Welcome to the next post in our series designed specifically for small to medium sized automotive and motorsport companies. This series is all about practical ideas of how to improve sales either by being better at selling or by being more productive by saving time on repetitive tasks.
This post is about one of my favourite hacks. In our CRM it's called Sequences and it basically means 'sales campaigns'.
Most salespeople have to remember to do a lot of different things. You've got to remember when you might need to send somebody a chase email, when you need to send them information, when you need to follow up, and when you should give them a call. All of that gets complex and even setting reminders in your Outlook or Google Calendar takes time.
Sequencing will work if you're going to send a sales campaign to somebody for the first time or if you're replying to somebody. What we’re going to do is send them a sequence of messages just like the screenshot below:
Here's how to create a Sequence when creating a new email or replying to an email:
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First we just hit reply to the email we've received
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Then we click Template (or if it’s a new email I just click Sequence) and the CRM dialogue box opens (This works the same in both Outlook and Gmail)
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The library of Templates will pop up. We're going to select the Sequences option.
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Then select 'All' and there we can see my library of Sequences.
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For this example we're going to send the 'Passive Buyer Sequence' so all we do is hit 'select'.
This is so easy as it's all happening live in the inbox without having to go to any separate system.
This is how a Sequence typically works:
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The first email is sent
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If there's no reply, the CRM automatically sends the second email one week later. The style and the content of this email is different to the first one. We're going to mix it up and keep in touch with people in a different way so we stay front of mind. We keep offering them content that is helpful and that shows why we’re leaders in our space. We’re going to give people reasons to buy.
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If we don’t get a reply from that second email then the CRM will automatically send the next step one week later. This email is a style we call a ‘did you get’ type of email that typically works very well. People are busy, you can't expect to get a reply to every email you send, so you need to give them a chance to read what you're sending.
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Moving on down the Sequence we can see that step 4 is a reminder for me to call. When I get a reply the CRM automatically stops the Sequence.
The tasks, as part of a Sequence, can be customised to anything. We use them as reminders to call or to check social media, to see if there's anything that we can comment on about this person or have they posted any content that we can engage with. The point here is to stop relying just on email and use automated campaigns across email, phone, and social media. It allows you to be more human, have a nicer approach to how you sell.
Ultimately this results in better sales which is the aim of the game after all.
