When you’re building a business, a team, or any kind of system, you need ways to understand how well you’re doing. That means finding the maturity model that matches the state of your business.

You want to be able to look at your performance and set base standards that have to be met and be able to contrast those standards with an understanding of what best practice looks like.

You want to understand where on that scale of performance you are at.

It’s why we use things like KPIs, OKRs, or other goal/objective-driven metrics.

But those metrics, as useful as they are for some things, are often hard to apply to qualitative data.

This is where maturity models can become an incredibly useful tool.

One model we’ll discuss here is the Capability Maturity Model, and the CMMI Institute alone appears to have about +8500 accredited users of this model (interestingly, in 2018 ~80% were pairing it with agile methodologies).

The problem, though, is that maturity models are often shrouded in complex terminology and overly-convoluted systems. How am I supposed to implement one in my business if people can’t understand it?

In this Process Street article, we’ll tear through the jargon and look at:

• What is a maturity model?
• What are the current limitations of business process maturity models?
• Which are the best business process maturity models?
• What is a Capability Maturity Model (CMM)?
• What is the Agile ISO Maturity Model (AIMM)?
• How does Process Street fit into your maturity model?

Some workflow apps you might be using to help manage your processes require constant attention – reporting, updating, or having to contact other colleagues to get them to complete their section of the workflow.

These are interruptions, and according to Professor Gloria Marks from the University of California, with each interruption, there is an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds wasted to get back to the task.

Other workflows experience inefficiencies simply because your current processes take too long. Full stop.

The more time things take, the more work you have to do.

In this article, we’ll guide you through a series of tools which can help you create workflows, follow workflows, and automate workflows.

• Workflow apps for creating templates
• Workflow apps for task management
• Workflow apps for communication
• Workflow apps for storage
• Workflow apps for recording ideas
• Workflow apps for automated reporting
• Workflow apps for task delegation
• Workflow apps for process automation
• Workflow apps for dual-screening
• Start streamlining your processes with workflow apps

Whether starting a business or trying to improve an existing one, you have to understand how things will get done. Writing standard operating procedures can seem complicated on the surface, but with some thought, the process can be easy.

Start by answering the following questions: What tasks do you need to do? Who needs to do them? What are the best ways to approach these tasks?

This will be your first step toward systemizing your business. Consequently, creating processes and workflows will define how your day-to-day activities function.

One popular approach is the creation of SOPs (standard operating procedures). But what exactly are SOPs?

Read through these sections to get clued up:

• What is an SOP?
• Writing standard operating procedures: A quick how-to guide
• Examples of Process Street’s fully-written and usable SOPs
• Ensure your SOPs adhere to ISO standards

The larger an organization gets, the more complex it is. More people pulling in different directions creates bottlenecks and slows down an organization’s productivity.

Ideally, human resource departments should be the ones that keep everyone working toward the same goals. Unfortunately, for many companies, HR isn’t working.

According to McKinsey’s 2012 State of Human Capital Report:

• 42% of HR professionals are not taking action against priority areas;
• 65% of HR professionals are not pursuing innovative approaches;
• and 68% don’t have confidence in their strategy.

That’s why, in this Process Street article, we’re going to take this problem seriously and look at:

• What is human resource management?
• The 12 primary focus areas for human resource management
• Automation & data-driven HR
• Modern process management for modern human resources

Let’s get to it.
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As we’ll see, certain elements which we consider part of the normal workplace are being abandoned by experimenting companies in favor of new models.

But why are they being abandoned?

For some, it’s about reducing overhead. For others, it’s about finding new ways to combat the traditional problems a growing company faces. It could be about opening up a broader talent pool, increasing adaptability, or navigating uncertain economic environments.

The ultimate goal is to make the company more successful.

Here at Process Street, we have our own thoughts on that looming forebearer, hierarchical structure, so we thought we’d check out what the Jones’s are up to. This post will look at the organizational structure of four of the most successful startups out there and why they’ve opted to make the long-established hierarchical structure on its head.

• The rise and fall of flat organizational structures
• The Process Street path
• Create the right organizational structure for your business

Let’s get to it.
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Content marketing is definitely in the top 3 spammiest areas of marketing.

Not a day goes by where someone isn’t trying to get me to link to their dodgy looking website or sending me nonsense.

In some cases you just have to respect the hustle. I know the article I was pitched yesterday wasn’t written by “John Smith” because the use of English in the title didn’t make sense. If you’re a non-native English speaker though, you often need to take those risks. I’d do the same.

But content marketing isn’t all spam and nonsense.

Lots of places do great content that’s high quality and produces loads of value for their audience. Outreach, relationship building, and collaborations aren’t always tacky either – they can be great ways to co-create content; media content being a really useful avenue for this.

We’ve created the best process management content on the web for a good while, and people come to us as a trusted source on other areas like onboarding, HR, operations, ISO, and customer success. That stuff, we’re good at.

The second part, though, is something we’ve been working on doing better.

