Testimonials, Lead Generation, and More… (with Emmanuel Abolo) Pt. 2 Sept. '21 Ep 449

In a podcast with Emmanuel Abolo, the host discusses strategies for accelerating success, emphasizing the importance of leveraging customer reviews and testimonials to boost sales and lead generation for new businesses. They explore the art of over-delivering to ensure customer satisfaction and delve into effective sales techniques, addressing objections by aligning product bonuses with customer fears. The host shares his journey of creating compelling offers and the value of niche marketing, while advocating for providing immense value upfront as a long-term business strategy. They highlight the significance of skill acquisition and patience in entrepreneurship, advising on beta testing for new offers and the power of organic marketing if one has the right skills. Additionally, the host outlines various customer acquisition channels, with a focus on mastering one before expanding, and shares plans for his future work, including books on lead generation, offer structures, and philanthropy.

• Speaker A contemplates what advice they would give to their past self with their current resources and knowledge.
• The importance of leveraging past experiences to fast-track success is highlighted.
• Speaker A acknowledges the growth in skills and context over time, which would change their approach if they were to start over.

"If I went back in time and I had all the resources I had today, what would I tell myself then to fast track my success?"

This quote suggests the speaker is considering the benefits of hindsight and how their current capabilities could have accelerated their past progress.

• Speaker A discusses the strategy of using reviews and testimonials to enhance sales.
• The conversation transitions to how accumulating positive feedback can increase consumer trust and interest in a product.
• The significance of leveraging customer satisfaction to attract more leads is emphasized, particularly for new businesses.

"We transitioned to talking about reviews and testimonials and how to stack those to get more people to want to buy your stuff."

This quote indicates a shift in the conversation towards the tactical use of customer feedback to boost sales and credibility in the market.

• Speaker A describes tactics for handling objections during sales calls.
• The practice of asking customers about their main concerns and addressing them directly is explored.
• Speaker A advises on the importance of over-delivering and creating happy customers by providing more value than promised.

"If when we get on the sales call, they say, I got to think about it, then we would ask the simplest question in all of sales, which is, what's your main concern?"

This quote highlights a key sales technique of directly addressing customer concerns to facilitate the sales process.

• Speaker A shares their experience with creating compelling offers for gyms to attract more customers.
• The concept of white labeling and providing ready-to-use deliverables is discussed.
• Speaker A emphasizes the effort put into preparing resources for clients to easily adopt and brand as their own.

"So you're like, how am I going to do all this work? I'm like, I already did all the work for you. I made the grocery list. I made the food preparation instruction. I made the out guide, I made the liquor fingers lunches, the delectable dinners, the banging breakfast, the shake guide."

This quote illustrates how Speaker A took on the workload to create a comprehensive package of resources for clients, showcasing the depth of their service offering.

• Speaker B recognizes the value of specializing in a particular market segment or avatar.
• The discussion covers the benefits of having a targeted approach and predefined solutions for a specific customer group.
• Speaker A agrees with the strategy of niching as it simplifies the process for clients.

"I think that's probably the reason why the niching thing is really important, really niche into an avatar that you can really like. You have basically everything laid out for them."

This quote underlines the advantage of having a well-defined target market, which allows for a tailored and effective service offering.

• Speaker A reflects on their initial business approach driven by scarcity and the need to make money.
• The evolution towards a more generous business model is considered, with a hypothetical scenario of applying current mindsets to past situations.
• Speaker A acknowledges that while immediate needs must be met, they would now approach business-building differently.

"Now, if you had to go back in time, because quite a number of people here are probably at a spot where they need to make money, and now you are basically giving it all away. Would you still be, quote unquote, giving it all away if you went back in time with your mindset currently when you are in terms of using your business and starting out more, how would you approach that?"

This quote prompts Speaker A to consider how their current philosophy of generosity in business would influence their past actions if they had the opportunity to start over with today's mindset.

• Emphasize solving the customer's problem rather than being preoccupied with revenue metrics.
• Prioritize customer satisfaction over immediate financial gains.
• Long-term perspective in business leads to greater success and faster monetization.
• Goodwill is more important and grows faster than revenue.

"Stop trying to be cute and stop trying to be fancy and just find an avatar that you like and do everything you can to solve their problem."

This quote emphasizes the importance of focusing on the customer's needs and providing solutions rather than getting caught up in superficial aspects of business.

"The longer you give before you ask, the more money you'll make. And I'll tell you a big wealth secret, if you give enough, you don't ever have to ask."

