CRMs, are they really for us?

James talks CRMs - do we really need them, are they too expensive and will Excel do the job?

Show Notes

In this episode James has locked himself in the studio to get stuck into CRMs and why we need, or don't need them. Excel may be good enough people think but James digs deeper and weeds out the reasons why a quality CRM won't just help GDPR and data handling, but also cross-department harmony and customer service. HubSpot is James's CRM of choice and he explains why.

Our blog - 5 Reasons you don't need a CRM in 2023

Any questions fire them at us at [e-mail]

What is Behind The Madness?

A podcast helping companies grow with marketing strategies, automation and time-saving tips and creative solutions.

James: Welcome back to Behind the
Madness where we talk about business

growth, ways to work smarter and the
fundamentals of business, all geared to

unlocking your brands peak performance.

I'm your host James Roberts
owner and founder of Method.

I'm all alone in the studio and I thought
to myself look there's no better time to

jump on the mic and record a new podcast
and today one of my favorite topics,

which actually isn't automation, but CRMs.

However, before I jump in, I
wanted to let you know a few ways

that you can contact the show.

We have some great content and helpful
tips going out on Instagram, where

you can find us at hello_method and
we have a dedicated email address for

the podcast, which is as you would
guess, [e-mail],

where you can give us any feedback or
ask any questions, and we will try to

get them answered on future episodes.

So before anyone comes in or
the phone decides to rang, let's

jump on with today's episode.

CRMs are they really for us?

So we've recently done a blog post and
we've kind of turned it on its head

around CRMs and given you five reasons,
you don't need a CRM in 2023 I love this

post, Tilly has written it and really kind
of captured a great idea of giving you

all the reasons why you don't need a CRM.

So before you think, oh, amazing,
I knew I didn't need one, let me

just read a few of those out to you.

Firstly, you're an Excel warrior, CRMs
collate all of your customer data in one

central location, but for some of you
hardcore Excellers, this is just too easy.

Basically what we're trying to say
is if you're happy with Excel, stick

with Excel, but of course, Excel
doesn't have all of the connections.

It's not going to keep all your
data up to date constantly.

This is a very much a manual process, and
this is where CRMs can really help out.

So, imagine you are trying to kind
of keep up with a busy schedule.

You're not going to keep
your Excel up to date.

We've all used Excel.

It was something the, which our business
started off with, we had all of our

customers in there, we had all of
their contact details, we had their

email addresses, we had telephone
numbers, we had their street address,

but, it was about where it stopped,
we didn't keep that data up to date.

So pretty much from the moment we put it
in, it was starting to be out of date and

we weren't keeping up with it in any way.

So any changes that were happening with
the client, we certainly weren't tracking

them or knowing that that was happening.

Whereas the CRM is really clever in
that regard to CRM is keeping all of

your customer's information in one
place, but also keeping it up to date.

It may be plugging into a number of
different other software or services

that you use, which is also keeping
that information updated constantly.

For example, if somebody is booking
a meeting with you and you've set

up that this meeting's coming along,
then that is automatically going to be

captured within the CRM so you know,
you've got a meeting with Bob coming

up next week and it's in your calendar,
but it's actually also in the CRM.

So you can track these touch
points of how many interactions

you've had with a customer.

So obviously we are very biased with
HubSpot, we use HubSpot, but for

me personally, I think it is one
of the best CRMs that is out there

purely from a usability factor.

It's really simple to use
and makes my life really easy

when I'm running a business.

To give you a really good example
of how HubSpot works, I can email

somebody and I'll do that through
Gmail, through outlook, you know,

through a standard email client.

Now, if the person I'm emailing
isn't already on our CRM, it

will actually create that person.

So let's say it is Sheila at abc tech.com,
it's going to create Sheila on our CRM

and also log that I've sent her an email.

That's clever in itself, it's
already created this contact

which has saved me a job.

But what it will also do is pick
up that abc tech.com isn't a Gmail,

it's not a Hotmail so it's realized
that this is actually a company.

So it's going to also create
what's called a company record and

associate Sheila with that company.

If there is also any information around
abc tech.com on the tinter web in any

way, then it will also go and grab all
of this information and populate the

company record with that information.

So through me, just sending an email
HubSpot's gone around and it's created a

contact and it's populated that contact
with some information, but it's also

created a company and try to grab all
of the information that it possibly can

that is in the public domain about that
company and also populated that as well.

So in terms of manually having to do
things, if I was using Excel, I would

have had to remember to go and add
Sheila to our Excel and create it and

that's a big time-saving trick already
taken out because it's done for me.

Now if Sheila is already on our
CRM, then all it does is it just

adds that email to the timeline, so
it's updating that details for me.

It knows that I've sent an email
to Sheila and when I've done it.

