Automation Service Provider Revisited

Narrator 0:00
You’re listening to the all systems go podcast, the show that teaches you everything you need to know to put your business on autopilot. Learn how to deploy automated marketing and sales systems in your business the right way with your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of automation bridge, Chris Davis, Hey,

Chris 0:32
everyone, welcome to another episode of The all systems go podcast. I’m your host, Chris L Davis, and I am glad to have you back for another episode of the podcast,

Chris 0:46
and this is this podcast is to reintroduce and recalibrate the thinking around one of the terms that I’ve created. And I’m doing this because I want to give you permission, as well as enable you and encourage you to continue to grow in the capacity of a technical professional about five years ago now, wow, time is just flying. I created a term called automation service provider, and at that time, I had an accompanying program that went along with it, that took the average Digital Marketer and equipped them with the skills on how to appropriately automate their marketing and sales and sales. So if you are already familiar with digital marketing, this program was not that to teach you digital marketing, it was to build upon your already marketing skills and show you how to achieve automation the right way, and the right way for us is having a systematic approach that will minimize errors and increase the probability of you reaching the result that You intend. Right so there’s a there’s an entire frameworks go through the significant six. There’s an episode on that, the fund the six foundational systems in every business that everybody should know at all times, and walked you through all of the core elements, how to map processes, how to assess technology, the 10 fundamental automations that every business has or should have, things of that Nature, and it was my first attempt at unifying language around this space, because it can get very nuanced at times and other times, it could just be so broad, right? If you think about it, the term automation really can mean anything, and it’s relative to the audience that you’re speaking to. If I, if I were to say that at an Amazon factory, everybody would think of the automation required to fulfill the delivery boxes, for the lack of a better term, right? If I say automation to a maybe in a more corporate setting, they think of actual robots that they’re programming to do certain things, but more applicably to what we’re talking about. I can, I can say automation, and it could mean anything. I could be talking about automating finance. I could be talking about automating marketing, of course, right? I can be it. Can be automating sales. It it varies. And the truth of the matter is, the market, generally speaking, is okay with that sloppy language. It’s okay with people saying one word and everybody walking away with different meanings of the one word. It doesn’t care, as long as you transact in the marketplace. So so now we’ve got tools that are saying, Hey, we have automation. And they could be automating your graphic design, they could be automating your project management space and so, so it was important for me to create the term. But even in the creation of the term, now that it’s automation in general, is more widely accepted, I find myself needing to revisit, okay. And as you all know, if you’ve if you’ve been listening to the podcast, I’ve been very transparent with how previously I have used sloppy language around automation, things like, automate your business, scale, grow your business on autopilot, right? And those are very grand statements, and at the end of the day, what I’ve always done and always been speaking about is marketing automation. And because marketing and sales go hand in hand, you can’t do marketing automation without sales automation. But the my core competence, my expertise, lies in automating marketing. So, so capturing leads, qualifying them, getting them ready for sales in an automatic fashion, right? So, so you you have, now, I believe, more than ever, the need to really understand what, how to communicate what you do and and by the way, technical professionals, technical consultants, usually make eight to 10% more of regular consultants, and I got this information. Listen, I’m not just, I’m not just pulling up stats out of my hat, if you will. I have actual data. I can’t I’m for those of you listening, I’m looking at my trying to find my my stats. I do this research often. Here it is, who said that? Who said this? On average, I’ve zip recruiter, Glassdoor and consulting success. They all report that actually, for specialized roles like automation consultants, they’re saying consultants salaries can range significantly higher, right? And and the whole point, I don’t want to get into all of the numbers and details. I just wanted you to know that I did my research and I’ve got valid sources for for what I’m saying, if you’re going to be able to generate more, then you need to be able to speak to what you’re doing in a way that’s understood. And one of the reasons why I came up with the term automation service provider is because it’s self explanatory. Your service provider. What automation, right? So though that was good for the time. Let me tell you. Let me tell you, I I had some things that I can’t speak on around that term that made me think at the time, oh my gosh, I need to guard this term, and only the special of the special can can use it and listen everyone. If the mission I’m I’m saying this to myself, I’m having a conversation with myself, out loud to you all, if the mission has been to make automation accessible, to automate responsibly, and to be the bridge of those who are tech savvy with automation and those who are not to work cohesively and synchronously to achieve small business and enterprise scale, then I if that’s the mission I had, to revisit the approach here and in this episode I’m telling you all if you provide the service of automation in any capacity, yes, you can call yourself an automation service provider. I’m not trying to pigeonhole and own this term to where only certain folks can use it. There’s a I have a certification for that. But in general, you can be an automation service provider

