05/29/2024
Everyday I get asked this
"Josh, I've been working on my business for a few months now, and I still haven't been able to get my first client, if you were in my shoes, what would you do?"
And after thinking about that for a while, I've got a pretty good answer.
Now it took me about 5 months to get my first client, and going back after reaching 30k/month in revenue, it's very clear exactly why it took that long.
So I'm going to narrow it down to just a few things, and then turn those into actionable steps for you to follow.
I wasn't clear on Point B
My business was built to serve me
My goals were misaligned
My offer wasn't direct
Now what does that all mean.
Let's start with 1
When I was communicating with prospects, I wanted to run Cold Email campaigns for consultants. But here's the issue, consultants didn't want me to run cold email campaigns for them.
See the issue is not with what I was doing, it was the reason why I was doing it, I decided that's what I wanted to do, so that the business could serve me, and not get my prospect from Point A to Point B.
You see when I reached out to people, I was trying to sell them on the fact, that they need cold email, RATHER than I can help them bridge the gap between where they are right now (Point A) and where they want to be (Point B).
And in their case, that was terrible margins and a low bottom line, to creating real impact and higher profit.
But I didn't communicate that the reason why I wanted to do cold email was for that purpose, and therefore no one listened.
My offer wasn't directed at my prospects true desires, and therefore I struggled to convert.
Now the next big thing, is that my initial intentions were misaligned.
You see, my initial pricing structure, was to charge 2k/month on a 3 month agreement with a refund guarantee.
The issue was... I wasn't worth s**t at the time.
I had no case studies, no proof, and no clients, so why would anyone believe me?
I was creating unnecessary friction between me and getting my first client.
See here the issue, when you are just trying to get your first client, the highest leverage thing is results, and by me charging some massive fee upfront, I was simultaneously throwing away the opportunity for me to get results to leverage later on, so that I could actually be worth charging up front.
I was thinking short term, not long term, and that's when everything clicked.
And after taking 50 sales calls and getting no deals, I hit the reset button and this is the exact path I followed to get my first client.
Pick a group of people (a niche) you want to help
Send messages to that group of people asking what their true desire is, and what the biggest problem is that is holding them back from getting there (do this until you get at least 25 responses and start to see a pattern)
Figure our how to solve that problem
Reach back out to those people asking if you can help them solve that problem on a 'pay-AFFTER results' basis (or commission)
Get incredible results for 3 people or more, Start charging up front, setting more appointments, and selling cold targets
Hope that helps!
-JD
P.S. If you want me to help build an automated outbound appointment booking system into your business (the same one that's booking me 6 appointments/day), you can get some more info here:
