Do you find yourself spending too much time on the phone trying to get potential clients instead of doing the work you’re actually passionate about? Have you thought about automating this process but aren’t sure where to start? It’s not as daunting as many might think and my guest on this episode is an expert at getting it done! Greg Hickman runs a company called System.ly, where he helps service-based businesses with marketing funnels, scaling, and qualifying leads. In short, he shows you how to get perfect clients without the need for you to spend your time talking with people who won’t end up using your services anyway. His coaching programs are geared to help service providers scale and grow their business through automation systems and productizing. In this interview we talk about implementing systems to help you save time and get in touch with the right people for your business. There’s a lot of opportunity for automation that all of us can make use of to streamline our marketing and sales process. In the end, automation’s goal is to simplify your business and save you lots of time and energy. Greg shares some of his favorite tips on how to make this happen. We also chat about productizing your services. To do it right takes focusing on just one service so that you can make your systems streamlined and repeatable. This can be a tricky thing to do if you still want to stay true to your creative pursuits, but Greg shares some great ideas on how to pull it off. In this episode: What Infusionsoft is and how it can be a tool to help your business as in marketing automation Automating your marketing and sales processes to save you time and help your potential clients get to know you better Why having your customer “apply” to work with you will position yourself as an expert Easy tips and tricks to reduce the amount of time you spend on sales calls Finding the right niche to make your services easier to market and sell Productizing your services to add predictability to your business and allow you to finally take a vacation How to stay true to your creativity while still growing and scaling your business   Quotes: “Ultimately you have to look at what your business model is. As motion designers, or any business, what are you selling and how do you deliver it? Whatever the answer is to those questions, at some point you’re probably doing some sort of marketing that could be streamlined.” [5:59] “How many times do you get on the phone and say the same thing over and over and over again? If that’s the case, make a video; make it a requirement to watch that video before they get on the phone, and that call can now be twenty minutes or whatever. You’ve saved yourself some time.” [23:23] “If you want to build a more scalable business that is leveraged, you need to start to leverage these systems to remove yourself from the delivery.” [28:36] “As service providers we start as technicians and we have a technical business. But that doesn’t mean that you, the owner, need to be the one doing all of the technical work.” [29:48] “I think the biggest challenge for creatives is you’re doing this because you also love the creative element. So custom is important and that’s totally fine. You just have to make the decision of what’s more important.” [40:56]   Links: Find Greg Hickman online at System.ly Join the Scalable Service Provider Facebook group Infusionsoft Calendly Wufoo E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber Built to Sell by John Warrillow Splasheo Find the full show notes here Keep up with everything Motion Hatch   Follow Motion Hatch on Twitter | Instagram If you haven't already, would you mind leaving us a rating and review? It really helps!