Transcription
Listen, if you're a business owner and you're trying to figure out how to get your first few clients, I am going to show you in this video how I went from zero to 40 clients in about 6 months. It wasn't easy. It was simple, but it wasn't easy, but it took me a lot of trial and error. And I hope that you get there faster.
Now, I don't have all the answers on how to go, you know, much further from that. But I can tell you that within those 40 clients, one of them eventually became the people that invited me to be part owner of a larger production company. Therefore, I can tell you how I grew and realistically how I went from zero clients to being a partner in a bigger production company with this strategy. This works, not simple, but it's easy. And I'm going to give you the no way. And I hope this helps you because if it does, then you're going to follow me and subscribe and do all the things. And if you do, then this channel thrills and I keep doing this and I don't want to anybody. And yes, so you know, this is going to be the deal. Ready? Okay, let's go.
Okay, now let's get to this. I'm recording here on the iPad as well. And this is what I'm going to be using for most of the things that I'm trying to explain to you. Yes, this is in Portuguese, but it's relatively really simple. And I'm going to show you how this kind of, you know, funnel works.
Realistically, there's only a few ways that you can get clients. Okay, one of them is creating content, which is content because if you're watching this eventually, if you like me and you like the way I think and the way that I record my videos, then maybe you'll become a client of mine. Pretty simple. SDR, which is sales development representative, which is think of this as like outreach. So, you realistically go and reach out to people. It's like, "Hey, I have this offer for you. Are you interested?" And it can do a bunch of different ways, uh, to try to, you know, grab their attention; the hook, uh, the offer itself; you can do things for free; you can offer free things; and and so on; right; like the approach can change a lot. Now then you can run ads; anious ads. And the final thing is just your network; meaning referrals or, you know, people that you know and so on; but you know, think of ads as basically having the SDR but on steroids because here you're just reaching out to one person at a time unless you do some automation, and here you're reaching out to multiple people, right? Making an offer, but then through content. So, it's kind of a combination of all. But, you know, there's not that many ways to get new clients.
And by the way, if you're listening to this and you want to learn more, go listen to Alex Ramosi. There's a lot that I learned from him. Uh, and this is just kind of like my the way that it worked for me, but it's based off his principles. So, you know, when you're done watching this, go watch him as well, cuz I think it will help you and benefit you.
Now the way that this funnel works is that eventually I was offering them something for free. Now it could be, you know, I'll do an assessment or I'll give you 30 content ideas or, you know, people in Brazil they like to use WhatsApp a lot. So, uh, one of the things that I used to highlight during, you know, this time was that, "Look, by the way, do you know how many people are coming uh from Instagram into your WhatsApp?" And they're like, "Well, no." And then one of my answers was like, "Look, there's a very simple way to do it." And you add, uh, realistically in WhatsApp, you can just basically add uh a UTM, which is a tracker for a link, but don't worry about this for now. But then you also have a way to use WhatsApp to send a message that says like, "Hey, uh I came from Instagram and I want your services, right?" And then that way the business owner knows that people are coming from Instagram. And why is that useful? Because if the business owner knows or the people that you know providing your services to, if they know where their clients are coming from, they can invest more in that. If I know that all my clients are coming from YouTube, for example, which they're not, but if they are, or if they were to be, I would invest more on YouTube, right? It's it's it makes sense. So, it makes sense for you to track things. So, that's why I would offer this uh as a simple link. And I was like, "Hey, I'll just optimize your link where it's actually really freaking simple. Uh, but it showed them that I'm thinking about things differently because most marketing companies over here are not thinking; you're not talking about tracking data. They're not talking about the sales process, which this is what this means; sales process over here. So you know when I'm talking to a business owner and I can tell about the whole funnel strategy; they already see me as different from most.
