If you prefer the video…
Tim Hyde wasn’t a great student, but was always interested in entrepreneurship. (He failed his Year 11 business assignment.)
In the 90s, he got into IT, coding, and project management. Liked the patterns and predictability of code.
In the late 90s, a friend of his asked him to join what we would now call a social media site– it was a community site for his hometown of Canberra. Tim and his friend tried to sell advertising, which netted them cases of beer, tickets, etc.
However, clients came back saying that their ads didn’t work. Tim noticed that the sales and marketing programs were like software programs– they would get to a certain point and break or crash.
Tim started another business to help firms with digital marketing, and had some connections that turned into clients. (Tim had a friend who spent $50K on a YellowPages ad, and Tim remembers seeing the YellowPages books propping up computer monitors and realizing that marketing was going digital.)
Tim shares some lessons he’s learned, including:
- When your clients are shifting where they are, you can go with them, or you can go out of business. You need to be where your clients are.
- Figure out where your best clients hang out (online and off). Know them well demographically and psychographically. What do they do? (Professionally and personally.) And record that in your CRM, so you can find the common attributes.
- When you understand where your best customers are, go hang out with them. It could be on social media, on the golf course, etc.
- If people don’t know you exist, they can’t buy from you.
- You don’t need many new clients. You can focus your efforts.
- If you have too many prospects, have them apply to work with you.
- We don’t need massive numbers, we need consistency.
- If you’ve got a CRM, make sure you take notes, and put them in your CRM. (Amen!)
- Your CRM is not a cost, it’s an investment, and it’s not a very big investment. But if you don’t use it, it won’t add value for you. (Amen, again, but maybe I’m biased…)
- A CRM should help you have a deeper relationship with your clients. Think about getting a cheap second monitor to keep your CRM open all the time.
Most of us spend a lot more on our cars than our CRMs. But even our cars require ongoing maintenance and expense. A CRM is like a car for our business– it helps us get somewhere much faster.
We don’t put enough focus on sales and marketing, which deprives our business of oxygen, allowing the business to serve us, instead of us serving the business.
A lot of fear in business comes from not knowing that comes next. That’s why having a predictable system for sales and marketing (and other aspects of business) is so helpful.
Dunbar says we can have about 5 intimate relationships. To have a good relationship with our prospects, we need a CRM.
People want to do business with people who make them feel good and important.
The Wine
Reuben is having a glass of Beau Vignes California Cabernet.
Tim has green tea (it’s 7AM in Australia when we record the episode). “A little early for whisky.”
Where to find Tim
Where to find Reuben
@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.
Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”.
Unlike CRMs built for the VP of sales to keep track of a sales team, where contacts are just statistics, Mimiran is built for relationships, networking, and referrals. (See one way Mimiran makes it easier to make introductions along the lines Steve suggests.)
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