Stop Being Broke. Get Busy.
Summary
TLDRThe speaker emphasizes the importance of scaling businesses by tackling what seems unscalable, sharing insights from his experience in exiting nine businesses and building a $200 million portfolio. He argues that the inability to scale is often due to a lack of skills rather than impossibility, and encourages entrepreneurs to engage in direct customer interactions to learn and improve their offerings. The video offers tactics to scale by starting with high-value, 'done for you' services and progressively moving to more scalable, 'do it yourself' models, ultimately advising viewers to embrace the hard work of the early stages to avoid financial stagnation.
Takeaways
- 💰 **Scaling the Unscalable**: The speaker emphasizes the importance of not overlooking seemingly unscalable aspects of a business, as they can often be scaled with the right approach and resources.
- 💡 **Skill Deficiency, Not Unscalability**: The concept that something is unscalable is often a result of lacking the skills to scale it, rather than an inherent limitation.
- 🤔 **Starting Small, Thinking Big**: Entrepreneurs should start with what is manageable and scalable given their current resources, but always keep the bigger picture in mind.
- 📈 **Learning Through Doing**: Engaging in 'unscalable' activities like one-on-one customer interactions can provide valuable insights and learning opportunities that can inform business growth.
- 📝 **The Power of Personalization**: Personal touches, such as handwritten cards or personalized messages, can be powerful in business, even if they seem unscalable at first glance.
- 🔑 **Cultural and Training Investments**: Scaling a service business involves investing in culture and training, which are key to handling growth while maintaining quality.
- 🚀 **Leverage and Resources**: As a business grows, the ability to leverage resources, such as hiring additional staff or investing in technology, can help scale previously unscalable processes.
- 📈 **Incremental Scaling**: Scaling often involves incremental steps, starting with a basic version of a process and gradually improving and expanding it as the business grows.
- 🔄 **Adapting and Evolving**: Businesses must be willing to adapt their strategies and processes as they grow, recognizing that what works at one scale may not work at another.
- 💼 **The Swamp of Entrepreneurship**: The speaker describes an early stage in business where one must work multiple roles due to limited resources, which is a necessary phase to build up to a scalable model.
- 📱 **Technology as a Scaling Tool**: Even in a world of automation, personal touches and direct communication can be more effective and are examples of scalable personalization.
- 📈 **Sales to Fulfillment Continuum**: The easier a product or service is to sell, the harder it is to fulfill, and vice versa, indicating a need for balance in how businesses approach their offerings.
- 🏢 **Small Business Advantage**: Smaller businesses have the advantage of being able to do things that larger businesses cannot, such as highly personalized services, which can be a key differentiator.
Q & A
What is the main concept discussed in the video script?
-The main concept discussed in the video script is 'scaling the unscalable,' which emphasizes the idea that what may initially seem unscalable can often be scaled with the right approach and resources.
Why does the speaker believe many businesses are leaving money on the table?
-The speaker believes businesses are leaving money on the table because they are not utilizing their single largest competitive advantage, which is often the ability to scale processes that they currently perceive as unscalable.
What is an example given in the script where someone thought their business process was unscalable?
-An example given in the script is a woman in the fitness industry who thought outbound sales, which requires people, was unscalable. The speaker argues that it's not the process that's unscalable, but rather a lack of knowledge on how to scale it.
What does the speaker suggest is the real issue when people claim something is unscalable?
-The speaker suggests that the real issue is not that something is unscalable, but rather that people have a 'skill deficiency.' They lack the skills or knowledge on how to scale the process in question.
What is the speaker's view on the importance of doing 'unscalable' work in the early stages of a business?
-The speaker views 'unscalable' work as crucial in the early stages of a business because it allows for learning and skill development. This work can provide valuable insights into customer needs, preferences, and the most effective ways to serve them.
What is the 'sales to delivery continuum' mentioned in the script?
-The 'sales to delivery continuum' is a concept that suggests the easier something is to sell, the harder it is to fulfill, and vice versa. It highlights the relationship between the marketing and delivery aspects of a business.
What are the two frameworks introduced by the speaker for understanding business scalability?
-The two frameworks introduced are the 'sales to fulfillment Continuum' and the 'done for you, done with you, do it yourself pyramid.' These frameworks help to understand the dynamics of selling and fulfilling products or services and the progression from fully serviced to self-service models.
What advice does the speaker give for businesses that are struggling with scalability?
