Episode 16 Transcript

Hey everyone, it’s me, Lisa, and I am back with another episode of The Other 99%. On today’s podcast, I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about systems. Now, if you’re not familiar with the word, I’m gonna read exactly what systems is in the context of a direct sales business, okay? So a system refers to a set organized methods, processes and structures that guide the operation of the business. These systems help streamline tasks, create consistency and support the overall success and growth of the business. So basically what a system is, it is something that you have set up that allows you to work smarter, not harder and it keeps you organized. So when I think about it, it’s like for the longest time, I’m like, I’m not a systems person. Like I don’t know how to do this stuff. What is the system? I didn’t know. But then I actually sat down and I analyzed what I was doing and oh my god, it’s like I have so many systems in place in my business that I mean that’s how I’m able to run my business a little bit more efficiently. I have systems like I know at the beginning of the month I have to do this, this, this, and this and it has to be done by the fifth of the month. There’s no leeway there and it’s just all this stuff that I have in place in my business that just helps me work my business more proactively instead of reactively. And it helps me work my business in a organized manner. And it keeps me sane. Let’s put it that way. It keeps me sane.

So I have a big list of types of systems here in front of me that I want to talk to you about. Now, I’m going to just say it. I don’t want you to get overwhelmed because do I think that you need to implement every single one of these systems? Absolutely not. Do I think some of these systems can be rolled up into one if you’re just starting out your business or if you have a smaller business? Absolutely. So as we go through, I’m going to tell you which ones that I think can actually go into one type of system. So the first ones I want to talk about and I’m going to roll these three together is a lead generation system, a sales system, and a customer relationship management system. So basically what I’m suggesting is that you have a place. Now this could be a notebook, this can be a Google Sheet file, this can be some sort of app like GenieChat where you have a way to track your potential customers and a way that you know that you can put them in a regular contact. So it’s not like, oh, only reach out when there’s a deal or a sale, but like maybe touch base every now and then just to check in, say, Hey, how’s it going? You also need to put in your system a sales system. So how are you going to take that conversation and then turn it into a sale? Like how are you going to close a sale after having the conversation? Do you have tips and tricks and tools in your tool belt to help you with the sales? And then an overall customer relationship management system or customer experience like I was talking about on my last episode. You know, it’s a system where I store my customers information. I make sure that I include their contact info. I include a purchase history so that I know what they like, what they bought in the past. I make sure I track their preferences, like how do they want me to reach out to them? The customer always sets the pace for that. I mean, if they call you, if they pick up the phone and call you, then you know that they’re a phone person. If they always text you, they want to be contacted by text. If they always send you a message on social media, then contact them through social media. I have customers who specifically contact me through email, and that’s the only way they reach out to me. I contact my customers how they want to be contacted. So I include that all in my system. Like I have notes, I have places to put little preferences. Like I use Google Sheets. I haven’t used Google Sheets for very long. I’m starting to love Google Sheets because it could keep me more organized because I just make a column for each specific thing that I need and I could search what I need. I can sort the data based on my needs and…It’s just all there in front of me. And the reason why I switched to Google Sheets is because I haven’t been finding an app out there that can do all the things that I wanna do. And so I’m just creating my own Google Sheet and creating my own system there where I could store all this information. But if you’re a pen and paper person, go and grab a cute little notebook. I wouldn’t say little, keep it a decent size because the goal is to get like that stuff full of customers and their contact info, but just keep track. Maybe make a page or two for each customer so you could write out the information. And I’m actually gonna drop in the show notes a link to get a free version of my customer lead, like my customer follow-up tool that I created. So take a look at that. I mean, I would….you could either print it off or you could upload the PDF to something like GoodNotes and then use it digitally, whatever works for you. But I’ll put the document in there so that you can use it how you like. But customer management, you really need to take care of your customers and implement a good follow-up system and a customer experience. You want to make their experience from the moment that you gather them from as a lead, right up until they make a sale and then it needs to be repeated. So you need to keep that going consistently. So that rolls up all of those three tips into one little system, like a CRM system. So number one on my list, definitely you need a CRM system.

