How I'd Pick the Next Service to Scale — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00How's it going, Alex?
2. 0:01My name is Eddie. Before I get into the
3. 0:04question, I just want to say I've been
4. 0:05watching for like 5 years.
5. 0:06>> Oh, cool, man.
6. 0:07>> Like I was once a 19-year-old kid
7. 0:08dropped out of college, slow life,
8. 0:10everything. So
9. 0:10>> Oh, sweet.
10. 0:11>> Um thank you.
11. 0:12>> Any time, man.
12. 0:13>> So, thank you.
13. 0:13>> You did it.
14. 0:14>> Um I sell landscaping services to
15. 0:17residential and commercial clients. We
16. 0:19do We Last year we did $1.3 million in
17. 0:21revenue.
18. 0:22>> Amazing.
19. 0:22>> Um love to be at 10 mil next year,
20. 0:25obviously. Um
21. 0:26I think I have a plethora of problems as
22. 0:29far as what's stopping me. Um Honest So,
23. 0:31the first thing is I feel like we're
24. 0:33running four separate businesses right
25. 0:34now.
26. 0:35>> Okay.
27. 0:35>> Which is we sell maintenance to
28. 0:38residential, commercial. We sell design
29. 0:40and build to residential and commercial.
30. 0:42And like sales process is different,
31. 0:44fulfillment all different. Um and I
32. 0:47think I guess my question is like I feel
33. 0:49like I have a focus problem.
34. 0:51>> Which one makes the most money?
35. 0:52>> Which one makes the most money?
36. 0:53Honestly,
37. 0:55you're going to hate me. None of them.
38. 0:56>> Okay.
39. 0:57>> So, we do snow removal in the winter.
40. 0:59>> That makes the most money.
41. 1:00>> [laughter]
42. 1:00>> Funny enough, so okay, so to give you
43. 1:02some context, in in the 8 months that I
44. 1:05live in Chicago, so in the 8 months that
45. 1:07we did um landscaping, we actually lost
46. 1:11$30,000 at the end of the 8 months.
47. 1:13>> Yeah.
48. 1:13>> Um I think we did maybe 700,000.
49. 1:16>> Okay.
50. 1:17>> We ended the year with snow removal at
51. 1:191.3 and
52. 1:21ended up being 30% net positive, which
53. 1:23was
54. 1:23>> Okay.
55. 1:24>> Um
56. 1:25>> Okay.
57. 1:25>> So, snow removal is five businesses, but
58. 1:28sorry.
59. 1:28>> So, snow removal makes you money.
60. 1:30>> Yeah, snow removal is cool. Yeah.
61. 1:32>> Okay.
62. 1:33Got it.
63. 1:35>> I mean
64. 1:35>> So, you need to need something to keep
65. 1:36your guys busy so that you can do snow
66. 1:38removal.
67. 1:39>> What's So, what's tricky is is when snow
68. 1:42removal drops off, like there's nothing
69. 1:44to do if it doesn't snow. I mean there
70. 1:45is, but we have to offload all of our
71. 1:47full-time guys.
72. 1:48>> Yeah.
73. 1:49>> And unload like
74. 1:51five times the amount of guys when it
75. 1:53snows.
76. 1:54And then drop them off after it doesn't
77. 1:56snow. And then, you know, just keep
78. 1:57doing that. And then get all new guys
79. 1:58once the spring comes
80. 2:00>> This is a feature, not a bug of this
81. 2:01business.
82. 2:02>> Okay.
83. 2:04>> Just like
84. 2:06I have this conversation
85. 2:08every other week with somebody who's in
86. 2:11this space.
87. 2:12>> Yeah.
88. 2:12>> Um
89. 2:14So I like that's some guys do lighting,
90. 2:16some guys do snow plow, some guys like
91. 2:18>> And my candies, yeah.
92. 2:19>> Yeah. All right, yeah, yeah. There's a
93. 2:21lot of us, right? Um so there's there's
94. 2:23different plays that you can do. You're
95. 2:25going to have to have on season off
96. 2:26season.
97. 2:27>> Sure.
98. 2:27>> Um I'd say the first thing you do is
99. 2:29don't call it on season off season.
100. 2:31>> [laughter]
101. 2:32>> Cuz they will they will treat it like
102. 2:33the off season.
103. 2:34Um
104. 2:35but I think it's it's just saying that
105. 2:36like we do two things here. You will do
106. 2:39this in the summer, you will do this
107. 2:41when it's cold. And that way you can
108. 2:42maintain employment here. You know that
109. 2:44you're going to have a bunch of people
110. 2:46like and I'm sure those guys you can put
111. 2:47really strong incentives for them to
112. 2:48bring friends and buddies who want to
113. 2:49make a little bit more cash during the
114. 2:51during the heavy season.
