EP139 Making it Real: Automated Tools and Systems for Success

Are you using the right tools and systems for your business to succeed?

If you want to move your business forward but aren’t sure what systems are necessary to consider, then this episode is for you!

This week we are joined by Carrie Walters, a vetted Systems Business Generator who thrives in bringing together the tools and exciting ideas needed to get unique, small business concepts moving forward.

Carrie serves her clients one to one with a constant goal of being the second “you” in your business's operations.

Now, you may be asking yourself, what is a ‘Systems Business Generator’?

Carrie describes it as somewhere in the middle of someone who can see the whole picture on behalf of your business, who can see the goals that you see, who sees the path that you want to be on and then looks a little bit farther down the path based on knowledge, skills, tech, and experience to build the path for you to walk down.

It’s a merging of consulting and tech building, where you work together hand in hand to build business systems that you as an individual would need to support your specific goals.

If you’re ready to save time by automating your system’s processes, then be sure to tune in as Carries explains the 3 efficient ways she breaks up the systems!

What are some of the tools and systems that pop into your head that we should focus on for today’s chat?

The way I break systems up when I’m working with clients is whether something needs to happen:

1. Before the sale (ex: lead generation, marketing systems, things to nurture the environment that you need to do the sale)
2. During the sale (ex: payment processor systems, onboarding of new client systems)
3. After the sale (ex: follow up automation email systems, retargeting, and FaceBook ads)

Take a giant step back.

It’s so easy to get lost in the little tiny details that when you stack them all together, nothing works and nothing makes sense.

This is quite common in the coaching space and is what leads people to work with me because the first month of the contract is sifting through all of the “s#$%!.”

Ask yourself:

• What do you currently have?
• How is it connected?
• What is it supposed to do?
• Do you want to keep using this or do you wanna build something new?

1. What to think about before the sale

The first thing to consider is content, marketing, and using a social media management tool that will mass publish your content across different platforms.

Is it okay to be publishing the same or similar content across several platforms or is there negativity surrounding that?

Yes!

“Every time you send a message out it’s going to hit somebody different in your audience.” - Carrie

Another reason is the functionality aspect of pulling and changing one piece of content to another.

For example:

LinkedIn has a 150 character limit but Facebook has a 400 character limit.

That content is going to be different for each platform.

Don’t attach yourself to proverbial things that could happen and get as much content out in front of as many people as possible.

“The voice inside your head that’s telling you your posting too much is LYING to you.” - Carrie

2. What to think about during the sale

This is when we start talking about bigger pieces of the system like a landing page, for example.

"When you choose the right tools that have the right capabilities built into them, the systems that are much easier to pull off. There's less outside connection, there's less integration, there's just less complicated s#$%!" - Carrie

Word to the wise: any of the systems that are gonna pull in your lead information, process payment, or do any kind of further automation, just pay more for the premium features- it’s totally worth it.

Say a potential customer comes to your website, they read your landing page, read about who you are, read about your offerings and you hit them with a pop-up.

The customer is now considering making the sale and sees the button that says “buy.” They have now gone from the landing page to the checkout page (which could be a different part of your system.)

At this point you need to be connected to a payment processor and an automated responder so that anytime someone makes a sale on your system, you can send them an email saying confirming and thanking them for their order.

Built-in follow-up pieces not only make you look and feel more professional but also encourage people to come back and buy more.

So the feel of the system is important not just on the user-end but also for you as a business owner.

As early and as often as possible, look at the things you are doing every day as a business owner.

Should I automate this?

Is there a different way to get this job done?

3. What to think about after the sale

“If you haven’t thought about what’s going to happen after somebody buys something from you, you fs#$%! up somewhere along the road in not considering the entire process.” - Carrie

You have to think about what your buyer's experience is going to be like with your brand after they give you money.

How many times are they going to hear from you before they receive whatever it is they bought?

When will they hear from you to schedule a call?

How long until they get the first piece of your course?

Timely automated follow-up is a HUGE piece of “after the sale” systems and that butts right up to fulfillment.

When you work with someone like me, it makes it easy for us to point to the tools and systems that work really well in a line because we have the experience and we know how to do that.

It can be difficult when you're not working with someone who is really familiar with the ins and outs of all of the tools available.

Especially when there are 500+ digital marketing tools available on the market and nobody is an expert in all of them.

However, there are some fantastic all-in-one platforms out there.

What turns people off from those platforms (especially early on) is that they're scared of the price point. It’s going to be higher to get more use and more systems and tools right out of the gate from a platform to run your business.

“The choice right in the very beginning to pay a little bit more to get a little bit more out of tools that you're going to manage by yourself could keep you from having to hire somebody like me for a year.” - Carrie

You could run by yourself a lot farther down the path if you work in an all-in-one tool like:

• Kajabi
• Lead Pages

“Normal” pricing will be between $200 - $300 per month to use them and I promise it's worth it.  

If you plan your system early on, then the moment you start building your website that walks people through what’s going to happen when they make that first purchase, you can have your purchases stay within the same platform, follow-ups within the same platform and make changes and edits in the same platform.

It really cuts down the learning curve tremendously for some entrepreneurs.

Don’t forget that Meal Garden is, and can be one of the top tools for beginning, middle, and end work with clients. You can use it as a pitch, onboard, and follow-up process and it’s a place where your clients can really enjoy coming back to over and over again. If you aren’t using Meal Garden, you can grab 30 days for free here.

You can find Carrie either on Facebook or through her newest think tank project, The Unicorn Cage.

If you're feeling brave or feeling constrained by social media and building a community on social media, this special package she created teaches people who have followings how to monetize their group and learn how to build a fully emerged opt-in system for people to come into a private group that is completely independent.

Inviting your feedback: What value did you get out of this podcast episode? What could we have done differently to make it a more successful listening experience for you? What questions do you wish were asked or elaborated on further? Let us know! Email the host directly: kiki.athanas@mealgarden.com

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