Now, inventory management system, if you are a business that carries a lot of inventory, I would recommend definitely having a system where you know what kind of levels that you have And because you don’t want to reorder stuff you already have just because you don’t have it in place make sure that you Know what’s older stock what’s newer stock with my company. I don’t keep a lot of stock I don’t recommend my team keeps a lot of stock. It’s just something, you know, have a few things on hand if I need them and typically what I keep on hand is stuff that I use myself because I don’t want to run out. And then when I use it, I just replace it. But other than that, inventory management is for some.

I would recommend that every direct seller has some sort of order process system in place. So how are you taking orders? Like, are you encouraging your customers to shop online where they go through the start and finish all by themselves? Do you still have a follow-up for them? Do you recommend that they contact you and you place the order for them? Do you group orders? Like you have to have this system. You need to know exactly what you’re offering your customers. And then if you do get your customers shopping with you, are you delivering the product? Are you having them reach out and come and pick up the product from you? Now, I’m just going to share something. The biggest shift in my business took place when I discovered that or I realized, I should say, not discovered, but realized that my time is worth money. And I stopped offering delivery. So when my customers would call me, it would be my first question was, you know, oh, thank you so much for that order. Did you want that delivered direct to your door or will you be picking that up at my house in? And then I give the town because I have customers from all over the place. Now, even my customers who are like literally I’m within walking distance from me, many of those customers will shop online because I do offer that group order, but I don’t have many orders going in as a group order. My customer base solely I would say 99% of my customers shop directly with me online. And I’ve built that strong customer retention that way because I reward them for doing that. So I have a system in place. I take them from the order, I get the notification that they’re ordered, I put them into a follow-up system saying, thank you. I put them in my customer loyalty program and all that. So I have a system in place. So…Think about that. Like, do you have a system in place for when your customer orders? Or are you just flailing around when you get an order saying, oh my God, thank you? Or you don’t even think, like, that’s the worst thing you could do. Don’t even thank them for the order. Like, don’t even acknowledge that they ordered. Like, you want them to feel, you know, valued and appreciated for that order. So we need to stand out beyond other sellers out there. So we need to show our customers that we are truly thankful for them choosing us. So, you know, highly recommend setting up some sort of order processing system. Like how are you taking care of orders?

Okay. Next thing is marketing promotion system. You know, are you doing like content planning for your business or are you just flying by the seat of your pants? Do you do..customer emails, you know, all these like, are you are you using text marketing, stuff like that. So do you what do you have in place for communication with your customers to try and market to them are, are to try to promote to them. And then you also have like, have to have like a wide reach system out there too, but it could all be put into one system. So you want to know like, How are you trying to connect with customers that you don’t yet know on social media, let’s say. Like, are you doing stories out there? Are you posting on your public timeline? Are you posting publicly? Are you just specifically posting in closed groups? Are you going live and sharing about your products? Are you, and when I say sharing about your products, I don’t mean like, hey, look at this, I have this, you wanna buy it. What I’m talking about is like going live and showing your your customer or the public how you use your product in your everyday life and how it makes things so simple. That is that’s what I’m talking about when I say promoting your products live.

Next thing I want to talk about is a training and support system. So this goes hand in hand. So like, are you setting aside time to look at training. And I’m not just talking about picking up your company’s training. I’m talking about sourcing out training on possibly like YouTube or looking at connecting with other direct sellers and creating like a mastermind group where you guys can connect and communicate and share ideas so that you can build on these systems that you have in place. What’s going to help you become more knowledgeable in the field, you know, different types of sales techniques. This is what you’re learning in this system. I would recommend this is going to be a small part of your time because you want to keep your IPAs, your income producing activity to the majority of your time that you have to spend on your business. Now, probably most people listening to this podcast, they’re not, you’re not working your business full time. So keep that in mind. If you have, say you have like 10 hours a week to devote to your direct sales business, well, eight of those hours, you wanna be doing some sort of income producing activity. The other two hours, maybe you’re gonna be doing your customer experience, your customer management. You’re gonna be doing your training and stuff like that. So make sure that you have that in place,