115. 2:52>> Mhm.
116. 2:52>> Um
117. 2:53but I guess to answer the larger
118. 2:54question
119. 2:57if I can give you peace of mind
120. 3:01that there's nothing wrong with the fact
121. 3:02that you deal with this problem
122. 3:04then I feel like that is a good thing.
123. 3:08Cuz like you'll stop trying to solve
124. 3:09like again, feature not bug. All right,
125. 3:11this is just it's core to the business.
126. 3:13>> Right.
127. 3:13>> And so it's like I'm I'm in cleaning and
128. 3:15it's really hard for me to find English
129. 3:16speaking cleaners who, you know, do a
130. 3:18good job and you know, don't steal
131. 3:20anything, whatever, right? It's like
132. 3:22well, I should I get out of this
133. 3:23business? It's like that's the business,
134. 3:25right? Like for my business, you know
135. 3:26how hard it is to find these people?
136. 3:28Incredibly hard.
137. 3:29>> Yeah, really hard. Really hard.
138. 3:31>> Um and so like every business has stuff
139. 3:33that's hard, but that's why you get
140. 3:34paid.
141. 3:35>> Wow.
142. 3:37>> Right?
143. 3:38And so um
144. 3:41I think that it probably makes sense to
145. 3:43revisit your pricing model
146. 3:45for the other part of the year. Like
147. 3:48you're losing money, that sucks. So we
148. 3:50should not lose money.
149. 3:51>> Sure.
150. 3:51>> Uh which I don't know where the core
151. 3:53issue is. It's it might be a combination
152. 3:55of sales motion and pricing. It
153. 3:56typically those do get paired often,
154. 3:58which is like we can't charge more. Why
155. 4:01not? Because we have a shitty sales
156. 4:02motion. Fix sales motion, raise price.
157. 4:05We now sell more people at higher
158. 4:07prices. And if your gross margins are
159. 4:09super thin, which it sounds like they
160. 4:10are, it's like getting away with like a
161. 4:1120% 30% price raise, you'll probably be
162. 4:14fine. And most people in your business
163. 4:16are supply constrained, not demand
164. 4:18constrained. As in like getting new
165. 4:20customers is not the hard part, it's
166. 4:21getting guys to work is the hard part.
167. 4:22>> Sure.
168. 4:23>> Right, which means that if you're supply
169. 4:24constrained, then pricing is the easiest
170. 4:26variable that you can move.
171. 4:27And everyone's afraid to do it, which is
172. 4:28why we fix sales motion in order to do
173. 4:30it first. So, you probably have I would
174. 4:32say thing number one is the expectation
175. 4:34shift that there's nothing wrong with
176. 4:35the business that you have to go from
177. 4:37plows to
178. 4:39mowers.
179. 4:40>> Yeah.
180. 4:40>> There's my zero turn my ZTR. Um
181. 4:43So, you go from plows to mowers. Number
182. 4:44one, number two is you have to fix sales
183. 4:46motion for the mowers. I'll bet you
184. 4:47there's opportunity on the snow side,
185. 4:48too.
186. 4:49But you're making money there, so I'm
187. 4:50like let's fix the hole here. But we'll
188. 4:52probably be able to duplicate the sales
189. 4:53motion on either side. And then there's
190. 4:55a pricing change. And where this gets
191. 4:57more interesting is that if we can price
192. 4:59well and sell well, you may be may be
193. 5:02able to afford
194. 5:04better more guys who go full-time, which
195. 5:06will stabilize the business.
196. 5:08>> Sure. Sure. I I I guess my main question
197. 5:10like I I get it. Landscaping and snow,
198. 5:12it is what it is. Like this is we live
199. 5:13in Chicago. Um my thing is like
200. 5:17I want to do either strictly maintenance
201. 5:19or strictly design and build. And I'm
202. 5:20kind of at a crossroads is like
203. 5:21maintenance is nice, easy,
204. 5:23>> But snow makes you all your money.
205. 5:25>> Sure. Yeah.
206. 5:25>> Okay. So, whatever one you want to do
207. 5:26the other side of the year, I'm good.
208. 5:28>> Okay. It doesn't matter.
209. 5:30>> So, I'll I'll let me paint something
210. 5:32like 5 years in the future for you.
211. 5:33>> Yeah.
212. 5:35>> Whether it's design or maintenance, your
213. 5:37life is going to look the same.
