're selling to is the person who's making the decision, and it's at a price point where somebody can, you know, swipe a card and sign up. But they're not good for consulting engagements where you're selling to businesses or organizations. So between Salesforce and these little CRMs, there's this sweet spot of CRMs that are good for consulting businesses. And actually, I have a list of my recommended CRMs for consulting businesses, and at the end, I'll tell you how you can get that. Now, what I think makes this so hard for women consultants to bring to their business, to implement in their business, and what really holds most women back from getting the benefits of a CRM in their business is actually just a few misconceptions. So I just want to shine a light on those, and we can talk through them. The first one is. My business is too small to need a CRM. So I hear this all the time, and a lot of women consultants assume that their business just isn't big enough to need a CRM, or they don't have enough clients to need one, or their business is pretty simple, right? So they don't need a CRM. And it's this common assumption that you have to be a certain size, and that size is bigger, like some nebulous, you know, bigger size company. And I think a lot of that, again, comes from how we've thought about CRMs in the past for enterprise companies. But a CRM isn't just something that bigger companies have or bigger companies need, because having a CRM is about what it allows you to do, not about what size you are. So with that in mind, I mean, I would argue that small businesses need it even more than large companies. Because, I mean, a CRM lets you streamline your sales process see who you know. It helps you maintain relationships and manage your pipeline and save time. So I mean, unless you have unlimited time to do business development, and unless you have unlimited memory for all the people you've ever met and what they're doing now and who could use your services. And unless you have unlimited capacity for maintaining and nurturing relationships, if you have unlimited quantities of those things right time, memory and capacity, then sure, you probably don't need a CRM. But I gotta say, you know, who doesn't have unlimited time memory or capacity? Consultants, solopreneurs, small teams where the founder is doing all the business development, you don't have a whole team of people doing this. So small businesses need it even more, like when I hear women consultants say that they don't need a CRM because their business is too small, all I think about is the money that they're leaving on the table by not being able to do what a CRM will allow them to do. Because, you know, they're keeping their pipeline in like a spreadsheet or in post its or whatever. So they're doing only a tiny fraction of what a CRM can do, and they might not realize it, but they're really holding the business back. I mean, it's kind of like saying, you know, I don't have a big yard, it's only like an acre, like, I don't have a whole field or whatever. So I'm not going to get a lawnmower. I'm just going to cut the grass with kitchen scissors. It's like, what? Like, who says you have to have a whole field to justify getting a lawnmower, like a lawnmower cuts the grass. Whether you have an acre or a massive field, there's no reason to make your life harder just because you feel like you're too small. So any business of any size should have a CRM and if you're a solopreneur or you have a small team, you need it even more. The second misconception is CRMs are too expensive for small businesses. So this is another one I hear a lot, and again, I think this goes back to how we've thought of CRMs in the past. And it's true that enterprise CRMs can be very expensive, but there are so many CRMs out there that are purpose built for small businesses and right sized for small businesses and priced accordingly, like, you know, 25 to $50 a month. And listen, I know that when you run a business, there are costs, and those costs can add up, you know, maybe you have, like, QuickBooks or your Squarespace or whatever. But when you're a consultant, a CRM is the only system cost that can actually help you make money, which is to say it's an investment in revenue. And I say it's the only cost because, I mean, QuickBook doesn't actually help you get more clients, right? It helps you get paid by the clients that you already working with. And you know, in terms of like, Squarespace or any sort of, like website stuff, I mean, listen, your website is a tiny island in a vast internet that people don't just stumble on and want to hire you. And then, since most consultants aren't running ads or have a low cost funnel, and, I mean, you shouldn't, right, that doesn't make sense for consulting businesses, then there aren't any other costs that are directly tied to your ability to get new clients. A CRM is an investment in revenue that has an insanely high ROI so let's just think about it. Let's say you spend $25 a month on a CRM that helps you, you know, surface opportunities and stay connected to potential clients and streamline the sales process, all the things that CRMs help you do. Okay, so $25 a month is $300 a year. And let's just say that with a CRM it helps you land just one client. I mean, it'll help you lend more. But let's just start with one. Think about how much one client is worth to you, like how much you make on one client. Just as a benchmark, let's say one client is worth a total of $30,000 Your mileage may vary, right? Yours could be more than that or less than that. I mean, most of my clients are selling things that are more than that, but let's just say that when you land one new client, then the total that they pay you. Two through the course of the engagement is $30,000 then, if you've spent $25 a month on a CRM, $300 for the year, then you are spending $300 to make $30,000

Leah Neaderthal25:13

