Welcome back. I'm James Roberts. And this is Behind the Madness where we talk about business growth, ways to work smarter and the fundamentals of business, all geared to unlocking your brand's peak performance. So let's dive into this episode where we are talking about systems and processes with Jamie.
Hi James,
How are we?
Very well. How are you?
Yeah.
Are we dabbling in with, uh, James joke time before we get, uh, into the meat of the topic?
Um,
Weren't expecting that one were you?
No. And the only ones I've got in my locker probably can't be used.
Ok, what is Beethoven's favorite fruit?
I dunno. What is Beethoven's favorite fruit
Bana na na na, ba na na na naaa. I got you covered.
Yeah. Thanks mate. That's my cup of tea. So today processes and, um, systems, systems, systems, and processes. It's like, we've, prepped this? I know we are jumping straight in no script. Just gonna have a chat and really go over the benefits of processes, systems and why business should be using them. Jamie, you came up with this topic, do you wanna kick it all off?
Yeah, sure. It, uh, it comes back to how a lot of people have for a number of years, been trying to attract smarter ways to work and it's become a bit of a buzz and people who are looking for the hacks and the tricks and the stuff like that. Systems and processes have always been part of business, whether you are an employee, the business owner, you're part of a team, whatever.
If you have a workflow for how you do certain tasks and certain aspects of your business or your job, then it just streamlines everything. It means you are doing more and thinking less if you are spending time implementing these processes. So for example, we have a content day here at Method. It means we get together once a month and we record all the reels, we sit down and do the podcasts, uh, get any stories done.
So if you see any of our stories, yes, the cat's out the bag, James is just changing clothes. We aren't recording them on different days. But it allows us to then utilize the time within those gaps so the rest of the month can be either engaging on social media, making sure the content is received right. How we can engage you guys a bit more and learn about it. It's a process that we've put in place.
And before that again, we weren't, we still have a strategy of what we wanted to hit, but it was slightly disjointed with that content because it was more ad hoc.
Yeah and that, and that's the thing is this, isn't your strategy. This is how you actually do stuff. This isn't what you do, why you do it, all of that, it's the execution. This is why it's systems and its processes rather than strategy, strategies your overarching stuff, why you are a business, why you do your job.
All of these little elements that doesn't change, stay true to that, that's really important, stay with your why, but your processes about, okay, so say you are a marketing manager and you've got Instagram strategy that you are wanting to do. What are the tasks you need to do to hit those marketing KPIs that you've set yourselves? And then what you can do from there is go, okay. One of the tasks is post on Instagram every day.
So what process can I put in that allows me to do that task more streamlined, more effortlessly. And that may look like content days that may look like sitting down and writing all your captions out for the next month in two hour time block. But it just means you aren't playing catch up all the time
I guess, you know, this, there may be people listening in going well, hang on a minute this isn't for me, and I think if you are in business, no matter how big, you need a process, you need
A hundred percent.
You need those systems in place.
And best example I can give, uh, that everyone will be able to relate to is one of the first things you do in the morning and the last things you do at night is brush your teeth. Mm-hmm because you don't want rotting teeth. That is a system. It's a process.
Yeah and as you say, systems don't have to be these very expensive things, any kind of system comes into place, that process of brushing your teeth, systems can be excelled. They can be a word document. It can be absolutely anything that allows you to meet those goals. So where can we add value then with this podcast?
Where can we help our listeners out in terms of their systems and in terms of their processes, where should they be looking or how should they start looking about improving what they're doing?
I think one of the big key areas to start with is really finding clarity on their goals, making sure they're understanding exactly what they're trying to achieve. And then when you know what you can achieve, you note down the tasks that will help you achieve that. Mm-hmm with any, with any goal or anything like that, it's kind of a little bit abstract here, it's a little bit fluffy, but the actual actions are what you're gonna get you there on the day to day, which is ideal.
Once you know what those tasks are you know how it should look and then you can go well, this is what I'm gonna do. So we use the same example of, we wanted to post more reels mm-hmm because it was hot topic, but we also wanted to make sure that it wasn't just myself on the reels. So we went right.
Well, if we got together for a morning, we could get James involved, we could get Paul involved, we could get Laura involved and it allowed it to move out and become a set in stone process and actually make things more efficient. So, identify your goals. Mm-hmm, be clear on the tasks that will help you hit those goals and then outline the processes to do those tasks. Mm-hmm the only thing that doesn't change on there is your goals in terms of they're the top level vision.
The other stuff, keep it flexible, stuff changes, processes get better, don't worry about if it looks shit the first time, that's what it's meant to do.
Yeah, and I think having something as exactly, as you said, having something down allows you to be able to, to pivot. And pivot, I knew it was coming, and create having, as I said, having something down allows you to shift from that if you need to, it doesn't say that because it's down it's set in stone and we must follow it. Um, it just allows you to work out, and improve, really, take what you've done, test it.
And I think this comes down to everything with websites, with marketing strategy, with anything you're putting out on socials, even products, services. You should always be reviewing what you are doing anyway and trying to improve or make that thing better for your customers.
