Live Blissed Out
Live Blissed Out
162 - Sell Smarter, Live Better: Using HubSpot and Mindful Systems to Make Sales Feel Easy
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Jasz Rae Joseph is a Proven Revenue Strategist, HubSpot Expert, and Trusted Growth Partner. After spending years in the industry, Jasz noticed a troubling pattern: businesses were spending a lot of money on marketing technology, but weren't seeing the ROI they expected. That's why she started her consultancy—to help companies stop wasting money and start building systems that actually work. With a decade of experience in digital marketing and RevOps, she's a true expert in HubSpot, helping teams not just with clean architecture, but with strategies that align sales and marketing to drive real revenue.
If you're looking for a strategic partner who’s as invested in your bottom line as you are, visit her website at www.jaszrae.com to learn more about how she can help you.
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Did You Know 0:00
Did you know that only 2% of sales happen on the first contact while 80% require between five and 12 follow ups?
Marisa Huston 0:09
Hello action taker. Welcome to Live Blissed out, a podcast where I have inspirational and informational conversations with business owners and subject matter experts to help you get the scoop on a variety of topics. Tired of hesitating or making decisions without having the big picture. Want to be in the know, then this is the place to go. I'm your host, Marisa Huston, helping you achieve bliss through awareness and action. So let's get to it. Jasz Rae Joseph is a proven revenue strategist, HubSpot expert and trusted growth partner. After spending years in the industry, Jasz noticed a troubling pattern. Businesses were spending a lot of money on marketing technology, but weren't seeing the ROI they expected. That's why she started her consultancy to help companies stop wasting money and start building systems that actually work with a decade of experience in digital marketing and rev ops, she's a true expert in HubSpot, helping teams, not just with clean architecture, but with strategies that align sales and marketing to drive real revenue. If you're looking for a strategic partner who's as invested in your bottom line as you are, visit her website@jazzray.com to learn more about how she can help you.
Disclaimer 1:22
The information, opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only, and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. This podcast should not be considered professional advice.
Marisa Huston 1:35
Jasz, Welcome to the podcast. It's wonderful to have you here today.
Jasz Rae 1:39
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
Marisa Huston 1:41
Yeah, me, too, and I think that our listeners are going to get a lot of value out of our conversation, because the thing that we're going to be talking about today is CRMs, and how we touch base with people and utilize CRMs to the best of our ability. And I think that it's often overlooked, especially with small businesses, because they feel like it should be more than it is, whether it's they're too small and not able to really support a system like that, they feel like it's not necessary, so they try to do it on their own, and then they end up not doing it at all. So explain to our listeners exactly what we're going to be talking about and what kind of benefit they can expect to receive from listening to us today
Jasz Rae 2:23
Absolutely. Yeah, I think you hook a nail on the head. So really, my goal for today is to help explain why every business, no matter the size, needs to have a CRM in order to grow sustainably. And I know that word CRM feels very scary, so we're gonna deep dive into it, and we're gonna talk about just how simple it can be, and how it can really help you save time, money and just have stronger relationships in business, right? Anybody who's listening knows that one of the best ways to get ahead in business is by having that human element, building really strong relationships. And the CRM is one of the tools that helps you do that, and it helps you set up things to run in the background, to make selling easier, to make relationship building easier, to make having referral partners easier, all the things so that we can work smarter and not harder.
Marisa Huston 3:19
Agreed. And of course, just to be sure, everybody's on the same page, you know, CRM means customer relationship management, and it sounds like this very business like term, but in reality, it's really a way to just track how often and to what extent in the detail that you can go through to build those relationships in a better way with the people that you come across. And it just is a wonderful tool. I guess that's the way to explain it in the simplest form, we often think of technology as another complication, like, Oh, I got to learn this new software. There's just so many steps. It's going to cost so much money. Is that really necessary, and it becomes more of a burden than thinking of it as this is supposed to help make my life easier and allow me to do the job of making sure that I'm touching base with the most important people that are connected to me.