-The speaker advises businesses to start by doing the 'unscalable' work themselves to learn and understand the process deeply. As they gain insights and resources, they can then look for ways to semi-privatize or systematize the process, thus scaling what was once thought unscalable.
What is the significance of the 'done for you, done with you, do it yourself pyramid' in business strategy?
-The 'done for you, done with you, do it yourself pyramid' signifies a strategic approach to business where one starts with offering high-end, fully serviced products (done for you) and gradually moves to less hands-on services, eventually offering do-it-yourself solutions. This approach helps in establishing a strong brand and allows for scaling.
What does the speaker mean by 'use what you have' in the context of entrepreneurship?
-The speaker means that entrepreneurs should leverage their current resources, skills, and advantages, even if they seem small or limited. This includes doing 'unscalable' work to gain insights and build up to scalable solutions.
What is the speaker's recommendation for new or small businesses regarding the approach to selling their products or services?
-The speaker recommends a top-down approach where businesses start by selling the most expensive, high-end services (done for you) and then move down the pyramid to offer less expensive, more scalable solutions (done with you and do it yourself).
Outlines
💰 Scaling the Unscalable for Business Growth
The speaker emphasizes the importance of scaling processes that initially seem unscalable, such as personalized customer interactions, as a competitive advantage. They share their experience in business, having founded and exited nine businesses, with the last one being sold for 46.2 million dollars. The speaker argues that many entrepreneurs leave money on the table by not leveraging their largest competitive advantage. They provide examples, like a fitness business owner who wanted a more scalable acquisition system but was resistant to scaling outbound marketing due to its labor-intensive nature. The speaker challenges this mindset, suggesting that the issue is not with the scalability of the task but with the entrepreneur's skill in finding a scalable solution.
📈 Learning from the Market: The Path to Scalability
The speaker discusses the concept of learning from the market as a crucial step in business growth. They argue against the notion that certain business tasks are inherently unscalable, instead suggesting that it's a matter of developing the right skills and strategies. The speaker provides actionable advice, such as engaging in direct customer communication to understand their needs and pain points, which can lead to product improvements and better marketing strategies. They also introduce two 'magic questions' that can help identify the most and least valuable features of a product from a customer's perspective. The speaker encourages entrepreneurs to embrace the 'unscalable' tasks in the early stages of their business as these efforts will pay off in the form of customer insights and business growth.
🚀 From Unscalable to Scalable: A Journey of Business Evolution
The speaker shares insights on how businesses can evolve from handling tasks manually to automating and scaling them effectively. They recount the story of a business owner who started by writing handwritten cards to customers and eventually scaled this personal touch to a system that still maintains its impact even with high order volumes. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not dismissing tasks as unscalable due to initial limitations in resources or skills. Instead, they advocate for a mindset shift where entrepreneurs see the potential for scaling through learning and adapting. They also discuss the importance of starting with the most efficient process possible and leveraging personal interactions with customers, even when scaling up, as a way to maintain a competitive edge.
💼 Navigating the Swamp: Incur the Right Kind of Business Debt
The speaker introduces the concept of 'management debt' as a consequence of not having the right people in place due to financial constraints. They explain that this leads to the business owner having to take on multiple roles, which seems unscalable. However, they argue that this is a necessary phase that every business goes through, which they refer to as 'the swamp.' The speaker advises entrepreneurs to focus on the type of debt they want to incur, suggesting that it's better to start with a more personal and labor-intensive approach that can later be scaled with the right systems and processes in place. They also caution against trying to implement scalable solutions too early, as it can lead to inefficiencies and lost opportunities for learning from the market.
🛠️ Frameworks for Scaling: Sales to Delivery Continuum and Pyramid Approach
The speaker presents two frameworks to help businesses understand and navigate the scaling process. The first is the 'Sales to Fulfillment Continuum,' which suggests that products or services that are easy to sell are usually hard to fulfill, and vice versa. The speaker recommends starting with the most expensive, 'done for you' services that are easier to sell but harder to fulfill, as this maximizes revenue per customer and sets up the business to develop systems for scaling. The second framework is the 'done for you, done with you, do it yourself' pyramid, which advises a top-down approach to scaling services, starting with high-end services and gradually moving to more affordable, self-service options as the business grows and systems are established.
