designates my notes. / designates important. / designates very important.
Part 1 - Start It
Part 2 - Build It
Part 3 - Grow It
Follow Up! Follow Up! Follow Up! Studies show that if you initially get a no, your follow-up ask is TWICE as likely to get a yes.
Selling is helping. If you believe your product or service improves the lives of your customers, sales is just education. You’re helping people out. Reframing selling/asking as helping makes it exciting to offer your consulting or window-washing services or provide someone with delicious cookies. Once you accept that truth, asking becomes loads easier and feels much more like a communal gift than a selfish desire.
Often you can distill your offer down to three parts: Price + Benefit + Time. Strung together, they form an offer sentence.
Other examples:
For $25, I will teach you how to save an hour a day on your Mac, in just twenty minutes.
For $69, I will teach you how to write better in two hours.
For $10, I will send you a PDF with ten mind hacks that will change the way you think in ten minutes.
Always follow up by sending an email to your first customers asking for feedback. Feedback is a gift you can continually use to improve yourself and your business.
When I get shot down while validating, I have a simple four-question script that flips the no into new knowledge, new ideas, and maybe even new customers.
“Why not?” It’s really easy to get scared from attacking this one head- on, because what happens if their criticism is right? But that’s exactly what you want to know!
“Who is one person you know who would really like this?” Always, always, always ask for a referral! Be specific about what kind of referral and use a number; this makes it highly effective.
“What�would�make this a no-brainer for you?” If they don’t want your product, maybe they’d want something related to it. If they don’t want to pay for your dog care app, what about dog walking? A dog hotel? Dog dating?
“What would you pay for that?” One of the hardest things in a startup is setting prices. Getting potential customers to say what they’d pay is pure gold!
people don’t want to be lectured at by an all-knowing guru—they want to tag along with a guide. That’s why I post so many videos where I reveal the nuts and bolts of my processes.
Ali is an absolute genius at this process. His videos—which are almost always titled “How I . . .” rather than “How to . . .”—follow him as he guides viewers through how he studies for medical school entrance exams or takes notes on his iPad Pro, or how he learned to type really fast.
What’s your first action after you read a really great book? You go look for other books by that author. Right? Point is, if people like your stuff, they want more.
Autoresponder
this welcome will arrive at the moment they are most willing to participate in your business. That’s why every time someone joins my list, I ask one question in my Welcome Email: “What could I write to provide value to you?” In that way, you’ll get tons of content ideas and know exactly what your subscribers want.
The Law of 100
Lean in and commit to 100 reps. (Think of this as doing reps and practicing as opposed to failing or succeeding.) This changes your mindset and makes it much easier to sustain forward motion when things get tough.
The key is to set up a system that helps you get your 100 reps done without thinking about the results.
The solution to all the doubt that will inevitably creep up on you is to commit to your first 100—whatever it is for you—with complete disregard for your results.
Content marketing: Create and publish content (blogs, podcasts, videos) with the goal of generating interest in your product/service.
Target market blogs: Sponsor posts and content on popular blogs within your target market.
Influencer marketing: Identify and build relationships with individuals who have influence over your target market (for example, high- profile bloggers or Instagrammers).
PR: Pitch the press and bloggers in your niche to cover your story.
Collaborations: Appear on other podcasts/shows/newsletters/YouTube channels.