CASE STUDY Inside The Amazing 57 Days From Failed Entrepreneur to Full-Time Consultant With 4 High Ticket Clients Dave Rogenmoser Co-Founder & CEO, Market Results Best-Selling Author Visit us at themarketresults.com
STARTING OUT Starting A Business is Hard It feels impossible. Earning extra income isn t as easy as the online gurus make it seem. Starting a business is ridiculously difficult, even when you sincerely try. The world is absolutely filled with wantrapreneurs. Folks who really want to start a business, but just can t ever make the leap. It could be for any number of reasons: No training No time No support No idea No money Maybe that s the world you find yourself in. If you just had a little help, you could get things off the ground and start running a successful business or at least generate a little side income. If you only had a blueprint, you would feel comfortable enough to make the leap as an entrepreneur. I can totally relate. I made the jump into entrepreneurship a little over a year ago, and I ve failed a ridiculous amount. I ve lost plenty of money, wasted crazy amounts of hours on projects that didn t work, and just couldn t make ANYTHING click until recently.
STARTING OUT Businesses are willing to pay for help Recently, I went from $0 to $6,326 of monthly recurring revenue in exactly 57 days, all by starting a digital marketing consulting business. Hands down, consulting is the fastest path to cash, and local businesses in your city are practically BEGGING for help using their internet presence to grow. They are willing to pay big $$$ to anyone who can help, and 6 months ago I decided I wanted them to pay me. I really didn t know much about internet consulting when I started. You don t have to either. I had a computer, a desire to build enough monthly income to support myself, and a willingness to learn and do whatever it took to get there. If you think that s you, then keep reading while I explain the process I took to get my own business started.
PHASE ONE Brain Dump Starting out, I had no idea how to use Adwords, SEO, PPC, Retargeting, Conversion Funnels, or any other digital marketing tactic. So the first step for me was learning what they were, how they helped, and how to recommend the right ones to clients. I spent over 600 hours wading through the mountains of information out there in order to distill down the exact stuff that works. I realized quickly that it wasn t going to be a good use of my time for me to learn how to actually run an Adwords campaign, do SEO, etc. There were plenty of people online that already did that stuff and were happy to offer their services for a good price. I just needed to learn enough about them to talk competently to prospects. Here s a few nuggets that helped me grasp how to best add value to clients: Search engine marketing is best for B2C businesses, because their target audience is much larger and are typically searching for products and services online. SEO and Adwords are big players here. For B2B businesses, you need to interrupt their target audience with your offer, so tools like Facebook Ads, and cold email marketing work better here.
PHASE ONE Brain Dump While digital marketing can be infinitely complex, it is also incredible simple in its fundamentals. It comes down to the 3 M s of marketing. Message, Market, and Medium. If you get the right message in front of the right audience (market), using the appropriate method (medium), you will have success. All the complex sales funnels in the world can t fix a 3-M-mismatch. SEO is a crazy, wild world. SEO s are masters of their craft and can do things on the internet I never thought possible. If you find an SEO you can outsource your client work to that you trust, keep that guy by your side. My guy is Patrick and he s the man. And remember, keep your friends close and your SEO s closer. Nothing almost ever goes to plan. Last month we accidentally spent $4,000 on one account when we were meaning to spend $1,500. Ouch. But we learned a ton through it. Get a plan. Execute as best you can. Optimize. Optimize. Optimize.
PHASE TWO Prospecting was a dirty word Now that I had a reasonable grasp on what it even was that I could offer, I started finding ways to get the word out that I was open for business. I ve tried probably 15 different prospecting techniques, but here are the 2 that I ve had the most success with. = 78% of our revenue LinkedIn Prospecting This has been BY FAR the best method of prospecting I ve used to reach out to people. In fact, over 78% of our revenue has come through LinkedIn. So yes, it's THAT powerful. Most people think of their LinkedIn page as a resume. WRONG. Your LinkedIn page is a sales page. You need to be treating it like an optimized landing page - because that's what it is. Add me on LinkedIn to full see how I set mine up. Lots of hooks, calls to action, and offers.