🎯 Scaling Insights and Business Lessons
In the final paragraph, the speaker wraps up their message by reiterating the importance of scaling the unscalable and encourages entrepreneurs to get busy doing the work that leads to growth, rather than staying broke and inactive. They offer a video that breaks down more business lessons from their 13 years of experience, suggesting that there is more in-depth knowledge to be gained for those interested in further understanding the intricacies of scaling a business successfully.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Scaling the Unscalable
💡Competitive Advantage
💡Service Business
💡Skill Deficiency
💡Handwritten Cards
💡Revenue
💡Customer Onboarding
💡Pain Points
💡Sales to Fulfillment Continuum
💡Done For You / Done With You / Do It Yourself
💡Management Debt
💡Leverage
Highlights
The speaker emphasizes the importance of scaling processes that may initially seem unscalable, arguing that many businesses leave money on the table by not leveraging their largest competitive advantage.
The concept of 'scaling the unscalable' is introduced, challenging the common belief that some business aspects are inherently unable to scale.
A fitness business example is given to illustrate the misconception that outbound marketing and personal interaction cannot be scaled.
The speaker argues that the inability to scale is often due to a lack of skills rather than an inherent limitation of the business model.
The importance of starting with a scalable mindset and being willing to adapt and learn is highlighted.
The story of a successful business that started with handwritten cards for customers and scaled the personal touch is shared.
The idea that businesses should not skip steps in their growth, such as avoiding one-on-one customer interactions, is discussed.
The speaker suggests that doing the 'unscalable' work in the beginning can lead to valuable learning and business growth.
Two frameworks are introduced: the Sales to Delivery Continuum and the Done For You/Done With You/Do It Yourself Pyramid.
The Sales to Delivery Continuum suggests that easier-to-sell products are harder to fulfill, and vice versa.
The Done For You/Done With You/Do It Yourself Pyramid is a strategy for scaling services by starting with high-end, full-service offerings and gradually moving to more self-service models.
The speaker advises starting with a high-priced, full-service offering to maximize revenue and set a strong brand position.
The process of developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) from high-end services to create scalable, productized offerings is explained.
The benefits of starting with a top-down approach to business scaling, beginning with high-value services, are discussed.
The speaker shares personal experiences and examples from successful businesses to illustrate the effectiveness of scaling the unscalable.
The importance of not being 'busy and broke' but rather focusing on doing the right work to generate income is emphasized.
The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to apply these lessons to their own businesses and to avoid common scaling pitfalls.
Transcripts
what I'm going to talk about in this
video is not fun but it's going to make
you a ton of money and I'm going to
explain why so many of you are leaving
massive amounts of money on the table
right now and not using your single
largest competitive advantage and these
lessons have come hard-earned from years
in business I've founded and exited nine
businesses my last one at 46.2 million
bucks our current portfolio is over $200
million a year and I make these videos
so that you can make money and the big
concept I want to talk to you about is
scaling the unscalable and I'm going to
give you some big tactics at the end of
this video after I explain why it's so
important why everyone gets it wrong and
so just because in the beginning you
can't see how it's going to scale
doesn't mean it's impossible to scale I
had this girl come up to me at an event
ages ago and she was in the Fitness
World obviously because that's where I
was and she said I do outbound for my my
business and we do $30,000 a month um
but I want to have a more scalable
acquisition system and I was
like why can't you scale outbound and
she was like well I mean it requires
people and I was like welcome to
business
baby like how how do you think you're
going to scale the deliverable if you
had Fitness coaching I was like people
is Fitness coaching unscalable no you
hire and train people welcome to the
service business which is culture and
training that's service that's how it
works and the fact that you don't know
how to do it is what makes it unscalable
not that physics disproves the ability
to scale onboard boing or scale
handwritten cards like unless you can
prove physically that it's impossible
that gravity exists differently in your
world then it's not unscalable
you have a skill deficiency it's unskill
that's what it is it's not unscalable
you are unskilled enough to scale it I
remember when I was in weight loss I
would have a lady who would walk in and
uh and she would say something like hey
uh I don't want to lose too much weight
right or I'd have a guy and this is
probably the more common one they'd say
well I don't want to get I want to look
like you like and I'm like don't worry
you never will but the point is is they
would look at me and say I don't want to
get bulky like you you have too much
muscle I don't think that looks good and
I'm like you know you're not going to
wake up tomorrow and just be jacked as
and have trained for 20 years right
it's not going to happen there's going
to be a million days in between and at
any point you can say I'm just going to
stop here I'm going to try and maintain
but the thing is is that people try and
say that they don't want the extreme
version of a solution so they're not
