[Video] Put fizz in your 3 core sales and marketing systems (Ep7)

What systems do all successful businesses have in common? On this episode, I help you to understand how to attract leads, onboard new clients, and delight them with the right processes. In it, I outline the eight processes that make up these systems, from lead identification to delivering on promises, and how they all tie in together to form a seamless business operation. So grab a notepad and get ready to take your business to the next level with this insightful episode.

Video Version

Timecodes

Timecode	Description
00:18	Introduction to the three main systems in a successful business
01:44	The misconceptions around business systems: software is not systems
02:51	Importance of referrals, reviews, and repeat sales in evaluating system success
04:06	Detailed breakdown of the attraction phase and its three key processes: leads, education, and meetings
06:27	Indicators of successful completion of the attraction system
08:11	The onboarding system and its crucial processes: offer, new client process, and add ons for new clients
11:09	Recognising the additional needs of clients and offering add ons during the onboarding process
13:10	Importance of delivering promised services in the delight system and the significance of endorsements
16:35	Summary of the three systems and the eight processes within them

What the software industry wants you to believe versus reality

Let’s clear something up. Despite what the software industry would have you believe, a ‘system’ is not a piece of ‘software’. Multinational software companies have spent billions of dollars on marketing and PR to convince you that ‘system' equals [their piece of software]. But it’s not. And it’s misleading.

Let's explain the difference.

Business processes

A process is a series of steps for anything in your business that needs to be repeated more than once. If a task needs repeating, you need a process for it. You’re paid to solve problems for your customers so you need to have processes in place that provide the steps necessary to solve those problems repeatedly.

An example of one such process is how you book meetings with potential clients.

Do you send an email first including a call-to-action for prospects to go to a calendar link and book a time for the meeting? If so, do you then follow up with an email confirmation and the calendar placeholder? Do you send prep materials? Or a reminder on the meeting day?

Business systems

Systems are a level above processes. Systems combine multiple processes together with people, technologies, and customer contact points to create a core function in your business. 

Systems: Save Yourself Stress, Time Energy & Money.

When business systems don't work

Left to their own devices, if your customer feels that they have to manage themselves what they want to get from working with you, it makes them feel like it's a slog to get from end to end, scaling every mountain peak along the way themselves:

• If they ever do make it to the end they're exhausted, and probably vow to never repeat the same experience again.
• Often they feel that it's easier and less hassle to do it themselves next time, or to use somebody else.
• They feel flat and unfulfilled.
• In addition, you feel that you could-, should- and would like to do more.
• And it also feels like you're acting as a mountain sherpa for every single client, carrying the heavy burden of all their work.
• It's becoming tiring and frustrating for you too, not just your customers.

What changes when business systems do work?

Turn those peaks with repeatable, consistent processes, however, and the experience can feel to them like you've created safe and simple bridges to manage their enquiry, what they buy from you and how you deliver that service:

• They stroll from end to end, delighted with the outcomes.
• They've received everything you promised.
• They've been happy to pay a premium to receive it.
• But most importantly, they want to tell everyone they meet about you, especially those who have the same problems you helped them to fix.
• As a result, you feel energised too.
• You find the work easier to deliver. It's also easier to train others to deliver it for you.
• And so, you feel you can concentrate on working 'on' your business, instead of being stuck in the weeds 'in' it.

If you've ever hiked in a mountainous area and had to carry your own backpack up and down hills, but then discovered an alternative of being able to walk across a bridge or a ridge and save the effort, you'll appreciate the difference in experience.

Where might your systems falter? And what happens when they do?

When you fail to systemise, your prospects and customers are left floundering in the gaps between those process points. Examples of these frustrating experiences are:

• Offer: When they've booked and attended a discovery call with you, but you've taken too long to follow-up with a proposal afterwards, or the energy and positivity of that follow-up doesn't come close to matching the enthusiasm they felt you had for helping them when you were on the call.
• New client: When they've accepted your offer and - perhaps even - paid for your services, but are left wondering 'what comes next?' This is also known as 'buyer's remorse'; the expectation gap between enthusiasm to get started and the reality of what your 'start' looks like.
• Add-ons: You've done some or all of the work, the client's reasonably happy with it, but you or they have got a few things in mind beyond what you've done to get them started. But the trail goes cold. You don't follow-up to make the suggestions you've thought of. And you don't ask questions to understand if there are other things that the client would love your help with further. Guess what? No testimonial or referral, and you miss the opportunity to build further on a profitable relationship.

So what are the customer systems in your business?

There are three customer systems in your business:

1. Acquisition - how you find prospects, nurture them and agree what you’ll deliver
2. Onboarding - how you sign off work to be delivered, then deliver it to new customers
3. Delight - how you get one or more of these three 'R's: (1) referrals; (2) reviews, or; (3) repeat sales.

