Hey, it’s Mike.
6 months ago we launched a brand new consulting service.
Fast forward to today and we have 8 clients totalling £192,000 PA.
When most people want to sell something new, they want to get as many customers, as fast as they can.
Their instinct is to reach out to all potential customers in their space.
This is a mistake.
Spreading your resources too thin can result in few or no customers at all.
Instead, you need to sell like a sniper.
Here’s how I do it 👇
Strategic Marketing & Target Beachhead
Bad news. Your customer (probably) has a legacy solution in place.
"We've invented most of the stuff that we need and now we're just messing about."
Karl Pilkington
And the big providers have far more resources than (most of) you.
Long-standing relationships
Massive marketing budget
Bigger sales team
My advice? Sell your products in a different way. And don’t overstretch your limited time and resources.
“The most significant risk of a startup is not that they moved too slowly in dominating the entire marketplace, but rather that they spread their scarce resources too thin and ended up securing few or no customers at all”
Matt Mochary (author of The Great CEO Within) uses the analogy of the Allied invasion of Europe during WWII, and calls his approach ‘Target Beachhead’.
The Germans held the whole coastline. The Allies could have chosen to spread their invading force along the entire shore.
If they had, they would have had one boat per beach. The Germans would have slaughtered the Allied soldiers that landed on the French beaches.
That, of course, is not what the Allies did. Instead, they studied the coastline and found the beach that was the least well-defended (Omaha Beach in Normandy). They concentrated most of their forces on that one target beachhead and could overwhelm the German defences there and secure the toe-hold they needed.
From there, the Allies were able to bring in more resources, expand out, and eventually spread throughout Europe.
The key is to find a small segment of the market (such as customers with a similar pain point) that has a particularly difficult problem your product/service can fix better than anyone else.
Concentrate all of your sales and marketing efforts on them. This is your best chance of landing your first customers.
Once you do, you’ve got testimonials to share and cash flow to scale.
Land a few customers, and continue to sell to this small segment until you dominate.
Now use your new (larger) resources to move onto the next level.
3-Step Sniper Sales Plan
I spotted a great example of sniper sales from @jamierawsthorne last month.
He was in a bit of debt and gave himself six weeks to get out of the shit or he’d have to get a job.
7 weeks later he’d signed two contracts totalling $13k a month.
He used a 3-step approach 👇
Step 1: Identify Target Client
Target the affluent. In Jamie’s case, he targeted existing YouTube channels that were already spending big on YouTube but weren’t getting results.
You can do the same. Study your marketplace. Split it into different customer types.
Determine which segment is the least satisfied with its current solution and for whom your solution is the best fit.
Step 2: Get in front of the target client
He’d lost his reach after giving up his own YouTube channel.
So, each week he sent an in-depth report to a target client.
He sent four in total and landed 50% of the people he messaged.
One of the companies he approached (Forbes) never replied. So, he repurposed their report into a Twitter thread and LinkedIn post.
This allowed him to share it publicly and put pressure on Forbes competitors to sign up. It worked. And a competitor signed up one week later.
Step 3: Cold DM
He had a lot of success with his cold DMs. Here’s why 👇
Kept his proposal brief with a ‘3-page report’
Added a tangible figure - the report is worth $1200
Added credibility - he added that he ran one of the UK's fastest-growing channels.
Shared exciting results - suggested they could have one of the most successful channels on the planet.
Social proof - name-dropped a contact they would trust who would vouch for him.
Finally, you need to deliver on your promises.
One client he signed got their most viewed video resulting in $26k in revenue (via AdSense) and 27k new subscribers.
Decent return.
Acquisition Vs Reactivation
So, how did I get my 8 new clients?
6 of the 8 are existing customers who had bought something from me before.
Everyone loves new customers, but too many forget about the customers they already have.
The customers you’ve worked with in the past (if you’ve done a good job for them) should be the first you target whenever you launch something new. This is your low-hanging fruit.
But don’t forget your sniper sales approach. Don’t fire out a lazy e-mail to your existing customers:
“Hey we’ve got a great new product for you, sign up here”
Study your dormant and existing customers and find a small group who you think would benefit most from your new offering.
Land a few of these customers. Blow them away with service and results.
Next, you can plan on expansion with testimonials and cash in the bank.
Key Takeaways
When people want to sell something new, they want to get as many customers, as fast as they can.
This can lead to overstretched resources and failure.
Instead, start small and focused. Sniper like.
Study your marketplace.
Split it into different customer types.
Determine which segment is the least satisfied with its current solution and for whom your solution is the best fit.
Don’t neglect existing customers.
Send targets an exciting proposition that is brief, credible, and includes social proof.
That’s it for this week.
Remember, I only share stuff that’s worked for me personally.
This was a successful strategy in my previous business and continues to work now.
If you decide to give it a go, let me know how you get on in the slack group and if you’ve got any specific questions on this or anything else you’re stuck with, leave me a question and I’ll get back to you.
I hope you found this useful, and I’ll be back again with more tips to sell and market your business next week.
Cheers,
Mike
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