How to Sell to Cold Leads by Adding Friction — Transcript

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1. 0:00All right, my name is Swinburne. We sell
2. 0:02IT management services to small to
3. 0:04medium size enterprises ranging from 30
4. 0:07to 100 staff sizes. That's our sweet
5. 0:09spot.
6. 0:10>> Okay.
7. 0:10>> For fully managed.
8. 0:11>> What's average ticket?
9. 0:13>> It's 7,500.
10. 0:15>> Per per month? Okay.
11. 0:17>> Three-year contracts.
12. 0:18We do currently do 2 million a year in
13. 0:22revenue.
14. 0:23And I'd like the company to be at 10
15. 0:25million minimum by 2030.
16. 0:28>> All right.
17. 0:29>> What's
18. 0:31stopping me is the I fact that I never
19. 0:35took sales and marketing seriously in
20. 0:36the company, of course.
21. 0:38>> I mean it.
22. 0:39>> So so
23. 0:39>> [laughter]
24. 0:40>> so the sales department is non-existent.
25. 0:42The marketing department is fairly
26. 0:44non-existent. Only this year we locked
27. 0:46arms with a marketing agency that's
28. 0:49actually looking promising. All the
29. 0:51others sucked.
30. 0:53Um
31. 0:55and
32. 0:57I have another constraint which is I sit
33. 1:00in too many different seats.
34. 1:02>> Okay.
35. 1:02>> of the business. So any sales that comes
36. 1:05in I have to close it. I'm involved on
37. 1:08the finance side. I'm involved on the
38. 1:11operations side. So
39. 1:13>> Rate limiters, there's always a rate
40. 1:15limiter, not many rate limiters. So what
41. 1:18is the rate limiter?
42. 1:20The constraint.
43. 1:23I know you know this so I'm going to
44. 1:24wait for it. Okay, great. So underneath
45. 1:25of demand, is it lead gen or is it
46. 1:27conversion?
47. 1:29>> Lead gen.
48. 1:30>> Okay, great. So currently, how do you
49. 1:34get your leads?
50. 1:40>> We're not doing anything right now.
51. 1:42>> Okay.
52. 1:42>> Yeah.
53. 1:42>> But you get you get leads from somewhere
54. 1:44though, right? All word of mouth?
55. 1:45>> Uh
56. 1:46yeah, we don't really get any referrals.
57. 1:49Um
58. 1:50We're not doing anything.
59. 1:51>> Where? [laughter]
60. 1:54>> Our website.
61. 1:56Website. SEO.
62. 1:57>> People come through the website.
63. 1:58>> Yeah. So, SEO.
64. 1:59>> Yeah.
65. 2:00Sorry.
66. 2:00>> That's the thing.
67. 2:01>> [laughter]
68. 2:04>> Yeah.
69. 2:05>> Okay.
70. 2:06>> [laughter]
71. 2:06>> So,
72. 2:07uh you're doing SEO. Okay, got it.
73. 2:10Um
74. 2:10and are you the one who's doing the SEO?
75. 2:13>> No, that's from the new um marketing
76. 2:15agency, yeah.
77. 2:17>> Since they spun up, have you been
78. 2:19getting leads through your website that
79. 2:20you weren't getting before?
80. 2:22>> Yes, I would say so. We've had uh
81. 2:24probably 10 first time appointments, um
82. 2:27six of which were not qualified. Okay.
83. 2:29Really small shops. Um
84. 2:32>> Did you close one of the other four?
85. 2:33>> No, they but that's still ongoing
86. 2:35conversations.
87. 2:36>> Okay.
88. 2:36>> It's one thing about my industry is that
89. 2:38the sales cycle is a little longer
90. 2:39because of multi-year contracts.
91. 2:41>> Yeah.
92. 2:41>> Yeah.
93. 2:42>> Okay.
94. 2:43Uh so, SEO is kind of a slow grow. Um
95. 2:46it's a snowball. So, I would say keep
96. 2:48doing it. The fact that you have 40% of
97. 2:49people are getting on the call are
98. 2:51qualified is for especially for your
99. 2:53level of customer, 30 to 100, is good.
