By the Ocean
Cloudy 73 Degrees
7:55 a.m.
I started working with a client back in 2013 when his company was three guys in his basement.
One of my stupid human tricks is positioning a business so people are attracted to that business and want to give it money.
That’s what I did for him over about a seven year period.
In this client’s case, he was spending a bunch of money (tens of thousands is my rough estimate) on lead generation display ads I wrote for print magazines. I also created the report those ads were offering as well as the follow-up emails for everyone who requested a report.
I got the leads, he worked the leads.
We did this for YEARS. Rinse and repeat. Send out an ad, look at the results. Increase our understanding of our buyer. Make better bait.
That was the process. I think he maxed out at about 70 employees before he sold. From 3 people to 70 in less than a decade because he had a great product and a powerful way to connect with prospective buyers.
I don’t hear from him much these days because I imagine he’s enjoying his life!
What can you learn from his story?
Sell to people with money. This is common sense. Unfortunately, if you’re here on a mission to change the world, the folks you’re selling to aren’t always the people with money. This generally sucks. And that’s why you have to be more creative. Because if you just do the normal thing the business experts tell you, you go broke.
Take the long view. Virtually every business building resource out there is focused on fast results for less. This is what everyone wants. This is what fuels the AI hype. Fast and cheap! This is what average people always want. That’s why you do something different. When you take the long view, you make different decisions. You stand out. You can start thinking about the well-being of the buyer instead of your own. (This is not easy. It takes patience, guts, courage and a spine.)
Once you find something that works, keep it going. The human ability to stop doing things that work because they get “boring” is unmatched! But in a world where so little just “works,” once you find something, it pays to take a bottle of patience pills and just keep it going. This is not exciting, which is why so many entrepreneurs can’t do it.