Business Systems: Marketing and Sales

Business Systems Overview

• Business systems are the technology that drives a business, aligning its pieces and moving it forward.
• These systems are often overlooked by entrepreneurs but are crucial for supporting organizational elements.
• The three main categories of organizational elements are marketing and sales, operations, and finance and administration.
• Each of these areas requires different systems to support their functions.

Marketing and Sales Systems

• Nothing happens until a sale is made, highlighting the importance of marketing and sales systems.
• Marketing and sales systems are essential for generating contacts and converting them into customers.
• Three main components: customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation, and proposal/quote/order processing.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• CRM stores all business contacts, including customers, leads, vendors, and friends of the brand, in one central location.
• CRM manages the sales pipeline which includes lead conversion to opportunities, proposal/quote creation and agreement signing/order processing.
• Many CRM products are available, like Keep, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Dynamics, each with different strengths.
• Key considerations when choosing a CRM: specific business needs, integration capabilities, and scalability.
• A CRM system is the foundational system you want to have in place.

Marketing Automation

• Marketing automation software keeps the brand in front of prospects and includes sending out materials for the company and measuring the results
• Marketing automation converts raw prospects into to marketing qualified leads, sales qualified leads, and ultimately sales accepted leads
• It typically involves email and social media campaigns, measuring metrics like open rates and click-through rates.
• Some CRMs have marketing automation built in like Keep and Hubspot.
• Salesforce uses a secondary product called Pardot for marketing automation, to be brought together with the CRM.

Proposal/Quote/Order Processing

• A system must be in place to generate quotes, proposals, or order forms.
• Dedicated systems for proposals, like Proposify, offer templates, content libraries, and legal compliance features.
• Proposal processing systems should integrate with the CRM for seamless data flow and tracking.
• Some CRMs have built-in proposal processing capabilities.
• There are also industry-specific software solutions that combine CRM, marketing automation, and proposal/quote generation.

Operations Systems

• Operations is where services are delivered after a sale occurs.
• Operations include project management, customer service, and business-specific technologies.

Project Management

• Project management systems organize resources to deliver services effectively.
• It is used to track all the tasks that need to be done for the services an organization provides.
• Systems like Asana allow automatic project creation upon order placement and task assignment using templates for the manager.
• Many project management systems available, including Microsoft Project, Monday, and Basecamp, each with varying capabilities.

Customer Service

• Customer service systems handle customer interactions, inquiries, and concerns.
• Starting with simple email is fine, but more sophisticated systems are needed for scalability and follow-up.
• Tools like FuseDesk integrate directly with the CRM, logging customer interactions within the contact record for complete visibility.
• Alternatives include Zendesk and customer support tools built into many CRMs.

Business Specific Technologies

• The specific software and tools are used to deliver services effectively (e.g., WordPress, design tools) that may be integrated with project management or collaboration systems.
• Look for opportunities to bridge the gap between these stand-alone systems and existing systems.
• Focus should be given to selecting a project management system that ties to other systems the company has, as well as the customer service system.

Finance and Administration Systems

• The finance organization handles accounts payable, accounts receivable, general accounting, contracts, legal matters, human resources, and payroll.
• All aspects require underlying systems, either integrated or separate, to ensure proper functioning.

Financials

• Financial systems manage accounts payable, accounts receivable, and tax-related tasks.
• Common tools include QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, and Oracle NetSuite.
• Select a financial system that aligns with the business's needs, such as hourly-based invoicing capabilities.

Legal

• Legal aspect includes contracts and agreements management.
• Digital signature tools like DocuSign ensure secure and organized document signing and storage.
• Digital signature requests should be automated for efficiency either with third party integrations such as docusign, or with CRMs who have their own signatures system.

Human Resources

• HR systems manage payroll, end-of-year processing, and employee information.
• Tools like Gusto handle payroll, benefits, and employee data management.
• Time-tracking tools like Harvest track hourly work, budget for projects, and generate budget vs. actual reports for profitability analysis.