PHASE TWO Prospecting was a dirty word My secret sauce comes in what I do next, I use a tool that helps me reach out to over 800 people per day on autopilot. I describe the process and messages that I send people in this incredible guest post. Here's a quick look at some messages I've just had waiting for me in my inbox: Pretty crazy, huh? How would you like to wake up in the morning to messages like those waiting for you? If you want to learn more, hop on our next free training.
PHASE TWO Prospecting was a dirty word Word of Mouth My mouth, to be exact. When I was getting started I made a list on an excel spreadsheet of everyone I knew who I thought would be interested in hearing about what I was doing, and could potentially refer me to business owners. And then I started calling, emailing, and messaging them on LinkedIn. It wasn t always comfortable, but neither was staying broke and without a business, so I told everyone who would listen what I was doing, and asked them if they would keep me in mind and let me know if they could think of anyone who might need my services.
PHASE TWO Prospecting was a dirty word Lumpy Mail (yuck) When I first started, I sent hundreds and hundreds of these little packages called lumpy mail. I would print off a letter specifically written for the business owner I was targeting, highlight it all up and sign it to increase conversion rate, and put it in a bubble mailer along with a magnifying glass (which tied in with the letter) in order to make it stand out. It was incredibly tedious, especially considering I had to send out about 100 of these to get 1 consultation. While doing this DID get me 3 consultations with clients, ultimately it was just too time consuming to keep doing. I think this works better in non-us countries that get less junk mail. If this works for you, keep doing it. I know a lot of people who have had success simply by doing lumpy mail.
PHASE THREE Landing My First Client: Payday My first client was a small business owner who wanted more leads for his growing porta-potty business. I looked at his current online presence and saw that he needed a new website and also needed it ranking in Google for a nearby city. I had recently found a guy who I could outsource my SEO work to, and my friend and now business partner, could build a website. I was desperate to land a client after getting shut down in 3 other consultations because my price was too high, so I called the business owner up and just said Listen, I d really like to take this project on and it sounds like you would too. What is a price that works within your budget for us to make this happen? He thought about it and suggested $2,000. I thought about it and responded with $1,000 today, and $500 each of the next 5 months to get the new website showing up all over Google He accepted, and I now had my first client!
PHASE THREE Landing My First Client: Payday I felt like this Looked more like this
PHASE THREE Landing My First Client: Payday I don t recommend asking your clients what they could pay, but it s what I needed to do to get that FIRST deal across the line. I had become a business owner. Here s a few lessons I learned about pitching to prospects: Business owners want to talk about results, not tools. I see a lot of guys getting caught up in talking about SEO (search engine optimization). Nobody wants your SEO. They want the results your SEO can provide. I made this mistake early on by selling SEO, Adwords, Facebook Ads, etc. That got me nowhere. Now I sell results. I talk about how many leads I will provide them. I talk about the additional monthly sales they can expect. I talk about the 550% return on investment I'm about to give them. Stick to that. They love that. Business owners want 2 things. They want someone who is competent, and someone they can trust. If you are both of those things, you can make mistakes and still be fine. They don t have to like you (though that is nice), but they MUST trust you and think you can actually do what you say you can. As I ve learned more about internet marketing, my competency has gone through the roof in clients minds. And I ve found that the absolute best way to build trust is to just be transparent. I try to be a real person in front of my prospects, not some stiff agency.
PHASE FOUR 57 days later A lot can change in 57 days. A little less than 2 months later, I had 7 clients, $16,345 of new revenue sitting in a bank account, and was already turning down new business because I couldn t take everyone on at once. I could be selective in what businesses I worked with instead of begging people with a name your own price pitch. I m not saying I was loaded at the end of those 2 months, but my life was significantly better. Since then, our business Market Results has continued to grow at a rapid rate and it s been amazingly fun. Our goal is to be bringing in $80,000/mo by February 2016. I don t think everyone should be an entrepreneur, but it s what I was born to do. I feel alive running this business, and want to help others start their own businesses like ours.
NEXT STEPS Want to learn more about how you can get started from scratch (like me) and sign your first 4 high-ticket clients? Join our next free online training. Claim My Spot