Systems are the documented processes and procedures that allow your business to operate effectively and efficiently with or without you the business owner.
Awele is a talented graphic designer. She has been in business for over 3 years and has a reputation for excellent work. However she sometimes finds herself overwhelmed or lacking clients. She has done some soul searching and believes her solution is to revamp her website and intensify her marketing efforts.
However, the root issue is not getting leads but having a system that converts these leads to customers. So for instance; Awele gets a call; she is too busy to pick up. The customer calls again and sends a message, which she reads but does not acknowledge or respond to.
Other times she would send a quote but forget to follow up and answer questions and get the customer to commit.
There are also the some enquiries made on her social media posts that she misses or responds to after the customer has moved on.
You can agree with me that neither a new website nor marketing can solve Awele’s problem. She needs a sales system.
What is a system?
A system is a process, procedure, methodology or course of action designed to achieve a specific result.
How Can a Sales System Help Awele?
Having an efficient sales system will help Awele in lead generation; follow up, new client onboarding and customer service. To implement:
- Awele needs to list out all the various avenues customers can reach her to request for service and stipulate what the standard response time should be. E.g. all email enquiries should be answered within 24 hours. She can go further and create an auto response, which informs her prospective customers they would receive a response within the stipulated timeframe.
- Next she will create a database of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) and possible answers. E.g., how much does it cost to create a logo? She might not have a single figure but maybe a price range. Her response to that question might also be something along the lines of working with the customer’s budget
- The client might also request a profile to see previous work she has done. She will need to have a soft copy so she can quickly email.
- She also needs a follow up email template to remind customers about a pending proposal, a pending quote or a pending submission.
- Lastly when the prospect pays and becomes a customer, what happens next? Her onboarding system will help her navigate this stage.
Undoubtedly, Awele will see her productivity increase as well as customer satisfaction. She will save herself the trouble of having to constantly worry over her business.
Creating systems in your business takes time and can often be challenging but the end result is always increased peace of mind and creative freedom for the business owner.
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http://blog.ignitespot.com/the-importance-of-creating-systems-in-your-business