This quote suggests that generously providing value to customers can lead to financial success without the need for hard sales tactics.

• Providing free value can be a powerful business strategy.
• Companies like Google offer free services (Gmail, YouTube) and monetize in other ways.
• Giving away valuable information can establish credibility and attract customers.
• The fear of giving too much away indicates you are likely providing significant value.

"If you just give more... goodwill multiplies faster than revenue."

This quote highlights the strategy of giving value to customers, which can lead to more rapid and sustainable business growth compared to focusing solely on revenue.

"You should always just give away as much as you really can. And I know that I'm giving away the right amount when I'm afraid of how much value."

The speaker suggests that the apprehension about giving away too much is a sign that you are likely providing a substantial amount of value, which is beneficial for business growth.

• For new offers, run a beta group to gain testimonials and feedback.
• Offer services for free or at a reduced rate initially to build a track record.
• The depth of your skill and experience determines the height of your success.
• Patience and time invested in developing skills are crucial for achieving success.

"Go take 20 people and say, I'll do it for free as long as you give me a testimonial and you give me fair feedback so I can help you throughout this process."

This quote provides a practical approach to gaining credibility and testimonials for a new service or product by offering it to a select group for free in exchange for feedback.

"The wider the base of the pyramid, which is the foundation that you decide to lay in terms of the depth of your skill, the taller the peak is."

The speaker uses the pyramid metaphor to illustrate that a solid foundation of skills and experience will lead to greater levels of success.

• Comparison to others can create a false sense of urgency and inadequacy.
• Patience is not inherently difficult; it's the comparison that makes it seem hard.
• Real success often takes years of dedication and is not as instantaneous as it appears on social media.
• Focus on growing your own business rather than quickly shifting to teaching others.

"It's just because of comparison, though. It's not actually hard to wait."

This quote suggests that the challenge in being patient comes from comparing oneself to others, rather than from the act of waiting itself.

"My third year in business, I think I made $50,000. My fourth year in business, I made $50,000... I've been almost a decade, and we're now just receiving some level of notoriety."

Here, the speaker shares personal experience to highlight that business growth and recognition often take much longer than people expect based on the misleading representations on social media.

• To attract high-paying clients, focus on delivering exceptional value and building a strong reputation.
• Utilize word-of-mouth and social sharing to increase visibility and credibility.

"Real quick, guys, if you can think about how you found this podcast, somebody probably tweeted it, told you about it, shared it on Instagram or something like that."

This quote implies that organic growth and client acquisition can come from providing value that people want to share with others, thus naturally attracting high-paying clients.

• Organic growth relies on word-of-mouth and personal recommendations.
• The value of a product or service is enhanced by the skill level of the provider.
• Teaching a high level of skill can increase the value you can offer and sell.
• Providing value to both service providers (like VAs) and business owners creates a beneficial margin for the intermediary.

"My only ask is that you continue to pay it forward to whoever showed you or however you found out about this podcast, that you do the exact same thing."

This quote emphasizes the importance of organic growth through word-of-mouth as the speaker does not use traditional advertising methods.

"If you have a high level of skill, you can teach people the high level skill, which means that you can sell the high level skill on their behalf to other people for more money."

The speaker highlights the correlation between possessing a high level of skill, the ability to teach it, and the potential for increased income through selling this skill on behalf of others.

• Different business models can be applied when creating a service provider business.
• One model includes training individuals in a specific skill and then offering their services for a fee.
• Another model involves acting as a staffing company and charging for the placement and ongoing employment of trained individuals.
• The success of these models depends on the level of skill that can be taught and subsequently sold.

"You could specialize in creating one specific type of service provider...That would be one model."

This quote outlines a business model where the speaker suggests specializing in training people in a specific service, like running ads, and then selling their services.

"Another model could be...that becomes a staffing play from you become like a staffing company for payroll that has very, very good enterprise value, has really good stick rates for the most part, as long as the people are good."

The speaker describes an alternative business model that functions like a staffing agency, emphasizing the potential for good enterprise value and retention rates if the staff is skilled.

• There are multiple channels for customer acquisition, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
• Mastery of one channel is crucial before attempting to scale or add additional channels.
• Organic marketing is highly effective if the individual has star power or is particularly skilled at content creation.
• Paid traffic is the fastest way to generate revenue but requires capital and expertise.
• Owned media, like contacts and followers, offers a fast and cost-effective lead generation method for those starting out.