If you're not hitting one or more of those 'Customer Delight' objectives in your business, then it's time to look at if you're failing to take your customers from 'peak to peak' in terms of their experience through these eight processes along the way:

What sales and marketing processes are in your business?

There are eight core sales and marketing processes in any small service business - I call it the LEMONADE PLAN, and even named my software business after it:

1. Leads - Without predictable and consistent lead targeting, lead generation and lead capture processes, you can't be sure you'll get in front of enough qualified prospects to sell what you need. Getting web visitors to become leads, or recording leads you met on social media or offline.
2. Education - 98% of visitors to your website are not ready to buy. But if all your processes are geared only towards the other 2% who are ready to ask for a quote, a meeting or a treatment now, you're missing out on almost all of the buyers who might be ready in the next few weeks, months, or even years.There are untapped riches in follow-up marketing if you educate your leads to recognise their biggest problems and eventually see you as the obvious choice to solve them as you gradually turn them into pre-qualified buyers.
3. Meetings - How interested leads schedule appointments with you, your communications leading to the meeting, and managing the meeting to gain verbal agreement for what will be delivered.
4. Offers - Your marketing, sales conversations and quote templates should address the customer problems that your signature offer solves, and you'll have payment services ready to take payments electronically that hit your bank account quickly and securely.
5. New clients - How you welcome new customers into your business is - in all likelihood - where your chances of landing glowing reviews, case studies or referrals really evaporate. After taking payment, if the customer senses that you haven't carried your sales momentum and energy into the delivery of the solution, then any fizz quickly disappears. It's a cliff drop moment. Customers can rapidly experience buyer's remorse - the deficit gap between their high point in trust and expectation at purchase and their underwhelm that the problem hasn't just instantly gone away at sign-up.
6. Add-ons - When you have sales conversations, you should be listening or looking for signals about where the relationship might go next after you've solved the first problem they come with. Great questions give you the most actionable insights. If you know you could help them more, it's your duty to sell. Even better if it fits an existing upsell or add-on package you offer. Customers become loyal clients when you continue to help. How you manage an upsell or cross-sell process to turn first-time clients into repeat ones.
7. Delivery - It's critical to deliver what you say you will, when you promised and how you promised to do so. Without this clarity, customers can develop different perspectives of what you're going to deliver and tarnish their perspective of the relationship. So it's important that you communicate, and are consistent, and clear from the outset to give them a clear picture of what you're doing and when, and what you need from them.
8. Endorsements - A systematic process for clients to endorse you with testimonials and/or refer warm leads. How you've done all seven prior steps determines how likely or not it will be to get positive reviews, referrals or repeat sales. Do them poorly or inconsistently and you've no chance. The worst gaps are where the sales experience sets higher expectations than the experience of what's delivered. But if the experience is high quality from lead to completion and everything between, your customer will help you in return, giving ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reviews and warm referrals to others like them.

What next

Having repeatable business systems and processes in your business enables you to deliver a consistent and predictable experience for your clients and prospects.

If you’re interested further, without getting all sales-y, we also have a training community and software package professional service that covers helping you implement systems and processes using our full Lemonade Plan methodology. There’s more about that on this page.

Lemonade Plan^® by Soloprenyear is our recommended way to help you to implement these consistent, scalable and repeatable processes. We believe so much in the power of consistency and systemisation in client experiences that Lemonade Plan software is pre-built with your business' systems in mind. To find out more, watch the quick demo now.

Questions for you to consider

1. What is the definition of a system in the context of business operations?
2. What are the three main systems discussed, and why are they fundamental for successful business operations?
3. Why are the three Rs important in client relationships, and how do they impact a business's systems?
4. Can you outline the three key processes in the attraction phase and explain their significance in client acquisition and engagement?
5. What are the critical components of the onboarding system, and how do they contribute to a smooth onboarding process?
6. In the episode, the importance of delivering on promises in the delight system is emphasised. Can you elaborate on why this is crucial for client satisfaction and business success?
7. The term "LEMONADE" is introduced in the episode. What does it signify, and how does it relate to the eight processes outlined?
8. What potential challenges might businesses face when implementing the discussed systems and processes, and how can these challenges be overcome?
9. How can businesses encourage and facilitate client endorsements, such as referrals, reviews, and repeat sales, as mentioned in the episode?
10. How can the concepts and processes discussed in this episode be applied to various businesses, and can you provide examples of successful implementation?

Take aways to action

1. Understand that a system is not just a piece of software; it's a grouping of processes that run your business, specifically the sales and marketing systems.
2. Focus on the three main systems of attracting leads, onboarding new clients, and delighting clients to encourage referrals, reviews, and repeat sales.
3. Learn and implement the eight processes that sit within these three systems: leads, education, meetings, offers, new client process, add ons for new clients, delivering what was promised, and asking for endorsements.

Books and resources mentioned

• Lemonade Plan software