In this Process Street article, I’ll explain how and why we moved to a co-marketing focus to support our SEO and business goals, including:

• Why not just backlink build and guest post?
• How is our relationship management system set up?
• We’re seeing results and our flow is much smoother

Let’s jump right in!
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I hate email.

Who really likes answering emails? You get into work, switch everything on, and right off the bat there’s an inbox full of company memos, check-ins from your line manager, updates from colleagues, reminders for meeting after meeting after meeting…

It’s not a great way to start the day, amiright?

Well – and I am totally going to gloat about this – that’s just not how we roll at Process Street. If you’ve hung around us for five minutes, you’re probably aware that we are Slack superfans here on the Street. All of our company communication happens through Slack, and it’s been life-changing.

I’m not just saying this to stir up envy, though. Being such Slack aficionados, we’ve figured out how to use Slack features to increase productivity, improve collaboration, and just plain make our day-to-day easier.

I’ve broken them down into three easy sections, so no matter your level, you can jump straight to the tips you need – and hey, no one’s gonna judge if you want a little refresher!

• How to use Slack 101: Back to basics
• Taking it to the next level: Slack tips for the already initiated
• Expert tips for the Slack-savvy

Ready to dive in?
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For sales professionals today, only 34% of their time is spent selling.

This begs the question, what are they doing for the remaining 66% of the time?

Sales teams struggling to keep up with data entry, quote generation, and other tasks drag sales reps away from potential leads. As such, 54% are expected to miss their quotas every year.

What you need are optimized sales processes that outline the best sale practices drawing from up-to-date research and findings.

This is where Process Street comes to save the day.

In this article, you’ll find 20 structured sales processes based on industry best practices which you can access for free. Simply click Edit Checklist to add any process to your Process Street account, so you can start supercharging your sales process today!

For a quick taster, check out our MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template below:

Click here to get our MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template!

You can click on the relevant link below to jump to your template of choice.

• The MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template
• Sales Training Process Checklist
• Weekly Sales Prospecting Checklist
• Cold Calling Checklist
• BANT Sales Qualification Call Process
• Sales Presentation Template
• Sales Pitch Planning Checklist
• Closing The Sale Checklist
• Order Processing Checklist
• Monthly Sales Report
• Churn Prevention Checklist
• Cold Email Checklist for Sales
• Company Research Checklist
• High Touch Client Onboarding for SaaS Companies
• Investor Pitch
• Sales Competitive Analysis Checklist
• Sales Forecasting Checklist
• Sales Onboarding Checklist
• Sales Service Handoff Process
• Upselling Process for SaaS Companies

Click on the subheader below to jump to the relevant section, alternatively scroll down to find out all we have to say and perfect your sales processes.

• Sales processes: What they are and why it is important to have established sales processes
• Our top 20 free sales processes
• A quick tour of Process Street and the benefits of using our sales processes

With that said, let’s get started!
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This is a guest article by Alexa Lemzy – customer support manager and blog author at TextMagic, a bulk SMS solution for business. She helps businesses take advantage of mobile and spends hours reading tons of content about customer retention and business workflows.

Modern consumers are used to having the option to contact businesses on social media and other public forums as well as traditional contact methods. What’s more, customers are sharing their opinions and interactions across the internet and social media more than ever. Today, customer service is a major part of your brand image.

This has blurred the lines between marketing and customer service. Consumers want your business to be consistent from marketing and sales to customer support.

Great customer service is also an effective form of marketing, keeping existing users loyal and attracting new leads.

Strengthening the relationship between marketing and customer service can have a big impact on customer satisfaction. By creating processes for collaboration and feedback, you can increase retention while attracting new clients.

In this article for Process Street, we’re going to look at a series of factors which you have to get right to provide a unified marketing and customer service strategy:

• Customer service reps act as brand ambassadors
• Bring customer support into your social media strategy
• Gain product marketing insights from customer service integration
• Excellent customer service is an underrated marketing channel
• Holistic approaches to customer interactions means consistent communication
• Keep customer service in the loop with marketing promotions
• Better inform your audience personas
• Get content ideas and inspiration direct from customer needs
• Understand whether you’re setting the right expectations
• Improve your customer service strategy with Process Street

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This is a guest post from Diane H. Wong; a web developer who specialises in marketing and enjoys sharing her knowledge with others. She has her own column at Do My Writing.

The primary goal of every business is revenue. It’s therefore reasonable to say that the goal of every website is more conversions, leads, sales, or whatever action you want your visitors to take.

To get more action from your visitors, you need to make frequent changes aimed at increasing the effectiveness of your website and all its elements. You may consider using a website builder because you can continuously change and improve the design and functionality of your site.

It’s normal to be wary of making changes so you don’t switch the wrong button and hurt your website more instead.

Good news is, there are proven ways to play safe and still grow. Conversion optimization has its safe playing too that is, those practices that have been tested and proven to work generally.

In this Process Street article, we’ll look at:

• Our free conversion rate and website optimization process template
• Actionable ways to optimize your website for increased conversion rate
• Basic conversion rate optimization mistakes to avoid
• 2 bonus marketing strategies to increase your conversion rate
• Increase your conversion rate with Process Street

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