So, these little things that CRMs
can do keeps everything speedier

in terms of what I need to know.

Now let's take that action of
imagining that that Sheila sent

us an email, okay and she's had an
issue and it was something that she

needs done by the end of the week.

So this needs to be done by
Friday, she's emailed the studio

at [e-mail].

She's emailed our main inbox
and without a CRM somebody might

pick it up today and do the job.

Okay, then they might email Sheila
back personally and say Sheila,

this has all been done, all sorted.

She's happy she's emailed back, then
in a couple of days time, somebody

might have been out the office.

So tomorrow somebody might've come
in, they'll see this email and this

happens a lot with group emails.

They will see the emails come
in from Sheila and they will

jump on it and think shoot this
should have been done yesterday.

I'm just going to drop Sheila an email
and say Sheila I'm so sorry I'll work on

it today and I will make sure that comes
back to you before the end of the week,

Sheila's then going to respond actually,
you know, this is already been taken

care of one of your colleagues has done
it for us, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

All of a sudden it's a bit awkward.

Now with a CRM it's automatically going
to come in, it's automatically going to

be added to Sheila's record and anybody
who picks it up is also going to have

updated that record just through emailing
them back through taking the job.

Now, obviously you're going to have task
management systems, which are going to

take the actual job away from a CRM.

But in this instance, whoever came in
the next day, would've automatically seen

that that email has been responded to
and taken care of and it's off their list

that they can automatically go on to the
next task that they might have in place.

So Excel really isn't going to win in
anything like that, it's very static.

It's going to have no updates and it's
really not keeping you up to date now

there's a lot of other CRMs that don't
do some of these things that HubSpot do.

One of the things that everybody says to
us initially, as you know, well HubSpot

is expensive, but it's saving you so
much time with everything that it's doing

and all the tools that it possesses.

That actually time is, is sometimes
more important than that money

and we've always said that, you
know, treat HubSpot as a member of

staff almost, that's their wages.

And then what it does
is it always delivers.

Now HubSpot's pricing is also
sometimes quite confusing.

But you can start with the free CRM.

My mum uses the CRM and doesn't pay
for any of the tools and she's quite

happy with that and that works for her.

So, also bear that in mind
that it can grow with you and

it can grow with your company.

Also, obviously going back to this
article is there's some other great

points where you would a point four,
for example, and I will drop the

link to this blog in the show notes
so you can obviously go and read it.

You'd rather manually track leads CRMs
have built in automation technology

that allows you to prioritize leads,
which means these systems will allow

you to figure out which leads to work
on first, meaning you can organize

your schedule logically, plus you'll
be able to spend time generating some

engaging content for particular leads
reflected by the data you've collected.

Does the lead automation system
sound too robotic to you?

If you'd rather just pick and choose
randomized leads to engage with,

depending on how you're feeling that
day, then do what works for you.

Again, this is all about the
automation that goes into this.

So you can have, what's called a
HubSpot score or a lead scoring system.

For example, if they are downloading
content from your website, or if

they've engaged with social media,
you can give them points for

different actions that they've done.

This will then allow you to
completely understand how this

lead is weighted over another lead.

So if you've got 10 leads that you need
to follow up with, you can automatically

order that list by, by a weighted score.

So people have been interacting
with the company more, or been

doing more, more of these points
and gaining more of these points.

You're going to obviously want to
phone those people first they're,

they're much more engaged than somebody
who doesn't have so many points.

We also within a CRM can actually
categorize who people are and where

they are in, what's called a life cycle.

So in HubSpot's terms and following
that terminology, you start off as a

subscriber, which is probably somebody
who is just subscribed to your blog.

They're not really actively interested
in buying from you, but they are

maybe just subscribe to the blog.

Next up from a subscriber, you have a lead
now, lead is traditionally somebody who

you've emailed or somebody who's maybe
filled in a contact form that is a lead.

We then go through to a marketing
qualified lead or an MQL, an

MQL is probably somebody who
has been to an event maybe, or

downloaded a PDF from your website.

That's a typical marketing qualified lead.

A sales qualified lead or SQL, is
somebody who marketing have flagged

as a really good contact for sales
to, to talk to and to pick up with.

Now this might be that.

They've engaged a huge amount with
marketing, marketing may have touched

base with them in some way, but
they've done a lot of interaction

with the company backwards and
forwards and now's the time for sales

to step in and talk to this person.

From an SQL, would it be an opportunity?

So an opportunity is somebody who
sales have spoken to and who has had

a maybe an invoice raised sorry, maybe
a quote raised, you've spoken to them

and they're interested and you've sent
a proposal or a quote back to them.

That's a typical opportunity.

Next up is a customer, and I'm
doing this all from the top of

my head so hopefully hitting them
all, but next up is a customer.