100. 2:55Like I They're doing it right. Um
101. 2:59if you want to decrease kind of the the
102. 3:01bad calls, if you will, just make sure
103. 3:03that they fill out something prior to
104. 3:05the call that get like how many, you
105. 3:06know, how many employees do you have? If
106. 3:07you know that they don't qualify, you
107. 3:08can just cancel the call.
108. 3:10Um so, that'll just like save you some
109. 3:11time. It's just like an easy tactic. Um
110. 3:13but beyond that, you'll have to make the
111. 3:15decision of
112. 3:16um core four, which Have you read the
113. 3:18Leads book?
114. 3:20You're brand new.
115. 3:20>> Okay. Um [laughter]
116. 3:22great book.
117. 3:25Solves this particular issue. It's
118. 3:26called Leads.
119. 3:28And so, uh we can either get You can
120. 3:31either find affiliate partners. So,
121. 3:32basically people who already have the
122. 3:33customers that you want. Number one.
123. 3:35Number two,
124. 3:37uh we can run paid ads, right? So, uh an
125. 3:39easy one would be PPC probably for you.
126. 3:42I think it's easier to start with PPC
127. 3:43than um
128. 3:45than social just because there's less
129. 3:47creative and the leads are warmer. The
130. 3:49downside of PPC is that
131. 3:51uh lead costs are higher. So, you have
132. 3:53to have a more dialed sales motion.
133. 3:55So, that's kind of the trade-off.
134. 3:57Um the value of the social media ads is
135. 4:00that you sell in a vacuum because people
136. 4:01don't wake up and think I'm going to buy
137. 4:03IT services today. But if they see an ad
138. 4:05and they're like, "I [ __ ] hate my
139. 4:06IT." then they want to buy it, right?
140. 4:08And so, you create the demand, whereas
141. 4:10PPC more channels the demand. It's
142. 4:12already It's already coming and you're
143. 4:13trying to take off your little piece.
144. 4:15>> Okay.
145. 4:15>> And so,
146. 4:16with PPC, and this goes for everybody,
147. 4:18especially the home services guys will
148. 4:19nod their head knowing this, PPC, it's
149. 4:20like the speed to lead matters more than
150. 4:24anything.
151. 4:25Like you have to be getting to leads
152. 4:26within 60 seconds.
153. 4:30Or you will
154. 4:30>> Getting to the lead?
155. 4:31>> Yes.
156. 4:32>> Okay.
157. 4:33>> Well, not physically, but like
158. 4:36>> It's IT.
159. 4:36>> Yeah, yeah.
160. 4:38Uh yeah, you have to You have to You
161. 4:39have to double dial text within within
162. 4:4160 seconds. Yeah. Cuz you will Like PPC
163. 4:43is super competitive. You will lose to
164. 4:45somebody else who is, period. Meta, you
165. 4:47can get away with about 5 minutes.
166. 4:49>> Okay.
167. 4:52One of the um
168. 4:53coaches advised hiring two sales people
169. 4:56to start with.
170. 4:56>> Coaches?
171. 4:58>> Um I guess what your team is called.
172. 5:00>> team? No, we have no coaches, but good
173. 5:02to know. Okay, keep going. Yeah, yeah.
174. 5:03>> [laughter]
175. 5:04>> I was like, "We have no coaches here."
176. 5:06>> What?
177. 5:06>> Yeah.
178. 5:06>> What do you call them?
179. 5:07>> Advisors, yeah.
180. 5:08>> Advisors. Sorry. Advisors said hire two
181. 5:10sales people. Um
182. 5:11>> Yeah.
183. 5:13>> I mean, you're going to help me out with
184. 5:14this anyways, right? Cuz I signed up for
185. 5:16this thing.
186. 5:16>> There we go.
187. 5:17>> Yeah.
188. 5:18>> [laughter]
189. 5:19>> He's like, "I did it."
190. 5:20Yes.
191. 5:21Um
192. 5:22so, we What we're going to do Like this
193. 5:24is what next steps are going to look
194. 5:26like. Here's your mini onboarding. Uh
195. 5:28>> [snorts and laughter]
196. 5:29>> We're going to have to pick which
197. 5:30channel we're going to pursue. So, are
198. 5:31we going to do PPC? Are we going to do
199. 5:33Meta? Are we going to do affiliates?