Okay. So that's why I was trying to give something valuable for free. And this is not a scam; like I'm legitimately trying to help here. Okay. Now, I give that for free. If they get interested, then we can talk about, you know, qualification forms and so on. Uh, meaning, you know, sometimes these these people don't have enough uh money to pay you or they're not ready to work with you. And by the way, this is going to in the beginning, you're going to try to get everybody, but you know, in the long in a long enough time horizon, you're just going to have to qualify people because you can't serve everybody. And if you serve everybody, you serve no one, okay? Because your time is limited. And eventually you're going to have to you're going to have to qualify the people that you work with. Bam. Okay. Simple. So free thing. And then you go into hey, I'm going to call qualify you. And if this person is qualified and and this can be a call, this can be a form, this can be whatever the heck. And if the person is qualified, let's skip this for now. You can have a call like a sales call. And by the way, uh the term sales call is probably wrong. What I want you to think about is sales process. If they're qualified, you start the sales process with them. When I say process, I really mean the sense of it might be three, four, five calls. And if you're early in the entrepreneurial days, you're trying to get clients fast and you think you're going to close them in one call. And I certainly thought I would. And you just don't because a stranger is not going to give you money out of the blue most times unless you have some version of, you know, a brand and so on. But most of us don't. Therefore, you need to show them you know what you're doing. And sometimes that takes multiple calls, that takes your portfolio, that takes multiple things. So, please understand that on the first call that you're having with them, you're not trying to immediately sell them first. Uh, you need to understand if you can help them, if they're looking for it, if they're a fit for you as well, and so on, because they might have everything that you want and but but they they weren't qualified, right? they weren't qualified for it or they have the money but they work in a way that just doesn't work for you. Like for example, I had a client that was like, "Oh, I want you to come here and shoot for me every day." And I was like, "Well, that's going to cost you about X." And they're like, "Well, I don't have that much money." I was like, "Well, yes, because we usually can optimize things and we do it once a month, for example." But the person was so set that I needed to be there every day that it just simply did not make sense for me to educate him in that matter. Okay, but anyway, so sales process.
Okay, now you have the basics which are there's only so many ways you can get people to come to you and you go reach out to people and then you have to understand that eventually you're going to have a sales process. I think that this and this are the most important things that you have to understand for now if you're trying to close your first five clients or your first 40, whatever.
Uh, now, where did this all come from? And this is just a more uh explained version. And if you guys want this, please let me know because I'm not going to make an hour-long video if you know no one is watching or no one cares enough. So if you want a full breakdown of how I went into content and SDR and network and ads and what messages I sent uh and so on, please let me know. I will I I can make this video, but I'm not going to do it unless you know people ask for it.
Okay. So let's talk about content, SDR, ads and network. Uh, let me explain something to you. The way that I work through this is the following: I make content on, you know, YouTube, X, threads, Snapchat, LinkedIn, wherever. It is my job as a business owner to make sure that I am marketing my product, that I let people know that I exist because I am not famous. I'm not an influencer. I need to make sure that people understand I exist. And one of the ways that I can get people to understand that I exist is making content. And then some people will say like, oh, you know, it's a waste of time. It's actually not because it does two things. One, it can get you more leads so people will realistically know you exist. They're going to try to come to you and they're going to, you know, try to work with you if you know what you're doing. Uh, but then there's the second part, which sometimes a lead will come to you and they're not sure yet, okay? But then they see your content. They see that you're putting your face out there and you're just an entrepreneur just like they are. And they see that you're trying; they see that you do what you preach, especially this in in my case, you know, the marketing stuff and I'm creating content and so on. That changes the odds of you closing that deal just because you put your face out there. It gives you authority. It makes you lead by example and so on. So therefore, making content has two benefits: One, getting more leads and two, a high conversion rate for the leads that do come to you. Cool. Cool.
Now, the f the things that I do here, and it says, "Did they follow you?" If you made a piece of content and they followed you, okay, you're going to send a welcome message. Do not do not automate this message, especially if you're small or if you're a business owner. And this week, actually, I closed a new client because we ran an ad. They followed us uh and they had multiple, you know, connections with us in the sense of like they knew clients of ours and so on. They followed us. They saw an ad and all of that. Did not say anything. Did not say anything. I sent a message. In this message, you can, you know, template this from now. Here's what you say: "Hey X, I saw you followed. Nice to meet you. I just wanted to say, you know, welcome." For example, in this channel, I would say, "Hey, in this channel, you're going to find, you know, business errors that I make myself and I try to help people so they don't make the same mistakes. Two, travel content. And then three, every once in a while, some philosophy stuff. Bam. I'm around if you need me. You know, be welcome. Happy you're around." You're not selling. You're not making a point. You're just saying I'm around. You're starting the conversation because this person might eventually become an actual lead, but they might also engage with your content because now you're a freaking human being. It's social media for you to be social. Sorry. If you're posting content and you're ignoring everyone that comments your stuff or sends a message, you're you're missing the point. Sorry, you're missing the point.