Jasz Rae 4:15
Yep, exactly 100%
Marisa Huston 4:17
Yeah. Let's dive into it. What are the things that our listeners should know about when it comes to CRMs and how they can incorporate it into their business?
Jasz Rae 4:27
Great question. So I will kick us off by saying there are so many CRMs out there, and so one of the primary questions I get is, which CRM should I use? And everybody you ask this question to will have a different answer. A lot of industries have industry specific CRMs. So if you have an industry that has, you know, very specific things related to it. For example, I used to work for a recruiting firm, and there are recruiting specific CRMs because you have. To capture candidates in a different way than you have to capture the companies that are trying to hire said candidates. That would be my first thing is, if there is a CRM that's specific to your industry, that can be really helpful, because it's already probably built for you, the CRM that I onboard all of my clients to and I find to be extremely user friendly. And I will also say the free version is very, very robust, is HubSpot. So the free HubSpot CRM is an amazing place to start. If you're just dipping your toe into the world of CRMs and you're like, I don't even know where to begin. I would say that is the perfect starting point. And what can you do inside a CRM? Well, the first thing that you want to do is you want to capture all of the people, all of the contacts related to your business. So I always like to say that people generally fall into one of a few categories. When you're a business owner, right? You have your prospects, the people who are in need of your services, and so they're raising their hands like, hey, I need whatever you're selling. You have the people you're already selling to your customers, and then we also have the people who can potentially refer business to you. So these are people who know, people who need your services, and all of those people should be inside your CRM. So you beautifully defined CRM, which is customer relationship management, and that is the true definition. But I like to say more than just your customers should be in your CRM. We want everybody who you talk to on a regular basis to be in there, and if you're using the free HubSpot CRM, a really easy way to start is to connect it with your email and connect it with your calendar, because then anybody who you're regularly talking to via email or having meetings with on Your calendar just automatically will flow into your HubSpot CRM for you. So that's an amazing place to start. And then from there, you can start tagging contacts based on specific criteria. You can start setting yourself tasks and reminders to follow up with people, to book meetings with people. You can start to use it in a much more robust way.
Marisa Huston 7:22
That's a really great point. Why don't more people use them, especially smaller businesses? What do you feel are the main barriers that stop people from implementing a CRM system?
Jasz Rae 7:34
Great question. I think that earlier in this conversation, you hit the nail on the head when you said onboarding to a new tool or piece of technology always feels really overwhelming. And so I think that's definitely part of it. I think there's another part of it, especially as we talk about solopreneurs, independent business owners, where we think that we can manage all of our relationships in our head, and you probably can you have for quite some time. But is that the most efficient use of your time and brain space, right? So I always use the example. We all have amazing referral partners in our life, whether they're formal referral partners or it's just a friend who sends a lot of business your way. And oftentimes I know for myself, whenever my pipeline is drying up and I'm starting to feel like, Oh, I like, really need a new client, sometime soon, I'll reach out to those people and be like, hey, what's new with you? You know, I know you've sent some good clients my way in the past. Just kind of reminder that, like, I'm here, I'm doing business. What if that could be automated? So it's not me feeling that like anxious feeling of I haven't talked to this person in a while. I should probably reach out to them, but either my CRM is just sending them that intro email on my behalf to say, hey, we haven't chatted in a while, book a meeting with me, so that I can have regular meetings with them, or it's sending me a task to say, hey, jazz, you should follow up with that person because you haven't chatted with them in a while, and to just have that and know that it's happening in the background for me. And then the other piece of the puzzle is, as your business grows, you do more networking and you meet more people. Oftentimes, I don't know about you, but I am forgetting people's names, left and right, or I'm recognizing them, and I'm trying to remember, what is their business? What are they doing? And I'm able to now really easily check my CRM and look in my notes section, and very quickly be like, Okay, this is so and so. This is where I met them. This is what kind of business they own. And then I can jump in and have a really meaningful relationship driven conversation with them, as opposed to kind of stumbling around trying to make sure that they don't realize that actually. I forget what you do, and I'm trying to piece it together in my head, right?