Chris 9:05
if you’re providing a service of automation in any capacity. And it’s important this, this conversation is important, because what I found over time is that everybody’s coming to the everybody’s on their own journey of learning automation. So some people are learning how to do automation through my program and my teachings in my community, which, of course, biasly speaking, I would recommend highly, right? But I’m not the end all be all. I understand that you may have learned it in some university called YouTube, or an official university, or maybe you just pieced it together. You you you worked for a startup, you had a client, you watched enough videos, enrolled in enough courses, and it just kind of clicked, whatever the journey is. Now. I’m saying is it doesn’t have to be mandated and required in order for you to use that term. You can be at a startup right now, and you can be talking to somebody in elevator and say, Hey, what you do? What do you do? You say, Oh, I’m an automation service provider. Oh, really, tell me more. Yeah, I do this for this company, or I do it for my company. Or, Hey, I I do these things right, and I I’m giving you permission if you needed it. Listen, listen, this is really for the polite people, because there’s a bunch of people that will take it upon themselves and say, Hey, I like that term. Okay, use it. It’s mine now. And unless I’m not, I’m not out to get you like you should have never been using that. I’m just saying if the purse, if the compliant person is listening, it’s okay to use the term. Now, what happens is you can be a certified automation service provider, and that just means you went through my program, you went through my curriculum, you’re connected with me. It doesn’t mean that you still won’t have to vet the Certified Partner. You still won’t have to go through the appropriate means of communicating, managing and making sure that you’re clear on what you need done. I don’t have a magic wand you can. There is a chance that you can hire a Certified Partner and not have an ideal experience. That’s just life, right? There’s, it’s so many dynamics with business growth. However, I’m eliminating a whole bunch of variables for you, a whole bunch of variables, all my automation service providers, my certified partners, I should say they have access to me. If they have questions, I’m always guiding them and and it’s, and I’m not a, oh, you’re always right. Type of of mentor. It will sit down. We’ll talk about contract terms, we’ll talk about tough clients. We’ll say, hey, look, you might have to eat this one, right? You may not be able to get your money back. Or, Hey, do this and ask this and, you know, really navigate it to help the process go smoother on both sides. So those are some of the perks of being a certified partner. But if you’ve learned automation and you’re applying it. If you’ve learned automation on your own, and you’re applying it that way, you can call yourself an automation service provider. All right, what are some of the areas that the most common areas I’m seeing automation being deployed, the biggest, honestly, everybody, the biggest area right now is ops. I think that there’s a huge operations movement, especially using no code applications, that is really taking automation, the term automation, by storm. And of course, I’m speaking relative to what I have access to an experience with and it seems like back in the day when marketing automation was new and automation in general, was young, you could say the word automation as a business owner, and everybody’s mind would immediately go to like marketing automation and sales automation because of platforms like infusionsoftkeep and Ontraport office autopilot and you know, same company, different names at the time they were they were almost synonymous. Well, that’s not the case anymore. There’s no company process or area of business that’s synonymous with automation, however, ops, operations and project management using no code tools is really picking up a lot of steam. It is today what marketing automation used to be. So you have your operations, you still have marketing sales, you’ve got fulfillment and onboarding. Can we say that you have finances, you have HR, you have advertising, you have graphic design, you have content creation. All of these areas can be automated. Now this is, this is the days that we’re in, is that all of these areas can be can be automated. So here, if you want to speak more specific and direct to people where they walk away with a clear understanding of exactly what you do. Feel free to use a qualifier in order to explain that So automation service provider is now more of a broad term, because the category of automation is growing so quickly. So we have automation service provider as the broad term, but the qualifier you can always put in the front and say marketing automation service provider. See. Sales, automation service provider, ops automation service provider, right this I want to do my best to try to normalize and and and and make this language common so that when you’re in the marketplace, you know what you’re looking for, and when you’re trying to be found in the marketplace, you know what to call yourself. And it’s extremely important for me to do this. I know it’s a huge undertaking. I’m not a big software company like HubSpot, who can create inbound marketing, and that becomes a thing across the globe, honestly, right? I would love, I would love to for, for this term to really be adopted by the masses, and hence why I’m having this conversation with you all now. But it starts. It starts with you. It starts with you. You can, I think, I think, you know, I’ve heard so many terms, automation expert, marketing, automators and automation professionals. It varies. It really does. And what I want to do is, again, give you all permission to not vary it and make it nice and concise and consistent, right? And what I was saying, with it being important to me, is, because we’re ramping up, that’s what really is the genesis of this, of this conversation is we’re ramping up to launch another program, which will be my my second it really is my third program. But this one is a bit different. Whereas prior to it, was really focused on technical skills, this program is going to focus on taking those technical skills and generating the high value contracts and clients to keep you in business. What’s happening is you’re, we’re the revenue roller coaster is real. One month you’re making 5000 the next month, zero, the next month you’re making 8000 the next month, next next two months, 200 the next month is 10,000 you’re like, wow. So the up and down can be extremely exhausting in business, and it’s really hard to operate in life without reliable income that you know you can count on. It’s not uncommon, especially in America, for someone to make a decision today based on what they’re gonna make tomorrow, and tomorrow is, can be next month, next year, whatever. You could argue, our whole society, our commerce, the whole money system, is built on that. It’s called credit, and it’s essentially saying, Hey, you want that car, that’s fine. You don’t have to pay the whole $30,000 for it. Just pay $379

