I was talking with my sister the other day, getting caught up on all things family and life, and was really appreciating the opportunity to just visit with her.
We normally chat through FB messenger because of schedules, time differences, etc and keep up with each other there. This time, however, after I had texted her to get an update on my brother-in-law who was recovering from some health issues she decided to call me rather than message back.
It was great to connect and get caught up!
And it reminded me how important that connection is, with anyone in our circles, now more than ever.
People are struggling right now. Being disconnected physically from others, businesses are struggling, the future seems unclear. There is a deep desire for connection.
And this is true in our personal lives and our businesses.
But keeping connected with everyone in our business can be tough. It can be a challenge, and incredibly time-consuming, to connect with each person on a personal level.
And this is where a strong CRM is invaluable.
Here are some ideas of how you can use a CRM to help you build relationships with your prospects and customers now, in this bizarre time we are living in.
- Send a text message just to say hello. Make sure you put their name in the text message. For instance, “~Contact.FirstName~, I was thinking about you today and wanted to say hello, I hope you’re having a great day!” How nice is it when you get an I’m thinking of you text from someone? For most of us, it brings up feelings of connection and relationship. What a simple way to make someone feel good.
- Embed a friendly, and funny, gif into an email. You know when you walk down the street and smile at someone and they smile back? The same thing can be true in email. Send someone something designed to make them smile and they will associate you with good feelings.
- Keep track of when you talk with people. A good CRM will allow you to keep notes in your client records about when you last spoke with someone. This way you can make sure you are keeping in touch with everyone and not spending all your time with some clients while inadvertently neglecting others.
- Set up automation to track those who are engaged with you. By tagging anyone who has engaged with your emails, or opened them within a certain number of days, you are creating a list of your most engaged people. You can use this information to deepen your relationship with them by sending them follow up emails asking what they thought of what they read, or what they liked best.
- Schedule emails to send out when you will be away from your computer. Doing this will keep you on a schedule of landing in your prospect’s and client’s inboxes. They will know what to expect and when they should look for your emails. That kind of consistency will increase your open and click rates over time.
- Buying cycles will likely increase as we begin to find our way out of the situation we are currently in. Whether your tribe is currently in lockdown mode, reopening, or in a place where they never did shut down, everyone is aware that things are less “guaranteed” than they felt a few short months ago. This is going to make people more careful about where they spend their money. They will need more touches with you before committing. Knowing this you can build these things into your email campaigns to offer support and build trust with your audience before they are willing to spend money with you.
- Depending on who your target market is, this may be the time to build trust with your market instead of asking for money. In some markets it may be appropriate to sell them your product or services right now. Others, who are closed down or cannot do business won’t be ready to buy from you but will appreciate hearing from you. Knowing your market will help you determine how to best communicate with your market.
It can be difficult to figure out how to keep in touch with everyone right now, what to say and when to say it. To sell or not to sell is a question many of us are grappling with right now.
The entrepreneurs who are seeing the best results are those that know their Avatar. Exactly who they are talking to, what their market is going through right now, and are able to put themselves in their Avatar’s shoes.
If you were them, what would you want to hear from you right now?
Once you answer that question you can use your CRM to help you execute on your plans.
For a FREE 1:1 Strategy session to come up with ways you can use your CRM more effectively, simply book a time here. (If the link doesn’t work just copy and paste this link into your browser: https://calendly.com/tracyhoobyar/tech-strategy-call)