Marisa Huston 10:03
Yeah, absolutely. And I was thinking as you were saying that, you know, it's really about being proactive. We have to consistently touch base. And what I mean by that is that, you know, 100 people, when you say consistently, they're like, Well, I don't want to bother people, and I don't want to send them messages all the time, because I might come across as annoying or trying to take up their time, and time is so valuable these days, right? But it's really those touch points. It's really about proactively letting people know that they're in your thoughts, that you're thinking about them, and always offering to share or give in some way, because what goes around comes around, let's be honest. And so people can't remember you, and it's not because they don't want to, but because everybody's busy and everybody's got a million things to do. But if you stay top of mind and you let people know that you're there for them, the relationship gets stronger, the trust gets stronger, and that's really what we're trying to accomplish, right?
Jasz Rae 10:59
Exactly 100% thank you for bringing that up, because I think that's another misconception. Is that CRM equals sales, which equals like sleazy, gross, cold outreach, always trying to sell to you, and that's not at all what we're talking about here. What we're talking about here is true relationship driven business ownership, which then helps lead to sales, because when you have those strong relationships, you build trust. And then whenever people have a need that arises, you're the first person that comes to mind, they immediately either raise their hand to work with you, or refer their friends, family members, colleagues to work with you.
Marisa Huston 11:40
Would you then say that we could also utilize the CRM for more personal outreach, like to keep track of people's birthdays or special events, or even know the last time you interacted with them, so that it basically does the work on the back end and nudges you to go out and make sure that you are still staying in touch with the most valued people in your network?
Jasz Rae 12:03
Definitely, Yes, 100% so the nice part about most CRM, specifically the HubSpot CRM, which, like I said, is what I use the most is it's extremely customizable, so you can add custom contact properties for anything that makes sense for you. So to your point, maybe it's a birthday, maybe it's a work anniversary, or maybe it's something that is a little more niche to your business, like the last time they attended one of your events, or the last time they downloaded one of your guides, your ebooks, your white papers, you can start to track all of that as well. So if somebody attends your event, you can set a task to follow up with them in a couple of days and say, hey, it was so great seeing you at the event, or what did you think of the event. Or the flip side of that is, I haven't seen you at one of our events in a few months. What's new with you? I would love to catch up so you can be really proactive about those kinds of touch points as well, in a more systemized way, where everything is captured in your tool and you're not trying to remember in the back of your head what was so and so at that event. Oh, I feel like I haven't seen them in a while. I don't know, like you have all of it just there, easy for you to find and utilize.
Marisa Huston 13:25
Yeah, and you know, we have gotten so reliant on social media where we greet people for special events like birthdays, anniversaries or whatnot, but oftentimes we do it only when they post, because you're so busy scrolling and all of a sudden you see somebody say, I'm celebrating my 30th wedding anniversary or whatnot, right? And then at that point, you react to it, as opposed to a CRM, which will set you up proactively, essentially, so that you can do it even beforehand and really make them feel special, like you don't want to miss those special moments. And I also think even personal things that matter to them, like the name of their pet, those things matter, and you can keep track of all of that you know, their kids, their pets, whatever is important to them, even their hobbies. And so this way, you can really start to dive deeper into connecting with people at a level that you wouldn't be able to do just trying to keep it in your head Exactly, yeah, which is what a lot of us try to do, but it never works, right?
Jasz Rae 14:28
I know exactly. That's what happens, right? As your business grows, your network grows, and as much as we all want to be that person that remembers everything about everyone, I mean, that's impossible. We're humans, and we're humans that are running businesses, so our brain is extra full, and so yeah, anytime that you can automate that, leave yourself notes, leave yourself reminders. That's all huge, and it's really going to help in the long run.