Chris 18:09
a month, and in five years you can it’ll be yours. And you’re okay with saying that. As long as you know in the next five years what type of money is coming in, you’re less likely to say yes to that when you don’t know and when you don’t know when money is coming in and how much it not only is it stressful and just overall overwhelming, but it’s extremely hard to establish any consistent means of Living. So that’s the that’s the background of the story is or the program. I’m saying the story that’s the background of the program, is it? It is targeted for automation. Service providers, technical professionals, if you haven’t heard the word automation, service provider, people using technology to automate any area of business. This program is going to give you the business chops to go along with your technical chops so that you can, at a minimum, start seeing six figure, years consistently, right game changing. So who are the type of people that were looking for it. That’s where this conversation came from. Because I’m like, I’m using the word technical professionals. And I was like, Why? Why am I calling them technical professionals when I have a term? Well, the term is not widely adopted yet, so it made me realize, Oh my gosh, let me give people permission to use this term, and we’re looking for workflow automators. These are people who I should say workflow automation service providers. I’ve got to get used to it now publicly saying it consistently in the means, because remember in the back of my head it was always my term. My term, my term, don’t you use it. Everybody. Use it. Use it. Use it. Everybody. Workflow automation service providers, people who specialize in Zapier, make, make.com, pabli, or whatever, and they, they tie the tools together. Project management automation service providers, or operations service automation service providers where, where you’re really focusing on the back end of the business, usually it’s after the client has signed up, that onboarding and the fulfillment of services. Sales Automation, service provider your your whole focus is automating the sales process, whether it it be a landing page or sales page, or spinning up proposals after a zoom call that immediately goes out and then sends reminders, you know, things of that nature. Of course, you’ve got your marketing automation service provider, but we’re looking at those professionals in all of those industries, and we’re extending the invitation for you to come and stabilize yourself, stabilize yourself. So by the time you all listen to this, we would have, we would have ran the live training to show to that reveals the three this I’m calling them secrets, but they’re the three must haves if you’re going to get consistent contracts. And by consistent contracts, not just a 30 day contract, how do you take that and get 12 months, five years right? People sign people, you can increase the terms of those contracts to give you more predictability and your profitability. So that’s the program. And what by again, by the time of you hearing this, we would have launched that. However, if you’re like, oh my goodness, I need that. I need that. Like yesterday, is there any way, any way you can, you can consider me as well possibly. And there is going to be a wait list as the initial launch of this thing will be cohort based. We’re looking for certain amount of people. We’ve talked about it on the webinar. But if you want to know if there’s space for you and you want to jump in, you can go to automation, bridge.com, forward slash consistent. Automation. Bridge.com, forward slash consistent. And that will either let you know if you can jump right in, or join the wait listen, you’d be the first to know when we when we open it up again, depending on the reception of this will depend on the cadence and frequency in which we open up enrollment, and eventually it’ll be evergreen with a rolling enrollment, so that it will be more accessible and convenient to you all. But the matter at hand is, yes, you are and can be an automation service provider. You can start using the title. You can start writing it down. The only thing that you can’t use is certified automation service provider that is reserved for the people that have gone through my curriculum and gone through my gone through my certification process. So I hope that this is clear and enabling for you all, but more so I hope that it adds a level of clarity in how you explain what you do and who you are in a valuable manner that coincides with the amount of revenue you would like To generate from your clients. Remember, according according to Glassdoor, specialized roles like automation consultants and salaries can range significantly higher than your average consultant in the US or it, no not, or it, it was saying it consultants and automation, consultants salaries range significantly higher than the average salary for a consultant in the US. There we go. Sorry, everybody, sorry, I butchered that. Okay. So I want to enable you, encourage you, and equip you with everything that you need for that data to be true for you. All right, so thank you for listening. Thank you for using automation service provider in the description of yourself in the marketplace, and thank you all for accepting and seeing that. And responding and responding appropriate, appropriately to it. I’ll be happy when I start seeing the the title and terms more on LinkedIn. And you know, just just posting what what you are again, and if you’re just starting out, you don’t have to reach a certain qualification. You may have learned Zapier yesterday. You may have just learned how to send an autoresponder with fluent CRM today. You’re an automation service provider. So my my parting words to you, my parting word is welcome. Welcome to the family of automation service providers. We’re glad to have you, and I hope that I can meet you and teach you and connect with you and help you grow as a technical professional that is providing the service of automation and calling yourself an automation service provider for the greater good of the marketplace, but of you as well, and Whatever aspirations you have created your business to achieve and whatever amount of revenue you want to you want to hit. So with that being said, thank you all for listening to this episode, and until next time I see you all online. Automate responsibly, my friends. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The all systems go podcast. If you enjoyed it, make sure that you’re subscribed at the time of recording the all systems go podcast is free to subscribe to, and it can be found in Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Thursday, so make sure you’re subscribed, so that you don’t miss out. And while you’re at it, please leave us a five star rating and review to show some love, but also to help future listeners more easily find the podcast so they can experience the value and goodness as well. We’ve compiled all resources mentioned on the podcast, as well as other resources that are extremely valuable and effective at helping you grow your marketing automation skills quickly, and you can access them all at all systems go podcast.com. Thanks again for listening, and until next time I see you online, automate responsibly. My friends,