When I joined commonsku in 2014, it literally changed everything for me. commonsku streamlined my business like I didn’t know was possible and because of that I have been able to create systems to scale my business.
Before commonsku, I was under $300.000 in annual sales and just a few years after joining commonsku I had risen to the nine hundred thousand ranks. Now, this blog isn’t about how great commonsku is (which they are pretty spectacular btw) - this is about how you can leverage an order management tool such as commonsku to systemize your business.
Before we begin, I want to offer a suggestion. Think of these ideas as just simple training wheel projects for virtual assistants. Whether you use commonsku or any other great CRM / order processing tool; you can apply these same principles to instill into your business!
1. New Clients & Opportunities
It’s been said that, it can take up to 15 minutes to get back onto task after your entrepreneurial bright and shiny syndrome takes you down an unrelated rabbit hole.
It’s for this exact reason, that I rarely ever create new clients (or even simply just new buyers) in my CRM myself. Nor do I log the opportunities in there myself either.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking - “How will this save me time? It doesn’t take that long to create a new client or an opportunity". Well, depending on how many (or few) new opportunities you get on a day/weekly basis; you may be right. But the fact remains, it’s not just about the time you spent doing the work - it’s also about the lost time and the time that it takes to get back on track.
Additionally, I teach that when first starting out in working with VA’s - you want to choose an objective (right or wrong) task AND do a “tiny task” that can will lead to a BIG project.
For example, this is a very tiny task to simply teach a VA how to enter in a new client and an opportunity. I forward any email that comes through to one of my VA’s and they go ahead and enter the details into commonsku. I have a simple canned email template that I send to clients asking them for the project theme (and other more specific q’s), IHD, budget, qty etc … that way the VA can simply just copy/paste the opportunity details into commonsku.
Finally, the last step is that my VA runs an “Opportunity Report” from the week prior every Friday. Meaning, she goes into commonsku and selects Form type “Opportunity” and sets the date to “Last Week”. From there, she sends an email from my email address to follow-up on projects that may have stalled. I have this set up as a recurring weekly activity for this VA and it has become a “BIG project”. This is one of the easiest projects to get started in your journey of working with virtual assistants (for more info be sure to check out my podcast “Clone Yourself” - CloneYourselfU.com).
2. Presentations
Although I do believe that we (as distributors) need to be selecting the items to present to our clients, I don’t believe that we need to be the ones creating the presentations.
After you meet with your client, whether it be by email / phone or in person - simply just create a curated list of item recommendations and send the list to your VA to create the presentation. Now for my homies in the skumunity, go ahead and go to #3 because creating presentations is so simple in commonsku.
If you create custom presentations for your clients that requires quite a bit of legwork, then this section is for you! Check out the ROI calculator my VA team built to prove their value!
Here on this calculator you will not only find that you can plug and play your #’s to find the true ROI of a VA but you can also see a real life example of the savings.
The example I use has to do with graphic design and that we don’t need to be the ones doing the designing ourselves. Along this same train of thought, if you are designing a presentation yourself - just stop! Get it off your plate and teach a VA how to do it! But yea, if you’re on commonsku - then you’re already golden and can easily bring a VA onboard to help you out!
3. Feedback Forms
Many of us in this industry just move on after we close a deal. It's funny to think that we spend so much time getting our “marketing touches” in pre-sales, but once the invoice is sent we move on to the next. The truth is it’s easier to grow your business within your existing customer base then it is hunting for new business.
commonsku even makes it so easy to ask our client’s for feedback after the products are delivered, yet so many of us (myself included) are guilty of not fully utilizing this tool!
Within commonsku, after generating an invoice; there’s a button called “feedback”... with one click an email template pops up with a unique link that clients can click on to provide images of their new swag in action and leave you a testimonial that you can use on your website, marketing materials etc. How amazing is that?!
Well, I never fully utilized this feature when I did it myself. I’d put it on the calendar to run an “Invoice Report” every Friday to send out feedback forms yet I’d usually see it on the cal and think to myself “eh, I don’t really need to do that, I have more important things to do”. But in reality, what’s more important than getting feedback from your client and reminding them of the great experience in working with you?!
SO, now my VA simply goes in commonsku and runs a report of invoices that were generated from the week prior and sends each one an email with their custom feedback form.
Well, what do you think?
Working with VA’s doesn’t seem that hard does it?
I’ll leave you with this…
1. Have a Plan
2. Start with Objective tasks (not subjective)
3. Find a small portion of a larger project and give your VA a tiny task that can lead to a BIG project.
For more FREE resources on how best to work with VA’s, check out the “freebies” section on CloneYourselfU.com and listen to the pod!
Hit me up anytime with questions - here to help! :)
Sam AKA SwagSam
Sam Kabert is the creative director of SwagWorx and the creator and co-host of the podcast “WhatUp Silicon Valley!” A risk taker who embraces permanent beta, Sam is leading the transformation of his family-run office supplies business into a promotional products powerhouse. Sam can be reached at Sam@SwagWorx.com.