Marisa Huston 14:53
How often should we be reaching out to people, and how many people should we have in our service? Goal. Because, you know, a lot of us might know 100 people, 200 people, and there are a couple of things that we want to do. First of all, we want to connect with them, but we also want to be a value. We want to be able to connect them to the people that they want to meet. We want to be an integral part of their group, so that they think of us as allies, as partners, as friends, and vice versa. And so oftentimes, I think what happens with small businesses, especially if you're a solopreneur, for example, it's you. You don't really have anyone, and the CRM is really that source for you, that helper, that tool. And I think that we get so overwhelmed by it that we say to ourselves, oh, there's just another thing now that I've got to worry about and keep track of, as opposed to thinking of, how can this help make my life better and more effective for my business?
Jasz Rae 15:52
Yeah, all great questions, great points. So I've generally split my contacts, and the clients I work with, I help them split their contacts into two categories. So again, very general, every business is going to be a little bit different in terms of these numbers, but I like to say that we should have a list of 20, and those 20 people are your like, most important referral partners, people you've worked with, people who have given you business like those are the really, really, really important people, and we want to make sure that we are reaching out to them on a much more regular basis. And then we have a list of 200 and these are more of like the outskirts, people who we want to keep in touch with, but we're not incredibly close with. So if we reached out to them on a monthly, even every other month, basis, they might get a little annoyed by us, right? Yeah. And so I think, as I'm saying, that it's probably really easy for everyone listening to start to identify, Okay, this person belongs in this list. This person belongs in this list. And if you actually segment those people into lists in your CRM, you can set up those reminders to say this person I want to reach out to once a month, because we have a really personal relationship. We have a lot that we can talk about this person, I probably only want to reach out to every three months or every six months, because I don't want to annoy them, but I want to stay top of mind. So I really say, like as a business owner, use your gut and go with whatever you think makes sense for that relationship. The most important piece is not when you do it, but that you stay consistent with whatever you've set up. And then I know you alluded to this a little bit in your question. Another great thing that you can do in your CRM is take notes on what people do and what people are looking for so people come to me all the time and they say, Hey, I'm really looking for a coach, or I'm really looking for a writer, I'm really looking for a graphic designer, and I'm able to jump into my CRM and immediately search for all the coaches who I've connected with, all of the writers I've connected with, all of the designers I've connected with, figure out which ones would make sense for their needs, their projects, and make referrals. So I'm sending emails introducing them, because we all know that what you put out into the world is exactly what you get back. So I want to make sure that if I want to get a lot of referral business, well then I have to be making a lot of referral business, right? Because if I send my coach three clients, as soon as somebody says, hey, I really need a CRM strategist, she's going to be like, Oh, I have to send you to jazz, right? She's thinking of me. I'm really important. I'm in her kind of sphere. And so that's an awesome thing too. Is it allows you to be more proactive in terms of giving referral business as well as receiving.
Marisa Huston 19:09
Yeah, and I like that a lot, because the thing is, we know more than one person in each industry, but usually there's one that we connect with the most. But that's not necessarily valuable for the people that are asking for that type of connection. So I'll give you an example. If somebody wants to meet a mortgage broker, you might know three to five of them, let's say, but if you can only remember one that is your go to person that you're really closest to, and that's all you refer the person that you're referring them to is not necessarily benefiting as much, because I like to think of it as I'm going to send them maybe three choices, and then they can meet all of them and find out which one is going to be the best fit for them. For example, there might be a mortgage broker that is really focused on first time. Home buyers, and this individual is that person, or maybe this individual that needs the broker is looking for a senior community, for example. Well, this broker is not necessarily specializing in that, but the other one is. And so I think that keeping track of all this in a CRM helps you identify the areas of expertise. And then when somebody asks you for a connection, you can focus on, okay, I've got three people that specialize in this exact thing that you're looking for, but they also have different personalities. They also live in different places. So how about I connect you to them, and then you can decide which one is the best fit for you. Yeah, yeah. 100%
Jasz Rae 20:42
That's such a great way to look at it. And building off of that, imagine trying to keep all of those different mortgage brokers just in your brain, like you've met all of them at some point in time, and you're trying to remember which one specialized in the senior living which one specialized in first time homebuyer. Like that is next to impossible, but if it's all just stored in a tool for you, it doesn't have to be in your brain. It doesn't have to be taking up mental space, and you can refer to it whenever you need it.