And that's what it comes back to. Yeah. Like that's what it massively comes back to. Like as a business, you always want what's best for your customer. The byproduct of that is obviously it normally helps your bottom line, you increase your sales, you increase your revenue, happy days.
That's why we're in business.
Exactly. But if you've got better systems and you've got better processes, it means you are doing your work better. And if you're doing your work better, your customers are getting a better experience. And then therefore they're gonna buy more, they're gonna share more, they're gonna increase their loyalty, they're gonna become advocates for you. And it just makes your life less stressful.
I think one of the ways that we do it a lot, obviously we're HubSpot partners and we talk to a lot of, even though we are primarily fixed around creative marketing, and that angle. I always like to think of marketing and sales as being closely, joined and closely linked, like they should be. But with that, if you take a sales agent, no matter whether that's you doing it as a company owner, another small business, or whether you do actually have sales agents and sales managers.
There's a lot of tasks you have to do to complete that sale. Once it's gone through marketing so once you know your lead, you are having quite a few communications, discussions with this customer to try and nurture them into this sale. And to be able to do that, there's a lot of the time where you are waiting on the client or potential client to do something, you will email them and maybe try and get us something in the calendar. You will send a quote out.
You will maybe, um, send some more information about your services out. There's a lot of times you might have a conversation with them and then hang up at the end and need to follow it up with something. There's a lot of communication that you're going to have with this customer and it is very easy, if you have a strategy or let's say your action point is to send a quote. It's very easy to send that quote and then forget about it. It's off your list.
And this is something we've run into all the time, I've completed my task, it's now in the court of the customer, if you're sending out 3, 4, 5 a day, even if it's that a week, you are going to forget about some, because it's off your to-do list. If you are then putting in processes where you are getting reminders, and this is again where the systems come into place, if you are getting reminders that I've sent that quote out now in three days time, remind me to chase that quote.
You are going to be looking after your bottom line because there's a lot of wastage. Um, and that process, yes, we're talking about sales can be applied to everything. It's easy to just do your to-do list, and then get it off your plate and move on to the next thing. So I think, again, work out what you are doing and how you can maximize your efficiency, really, I think, which is what it always comes down to.
Yeah and that, that is it. You wanna make sure your business, your life is as streamlined, as efficient as possible. I wanna pick up on something that you just mentioned there with HubSpot. I imagine a lot of our users, uh, and a lot of our listeners will have heard of HubSpot, maybe even using it, maybe drop a comment if you are a HubSpot user, um, workflows are a big part of HubSpot.
What would be a couple of tips you would give people to utilize workflows and HubSpot automations to increase their processes?
Yeah, so, workflows just to give a good overview of a workflow. It is a series of steps to complete a task. So. Let's say somebody has downloaded an ebook. If we didn't have a workflow in place for somebody downloading an ebook, we would have to send the ebook out to them initially. Then we would have to remind ourselves in a number of days to send another email out or some communication to see how they felt about that ebook.
We are then going to have to remind somebody within sales to give them a call around that ebook, we're then going to have to, um, maybe send them some other nurturing information related on what that ebook was on the same subject. So there is 1, 2, 3, 5 steps there, or thereabouts around that process.
So putting it into a workflow will allow the automatic email to go out straight away with their ebooks, the thing which they've requested, we can then put a delay in and after three days we might send out another email, which is just, you know, give us some feedback. How did you find the ebook?
There may be a task for somebody within sales to give that lead a ring and see what they felt about it, and then alongside that, we might then want to say, well, actually, if they've downloaded this and they've looked at this page on our website, let's send them this content because they'd also be interested in that. So it's a great way of building up a, an engine that is nurturing your leads without you having to do it.
Sounds ideal, and obviously if anyone did want to have a chat about HubSpot, James is an expert so by all means make way over to the website and have a click on and, and book in some time with because will happily help you with that.
Love talking about HubSpot.
He does love a HubSpot. Yeah, there's loads of tips, more on HubSpot and stuff on our Instagram. So check those out. If that's up your. Um, I think that really covers it. I wanna keep this one not to, because it is, can be quite an overwhelming topic. Mm-hmm uh, so I'll send it back over to you to wrap.
I think yeah, following up, I love processes, I love sequences, I love optimizing businesses, so let's put this one back to you guys to contact us and let us know around what processes you are doing or you find value in. If you're using HubSpot, if you're using HubSpot workflows, I am all about that. So drop them into some emails, let us know really what you are doing, how you are doing it, what you find use out of, um, which would be amazing.
We have a new email set up, which I've mentioned before. So our new email is podcast@hellomethod.co.uk. So we'll drop this obviously in the show notes, but make sure you, um, you drop on that email, any questions you've got about the episode. Any feedback you wanna give us, and as I said any sequences or anything that you are finding, you know, that you are finding really useful drop that onto that email, and it will come into our inboxes and we will reply to everyone we get.
So that about wraps it up. Jamie, thanks again so much for your time today. As I've mentioned any questions, any feedback you want to give us, then use that email address podcast@hellomethod.co.uk. And that's it for this episode, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time.