Yet another marketing agency progress thread..

[poseidn]

Been an action faker for quite a long time... (5+yrs)

Quit my 9-5 to build this agency. Want to get cash-flow and put into fastlane project

Doing Lead Gen for Financial Advisors (Linked+Email+FB Ads)

Will be building off cold-calling

Will post daily updates

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[poseidn]

14th Sept 2020
40 dials, 3 connects, 3 no's, ran out of leads

 

[Simon Angel]

14th Sept 2020
40 dials, 3 connects, 3 no's, ran out of leads

Nice job on calling 40 people and choosing a niche.

But just 3 picked up? You getting these leads from ICQ by any chance?

 

[poseidn]

Nice job on calling 40 people and choosing a niche.

But just 3 picked up? You getting these leads from ICQ by any chance?

What's ICQ?

I anticipate a lower pickup rate as I'm calling Financial Advisors who own their own practices, can't afford something like Seamless or zoom for direct numbers

 

[Kasimir]

Wow great job!
Wish you the best keep us updated

 

[Simon Angel]

What's ICQ?

I anticipate a lower pickup rate as I'm calling Financial Advisors who own their own practices, can't afford something like Seamless or zoom for direct numbers

Google it if you're curious. It was a big deal before Skype came along.

Even though I don't know anything about your niche, it still seems like a really, really low pickup rate. Where are you getting your leads from?

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[RealDreams]

Do you have a website?
I'm thinking of doing something similar. Selling web design services + funnels/fb ads.

I'm struggling picking up a niche, though.

Have you done some research before picking that niche? Are there other people who are selling to financial advisors?

 

[poseidn]

got 3 calls coming up, will do commission lead gen only first

 

[poseidn]

Google it if you're curious. It was a big deal before Skype came along.

Even though I don't know anything about your niche, it still seems like a really, really low pickup rate. Where are you getting your leads from?

i was in b2b sales and 10% pickup rate is infinitely better than what i got there - i would hit phone all day and sometimes get only 5 pickups - i just get my leads from sales nav and find phone no's on google

 

[poseidn]

Do you have a website?
I'm thinking of doing something similar. Selling web design services + funnels/fb ads.

I'm struggling picking up a niche, though.

Have you done some research before picking that niche? Are there other people who are selling to financial advisors?

yea lots selling to financial advisors, everyones tells me "i get you guys contacting me all the time" hahaha

 

[poseidn]

signed first commission client - should make $1-2k/month

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[poseidn]

getting great results for first client. Aiming to break $5k by dec31st.

Been working very hard since last post - zero social life, wake up, work, gym, work, think... Little to no 'entertainment' - the harder i work the clearer i seem to see

 

[Kasimir]

getting great results for first client. Aiming to break $5k by dec31st.

Been working very hard since last post - zero social life, wake up, work, gym, work, think... Little to no 'entertainment' - the harder i work the clearer i seem to see

Wow, that sounds great! Are you doing everything by yourself or already outsourcing some things?

 

[poseidn]

Wow, that sounds great! Are you doing everything by yourself or already outsourcing some things?

everything by myself right now - i learnt basic python and selenium to automate some manual tasks rather than hire a VA (saved me around 10hours/week).

Won't be outsourcing anything to agencies as i don't need to right now, i want to keep all my advantages in house for now. Will definitely be hiring a few VA's early january

 

[Kasimir]

everything by myself right now - i learnt basic python and selenium to automate some manual tasks rather than hire a VA (saved me around 10hours/week).

Won't be outsourcing anything to agencies as i don't need to right now, i want to keep all my advantages in house for now. Will definitely be hiring a few VA's early january

Sounds great! But please keep in mind that while outsourcing can be expensive you have more time to focus on other things like marketing and sales. And so if you'd make 15k in January but due to your outsourcing you have to pay 5k you still have a huge profit.

 

[poseidn]

old biz model sucked, so i tried to find a new one.