Marisa Huston 21:10
Agreed. And I think that we use a lot of online tools like LinkedIn, for example, to do that, but LinkedIn isn't proactive like that. You know, you would literally have to go, oh, I met a person a few months back, and I know they were a mortgage broker. So let me go in there and I'm going to type in mortgage broker and see if their name happens to pop up, or maybe I know their specific location, and then I get lucky and they show up. But that's very reactive, right? You have to go in there and start searching a big database, and you don't even remember when you met them. You don't remember what they're about, or how you got connected, who introduced you, all the little details that really add to the relationship. Because you know when you talk to somebody and you bring up something specific to them, and you remind them that you know who they are and what matters to them. That's when you elevate the relationship to a different level.
Jasz Rae 22:04
Yeah, exactly. using LinkedIn as your CRM is definitely square peg, round hole, like maybe, but it's, yeah, that's not what it's used for. And I will say just very quickly, we won't dive too deep into it, because it's more complex, but LinkedIn integrates with a lot of CRMs. So if LinkedIn is your primary place for meeting people, connecting with people, building those relationships, there may be an opportunity for you to integrate LinkedIn with your CRM so you can have that data all in one place.
Marisa Huston 22:38
Wow, that's incredible, see. And I think a lot of people don't know that. I really believe that technology is amazing, but I don't think that we know how to utilize it because we're intimidated by it. We think that it's another thing that we have to manage, as opposed to thinking of it from a different perspective and saying it's a tool that's going to make my life better. Exactly? Yeah, yeah. I think that's what it is. It's that mindset, right? And going back to what you said, jazz, is it especially small to medium sized businesses that feel like, well, it's just me, or it's me and one other person, so I don't need a CRM. I have everything in my email, or I know how to find them on LinkedIn or whatever. And what they don't realize is that by taking that initial step of setting things up to work for them, they're going to actually save time in the long run.
Jasz Rae 23:30
Exactly. Yes, it's a little bit of time on the front end, onboarding, getting everything set up, but then the amount of a time that you save and B revenue that you're able to generate whenever you have all of this outreach and all of these business building activities on autopilot, the ROI is amazing.
Marisa Huston 23:52
Let's just say somebody's listening today and they're like, Wow, this sounds wonderful. And I think I want to give it a try. What do they do. What's the best way to get started?
Jasz Rae 24:02
Yeah, great question. So like I mentioned, if you don't already have a CRM top of mind that people have told you about or that makes sense for your industry, the most universal CRM that I recommend is HubSpot. It's extremely user friendly. It integrates with most major sales and marketing platforms that integrates with your email, integrates with your calendar, and the base version is free. And admittedly, the free version is very robust. You can get by with just that for a long time. So I would say, download the free HubSpot CRM and just start playing around with it, put some of your contacts in, connect it with your email, connect it with your calendar, and just start getting comfortable in there. And then you can start setting reminders, tasks to follow up with people. It really should be a crawl, walk, run approach, because. And like with any tool or system, you know, it's very robust. You can do so many things in there, but we don't want to bite off more than we can chew. We want this to be sustainable. So take your time with it. Dive in. I know you're going to be sharing it, but I also have a free HubSpot checklist that you can use to start prioritizing. And I always say to people using this checklist, don't just start at the top and work your way down. Really take a holistic look at all of the things there and decide which of those are going to move the needle for you the most today, right? What is your biggest pain point is it? Oh, I always forget to follow up with people. Maybe you need tasks. Is it? Oh, I have no idea what's happening with the proposals I've sent out. Maybe you need to set up the deal pipeline, right? So take a holistic view and start using the parts of the tool that are going to help you the most. And then once you've mastered those pieces, you can continue to build and continue to use this for other business building activities.