214. 5:40So, if we take the position that you're
215. 5:41going to win,
216. 5:42then what's going to happen is you'll be
217. 5:44talking to somebody who heads up the
218. 5:45sales team, talking to somebody who
219. 5:47heads up the the guys in trucks. They
220. 5:49talk to somebody who hands you handles
221. 5:50billing and customer service and all
222. 5:51that stuff. And that's what the life's
223. 5:53going to be. Whether you're in design or
224. 5:55you're in maintenance, it'll be the
225. 5:57same. You're going to be talking to
226. 5:58people who do those things. That's what
227. 5:59your day-to-day is going to be.
228. 6:01And so like if you think about it like
229. 6:02that, then like neither path really
230. 6:03matters. So, I would just look at LTV to
231. 6:05CAC on both of them. Which one is it
232. 6:07easier for me to acquire customers that
233. 6:08have higher you know higher stickiness?
234. 6:10I would probably pick that.
235. 6:11>> Yeah.
236. 6:12>> If I just had to do it, and if you don't
237. 6:14succeed, it won't matter either.
238. 6:16So,
239. 6:17either way is fine.
240. 6:18>> I got you.
241. 6:18>> And and last question, the the the main
242. 6:20thing that we've had with
243. 6:21>> design build
244. 6:22>> Mhm.
245. 6:23>> especially like super I mean even
246. 6:24maintenance like super commoditized
247. 6:25product like
248. 6:26>> Mhm.
249. 6:26>> guys go down the street at Juan's
250. 6:28Landscaping
251. 6:28>> Speed riskies.
252. 6:29>> Yeah.
253. 6:30>> You got to win on one or multiple of
254. 6:31them.
255. 6:32>> Yeah.
256. 6:32>> Likely.
257. 6:33>> My question is the sales motion. Like
258. 6:34what
259. 6:34>> The sales motion on design build is like
260. 6:36what does that
261. 6:37>> look like in the best possible form?
262. 6:39>> It's probably beyond the scope of right
263. 6:41now.
264. 6:41>> [laughter]
265. 6:41>> I got you.
266. 6:43>> But um
267. 6:44part of it is going to be the leads. So,
268. 6:46we have to qualify the leads. We have to
269. 6:47make sure the offer is matching and
270. 6:48attracting the correct avatar. Right?
271. 6:50Cuz you might be talking like one of the
272. 6:51biggest mistakes that we make in
273. 6:52business is that we get on the phone
274. 6:53with poor people and then try to sell
275. 6:55them expensive stuff and when they don't
276. 6:56want to buy it, we think there's
277. 6:58something wrong with our business rather
278. 6:59than the customer.
279. 7:02>> Mic drop.
280. 7:02>> Yeah.
281. 7:04So, it's like there's probably an offer
282. 7:06avatar piece from a lead lead magnet
283. 7:07perspective that can attract a higher
284. 7:09SES customer.
285. 7:11>> Yeah.
286. 7:11>> Then that sales motion that flows from
287. 7:13that customer, we're going to have to
288. 7:14probably I mean it'll be a VSL of some
289. 7:16kind. We'll put proof in there.
290. 7:18Um speed to lead is going to be
291. 7:19important. That's a lot it's 100 gold
292. 7:20movies.
293. 7:20>> I got you. I got you.
294. 7:21>> But that's that's going to be the
295. 7:22process.
296. 7:24>> Thank you.
297. 7:25>> You bet man. Congratulations.
298. 7:26>> Thank you.
299. 7:27>> [applause]
300. 7:28>> Thanks, man.
301. 7:32>> If you were the best salesperson in your
302. 7:34company, then your company will be
303. 7:36always capped by you. And this is what
304. 7:38the two-day workshop is for. Now, let me
305. 7:40be clear before I get into what it is.
306. 7:41This is for million-dollar plus
307. 7:43businesses that are trying to scale
308. 7:45their sales team where you are still
309. 7:47probably vast majority of the magic.
310. 7:49Either you're literally taking calls or
311. 7:50you are a big percentage of the revenue
312. 7:52or you have to be constantly on the
313. 7:54sales team in order to get this to work.
314. 7:55If you're in any of those settings, then
315. 7:57this is absolutely for you. And so, if
316. 7:59you are tired of your sales relying on
317. 8:01you and want a sales system that scales
318. 8:03beyond you, then apply. That's the deal.
319. 8:05And so, if it is a fit, we look forward
320. 8:06to seeing you out here and it's a great
321. 8:08time. We'll talk about sales stuff. Like
322. 8:09how could you have a better time? But
323. 8:10don't take my word for it. Here's what
324. 8:11other people are saying about our
325. 8:12workshops. They're
326. 8:13primo. And uh yeah, can't wait to see
327. 8:15you out there.