My Customer Sales Workflow has many apps and processes to it.  It all starts with consistent content. Adding that to your website and sharing what you know is paramount.  It’s truly the queen of the stack.  Without it, the sale or the customer, does not find me.

Matthew Fulton, of Parkway Business Solutions, encouraged me to share this workflow after we discussed how we get leads into our respective businesses.  So, if this post does anything for you, I hope it inspires you, as the business owner, to create some good content and share your knowledge.

In June of this year, my business will pass the 20 year mark.  Over the years, my way of generating leads has changed.  Originally, it was from newspaper ads, then to Find a Proadvisor, the QB Community Forum and now it’s YouTube.  Yup, YouTube.  That has been my dominant source for the last year.

Here is the apps list and how I use them in my workflow:

• 1Create content. Record a video.  Make sure they see your face on the video.  For years, I created videos with just my voice and the QuickBooks screen.  But the one thing I kept hearing over and over again is you need to be seen.  People buy from Lynda Artesani, not Artesani Bookkeeping.  Upload this video to yourYouTube Channel.
• 2The customer has a problem with their QuickBooks file or a need for bookkeeping help.  Where do you go when you are searching for something?  Google.  They search for the QuickBooks issue or use the word accounting and my video will show up or a blog post relevant to the search terms.
• 3The customer watches the video or reads the post and decides I could help them.  They reach out to me.  Maybe Google my business.  Find the website.  Click the contact page and fills out my contact form.  This form is created in 17 hats and generates back to 17hats once the client completes it.  I am notified that I have a new lead.
• 4Although not an app, Call Your Customer.  I cannot stress that enough.  I also cannot tell you how many times a potential client is amazed at this small gesture. Often, I wonder if right there, it gets me my sale.  In this world of technology, this is a game changer.  Person to person.  Connection.  It is what we preach about in our FaceBook community, QB Community Live.  I have also started to offer up a 15- Zoom meeting with my potential customer.
• 5My next step is to review the file in QuickBooks Online.  See where the issues are how start to formulate some pricing on how to clean up the books or see what would be involved in a monthly service.  I record myself with the app, Use Loom to focus on the areas in the company file that need attention and demonstrate where the issues are. This works especially well on the Clean up work that comes our way at this time of year.  Again, using video to visually let the client see the extent of this clean up.
• 6Back to 17Hats to create the quote to the customer.  In the cover email that goes with the quotation, I embed the Use Loom video to help the client see what work will be done and where the issues are in their company file.   This has been a highly effective way to let the client know two things:  That I can find the problems in the file and that I am an expert in fixing them.
• 7If the quote is accepted, 17Hats instantly sends an invoice for the work. Automatically.  The last step in the workflow is for me to let my assistant know the job needs to be set up in my practice management tool Active Collab. This is where the work is assigned to the bookkeeper and the steps are outlined right from my quote.  The job is set up for the client and the client is invited as a user so they can monitor the job as it progresses.  I will assign a reasonable expected completion date.

The workflow chart….

As you can see, there are many touches to 17Hats in this process.  It is an amazing app with so much possibility and automation.  And it is very affordable.

Customer Sales Workflow

The video discussion and demo ….

In the video below, the steps above are demonstrated.

If you have any questions or would like to see a future video on another topic, please reach out to me on Facebook.