Okay. Now person followup; you do this welcome message. Now you can also theoretically from your content tell them, "comment r comment hamburger and I'll give you this valuable free thing." Could be a notion template; ideas. It could be training; could be, you know, whatever you could give them a free thing. Okay, that's another way for you to go back into your funnel of giving the free thing. Huh. Interesting. That's how you can convert into a client.
Okay. Next, let's go from the SDR perspective. Uh, and that's kind of all I'm going to talk about, you know, I'm going to finish this page and I'm going to talk about the sales product sales process a little bit. The STR part. This is where I closed uh by chance one of the biggest chains like coffee chains uh in Brazil by chance because I did not realize that that was the official account. But I sent a message out of the blue. Uh, the message basically says some version of like, "Hey, I I'm a filmmaker and I just spent a few years in New York and I would like to make you a video. Here's what I'm proposing. I'm proposing uh you know, say 15 photos. I can I can pull back and and do a screenshot here, but it was some version of I can do, you know, 60 uh professional photos for you. I can do an institutional video and I can do like a a funny ad." And in return, I'm going to ask for a price that we set on. Cool. That worked. That worked. I sent like 50 messages and like, you know, five people answered and that one became a deal. It works. This SDR stuff, it could be a DM on Instagram. It could be an email. It could be calling their their phone. Okay, it works. It I said it's simple. It's not easy because for that client specifically, I used perplexity.ai to find the client. So I basically typed in, you know, "find me coffee shops in this region in you know this uh country," for example, and then I use Google Sheets to organize it all and then started DMing everybody and some of them I was offering a service which is what I did and I was testing two or three messages. So, ABC test over here. If you can send different messages, different hooks. One of them was like, "Hey, do you want to be able to record a video that looks like a TV ad?" Because realistically, some of my videos kind of look like a TV ad, which is kind of fun. Uh, so, you know, it was a hook and then I explained, "No, I actually do, uh, you know, videos for social media, blah, blah, blah." And then you explain. So, you know, uh, there's there's different hooks you can use here to see what works. Or if I'm doing them, you know, sending a DM, then I'm giving free ideas and you can say, "Hey, I saw your page. I work in this industry and I have some ideas that might work for you. Are you available Thursday at 4:30 for me to give you these ideas for you to you?" Sometimes I say yes. And when you go into those calls, please realistically give the free thing away. Like in those 20 30 minutes, please give it away for free; actually give valuable advice and then tell them, "hey, I do this for a living. I offer services on this. Are you interested?" Okay, so that's another way of going to the valuable thing. And you guys are probably learning Portuguese here too right now, which is kind of really funny. No, but you know, seriously, thanks for watching this. I'm hoping this is this is helping some of you because I wish someone had broken this down for me early on. Uh, and it took me a few, you know, a few many weekends of trying to figure this out. Um, and he when he finally clicked, my life became a lot simpler in this sense in the sales process. Like now I could see what was going on.
