This is a game-changer. This may be the most valuable lesson that I’ve ever taught and is for anybody who has not gotten their business to a quarter of a million. What we’re talking about today is your optimum selling strategy.
What do I mean by your optimum selling strategy? This is the fundamental thing you need to make a profitable sale. I’ve said that from zero to $100K, your number one responsibility as the founder is to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. You need to be the best salesperson, and if that’s not you, your co-founder better be a great salesperson. That would be like a Steve Jobs. Bill Gates was the salesperson for Microsoft
But that’s just one lane, and to really make a sale, there are five critical areas, or five fundamentals, that you need to discover. And I’m telling you that by a quarter of a million in revenue, you better know what these are. Once a business gets over one million dollars, they’re going to start over again, but let’s work on this.
Say you have a start-up right now and it’s struggling at around $50k. How are you going to get it to $100k. You better sell. But if you really want to be a good business owner, you need to have an Optimum Selling Strategy. This is where not only can you sell but you also know how you sold.
The Optimal Selling Strategy
What is Your Primary Product or Service?
You need to decide that. The one thing those founders I have interviewed told me the most is that early on they made a huge mistake. They were selling too many skus or too many line items. You need to find the product that is most in demand that has the highest margin. That is the biggest marketplace.
When I started my handyman company, we focused on one thing: what do people do when things break inside their houses? I don’t how to fix anything. We focused on that individual service initially from 0 to $250k and that was it. That was an absolute laser for business, and I’d say up to a $1M. It was our laser. You need a primary product that has the largest marketplace and the best margins.
What are You Going to Charge for It?
This is where competition is helpful because you’re probably going to sell it for pretty close to what they are. The industry sets the norm. You’re going to find there’s going to be a bottom-end and a top-end of the price range and you’re going to be somewhere in the middle. Then it matters whether you can add some value to it. You might be able to get a little bit more because your product does this or has that, or your service has this, or you can provide the service faster 24 hours, seven days a week, etc. You could add different things to it that might allow you to get a little bit more, but you’re going to find that you’re going to charge pretty much the industry average.
Where to Advertise?
Where are you going to find your customers? I want multiple hooks. Things that worked 10 years ago might not work now. Things that worked 20 years ago might not work and some things that worked 20 years ago still work!. Like TV. Now you have all the facets of digital marketing.
I get a spreadsheet every single day with nine different columns listing we get our customers from so I know where to advertise.
What Will It Cost to Acquire a Customer?
This is your advertising budget. You’re going to need to know that for every dollar that comes in, you need to allocate this amount of money to acquire another customer. I say the biggest reason why small businesses fail, is they don’t put enough money and budget towards acquiring customers. They think they’re going to be a word-of-mouth company and they’re just going to promote it on social media and then after one to three-month buzz, all their friends have stopped talking about it and they don’t have a company anymore.
I want to acquire customers systematically and I want to know the dollar amount that it’s going to take. This is good to know because when I launch another product, I have a blueprint for successfully acquiring customers.
What Will it Take to Convince Them to Buy?
This is your pitch. I know for us to sell different services we have, there are certain things people want. They like testimonials and reviews. They like a money-back guarantee. They’re like a warranty. They love knowing that we have an A-plus rating with the Better Busines Bureau. It gives them confidence.
Why are they going to buy from you? You need to have this down because you can’t market something that’s not systematized. Know how to portray your company and your competition. You’ll have to do this differently for what you sell, but again, you need to know what it will take to convince them to buy, and I’m just telling you it’s typically testimonials, reviews, case studies, warranties, money-back guarantees, and credible affiliations with organizations that imbue trust.