Nice and easy, somebody who's
bought from you, somebody who

has paid for your services.

From my customer is what's HubSpot
call and evangelists, not my

favorite word in the world, but an
evangelist is somebody who is kind

of the gold standard of customer.

So somebody who has bought from
you, but who was also singing

your praises to other people.

So it's that perfect customer really
who you have, you've sold to, they're

loving what you're doing, and they're
mentioning your services to other

people and bringing you more business.

And then you have other which
kind of categorizes staff members,

freelancers, anybody kind of who
falls outside that lifecycle stage.

So why is that important?

Well, Lifecycle stages can
easily categorize your contacts.

So for example, I might for one day one
to bring up all of the opportunities in,

let's say a list who, so opportunities are
people who've sent quotes to, so I want

to see all of those opportunities who we
haven't spoken to in six months, you know,

why haven't we spoken to the opportunities
that we have gone through all of this

marketing, all of this sales, but we
haven't turned them into a customer.

You know, who are they and
why aren't they a customer?

And we can bring up a list or a report
and really dig down into that data.

The same way we might be
launching a new product.

We don't really want to send
it to everybody, so who are

we going to send that to?

Well, evangelists they're perfect they
love us already, so we can really use

those as a test ground to send this,
this product information to maybe we

want to send them a feedback form.

Maybe we want to kind of get
their feedback on something

that we're going to launch.

They're going to be the perfect people
to, to send that information to.

We could then send it to customers,
customers if we're looking to sell

other services or we've added a new
service to our business then that's

ideal to send that to customers.

You know, did you know that we
are now introducing this or we've

added a new product,, did you
know we've got this new product?

Do you want to learn
more about this product?

Book in with us it's a really easy
way to understand where everybody is in

that lifecycle stage and to understand
how to target people and within HubSpot

and obviously other CRMs we can create
lists or we can segment, and you'll

hear segmentation a lot around CRMs.

We can segment our data to understand who
these people are and how we can actually

get to them or send them that information.

So, why else do you need a CRM?

Well, you know, there are
loads of CRMs out there.

As I said, we are super
biased with HubSpot and that

all comes down to usability.

I deal with a lot of CRMs or some of
our clients use other CRMs, but apart

from HubSpot, I obviously don't like
those clients as much, that's a lie.

But obviously HubSpot is just easier
to use from our point of view.

I've always found it really easy
and it seems to fit with a good

90% of the businesses that we
deal with, it's software it's

tools work for that organization.

So that allows us to really build some
nice automation in terms of marketing

or in terms of the sales around what we
want to achieve for that business and

that's why we're quite wedded to it.

Because it allows us to look good for
our clients you know we're suddenly

organizing their whole business from
marketing leads coming in, right into

servicing current customers who might
have support tickets, you know, all

of that can be done within HubSpot and
it's also one central central place.

Now HubSpot, when it was originally built,
didn't like the idea of having these third

parties plugging into it thought that
it could do everything and it can't.

So, there were lots of integrations
as well that you can integrate in,

into, into HubSpot or into the CRM.

Allowing you to grab more information.

So that's essentially what we want, we
want one central place to understand

everything around our customer
everything that's going, right.

Everything that's going wrong and
everything that's happening to

them we want to know so we can
make sure that we are on the ball.

There were loads of nice things around
HubSpot that are built in, but a lot

of it isn't out of the box necessarily.

So it's the one kind of negative in
terms of a CRM, you know, it takes

time to get going so I talk a lot about
automation, automation is one of my loves.

Because it is saving me time and
it saves our clients a huge amount

of time and it keeps data clean.

Now that doesn't happen overnight,
you can't just say right, we're

going to go with HubSpot off we go.

Why aren't we seeing
all of this clean data?

Why have we still got
old contacts in here?

Why have we got old data in here?

Well, that's not going
to happen overnight.

We work with you to understand what is
happening within your organization and

understand where the automation comes in.

Everybody is slightly different, everybody
has different processes within their

business, the sooner we can understand
those, the quicker we can build it in.

But again, it's not something
that is going to happen as

soon as you adopt a newer CRM.

The CRM, isn't going to fix everything
overnight but it's certainly going

to give you a lot of wins overnight,
having all of that data in a transparent

place that you can deal with it.

One probably maybe final thing unless
I carry on reading through some of

these blogs that I've got in front of
me, but at the moment, one thing that

I think stands out is GDPR obviously.

We are holding people's data and if we
are using Excel and contacts and you know,

all of these other places, which are more
of a manual place, G drive or whatever it

might be and we're holding these documents
on our contacts, then when somebody

comes to us and says, actually I want to
unsubscribe, then we're probably gonna

have to go to, I don't know, MailChimp and
remove them from the subscription list.

We're then going to have to make
sure that we go to Excel and remove

them from there, we're going to have
to go to a number, different places

and it's actually a lot of work.