willing to do take a step in that
direction and so the same thing happens
from a deliverability perspective they
say hey you know what if I do it this
way I'm not going to be able to hit $100
million a year this isn't scalable but
the thing is is that you're not even
making money right now and you're
talking about scale you're talking about
how you're not going to be able to fit
in your clothes and you haven't even
lost weight you're talking about how
you're don't want to look too bulky but
no one even knows you work out right now
because of how you look and so the same
thing in business is that like sure you
think and here's the here's the real
real is that when you start you don't
have context and you don't have
resources so with your current set of
resources the unscalable thing looks
unscalable because you have no help and
you have no money and you have no
leverage but good friend of mine Andy
forella he has first form they do
hundreds of millions of dollars a year
in Revenue when he started the business
he started writing handwritten cards to
every single person who bought their
products now in the beginning you'd be
like you're the owner how could you
write handwritten cards to every single
person that buys the product that's not
scalable Alex but guess what
he still does it today and they get a
zillion orders a minute at this point
but what did he do well in the beginning
he was writing the handwritten cards and
over time he just signed the handwritten
cards and then finally other people were
writing the handwritten cards and the
gesture still held and so the thing is
there's a there's a 2.0 3.0 version that
can still check 80% of the boxes that
you learn from the unscalable solution I
got on the phone this last week with a
recent founder who exited exited a
fintech company for $2.5 billion some of
you guys who saw my story um I've been
trying to talk to people in that space
so if you don't do know somebody in Neo
banking uh payer processing uh who had a
big exit uh please hit me up I'm trying
to learn some stuff uh for one of our
portfolio companies but anyways he was
saying hey it's all about the unscalable
and he and I had this great chule about
this that so many business owners are
unwilling to do the heavy hard work the
one1 calls the talking to customers in
the beginning because they say it's not
scalable but there's always a version
that presents itself two three steps
down the road because you have the money
and the skill to be able to say hey what
are the key components of this of this
thing that can make it scalable and so I
would encourage you if you're starting
the business and let's say you're
selling because I'm obviously in the
school Community right and so I see
people who are trying to sell a a $20 a
month community and they're like well I
don't want to hop on the phone for a $20
month sale also first off guess what
genius I was in the the large Fitness
World brick and mortar what do you think
gym memberships sell at do you think
they have a person selling it at the
front desk sure as they do guess
who it isn't the owner and they can
still scale that process and so again
the idea that things aren't scalable is
ridiculous now sure you're not going to
be able to take 20 calls a day in the be
you know at scale but you're currently
making
zero so what the are you doing all
day you can't be busy and broke pick one
right you're either busy and you're
making money because you're doing the
right stuff or you're broke but you got
plenty of time like you can't have both
problems and so if you're broke get busy
and do some of the unscalable stuff and
that means hopping on the calls with
customers that are below your ticket
price but guess what that happens is
that you're learning more from them then
you are earning from them and that's
okay because you're going to learn the
pain points they're suffering from
you're going to learn the the hooks in
the messaging that matter most to them
you're going to learn how to alter your
product and your offer in a way that
makes it convert at a higher percentage
you're going to learn The Things They
Don't Care by the way you want have two
magic questions here's some Pro tips for
you the first thing you ask a customer
is you say hey if I were to eliminate
all of the things that I have in my
feature set except for one what would it
be and they'll tell you and if you ask
100 people you'll get by far a power
ranking for what matters most in terms
of value for the core deliverables you
have now you can also ask the second the
inverted version of that question which
is hey if I were to eliminate one thing
from my entire feature set and it
changed nothing about your life which
one would it be and you also get the
least valuable thing and between both
those elements and if you do this on a
regular basis you continue to cut and
trim and distill down the value they
provide to the most amount of people by
simply asking them and so I think Paul
Graham said this and I believe this and
I keep repeating it because I think it's
so important is that you can solve every
question and every problem in business
by talking to your customer more you
have a marketing problem talk to your
customer you have a product problem talk
to your customer like they know what
they want and they will tell you how to
address them and how to advertise to
them and so getting on the phone and
doing the quote unscalable writing the
handwritten card onboarding every
customer even though it's $10 a month
that they're paying guess what happens
when you on board those customers I'll
bet you they're going to stay longer
I'll bet you they refer more people and
you're going to be able to make the
product better and the marketing better
and so even if you do that now let's say
okay Alex oh my God I followed your
advice and now I'm taking 20 calls a day
well guess what now you're making money