Marisa Huston 26:09
Oh my goodness, that is so important. People think they have to do everything at once, and they get intimidated because they're like, Oh my gosh. I gotta learn this whole system. I gotta download it. Then what? I don't even know where to start. Then I got a million things I gotta worry about, and I'm already running short on time with my current situation. And then we just get so frustrated that we do it and then drop it and then just go back to our comfortable way of doing things. It's really about planning for the future. Every time you take something on there are going to be pain points, but you can make it as simple or as difficult as you want, and if you just take a little piece of it and just start with that and then utilize that until you're comfortable and then build on it, then you can actually make it work for you in the long run. Yeah, definitely, yeah, that's really the way to go. I think everything we're talking about here is really a mindset shift. All these tools are there to help us, but oftentimes we think of them as more of a burden, because it's extra stuff we have to worry about. And many times, businesses have multiple platforms to do multiple different things, instead of incorporating them into one unit. And as a result, when you're learning an email platform over here, and then a CRM over there, and then a different platform for something else, your billing or whatever it is, you just look at it and go, I can't take on another thing. It's just too much. So looking at that integration, looking at what's working, what's not working, and just trying to streamline things slowly and carefully until you get to the point where you feel like it's doing what it needs to to make your life easier. That's the key,
Jasz Rae 27:48
Definitely. Yeah, when all of your tools are able to talk to each other, when data is flowing between them, it just makes life so much easier.
Marisa Huston 27:57
100% agree. Jasz, how do they learn more about what you do, and how do they get a hold of you.
Jasz Rae 28:03
Thank you. So my website is Jasz Rae, www.jaszrae.com, so feel free to visit my website. Like I said, I have the free checklist there. I also have information about my services. If you're interested in having me help you set up your CRM. And I'm also very active on LinkedIn, so feel free to find me on LinkedIn. It's Jasz, J- A,-S-Z Rae, R-A-E Joseph.
Marisa Huston 28:29
And when they reach out to you or when they check out your website, is there a particular type of customer you like to work with?
Jasz Rae 28:37
Definitely, so I love working with sales and marketing teams, my services are going to look different whether you're heavily focused on your marketing strategy, your sales strategy, or both. But we're able to work on both sides of the fence, just depending on where you're prioritizing. I love working with service based businesses. So if you sell a service, your time as a service. That's really my sweet spot. I don't do a ton of work in the E commerce, product based business world. That's not as much my sweet spot.
Marisa Huston 29:10
That's good to know. Okay, so that way the listeners know exactly what your specialty is and how to reach you. I think that if we can just take that fear out of using a CRM and realize that it's a free tool, especially this HubSpot free service, it's there, try it out and see what it does, because the worst that can happen is you don't like it, but generally speaking, I would say that most businesses will benefit from it.
Jasz Rae 29:36
Yes, definitely. Well, thank you so much for having me. This was such an energizing conversation, and I know I got a lot from it. I hope that the listeners did as well.
Marisa Huston 29:46
I did too, Jasz, thanks for being here. Yeah, thank you. That's a wrap for this episode of live Blissed out. Thanks to Jasz Rae Joseph for joining us, and thanks for listening. If you have a question or comment for a future. episode, all you have to do is go to www.speakpike.com/,LBOVM, or click the link in the show notes to leave a brief audio message. If you find value in our show, please visit www.liveblissedout.com to reach out, subscribe and share on social media. This show is made possible through listeners like you. Thank you. So long for now and remember to keep moving forward!