How Do You Make CRM Fun: I Love Marketing Live Series with Joe Polish and Dean Jackson - I Love Marketing Episode #475

I'll go into your CRM and send out an email.

I think the CRM is such a great way to gather intelligence, right? Like you can observe what's actually happening with people. And I think I love this theme of making it more fun is how can you get to the point where you really are giving them a blessing that it's almost like they're going to be so much better off. They're going to be thrilled that you called them. I'm Dean Jackson. He's Joe Polish, and this is the I Love Marketing Podcast.

Our next question comes from Greg from the Gender Intelligence Group. Are there tips for making the use of a CRM more fun? All that data, all those people, what do you do with that data? How do you have fun with that data instead of just eyes glazing over and just seeing them all as numbers and potential dollar signs? So tips for making the use of CRM more fun.

God, you know, I mean, one of the ways I, I absolutely make all technology and databases, uh, more fun is I avoid them, uh, completely. And, you know, do my best to let my team do that. But let me share where I've actually made some mistakes over the years, like really big mistakes. There's something— and Dean's actually really good at this, so Dean will give you a legitimate, I think, way to think about this. I can only do it from an observational standpoint. You know, it's like trying to explain what taking acid is like to someone that's never taken acid, you know, or psilocybin journey or something. I know that sounds kind of weird. The point Being that one of the things we've talked about is two things in business you don't delegate. You don't delegate the marketing and you don't delegate the checkbook unless you have a real handle on it. And of course, I think myself and many people have many times attempted or do delegate the marketing, the checkbook without having a handle on it. And then people either steal from you or the marketing gets messed up. And I never really learned much about going into CRMs. There's a company called, you know, started as Infusionsoft, now they're Keap. I was the second customer they ever had. I was an investor in the company. I mean, the guys that founded it, Scott and Clay, I knew 25 years ago. I was literally the second customer. I've never used it in my life. My team has always done it. I kind of understand it and I've helped people make literally several billion dollars with marketing and advertising of all my clients that I could look at their, I can look at their list. They could describe marketing math to me and I, as a high level, I can, describe to them what to do and how to do it. But the last time that I really— there was no CRMs when I was a carpet cleaner, but I used to manage my list of clients with monthly newsletters, sales letters, prospects, all 3x5 cards in a shoebox. And I had an early, you know, early on I used ACT. And when I— I don't know if you guys— those of you around long enough to Act, I knew it inside and out. And I'll tell you, when you understand your top customers and clients and you can really go in and, you know, you just know how to reach them and target them and you focus on buyers and subscribers, you can do a lot. But the way— so the way to make it fun is to, is to make sales. The way to make it fun is to know that you— the fortune is in the follow-up. So I know people that have, are so dialed and spreadsheets and the most sophisticated thing, they cannot, they can't sell anything. And then people are like ADD crazy-ass entrepreneurs that just have the, like, you know, we got something that's going to help someone, let's make an incredible offer, let's get it out to the list and they're going to buy stuff, you know? So anyway, you know, Dean is continuously consults with people on how to leverage their database. I think it was Nicole in here that talked about how she'd at the very beginning when you're asking questions in the chat, putting out the 9-word email. I mean, using a CRM to use a 9-word email, go into your CRM and send out an email.

I think the CRM is such a great way to gather intelligence, right? Like you can observe what's actually happening with people. And I love this theme of making it more fun. What's fun is if you were thinking it would be fun to make calls, if you were in charge of announcements for the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes, if your job was to call people and let them know that they've just won the sweepstakes, that would be a fun thing to do. And, you know, not to be a publicist for what's in it for them, but the idea of thinking that way is how can you get to the point where you really are giving them a blessing that it's almost like they're going to be so much better off. They're going to be thrilled that you called them. If Joe, do you think if I can tell this story in 2 minutes and 20 seconds, give me 2 minutes and 20 seconds to set up a perfect example of this. I worked with a company that does reverse mortgages. Big company, national, uh, big company. Now, one of the most likely people to get a reverse mortgage, especially what's called a home equity conversion mortgage, where you can use it to purchase a home— the— it allows people to come and put 50% down, live in a house for, uh, forever, and never make a mortgage payment. So people coming from Chicago, moving to Tucson will be— they take the money from the big house. They want to get a house with no payment. And this is a great way for them to be able to do that. Well, if as a reverse mortgage loan officer in a local market, the way that they will often make sales calls is call on real estate agents who are dealing with people who are buying homes, but they're always positioning themselves behind the realtor. So if Burgundy was a realtor, they'd be calling her and, 'Introduce— let me just introduce myself. Let me, you know, take you to lunch or get, you know, get to know and give me a chance with some of your things.' But the phone call that Burgundy really wants is somebody calling with a buyer for one of her listings. And so if you think about this, we kind of dig your well before you're thirsty or think about what's in it for them. We started thinking, how could we make that phone call to people? So we put together a directory of Tucson active adult communities and we ran and generated leads for people looking for active adult 55+ communities in Tucson. We generated 1,000 of those leads, communicating with them, sending them updates. And when somebody would call and get excited about the ability to purchase a home with 50% down, live in it with no mortgage payment, the only job next was that they had to find a house that they were going to buy. So we ran off a list of all of the listings in that active community. There were 190-something listings represented by 93 different realtors, of which the loan officer in the area only knew 3. So we were able to reach out to them and say to Burgundy, hey, texting Burgundy, Burgundy, is 22 Arroyo still available? And Burgundy would text back and say yes. And then we would say, perfect, I may have a buyer for you. Can you chat? Now there it is. That's the whole thing is that's a phone call that any realtor would love to take. So when you get on the phone call, thinking about the mechanical outcome that you're looking for is you want to meet this person and have a meaningful conversation with them. So they were able to say, perfect. Let me show you what we've been doing. We've got a couple from, uh, Poughkeepsie that are coming. They're looking for something in this, uh, in an active adult community. Can I meet you at the house and shot and shoot a walkthrough video for them? Now you're in the house with a realtor who lists homes in active adult communities that you can build a relationship with. And you got there by splashing in the tub. Not, hey, do you got a few minutes for me to take you to lunch and pick your brain? It's a whole different thing when you engineer the situation that the phone call is a delight and a blessing that they're going to receive, not that you're, there's something in it for you.

Yep.

Is that what you were trying to say?

Yes, exactly.

That's right.

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