Okay, next system that I would recommend looking at, and I’m just gonna be honest, I need to really get this system down pat is a time management system. I need to start scheduling and prioritizing tasks because I always get things done, but it could be last minute getting them done, or I’m sacrificing this to get it done. So I really need to be better at setting goals and scheduling out my day and my week so that I stay a little bit more organized than I am because I’m not gonna say that I’m not organized because I do follow a Google calendar and it tells me exactly where I need to be, when I need to be, but I do allow my open space to get consumed by business tasks some of the time. And I mean, it doesn’t bother me because I love what I do. I love this podcast. I love doing my Epicure business. And I absolutely love my digitally direct business as well. Like I love sharing that information with people. So it doesn’t bother me, but I realized that, you know, I do need to take some more time for myself and those white spaces on my calendar, I can’t allow that time to overlap and consume my day. So time management is definitely a system that if we put in place from the beginning, we’ll just be so much further ahead.

Next, I wanna talk about financial management system, because let’s face it, if you started a business, technically you started it to make money. Now, some people will say, you’re saving money. So it all comes back to money somehow, I feel anyway. I mean, there are some people who started for personal growth and stuff like that. So yes, I get that. But the majority of sellers start to either earn or save money. So when I’m talking about a financial management system, you need a place to track your income, you need to know what your business is actually so that you know that you’re not paying out more for your business each month than you’re actually bringing in. You need to be able to set a budget. And trust me, as your business grows, so will your tax bill. So you need to be able to set aside funds for taxes and other obligations that you might come across at that point, but…you need all this in a system and don’t wait to start this. Implementing a tracking income and expense tracking system at the beginning will be so much more beneficial for you because then when your business does start to grow, you’re not going to be scrambling trying to figure out what needs to go here or there. Now I simply track this on again a Google Sheet. I don’t love doing the taxes at the expense part. but I make sure that it is a monthly task that I do and that I have a list of expenses that I make sure that I get and put it into my sheet so that my accountant at the end of the year has it because I just don’t touch taxes. I love math, but I don’t love taxes. So I am more than happy just to put this information into a Google sheet and then send it off to my accountant. And then she calls me up and tells me how much I have to pay because trust me, she gets me a way better. She knows what can be written off and where and how. And now, especially when I have to running the two businesses, yeah, I would be pulling my hair out. So a financial system is definitely a good system to do. And even if you’re doing your own taxes, It’s just gonna make life so much easier at the end of the year.

And then the last system I wanna talk about is a networking relationship building system. So like, who do you know? Who do you know out there? Like I mentioned earlier about creating a mastermind group. Who do you know out there that is in the same stage in their business as you are? Could you possibly set up a group where your meetings say maybe once a week, once a month, however it works for you guys, and then keep adding people into that, trying to expand your network. And the one thing that I found that Expand It helped me expand, like I wanted to start expanding more into the US because with my company, I can sell and sponsor cross-border. So I found a group of like-minded individuals. then I just like we started connecting and then we started working together on like fun events for our customers and it just blossomed from there and I have been able to grow my customer reach through these relationships that I built through other direct sellers and I’ve built that know, like and trust with them that they are more than willing to introduce me to their customer base. So guys, here’s a few systems that you can think about and start implementing in your business. Trust me, there are more that we could talk about, but these are a few main ones that I wanted to point out. Honestly, if you have questions about some systems, chat GPT is awesome. Just type it in and ask them a question about, can you please elaborate on what this system could involve? What should I be tracking with this system? Can you offer tips on tracking? Like just ask it, like just keep talking to it. You can also look for tips on YouTube. Just type it into the search bar, like direct sales systems and stuff like that. And watch some of the videos. There’s some great information out there. Some will even give you little tips on you know, or little like downloads like I’m going to give you for the customer management system. But there’s just so many things to help you work your business smarter, not harder. So I hope that these little tips helped you out today or you you’re taking away a little nugget from this. If you have something that really stood out with you and that you’re excited to implement, I’d love to hear from you. Find me on social at Spiced It Up with Lisa Duck or Lisa Duck and what takeaway you got from this episode today. And thank you so much for joining me and we will see you on the next episode. We’ll talk to you soon. Take care.