Whereas with HubSpot, they can not
only control their own data so they can

say, actually I want it to be removed
or what do you have on me and we can

quite quickly give them that because
it's all in one place and it's all in

one central place, central location.

But they can have control over that
as well, so let's take subscriptions.

We all get marketing through our inbox
all day long and what you can do is

basically manage those subscriptions.

So traditionally you have a one-to-one
subscription, which is me emailing

Sheila, for example, as earlier,
you know, for me to email Sheila,

I have to have her permission to be
able to email her that's one-to-one.

We then might have a marketing,
a general marketing subscription.

So that is marketing information
that's going out from Method to our

client base or to our contact base.

You then might have a newsletter so
this is very much blog a newsletter

that is going out at a certain
frequency to that person as well.

So you tend to have those, but you
might have service ones as well

around actually helping that client.

Do what they need to do, you know,
to perform what you need to do.

They have to have a service
subscription as well.

So there's four examples, but
imagine giving the contact

their own make-up of that.

So they could all of a sudden, well,
I just don't want the newsletter,

but I'm happy with marketing and
obviously I want the one-to-one or

the service, but they can customize
what they receive and when they

receive it at what it actually is for.

So all of a sudden you're giving power
to them, which again means you don't

have to constantly make sure that your
email lists are up to date or making

sure that when people email, they're
not emailing with that stupid thing,

which drives me mad, which is you have
to email us back with unsubscribed and

the subject line and things like that.

That that's so old fashioned and
why should I emailed you when

I don't want you to email me?

One thing on the back of that is they
usually email you back saying, you sure.

And that drives me insane give them
the power to be able to do what

they want to do with that data.

I'm not a flip side of that, I dunno
going slightly off CRMs here, but

the whole thing is behind the scenes.

If they're not interested, don't
try and keep them there because that

is certainly gonna make them more,
more likely to be less interested.

So, so let them control that data and
remove what they want and I think, you

know, things around GDPR are handled
really, really well within HubSpot.

It won't actually let you email somebody
unless you've given them a subscription.

It won't let you send the marketing email
out even if they're in the list that

we'll just stop it and say, no, hang on
a minute they don't have a subscription.

You haven't added it or they haven't,
or they've removed it or it hasn't

been added in the first place.

So yeah, but again, CRMs are
going to free up your time.

That's that's really what's key.

Everybody within the business is
going to have transparency that

everybody's going to be able to
see and dive in around people.

You can log calls, you can log
emails, you can log meetings.

All of these things are taken
care of within your CRM so you

can truly understand what is
going on with your contact.

So I think there's so much we can talk
about, about CRMs but hopefully that

kind of gives you a general overview.

We obviously have a, a HubSpot demo that
you can do, which is with me and I can run

through that with you and kind of just if
you're really undecided and say, I'm not

sure if it's for us or maybe you've been
looking at it for a while and just want

to kind of run through it with somebody
who knows what they're talking about.

Then we have a resource
which is a HubSpot demo.

You book a demo with me, it's actually
through HubSpot that you book the time

with me on my calendar and that will
that will send you a meeting link and

then I can go through some questions with
you, see what you're trying to look for?

And just really just show you the
ropes to see if it's something for you.

As I said, it's not for everybody
hubSpot doesn't suit everybody.

I think everybody should have a CRM, every
company needs a CRM, get it off Excel,

get it into a CRM, but at least this
will show you some of the benefits of why

and then obviously we can talk through
some of your issues or some of the

things that you want to gain out of it.

So that's, that's one thing.

So there you have it.

Look, I'll drop all of the links
that we've discussed today, the

blog into why you don't need a CRM.

I will drop through the link to a, to book
a HubSpot demo with me all at the bottom.

And that I think will help, help you
kind of make your own decisions and

there's a lot of information in there.

I think because we've, there's so
much within CRMs, we're probably going

to carry this theme on for a bit,
maybe interject it with some of the

interviews that we've got coming up.

And maybe give you some, some quick
wins around HubSpot, but, if you're

using HubSpot, let us know what
you think, let us know any of the

problems that you're having with it.

Or if you're using another CRM, you
know, come back to us saying, well, I

actually love this because and let us
know what features you love about it.

And you know we love tech.

We love people finding solutions for their
company and that's what it's about here.

You know, we're all about helping you guys
grow through our experience, but that

can only be improved with you guys asking
us questions and telling us what you

think about, about your CRMs or HubSpot.

If you've enjoyed this podcast,
if it's helped, then obviously

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Also remember to drop us any comments,
if you want any questions answered

about CRMs, or if you want to give
us any more information about CRMs,

then please drop it to us on our
email [e-mail].

That's it for this episode thanks for
listening,, and we'll catch you next time.