Why Referrals Don't Prepare You for Cold Ads — Transcript

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