Now, next step, let's talk about ads. One of the ads that I'm currently running uh I wasn't running this ad at the time, but I'm currently running. It's uh it's with it's me with one of those uh we call it clatchy. I don't know the name in English, but it's one of those things that like clicks uh it's like recording, filming, blah blah blah blah blah, right? Uh and I do this and I hold it. It's like 3 2 1. "Hey, are you from this town and you have a business and you're really good at what you do, but then your marketing sucks. Oh, hey, if you're looking for someone that can actually help you to do marketing that actually works, let me know because if I put this ad in front of you, I can put your ad in front of your client." Some version of that and I put like I don't know 200 bucks on it; I don't know; 80 leads three weeks later; right; then comes the process of qualifying, but I mean the ad creative; it doesn't have to be complicated; it can be really simple; talk to the people; run it locally; uh win in your talent first; especially if you can win in your talent in your local service; go for that; and you can run uh I think that the best way to think about running ads so far for me has been what is something that feels organic that feels like someone like an influencer would be posting on their stories and people would watch for fun. Well, you know how people say like, "Oh, I don't understand why people pay attention to influencers because they suck." Do the following: Be a good business owner and ask yourself, "What can I learn from the influencers that people are paying attention?" Because if they learned how to grab attention, homie and gal, you should learn with them, too. Like, it doesn't matter what niche they're from, there is something to be learned. There's something to be learned. And then you, as the business owner, figure that out, use it in your favor, and decide what to do with it. Okay? Uh but what I also do is there was a few videos that I had that the content did really well and I wanted to grow some followers. So I ran some campaigns to show that content to more people. I think I ran for engagement actually. I wanted people to comment because I don't want them to actually follow because then the platform might have uh they might have an incentive to give me fake followers. I don't know if that's accurate but I just don't trust it. I want to see engagement. I want to see engagement. So like I would take content that was really good and I would run them for engagement; like good content. That's what it says. Uh so yeah and then I would run ads on that too. And then in the ads you can have, you know, a form that qualifies them. You can also give them a free thing. So like I could have run that ad that I just told you. I could have said, "Hey, if you fill out this form I'm going to give you 50 content ideas." That's an example. And I put here screenshots and comments because when I first ran an ad for photography, uh, what I did was actually pretty stupid or, you know, it's actually smart. But, uh, some people would engage with my ad and just like it, but not actually fill out the form. But I figured that they would possibly still be leads because they at least they liked the ad. So, they were interested to some extent and some of them would comment. So what I did is I took screenshots of all the people that I liked. Then I threw them on CHPT and I was like, "Hey, can you please make a list of all these people with the Instagram handles so I can click on them and I can reach out to them." So with that, I don't know, I had put like $20 on a campaign and I got a 100 names and that's actually how I got a couple clients, too.
Now, I'm saying that this works, not that it's simple, nor nor that it's the most optimized way. I'm just saying that this is realistically the amount of work that it took to get from 0 to 40 clients and testing all this stuff. Right? So this did take weekends. This did take, you know, late nights. This take uh early mornings. Is it right? It it does take work, but it it does work. That was weird sentence. You get it.
Final thing is please let your people know that you were offering the thing. Once I booked a wedding just because I told a competitor that I was like, "Hey, by the way, I'm looking for wedding gigs. Uh, if you have any that come your way, please let me know." And two weeks later, I was recording a wedding, right? So, you know, uh, please let people know. My first first first paying client, there was like a monthly fee. They were local and my family bought stuff there. Great. Like get people in your network. Like seriously, tell people. If you're scared of what people are going to think when you ask them, like, "Hey, I'm looking for this. Do you have anybody interested or anybody that's looking for this?" If you're scared of that, think of the following: Tell me, what is it that you're doing that you should be ashamed of? You're trying to offer a service, a legal service that people might need. Go for it. Don't be scared. Just go for it. It's the art of hearing no. I used to have a boss that used to say uh he used to say, "Louise, uh you know, sales is like dating in New York when you're single." Just like just be ready to hear a lot of nos. Uh and I thought it was hilarious. Uh and yes, you know, sales is kind of like that. You just hear a lot of nos. Uh obviously, you get better at selling and there's, you know, there's techniques and so on, but you're going to hear a lot of nos and that's it. Just just, you know, get to the next no.
Now, final thing I want to show you, which is the sales process, okay? Which are things that I have learned, and they're in Portuguese here. Don't worry, I I'll explain them. Uh that I try to live by. I am sure that someone is going to disagree with me. This is my journey from zero to 40 clients. And this can help you. Okay, this is not the final truth, but I hope this helps you. Okay, the sales process. The problem here is that, okay, when it comes to selling, never only send your prices. And my error, try to sell on a single call. Okay.
