Case Study: Our Transformative Systems Optimize a Sales Coaching Program

Improving & Cloning Organic Marketing

You may think that you are the ONLY one who can do what you do.

But...that’s just a mirage.

Not only is it possible, but it’s also pretty easy to clone yourself out of processes.

What does that mean?

With a motivated, skilled team that is trained to take over critical parts of your business, you can guarantee that your business won’t rely solely on you. That way, you can focus on the things that really excite you: new projects, growth ideas, or maybe just a worry-free vacation.

That’s exactly what we provided for this client.

The Client

This small company focused on sales training packages, specifically coaching individuals and teams on how to ramp up their conversion rates. The company had a small team: a CEO, a content director, and two virtual assistants.

The CEO was a bit of a special powerhouse. He was charismatic, engaging, persuasive, and had an amazing network and reputation. Overall, he was incredible at helping companies increase their conversion rates.

In fact, his reputation and network was so abundant that the company’s main source of leads came from the CEO’s network on social media. Because their avatar trusted the CEO so much, this organic marketing generated significantly higher value leads than paid marketing (which they also used on a much smaller scale) but without the hefty price tag.

It was unique, and it worked great for them!

However, the problem was that the company had become over-reliant on the CEO’s skills and time! He had become so much the center of the business that he was pretty much the only one who knew how everything worked. Not only was he the product, but he was also the producer.

All of a sudden, he realized he was the only one who could find prospects, how to engage them, or even what the terminology meant!

Additionally, he was the only one who could actually sell!

His team tried to keep up, but they found they could only support him by doing scheduling, content, posting, and other side tasks.

This was a huge bummer. The team was incredibly skilled, capable, and ready to work hard. They simply lacked the clary on how they could help.

Upon further discussion, the CEO disclosed that he felt like there was a lack of accountability within the company. Sometimes, he’d ask for tasks to be done but they would simply be forgotten or pushed aside.

All of this–the setup of the business, lack of clear direction for the team–crescendoed into a huge pain for the CEO. He had no time, and he was unbelievably stressed! Not only was this unpleasant, it was also financially hurtful. He had less energy while completing the core functions of the business, and it was hampering the company from being able to grow.

But the most concerning issue was their seesawing revenue.

Since the CEO was the driver of everything–acquiring clients, selling and servicing them, all while maintaining the operations of the company–the company often experienced waves and delays in cash flow.

With a full client load, the CEO had very limited time to maintain social media outreach and sales calls.

The CEO was overwhelmed. The team was aimless. Revenue was stunted.

It was time for us to get to work.

Our Analysis

We knew that maximizing the CEO’s time was the most important task at hand. He had everything necessary for success...it was just still in his head! We took some time to get to know him and his ideas.

First, we observed his calendar. We noticed that some meetings could be shortened, and others just didn’t contribute to the growth of the company. This was a great start!

Next, we observed the business. We wanted to better understand the extent of everyone’s roles, expectations, and responsibilities.

We looked at his calendar and how he spent his time, and noticed that some meetings were longer than they needed to be, and some didn’t really add to the goal of growth. This was a great start to discovery.

Next, in observing the business, we tried to better understand what exactly each team member was doing in the business. What were their roles? What exact outcomes and numbers were they responsible for?

However, when we probed the team, we found that none could really explain their roles, responsibilities, or anything about their key performance indicators (KPI). This proved a deep lack of clarity and efficiency within the team. Another great discovery!

Of course the CEO was frustrated! The team didn’t even really know what they were accountable for. This was an incredible start point that would direct us. We decided we needed to help them understand their day-to-day expectations and how they could contribute to growth.

We also found that the team had no metrics, KPIs, dashboards, or really any objective, data-driven time-sensitive goals.

In short, the team was running blind!

Further, there was no clear customer relationship management (CRM) system. Client paths were completely tangled and pretty much existed solely in the CEO’s mind. This not only left the team in the dark, but also ensured that the CEO was the only one capable of contacting and selling to clients.

With these discoveries, four objectives were clear:

free up the CEO’s time so he could focus exclusively on sales

refocus the team’s capacity to allow them to absorb the marketing responsibilities and work towards eliminating the revenue gap

build KPIs and dashboards so as to increase accountability, clarity, and data-driven efficiency

create a viable CRM where everyone could see prospects and their sales progression

Our goals were now distinctly established. Our next step was to begin implementing the necessary changes.

The Solution

First, we began by focusing on how to protect the CEO’s time.

We had found just too many people had access to his calendar and would often book him for meetings without making sure he really had to be there. So, we put processes in place to make sure he had more control of his own calendar. Then, we blocked off sections of his calendar and set automations when he wasn’t available. Additionally, we build in time for the CEO to rest and read. Last, we scaled back the number of meetings he was attending and had him focus on sales and fulfillment. This all saved him six hours a week!

Now that he had more time available, the CEO was able to show us everything he did. Then, we set about reverse-engineering it and began the process of cloning his day-to-day activities.

His method of organic marketing was the most important process to clone.

We found that people were really excited to speak with the CEO. He developed incredibly effective relationships with individuals, and was able to close deals like magic. We were able to break his method down into 3 keys steps:

Prospecting: by utilizing his social media network, the CEO was able to easily find the perfect candidates to pitch. By studying this, we were able to really fine-tune exactly what the company’s demographic was and how to effectively sell to them.

