In a letter to his father in 1778, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of music’s most prolific and respected opera composers, wrote “I love it when an aria fits a singer as perfectly as a well-tailored suit of clothes”. Paraphrased by Robin Bailey, that passion for the right fit and note-perfect execution seamlessly applies to his approach to employee benefits plans at his company, Aria Benefits. “Well-designed benefits plans enhance people’s lives,” said Bailey, whose father mentored him into the business after an economics degree, followed by a two-year stint in the employee benefits division of London Life Insurance Company.
Bailey also enjoyed a close relationship with his father, and joined his financial advisory business in 2003 then taking over in 2005 with his partner Joe Ferrera and Al McDonald. Their first company is called Life and Legacy Advisory Group. Bailey launched Aria Benefits in 2018 as a sister company. Today Aria Benefits serves over 100 client companies that have from 15 to 500 employees.
Robin Bailey (on the left) and his team at Aria Benefits.
A relentless innovator
A relentless innovator who co-hosts an entrepreneurial profiles podcast with a global audience called “Starting with One – Success Leaves Clues”, Bailey is a devoted Mac user. Three years after he and his colleagues adopted the Apple computing platform in 2005, he encountered a business productivity and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software application called Daylite that he says is a “a total game-changer I could not do without”, especially since his Oakville, ON company decided to go virtual in response to the pandemic.
The main value of Daylite is that it helps businesses of 1 to 100 people manage more clients, close more deals, and finish more projects. Daylite helps teams share information, next steps, and details to keep everyone in the loop. This means instead of information silos, your teams can collaborate and get the context they need to respond and push deals, projects, or next steps with clients forward without wasted time or interruptions.
Robin Bailey and his team at Aria Benefits use Daylite to share communications and collaborate efficiently across Apple devices.
Daylite provides an edge on keeping relationships fresh
According to Bailey in the early days, Daylite was primarily a benefits renewal tracking tool for them. “Daylite alerted us to the date of an upcoming renewal, and with its excellent Apple Mail integration we could see all the communication we’d had with the client over the past year,” he said. “Simple things like noting a client got a puppy are right there, and that can be a friendly starting point into a conversation. Ultimately our business is all about trust and relationships, so Daylite gives us an edge on keeping those relationships fresh.”
Daylite helps the team at Aria Benefits by keeping track of contacts details, so they can stay top of mind and build stronger relationships with clients.
Bailey stated that the global Covid pandemic prompted him and his colleagues to dive deeper into Daylite. “We honestly thought business would really slow down, so it was time to do more than scratch the surface of our CRM.”
Daylite Mail Assistant automates deliverables
“The first thing we turned on was the Daylite Mail Assistant,” said Bailey. The Daylite Mail Assistant or DMA automatically scans the email addresses in the “To” and “cc” fields. If the person is a prospect and Aria Benefits has had no prior correspondence, in two clicks Robin or one of his colleagues can store that first email as a piece of history in the Daylite database. DMA then searches for additional contacts or objects associated with that prospect. If another person at the prospect’s firm has been in contact about a benefits plan and been identified as an open Opportunity in Daylite, that Opportunity and all of its related history will appear and can be linked to the most recent prospect. DMA can also display upcoming Tasks and Appointments with prospects and customers, and add new ones if required, providing a handle on deliverables to anyone at Aria Benefits who needs to know.
Robin Bailey takes full advantage of Daylite’s Activity Sets to stay top of mind with prospects and use Daylite’s Pipelines to keep his team on the same page with each project stage.
Activity Sets is another Daylite feature Bailey discovered and now relies on. “If we identify someone as a prospect, we can automatically schedule the next two years of follow-up tasks that can turn them into a customer. Daylite then leads us through those touch-points, and everyone in the company has access to where we are on the way to closing new business.”
Daylite Mail Assistant helps Aria Benefits Team keep track of communications and take action from emails right from their Apple Mail.
Everyone knows where they are on the way to closing new business
Bailey says the Delegation functionality in Daylite is “another game-changer”. Delegation is one of the most productivity enhancing and exciting features in Daylite. It is the process of assigning a deliverable to another user. These can be Tasks, Projects, Appointments and Opportunities. The person delegating the deliverable can be kept up to date on changes made to the deliverable item. Using delegation effectively reduces the need for email forwarding, cc’ing and bcc’ing which can fill up everyone’s inboxes and leads to important activities falling through the cracks.
The delegation feature in Daylite is a game-changer to Robin Bailey, as it helps him informed with changes in tasks delegated to team members.
“Instead of staying locked in email all day I can delegate Tasks out of email, and then my assistant and I can focus on those Tasks as they are scheduled. When something’s done, she checks it off in Daylite and we both know it’s taken care of. It’s so much more efficient!”
For the macro view of his business, Bailey says that instead of living in a sea of email, he lives in his Daylite calendar where he can view his business activity at a glance, and focus on whatever needs to get done. He also says he appreciates Daylite’s new integration with Zoom and Microsoft Teams by iOSXpert. “When I set an appointment I can trigger a call in either Teams or Zoom depending on my client’s preference – whatever they’re comfortable with, and it all gets tracked in Daylite.”
Daylite Calendar allows Robin Bailey to view his business activity at a glance, helping him plan and focus on what needs to get done for the day.
With help from Daylite business has doubled over the past year
The bottom line is that with help from Daylite, Aria Benefits has not only held its own, but business has more than doubled to almost 20% growth over the last year. “We used to think high single-digit growth was great,” said Bailey. “But the pandemic challenged us to doing business differently and Daylite’s been a key part of that. “Any small business that runs on Macs and other Apple devices should take a good look at Daylite.”
About the author: Tucky Wong is Marketcircle’s Senior Marketing Manager. With a wealth of Marketing experience that spans nearly two decades, her expertise has become an invaluable asset in the world of small business empowerment as she’s the great mind behind impactful content and strategies. Tucky’s commitment to empowering small businesses ensures that every strategy and piece of content resonates with the spirit of growth and achievement.