"Awesome. And just because I've heard you say this quite often...I feel that maybe you could just elaborate on that."

Emmanuel Abolo prompts the speaker to elaborate on the different channels of lead generation, indicating interest in the topic and its relevance to the audience.

"You have to pick one and become a master at it...Find someone who's already done it for a business that's similar to yours and then have them build out that team on that channel."

The speaker advises focusing on mastering one lead generation channel before scaling or adding more, emphasizing the importance of expertise in the initial stages.

"If you're looking for the cheapest fastest, then you're pretty much left with three channels, right? Which is going to be your owned media..."

The quote provides practical advice for new entrepreneurs, suggesting that leveraging owned media is the cheapest and fastest way to generate leads when starting a business.

• Discusses different methods for generating leads, starting with leveraging warm contacts before moving to cold outbound efforts.
• Emphasizes the importance of learning from warm contacts to apply strategies to cold contacts.
• Scaling cold outbound requires hiring more people to manage the increased volume.
• Highlights the effectiveness of using affiliates for lead generation.
• Suggests that partnerships can create win-win scenarios by tapping into existing client bases.

you could have multiple runs at that list and you'd probably have enough jet cash flow and experience to then go to either cold outbound because you'd learn enough from the warm to extrapolate it to cold, which would be a second way, which is fast in terms of like, you can make some money and it costs you very little because it's just your time.

The quote explains the progression from utilizing warm contacts to cold outbound methods for generating leads, emphasizing the low cost and potential quick returns of cold outreach.

The next way is affiliates. And that's probably like, if I had to start over tomorrow and I had to make a ton of money, it would be how do I find partners that already have my client base that I can tap into and create some sort of value proposition to them to make it a win.

This quote introduces affiliates as a powerful lead generation strategy, focusing on creating partnerships with those who already have access to the desired client base, thereby creating mutually beneficial relationships.

• Organic marketing is valuable but time-consuming and may not provide immediate financial returns.
• Advises to allocate a small portion of the week to content creation and the majority to direct money-making activities.
• Mentions the use of Facebook groups as a form of earned media, implying it's a beneficial but less direct method of marketing.

So how do I feel about organic? If you're good at it, it's worth it. It takes time. And if you need to feed yourself today, I would do that so that eventually you'll get the dividends. But I would still like your, your money is going to be like, make sure you don't get obsessed with that.

The quote suggests a balanced approach to organic marketing, recognizing its long-term benefits but warning against overinvestment of time when immediate income is necessary.

• Plans to release a series of books on various business topics, starting with lead generation.
• Discusses the concern of making complex topics accessible and engaging to readers.
• The books aim to provide detailed insights into offer structures, sales, and monetization strategies.
• Expresses the intention to continue evolving the book series based on experience and feedback.

I think it'll be lead generation. I think lead generation will be number two and then the third one will be money models, which is kind of the, originally it was called monetization structures, but I have a feeling that doesn't sound as sexy as money models.

The quote outlines the planned sequence of book topics, with a focus on appealing to readers by choosing engaging titles.

It's one of the ones I'm actually the most afraid of publishing. It was the first book I wrote because I think it's like the stuff that I geek out the most about, but I'm not sure if it's going to be too dense.

This quote reveals the author's apprehension about publishing complex material and the challenge of making it reader-friendly.

• Aims to invest in small businesses and provide strategic insights to help them grow.
• Discusses the balance between accumulating wealth and the desire to engage in philanthropy.
• Contemplates the ethical considerations of wealth accumulation and distribution, including the effectiveness of personal allocation versus charitable giving.
• Sets an ambitious goal of becoming a couple known for significant philanthropic contributions.

But the phase that I'm entering is I'm trying to just deploy capital into small businesses. So 3510 $20 million businesses and invest in them and the entrepreneurs, and then also use the resources that I have, the connections that I have, and then whatever strategic insights I can provide to help them grow.

The quote outlines the speaker's focus on investing in and supporting the growth of small businesses, utilizing their resources and expertise.

Leila and I have the goal of giving away more than being the couple that gave the most and so I don't know if we'll ever achieve that but that is the goal we have because at the end of the day there's one thing to hold it all and then donate a bigger number because I think we'll be better at allocating capital than maybe a charity would be.

This quote discusses the speaker's philanthropic aspirations and the belief in their ability to effectively allocate capital for charitable purposes, compared to traditional charities.