and that's just one client. Every other client after that is a bonus. So again, $300 to make $30,000 and again, your client engagement is going engagements could be more than that. I mean, that's an insanely high ROI. So if you've been operating under the assumption that a CRM costs too much, I'd say it's costing you too much not to use one. The third misconception is that CRMs are too complicated and they're hard to use. So this is a really common belief that CRM systems are complex and complicated, right? And in order to use them, you need a lot of, like, technical knowledge, a lot of customization. They take a lot of training, you know, and whatnot. And I hear this a lot, especially from people who say, I tried it and it didn't work, or I tried it and I didn't use it. And again, a lot of this comes from our perceptions, or even our experience of using a bigger system that does require customization, like Salesforce. And the truth is that you don't need expensive customization, and most CRMs have become really user friendly and designed to just be simple, especially the ones that are literally geared towards small businesses. But I will tell you, it's not the system that makes it feel complicated, it's the onboarding provided by the CRM company that makes it feel complicated and actually makes it harder for you to get value from it, because the onboarding that the CRM system usually walks you through is literally backwards. So when you sign up for a CRM, most of the time, the first thing they tell you to do is to upload all your contacts. Right? Usually you connect to your Gmail or your LinkedIn or whatever. So you upload all of your contacts, and now you have this platform with all of your contacts, and you have no idea what to do with them, and that's because importing all your contacts into a CRM is not the first step, but it's the way that the CRM platforms want you to do it, because they figure if you upload all your contacts, then it'll be sticky, right? You won't cancel, because all of your contacts are there. But the way to make a software sticky isn't by getting all your contacts into it. The way to make it sticky is by delivering value right away. That's why the way we set it up delivers value right away. Remember, I've done this a ton of times, and there's a specific way to implement a CRM and get it set up where it delivers value right away and it's sticky. And once you get it set up right, it can be a really valuable tool for your business. I mean, I always say it can power your entire business development. So what do you actually need to be successful with CRM as a consultant? Two things, you need to know your sales process and you need to set up your CRM the right way. And so because I know what a game changer this can be for consultants, that's why I've put those two things together, your sales process and you're setting up your CRM, and I'm doing a live event to help women consultants, just like you, create their sales process and set up their CRM. It's called the CRM setup boot camp. It's a four day event, one session per day, from Monday October 28 to Thursday, October 31 and in this boot camp, you're going to set up your CRM so it's completely customized to your business and your clients. This is a focused event created just for women, B to B consultants who are in the messy middle of their business, you're going to set up your CRM in less than one business day. And because our step by step methodology is designed for consultants and designed to deliver value immediately, you'll be able to use it and get value from your CRM right away. I'm not kidding you. This is the kind of thing that can take weeks or months to do, and you're going to do it in a matter of hours, and we're going to do it step by step, and you're going to do the work in the boot camp, so you don't leave with a long to do list. You leave with the work done. By the end of the boot camp, you'll be able to stop reinventing the wheel for every potential client. You'll have your pipeline organized, and you'll be able to organize your potential clients, you're going to make your sales process a well oiled machine. You'll be able to stop leads ghosting and falling through the cracks, and you'll be able to close deals faster and look like the experts you are. And when you sign up, you also get my roadmap to clients training so that you can create a sales process that's perfectly customized to you and your business. I mean real talk. I've been wanting to run this boot camp for years, because I know what a game changer it is. And finally we get to do it. The process that we are going to go through works with any CRM. So if you already have a CRM, awesome, like what you do in this boot camp will let you get even more value from it. If you don't have a CRM, no worries. When you sign up, you're going to get my guide for how to choose a CRM without driving yourself insane in the process. And that guide includes my specific recommendations for CRMs that are right sized and perfect for consulting businesses. So the boot camp, which includes the roadmap to clients training, the guide for how to choose a CRM, my personal recommendations for CRMs and live coaching with me so that you can move forward with confidence and you won't get stuck, is 297 you can see how we're going to do it and sign up at Smart gets paid.com/crm but don't wait too long, because doors close on Friday October 25 and we get started on Monday, October 28 so there are a few questions I've gotten from folks before they sign up, questions about the boot camp. So I just want to share those here. These are the top three questions. Question one is, Do I need a specific CRM? No, you can use any CRM, and our approach works with any CRM out there. So like I said, if you have a CRM, you're going to be able to get more value from it. And if you don't have a CRM, you're going to get my recommendations for CRMs, and you'll get a guide on how to choose the one that's right for you. Question two, do I need a CRM if my business is small, where I work with just a handful of clients, I feel like we sort of covered this one here, but suffice it to say, a CRM is a game changer for small businesses, and it's actually even more necessary for small businesses. And Question three is, I can't make the dates, or all the dates, or whatever. Will you be running this again? And the answer is probably not, like I said, I've been wanting to teach this for years, and just for a lot of reasons, haven't been able to do it, and it's been a long time coming, you know, to make this happen, but the sessions are going to be recorded, and you'll have access for a time afterwards, and then after the boot camp, all the lessons are going to live on in our academy portal, just for Academy members. So I mean, my recommendation, if you want to streamline your business development and feel organized and less stressed, and all the things that CRM can do for you, you're probably going to want to do this now so you can learn more and sign up at Smart gets paid.com/crm All right, so listen, I hope I've shown you why having a CRM for your consulting business is critical if you want to be more organized make it easier to land more clients and be able to grow your business. And whether you want to set up your CRM with me in a matter of hours with a step by step process, or if you want to go it alone, having a CRM that works hard for your business isn't a nice to have. It's a must have. Leah. Transcribed by https://otter.ai