Iterated my biz model 6 times.. 5 failures, started to wonder if i would hit my end of yr goals, a little bit of doubt started to creep in.

New biz model seems good, closed $6.5k in new business over last 3 days@80%+ margin

Good biz model + good lead gen + good sale = $

In short, have an AMAZING offer built through constant iteration, speak to MORE people, convert MORE = you will make $

Got some big ideas for the new year - want to be pushing as close to 7 figures annual rev by end of 2021.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[GatsbyMag]

old biz model sucked, so i tried to find a new one.

Iterated my biz model 6 times.. 5 failures, started to wonder if i would hit my end of yr goals, a little bit of doubt started to creep in.

New biz model seems good, closed $6.5k in new business over last 3 days@80%+ margin

Good biz model + good lead gen + good sale = $

In short, have an AMAZING offer built through constant iteration, speak to MORE people, convert MORE = you will make $

Got some big ideas for the new year - want to be pushing as close to 7 figures annual rev by end of 2021.

There are so many marketing agencies. Why does yours stand out to clients? What do they actually value from you that they can't get by themselves or from another cheaper agency?

Hope the question isn't too intrusive, I am genuinely curious!

 

[Sebas Mnz]

old biz model sucked, so i tried to find a new one.

Iterated my biz model 6 times.. 5 failures, started to wonder if i would hit my end of yr goals, a little bit of doubt started to creep in.

New biz model seems good, closed $6.5k in new business over last 3 days@80%+ margin

Good biz model + good lead gen + good sale = $

In short, have an AMAZING offer built through constant iteration, speak to MORE people, convert MORE = you will make $

Got some big ideas for the new year - want to be pushing as close to 7 figures annual rev by end of 2021.

Your posts are very interesting,

I am currently creating my own LeadGeneration agency and out of curiosity, you use your own brand to generate the leads and then you pass them on to the clients or you use the clients' brand to generate the leads?

continue with the posts, they are very inspiring

Good Work

 

[poseidn]

Your posts are very interesting,

I am currently creating my own LeadGeneration agency and out of curiosity, you use your own brand to generate the leads and then you pass them on to the clients or you use the clients' brand to generate the leads?

continue with the posts, they are very inspiring

Good Work

That's not me, that's another guy on the forum, i know who you're talking about. It's a good business model for sure. But didn't fit with what i was looking to do - i did try it.

 

[poseidn]

There are so many marketing agencies. Why does yours stand out to clients? What do they actually value from you that they can't get by themselves or from another cheaper agency?

Hope the question isn't too intrusive, I am genuinely curious!

I'm not going to give any details away, but best advice i can give is you need to try lots of different things. Quick iteration and bringing those iterations to market ASAP is the key to the game. Almost like the mvp model in lean startup. Speak to people, see what they don't want, what clues they might give, iterate your offer, put it to the market again... rinse and repeat until you have an offer/biz model that resonates with your target market.

I'm still at the iteration phase, i would like to say that closing $6.5k in new biz in 3 days proves the model/offer but only time will tell..

There's a reason why everyone doing good stuff on this forum says to stop reading and action faking and start putting your ideas to market, because if you want to make $ the only thing that matters is what the market thinks, and you can try to 'guess' what the market thinks or actually go out there and find out what the market thinks (sell to them)

 

[Andy Black]

I'm not going to give any details away, but best advice i can give is you need to try lots of different things. Quick iteration and bringing those iterations to market ASAP is the key to the game. Almost like the mvp model in lean startup. Speak to people, see what they don't want, what clues they might give, iterate your offer, put it to the market again... rinse and repeat until you have an offer/biz model that resonates with your target market.

I'm still at the iteration phase, i would like to say that closing $6.5k in new biz in 3 days proves the model/offer but only time will tell..