Now, number one, why not to just send prices? Because you're just going to be another one. If the person has no reason to, you know, if you don't have a brand or if you don't post content, uh, and if you're just another one and you just send clients, guess what? They're just, you know, shopping for the cheapest. If you're gonna win that battle, I'm I'm not going for it. Alex Ramosi has a good quote on this. It's like there is no reward for being the second cheapest or something like that. It's like, hey, you can only go, you know, so low. And then the other thing is that, oh, and people like to say it's like, you know, but if I just send the prices, then I can be faster and so on. It's like, no, just don't. Just don't. Just like get them on a call, understand what they need. Cuz by the way, you don't even know if they need like if they realistically are a fit to work with you. So maybe you want to have a chat first always, but you're going to get, you know, in touch with less people. Yes, I was okay with that and so far it has been working. So I'm going to stick with it. Uh and if you but realistically, if you have a different perspective, drop it in the comment because this is something that I currently discuss with my partners uh often, right? Because I'm against it. A couple of them are for it.
Okay, now next one. Uh, but again, this is how I got to zero to 40 clients. I wasn't with them at the time. Okay, now let's talk about this. Why not sell on just one call? Because most times you don't know what the lead wants just yet. Uh, you have to get on a call with them to understand their needs. Sometime like maybe you need, you know, a glass of water and I'm trying
To sell you milk. Like, at least hop on a call and understand what they need.
So, the first call, go in thinking, okay, let me see if I can help them. Then the second call, you might say, okay, I have a strategy for you, prospect. How does this sound? Okay, sounds good. Okay, then you can choose, okay, now we're going to talk about price and negotiate, or it's like, okay, if this sounds good, then I'm going to bring, you know, a deal for you, and we can talk about it. This has been working especially for, you know, higher tickets. Right? Again, this I'm talking about services. So, it's not like 20 bucks.
So, the way that I try to see this process is instead of trying to, you know, make those two errors, I try to see this as a process. So, the first one is a discovery call, discovery call. Second one is an alignment call. Third is a proposal, like an offer, and then negotiation. So, kind of be ready for negotiating as well. When you put your price, if they tell no right away, well, try to negotiate. See what's up. If if you try to negotiate, right? Sometimes maybe you're going to be like, "Oh, I don't negotiate prices." But you could negotiate bonuses, right? So, negotiate something.
Discovery call. Here's what I do. I ask, I try to ask the most questions. I try to talk less. I try to talk not much at all because you need to understand their objectives. You need to understand, you need to, you know, see if you're a fit for them and they're a fit for you. Uh, by the way, try to send a message, a confirmation message. Hey, are you all ready for our call today at 4:30 p.m.? And I try to say, hey, I am ready for our call at 4:30, rather than, hey, are you ready for our call at 4:30? Just because I put the default mode in the person that, hey, we're going to have our call at 4:30, rather than, hey, are we going to have our call at 4:30? Right? And then again, Alex Ramosa talks about this. I think it's uh he actually refers, he actually talks about someone else that says this. It's the BAM fam. Book a meeting from a meeting. And I I I've been using this, and I totally agree with it. It's awesome because as you're finishing the call, here's an example. Say they are qualified and want to do the alignment call. It's like, okay, I understood everything that you need, and I'm going to put together a plan uh to present that to you. Are you available on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.? And you can even pause like, are you available on Thursday? Hang on, let me check. At 2:30 p.m. because it's like you're checking your calendar. Maybe your Thursday is empty, but that gives you the understanding of like, okay, this person at least is trying to book and is organized and so on, even if it's empty. Okay. Okay.
Next call. This is when you present your strategy. Like, hey, uh, now the second call. This is when you present the strategy. For example, say the person needs to post on Instagram and LinkedIn and YouTube, right? This is kind of uh when you present, hey, this is the strategy that I have for you. This is what I'm thinking. This is these are the packages uh that I'm thinking, and this perhaps you're not even showing price yet. Okay, it's just the ideas, like how does this sound? Because if your strategy sounds solid, if it sounds good and they say sounds good, then the only thing left to talk about is price. Because if they agree that what you said of the strategy is correct and they need that, then well, they need that, right? Then the ne only next thing is okay, let's make it happen. Okay, then this call perhaps your strategy will be off. So feel free to redo it. And this, by the way, is for companies that don't have a service that is, you know, a menu. It's not a because if you have one single product, then well, you don't really have a lot of things to offer. You just have that one. But if you do, then you're going to have to adapt and uh and show them, you know, what you're thinking. Uh, again, send the message of the confirmation and then bam, fam, book the next meeting.