IT and Administration

• It includes collaboration, communication, integration, and reporting that supports the company.

Collaboration, Communication and Productivity Tools

• Collaboration and communication tools like Microsoft Teams or Slack facilitate team interaction and project-specific channels.
• Using MS Teams helps compartmentalize info and helps organize everyone by activity.
• Microsoft Teams is utilized due to its integration with Microsoft Office 365.### Microsoft Teams Integration
• Integrates seamlessly with Office, Outlook, and Office 365 to support communication through booking appointments and sending emails.

System Integration Importance

• Integration connects different systems, some natively, like a CRM linking to a marketing automation system or a financial system linking to a time entry system.
• For systems lacking native connections, external software facilitates communication.
• Writing custom software for integrations is often impractical for small businesses due to support overhead.

Zapier as an Integration Tool

• Zapier connects systems with thousands of integrations, enabling actions in one system to trigger events in another even if they don't communicate directly.

Use Case: CRM and Project Management

• When a deal closes in the CRM after a signed contract in Proposify, Zapier triggers project creation in Asana.
• This creates a project in the project management system under operations.

Reporting and Analytics Overview

• Includes: internal reporting for business management and KPIs, and external reporting for client updates
• KPIs include leads, sales close rate, project delivery time, profitability, etc.

Internal Reporting Tools

• Graphly layers on top of marketing automation and CRM systems.
• Microsoft Power BI natively interacts with tools like Asana and the Microsoft suite.
• Internal data repository also exists for custom reports.
• Reporting and analytics team ensures dashboards align with business leadership's KPIs and future goals.

External (Client) Reporting Example

• SEO clients receive regular reports on traffic improvement, visitor numbers, and keyword rankings.
• A dedicated team delivers these reports to operations for use in client meetings.

Lead to Financials Integration

• Lead enters CRM, receives marketing emails, open/click rates tracked, and data sent to the CRM.
• Sales updates opportunity, generates proposal, which upon signing, generates an order.
• Order feeds into the financial system (QuickBooks) via integrations.

Financials to Project Management Integration

• Order passing to financials triggers a new project creation in Asana.
• Assign tasks to project manager to load task template, assign project manager and team members.
• Team communicates via Microsoft Teams, creating new tasks in the project management system as needed.
• Team members track time using Harvest, project manager compares to task completion and labor costs to ensure project profitability.

CRM for Recruitment

• CRM tracks potential employees from website inquiries.
• Employment agreements stored in DocuSign trigger tasks upon signing.
• Tasks include setting up new hires in Office 365, Keep, and Harvest.
• New hires receive an automated email campaign with training and system links, similar to a marketing campaign.

System Selection Criteria

• Ensure systems have endpoints that can be stitched together.
• Systems communicate without content duplication.
• Chosen systems support the business size and process complexity.

Business Organization Components

• Marketing and Sales
• Operations
• Finance, IT, and Administration supporting it all.

Marketing and Sales Systems

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): central contact database.
• Marketing Automation: manages interactions and tracking with contacts.
• Proposal/Order System: creates proposals/quotes and tracks accepted orders.

Operations Systems

• Project Management: supports organization, consistently used across organization.
• Customer Service System: tracks customer interactions, tied back to the CRM.
• Business-Specific Technologies: tools that differentiate or increase efficiency.

Systems Tying Operations and Sales/Marketing

• Finance: accounts receivable/payable, taxes.
• Contracts: digital signatures, storage, and organization for employee and client agreements.
• HR/Payroll: system for time tracking, payments, and tax details for both contractors and employees.

IT and Administration Systems

• Collaboration and Communication: organizes team communications effectively (e.g., Microsoft Teams).
• Integration: platforms to enable communication between systems, like Zapier.

Administration Needs

• Internal and external reporting with dashboards to track business health and client performance through technology platforms meeting business and industry needs.

Overview of business systems, which are the technology that drives a business forward. Focus on Marketing and Sales Systems, essential for generating contacts and converting them into customers using CRM, marketing automation, and proposal/quote/order processing.