Engaging: the CEO often infused his networking with his personality. He’d greet people normally and try to talk to them just for the joy of conversation. This allowed him to be on their peripheral when they would need him for business.

Warming: by maintaining a consistent, personality-based presence, the CEO was able to keep prospects captivated and engaged with him.

The only downside to the CEO’s organic marketing was, of course, the seesawing revenue. If the process could just be tweaked a bit, it would be even more effective.

And so, we set to cloning.

A few of our case studies have discussed this tactic. To begin “cloning”–that is, systemizing and creating exact copies of processes– you must begin by watching your subject as they are naturally. By observing them in the wild, so to speak, you are able to outline exactly what they’re doing, why they are doing it, and develop insight into why they are doing it.

By cloning the CEO’s process, we would be able to more clearly define the roles of the team and satisfy the need to refocus their capacity. In order to clone the CEO’s processes and ensure his time was spent on valuable tasks, our next steps were:

break down each step of his unique process into smaller, simpler steps

match skills of team members with the skills required to perform the processes

create specific KPIs for team members to hit when performing.

With these steps in mind, we took time to fully observe his prospecting, engagement, and warming methods to create checklists and guidelines for training. Like following a recipe, if a team member followed these steps we would be able to predict a measurable outcome.

We also set objective measurements so as to begin creating KPIs. An example of one of these KPIs was how much time the CEO spent communicating with clients. Then, we used that information to determine how much time other team members should be interacting with clients.

This information was critical. It created measurable goals for the team while setting accountability, tracked progress, and created incentives for more sales.

For example: if we knew that the CEO engaged with five people within thirty minutes, we could predict how many people an employee working 40 hours in a week would be able to engage with.

Pretty cool, right?

Now that we had figured out a way to identify and clone the CEO’s process to create objective measures, it was time to tackle the KPI dashboard. This would be a company-wide dashboard that could track progress and set tangible goals. Using the knowledge we had learned, we determined three ways to assess performance:

1. New prospects

2. Engagement with current prospects

3. Interaction through posts and comments on social media.

This data would be collected through automation software to ensure foolproof accuracy. We matched each team member’s specific skills to these tasks. Then, we took the time to train each one in a specific step. Additionally, we set an estimation for output per hour, and scheduled times on their calendar to execute these tasks.

Before we went further, we discussed expectations with the CEO.

Because we had to account for a learning curve and other adjustments, it was simply unreasonable to expect the team would hit 100% of expectations right away. After all, we weren’t making robot clones!

We were mimicking and refining processes that the CEO had taken years to perfect. And because so much of his success was due to his personality, it would of course take the team just a bit of time to adjust to the new philosophy and method of business. So, we set expectations to 80%.

However, to keep the team on track, we encouraged daily briefs that would allow the team to quickly review their KPIs. This would allow them to immediately view their progress and regular tasks. We also recommended scheduling weekly coaching from the CEO if a team member began to fall behind. That way, he would be able to guide the team member and ensure the process was working. This provided a massive benefit.

Last, we needed to create the CRM and match it to the KPI dashboard.

We knew we had to create columns for each point of a client’s progress to track them all the way to the close. So we create three columns, each one mimicking the CEO’s process:

Prospecting: for this task, a VA scoped out the top clients on social media and entered their information into the CRM. The KPI would automatically detect this and add it to the dashboard.

Engagement: using the information provided from prospecting, another team member would track find prospects on social media and use templates to engage with them.

Warming: last, another team member tracked posts and comment engagements from clients listed in the CRM. Then, they would be sorted to the “warm” column, indicating they were ready to be messaged by the CEO and (hopefully) be scheduled for a sales call.

We had effectively cloned him out of the process, adding more time for him to close and service clients, and had systemized a solution for the revenue gap problem!

Results

The end result was awesome for the CEO.

The cloning process was the key to unlocking his potential. He reported feeling “amazing” and “empowered”. Now that his time was protected and more effective, he was able to

increase the time spent with clients, brainstorming better solutions, and creating lasting relationships

no longer waste time in inefficient meetings

enjoy a happier, more motivated and focused team who were able to take ownership of their part of the sales process.

Now, he was not only able to work in his business. He was able to work on his business.

As for the team, the improvements were “out of this world”. The CEO reported more cohesion, clarity, and accountability. Each person could see how their daily efforts paid off in the big picture. Not only was the team excelling at their current tasks, they were all excited about growing with and for the CEO. Overall, the company now had an inspired, motivated energy.

Not only was the environment more pleasant, the data showed the positive energy was paying off.

With more prospects and social media engagement, meetings were getting booked and deals closing across the board. Everything they needed was right in front of them in the dashboard and in the CRM! Even though they were busier than ever, the CRM ensured that clients were easily organized.

Clear, clean, and easy.

The CEO finally felt free, inspired, and filled with momentum.

What’s Holding You Back?

Can’t shake the feeling you’re not getting the most out of your team? Are your KPIs clunky or just outright nonexistent?

Make the dreams of your business into your reality!

Sometimes, these nitty-gritty details can look ugly. If you:

don’t have ways to gauge performance or individual goals

have a scattered, unorganized method of saving client data

aren’t getting the most out of your team

need a system customized for your business and your goals

then just call us now! We can fix these issues for you. Simply apply below and we can help you.

We’ve got you! Let’s get your business humming...while you explore your ideas.