200. 5:34It's probably the most likely. I don't
201. 5:35Do you want to start making LinkedIn
202. 5:36content?
203. 5:39>> If you think it's a great idea.
204. 5:40>> Well, the thing is is all of these There
205. 5:42are many ways up the mountain. All of
206. 5:43them will work. The thing is we just
207. 5:44have to pick one and then you to it.
208. 5:47Like you could be a mega LinkedIn IT,
209. 5:49you know, person and get and then the
210. 5:50comments underneath and then that goes
211. 5:51into kind of a more chat-based or uh
212. 5:54sales-driven process. You could make
213. 5:57um you could go and do outbound to get
214. 5:59affiliates, people who are centers of
215. 6:00influence, a different term for that.
216. 6:02People already have all the customer
217. 6:03base and basically make some sort of
218. 6:04deal, kind of like I was saying earlier
219. 6:05with the teacher forum. That's it, an
220. 6:07affiliate strategy, but on the supply
221. 6:08side rather than the demand side. But it
222. 6:10works the same way.
223. 6:10>> Right.
224. 6:11>> Um
225. 6:12the uh PPC strategy
226. 6:15um that we that I that I talked to, the
227. 6:17agency that's doing SEO, do they do PPC?
228. 6:20Most do.
229. 6:20>> They they do. They haven't gotten to
230. 6:22that um part as yet, but they do.
231. 6:24>> Yeah. So, we'll want to dial the SEO.
232. 6:27Basically,
233. 6:28the way we're going to fix this is
234. 6:30offer, [clears throat]
235. 6:31sales motion, traffic.
236. 6:33That'll be the order.
237. 6:34>> Mhm.
238. 6:34>> So, that's what we're going to do. It's
239. 6:35more than I can say right now, but like
240. 6:36that's the process.
241. 6:37>> Okay.
242. 6:39>> Cuz right now you probably have a warm
243. 6:40traffic offer, which is like just buy
244. 6:41our [ __ ] which only works when people
245. 6:43already know your [ __ ] and already know
246. 6:45somebody who buys your [ __ ] already.
247. 6:46>> Yeah.
248. 6:46>> Uh if they've never bought your [ __ ]
249. 6:48they're going to be like, "What the [ __ ]
250. 6:49is this?"
251. 6:50And you're like, "It's great shit." And
252. 6:51they're like, "I don't believe you.
253. 6:52You're full of shit."
254. 6:54>> [laughter]
255. 6:54>> And so you're like, "Well, try my [ __ ]
256. 6:55first. Uh and here's this amazing
257. 6:57offer." And then they're like, "Okay,
258. 6:58now I want to buy your shit." So,
259. 7:00uh so we we have to transform a warm
260. 7:03acquisition process to a cold
261. 7:04acquisition process. And this goes for
262. 7:06literally everyone here.
263. 7:08The vast majority of people who are
264. 7:10referral-based or content-based, so who
265. 7:11here gets the majority of your business
266. 7:13from content?
267. 7:15Okay. Almost thirdish, okay. Um if
268. 7:18you're content-driven, typically you
269. 7:20have a warm traffic acquisition channel
270. 7:22or acquisition motion, but as soon as
271. 7:25you start scaling to cold, you're like,
272. 7:26"Everything's [ __ ] Nothing's
273. 7:27working." And it's because you have the
274. 7:29wrong motion for the traffic that's
275. 7:30coming in. And so basically you need to
276. 7:32build a microwave to turn cold into hot,
277. 7:34and then you can do the motion, but you
278. 7:35have to put more friction to make the
279. 7:37heat.
280. 7:39>> Okay.
281. 7:39>> It makes sense. You actually It's
282. 7:41counterintuitive. You end up actually
283. 7:42adding steps to a sales process with
284. 7:43cold to make it warm.
285. 7:45>> Okay.
286. 7:46Um on the on the
287. 7:49>> I know that applied to more than just
288. 7:50you. So, I keep going.