Final uh third call. This is your price call. Sometimes I combine those two, sometimes I don't. But I try to offer them three packages. I feel like this uh at least gives them a chance to work with me on a lower budget if they don't have. But it also allows me to anchor my price higher so they understand that I have clients that pay better and I have clients that do more with me and I can deliver more. Right? This doesn't make them feel like, "Oh, Luc cost 20 bucks." But it might say like, "Hey, Louis actually has clients that paid him 20k." See what I mean? Uh, it puts me on a different category with the prospect. And then the next thing is that you also want to have the confirmation before and after the call. And again, this whole idea of giving them a chance to work with you. In the early days, I was getting all the way over here, and those clients were like, you know, they were kind of ghosting me, but not really ghosting me, and it was really annoying. And then a friend of mine, Cameron, uh, thanks, Cam. Uh, he told me, he was like, "Look, dude, you got to give him a chance to work with you." And I was offering them at the time, uh, it was like a small, one of them was a small mentorship on like how I record my videos, something simple, something easy. But he didn't want to watch YouTube. If he wanted to learn from me, and I was like, okay, these are the packages uh in the sense of, you know, say I don't remember what they were, they're probably like calling 500 bucks, okay, it was just like another person uh like a regular freaking human being, not a business, so 500 bucks sometimes is a lot for the person, I don't know, right? And this, you know, Cameron says like, Louis, give them a chance to work with you, and I came back to the person like, hey, by the way, what if we do instead of, you know, the 10 calls that we have to cover all these topics, I can do just the first three calls and you pay them in two for months, like like I I made a small package because at that point if they didn't close that I should stop wasting my time with them. He was correct. I should have, but now I had confirmation that they were all bark and they were not going to pay. And that was important, like I had to move on. Learning to move on sometimes is helpful.
And final thing is, you know, if they they say like, "Hey, I like everything. I know you gave me like it's, you know, 5,000 bucks, uh, but I can pay only four." And now you determine, you know, uh, can I give more? Can I, you know, but know your margins because by the way, if you have a cost for things and you're you don't understand what the costs are, like your daily cost, your taxes and so on, and you're cutting when you're giving a discount, you're essentially giving away profit. You're giving away your profit. So be, you know, make sense, know what you're doing here. So make sure to do the math of how much you can charge, how much things cost and so on. Uh, and you know, be ready for the back and forth. It's like, hey, I'm gonna, you know, I'm going to charge you five. It's like, oh, I'm going to pay you three. Well, and go on. There's all sorts of little tactics and mechanics on negotiation, so you can learn that, too.
So, you know, at the end of the day, I can talk a lot, you know, a lot more things in tracking leads and negotiation. Uh, and if you're interested in all this, please let me know. Uh, but at the end of the day, what I want you to understand is that going from zero to 40 clients in six months and then eventually becoming a partner at a production firm, uh, it did take a lot of work, but it didn't have to be that complicated. It was a lot of work. Uh, I could have put people in the right places to do it. Uh, but, you know, figuring out the sales process was important and figuring out how to get leads was also important. And I hope this video was helpful for you. I hope this was enough information. And if you have any questions whatsoever, please drop them below. I'm recording this because it didn't click for me on top of all the, you know, videos and podcasts that I watched or books that I've read because there's some things that you just need more visuals and you need more practice and you need to kind of see it. And this is what I'm trying, hoping that this will accomplish for you. If you like this, please subscribe and comment and send it to someone because this is how this channel grows and this is how I know that this type of content resonates with you guys. If you want the full thing, uh, I'll record it. Just let me know, and uh, that's it. We'll talk soon.