There's a reason why everyone doing good stuff on this forum says to stop reading and action faking and start putting your ideas to market, because if you want to make $ the only thing that matters is what the market thinks, and you can try to 'guess' what the market thinks or actually go out there and find out what the market thinks (sell to them)

Yeah, that’s why I’m such a fan of speaking to people, diesel and coffee style. See what makes their eyes glaze over, and what makes their eyes light up.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Harsha Vardhan]

Been an action faker for quite a long time... (5+yrs)

Quit my 9-5 to build this agency. Want to get cash-flow and put into fastlane project

Doing Lead Gen for Financial Advisors (Linked+Email+FB Ads)

Will be building off cold-calling

Will post daily updates

Will be following you!!

 

[gebu]

i was in b2b sales and 10% pickup rate is infinitely better than what i got there - i would hit phone all day and sometimes get only 5 pickups - i just get my leads from sales nav and find phone no's on google

You should automate the call process, and only be on the phone when someone picks up.

 

[poseidn]

prior model that i talked about was just not feasible right now.

Had to refund a majority of money collected as was much more difficult than i expected. It added a lot of moving parts on to my offer (people, processes) which added too much stress to me and a difficulty in getting results.

Tough last 2 months

Changed models again. Have GREAT results with the model i'm using right now & is 10X more scalable (work per client is maybe 2 hours a week and results are top 0.1% in the market - truly), although the value proposition is nowhere near as strong from an outside view (less of a turnkey solution)..

Going to focus on getting results/testimonials to speak for themselves rather than the offer being the main bulk of why people bought..

I've learnt that while you're a solo operation, keep it stupid simple (KISS)!

 

[Andy Black]

I've learnt that while you're a solo operation, keep it stupid simple (KISS)!

It’s a constant battle to simplify. Entropy is a thing.

 

[poseidn]

Took it right down to basics. While before i had 5 different "components" to my offer, all i have now is one.

It's the component that i had best results with (spent months working on it specifically, reading, talking to people, building, iterating) out of all the rest in my prior offer(s)

First client with this new offer told me recently he's got $250k in his pipeline (in 2 weeks of working w/ me, yearly rev) and has closed $80k of that already.

Obviously very stellar results and i'm not sure that level of results will continue with this specific client, but it's a good sign that what i'm offering works

Seems specialisation and simplicity is the name of the game - do one thing REALLY F*cking well and provide lots of value with it (aka make other people lots of money)..

Let's see where this takes us. Will look to scale this out with some others and see if i can achieve similar results

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Andy Black]

Seems specialisation and simplicity is the name of the game - do one thing REALLY f*cking well and provide lots of value with it (aka make other people lots of money)..

^^^ THIS.

Although the key phrase is “make other people lots of money”. If you can do that in a non-specialised and/or non-simple way then that’s a valid route too.

 

[poseidn]

First client for this model closed quarter million $ in the first month working with me.

Got a video testimonial saying such- now looking to scale this up..

Will lean on that testimonial as a big hook and hopefully start bringing some good biz in.

 

[poseidn]

Went from 1 to 5 paying clients ($400/mo up to $1000/mo management fee) in 2wks on this new model. Went ham on phone and it paid off (value proposition/value skew is truly off the charts...)

Undercharging by a massive amount based on results i'm getting

But i'm not really worried right now about charging what it's worth - underpricing so i can bring lots of clients on and farm testimonials asap

Went from living in a big city, comfy apartment, a nicely paid sales job, lots of partying, chicks, lifting, combat sports etc etc... to living with my parents in my childhood bedroom, small town, haven't partied or done anything exciting in 12months

I'm a big believer in making the best of a bad situation. Think i'm well on track now to leaving lockdown with a decent start of a biz that has replaced a 9-5 income and could be the foundations for future fastlane endeavours - but it sure did take longer than i imagined lol (i thought i'd be at 10k a month in 4 weeks)

Will probably be looking at another few months of lockdown and 6 months before vaccine gets to me and i can get out and start some resemblance of a life again (planning to go south america or asia), a lot can happen in 6 months!

 

[zhangmin_007]

thank you for share!