289. 7:51>> On the bandwidth side. So, I'm in many
290. 7:53different seats.
291. 7:54Should I be waiting on
292. 7:58the sales and marketing side of things
293. 8:00to be um on fully on boarded and ramped
294. 8:03up before hiring sales people?
295. 8:05>> I am a I'm a big advocate of the founder
296. 8:09knowing how to sell.
297. 8:11>> Okay.
298. 8:11>> Because think if you think about a
299. 8:13business like if you cannot collect
300. 8:14money, you do not have a business.
301. 8:17>> Mhm.
302. 8:17>> Like you will not make money if you do
303. 8:18not know how to collect it. And so, I
304. 8:20see like what are the core things that I
305. 8:22never outsource? I never outsource
306. 8:24acquisition. So, basically um traffic,
307. 8:27conversion, delivery. I'm happy to
308. 8:29outsource legal, accounting,
309. 8:32um insurance like I all these other
310. 8:34components that are not the things that
311. 8:36touch my customer, right? I want to
312. 8:38frame I want to make sure that the
313. 8:39messages that they're seeing I'm the one
314. 8:40in control, the conversion events
315. 8:42themselves I am in control this process,
316. 8:44and the thing that I deliver. Those are
317. 8:46the core That's what makes a business a
318. 8:47business in my opinion. And so, that's
319. 8:49what I want to own. And specifically for
320. 8:50you especially as a smaller business, um
321. 8:52knowing how to sell will never make you
322. 8:55less money.
323. 8:56>> Mhm.
324. 8:56>> Because you're going to have to sell
325. 8:57your team, you're going to have to sell
326. 8:58recruits like and the better you get at
327. 8:59sales, the more you'll get better at
328. 9:00marketing. Because you getting on these
329. 9:02calls I promise you will make the
330. 9:04marketing that you're doing work better.
331. 9:06Because if you don't know how to sell,
332. 9:08it's the easiest the easiest believe it
333. 9:10or not even if you don't feel like a
334. 9:11sales person, um
335. 9:14you will always close better than anyone
336. 9:16else. Because you'll be more convicted
337. 9:18and you'll have more knowledge. So, you
338. 9:18have two massive advantages over any
339. 9:20sales person.
340. 9:21You can also make [ __ ] up on the fly. Uh
341. 9:23which they can't do.
342. 9:25Cuz you're going to be figuring it out.
343. 9:27Um and so, once you nail it, then you're
344. 9:30going to duplicate that with somebody
345. 9:32else. If somebody else is coming in,
346. 9:33it's the set of thing I said earlier
347. 9:34about two news. I don't want new process
348. 9:36new person.
349. 9:38So, you've been in the business, you
350. 9:39know as much as possible. I trust that
351. 9:40you will you will kill yourself to
352. 9:42figure it out. I don't trust that
353. 9:44somebody who doesn't have the skills
354. 9:45will kill themselves to figure it out.
355. 9:46>> Right.
356. 9:46>> So,
357. 9:48new new process, old person, we get the
358. 9:51process dialed, then we have an old
359. 9:53process because we figured it out, and
360. 9:55then we can introduce the new person.
361. 9:57>> Got you.
362. 9:57>> Then you won't have that time constraint
363. 9:59anymore, and then you can start solving
364. 10:00the other pieces.
365. 10:02>> Got it.
366. 10:03Thank you very much. If you're not
367. 10:04getting as many leads as you want and
368. 10:05your business is demand [music]
369. 10:06constrained, meaning you could service
370. 10:08more customers than you currently have,
371. 10:10then this is for you. So, marketing is
372. 10:12changing, and I think ACQ tends to be on
373. 10:14the bleeding edge of this stuff. We
374. 10:15certainly spend the money
375. 10:17to do it, but we also build custom
376. 10:18software, and we pay amazing vendors and
377. 10:20very expensive people to figure out the
378. 10:22system that we have right now, and I
379. 10:23want to share it with you kind of open
380. 10:24kimono style. If you're not getting as
381. 10:25many leads as you want,
382. 10:27boy, do I have the thing for you. Click
383. 10:28below, book call, and uh
384. 10:30hopefully I'll see you in Vegas.