So many people in the online space duck tape their tech stacks or acquire tech as the need arises, versus strategically looking at their tech stack, process, etc., to ensure the things they integrate work well with one another versus building out solutions in a silo.
Learn about an ecosystem of tech for coaching businesses in this podcast episode with Ariana Rodriguez.
The main issue is the number of overlapping systems that people use, not realizing that they could leverage something else that they are currently using better. So, process mapping is the solution for this issue. It is creating workflows of their client journey, but also mapping out how tech is integrating into that client journey.
It is about understanding how data are being moved into, from one tech platform to the next. Clients are interacting with the tech, and once you have that clarity, it is easier to make the decision about what you need and what you don’t need.
There are too many pieces of tech that are not speaking to each other. Additional team members manually manage those processes that could be managed by a tech if they had strategically considered and thought about the tech stack.
Tech and operation are the foundation of the business, and they are the vehicle that's carrying the business forward. So, when you are looking at any tech stack, any process, any customer journey, think about how that is going to integrate into your business and how the people are going to maneuver those tech pieces.
We have people who do one-on-one private coaching, masterminds, and courses. So, you need something that is going to be able to house a lot of data, and that is going to be flexible.
One of the platforms that are recommended is Airtable, which is a database tool but can be leveraged as a streamlined CRM, a group management program, a one-to-one client management program, as a place to build forms, collect information for your clients, etc.
.webp)
The lowest-hanging fruit is in the onboarding process. Coaching businesses, offer a custom package to a lot of clients making it very difficult to then automate. There is a fear of a lot of creative businesses that having automation means that your business is cold, or it removes the humanity from your business. But in fact, it just means that everybody’s taken care of.
The other thing is how data is managed. Everyone loves to dump data into Google spreadsheets, but no one is understanding how to then leverage the data to make decisions.
When you have many offerings, the best way to onboard is by saying: “For this one offer, how do we onboard a client?”; “How are we currently doing it?”; “What platform are we using for our contracts?”; “How are we charging them?”; “How are we onboarding them once they actually sign the contract?”.
Think about what part of the onboarding process needs to be done manually versus what part needs to be automated.
The easiest process for this is for people to opt into the sales pages. They are taken to a payment portal that has the terms and conditions. And once they pay, they automatically get a receipt or are subscribed to their payment plans, and are automatically given a welcome email. This way, the clients know what to expect.
Everything should be flowing from multiple sources to one source. You need to have detailed information and understand how much money you are bringing in from each of the different products, where your audience is, how much engagement your emails are getting, etc.
After that, you can start creating pivot tables, formulas, or anything that allows you to process the numbers.
Other than where your money is coming in, you should be looking at how profitable the offers are and, when it comes to sales and landing pages, looking at the conversion rates. Make sure that nothing is mechanically broken.
Almost every platform will have definitions of what their data mean. So, leverage those definitions to make sure you are pulling the right numbers. There are businesses that think that this number means one thing, but actually, they are looking at the wrong number or pulling in the wrong data.
It is really important to think about tech not as a standalone, but as an integrated part of your business and how you can best meld it with the operations so that it works well for you. When you are looking at tech, think about it strategically and see what platform works best for your team and your business model.