and I don't give a but if you're
still like hey I want to make more money
fine I'll give you the next step so when
you go from 101 you go to semi-private
you do one on six right you can still
deliver a close to that experience but
you 6X your output so instead of talking
to 20 people a day you talk to 120
people a day now if you're like wow 20
people a day that sounds like a lot
guess how Alex learned sales I did 4,101
closes not consults closes over a
multi-year period for my gyms why
because I had appointments back to back
to back to back to back and I had two to
three people that were scheduled for
every 30 minutes and so that accounted
for show rate so that no matter what I
always had one to three people who were
showing up every 30 minutes that I
pitched the exact same thing to and
guess what happened I got pretty good at
sales the amount of people who asked me
hey what sales training did you go to I
didn't I went through the unscalable
sales training of actually just selling
a lot of people and so the idea is that
you are going to learn more then you are
going to earn in the beginning and that
is okay because as long as you see
entrepreneurship as a continual journey
of educating educating yourself on your
customer the problems that you're trying
to solve for them why would you not want
to FastTrack that and jam as much of
that as you possibly could from the best
possible teacher that is in the
marketplace which is the market
itself and so I get passionate about
this because I see so many poor people
trying to think that they're thinking
like rich people when they're really
thinking like poor people CU they're
trying to be broke and not
busy so get busy talk to the customers
even if they pay you 10 bucks a month
you'll learn more and then guess what
happens after you do one on six you do
group onboarding you do one on 20 you do
one on 30 and guess what you can do from
there we have a company right now that
still does that did group onboarding and
scale to 100 million plus a year all
right and we still did it because we
knew the onboarding was such an
important Pro part of the process for
sitting expectations telling them what
was going to happen next
keep setting promises and keeping
promises over and over and over again
and so if you have one on 30 fine guess
what you can still do six those do 180
people a day with just one person and if
you train somebody and what happens like
let's really think through this in the
beginning you do the one-on ones okay
now in the beginning you're just
answering questions over time you say
Okay most people have these same six
questions and so then I'm going to
create a little presentation around
these six questions and so then you
start using the presentation in the one
ones and you're like you know what I
think I can do this a little bit faster
and so you get the one-on six there and
you have the presentation and you're
still seeing the same output with the
one on6 as you were with the one-on-one
fantastic now what do you do you see can
I get to 30 and you do 30 and then you
5x again your 6X output and again now
you're like huh I wonder if I can teach
somebody else to go through the same
deck as me and you know what you do and
just like that you scaled the
unscalable real quick if you're tired of
being broke and would rather be busy
join me at the school game so school.com
games I take a call every every weekend
there I'll help you build your business
step by step we we have once a month a
mastermind that I drop in there of all
the people who fly out from the top 10
communities that are making money online
right now and we break down all the tax
that they're doing right now so that you
can use them too and so the reason that
you have to do the unscalable stuff is
that there's a swamp in business where
you don't have enough money to pay
somebody else but you still have to do
your day job and the next job and so you
just have to work overtime and that
means you work today's job and
tomorrow's job so that you can get ahead
and so the thing is is that every single
business hear me out every single
business incurs debt so the question is
what type of debt do you want to incur
so a venture back company incurs
financial debt so that they can H lots
of talent upfront they can get really
smart people and pay them where they
should be paid at Market rates now if
you don't have that money to pay all
those good people guess what kind of
debt you incur management debt because
you don't have the right people because
you can't afford to pay them and when
you have management debt what does that
mean it means that you have to work the
job of two three four people and that's
what makes it quote unscalable but you
have to go through that swamp in order
to get to the other side and one of the
big problems is that people look 10
steps ahead and then project that back
to the present it's the same thing as
saying Hey I want to uh get rich so I'm
going to go start flying private it's
like Warren Buffett wasn't flying
private to get rich he has done that as
a result of being rich it's not the path
that got him there it is the outcome of
being there and this is actually one of
the big issues I see at large with a lot
of the uh information that gets put out
there is that what happens is people
grind and they sacrifice a T and then
they get rich and then they have a
different Demand on their time and then
they extrapolate and they give advice of
their current setting to people who are
not in their current context which is
try why I try to spend a lot of time
with people who are making their first
10K first 100K first million dollar a
month so I can I can remember what it's
like to be at each of those levels so
that can make sure that what I'm saying
is contextual to the current constraint
of the business that you're in and I'll
give you a super tactical example of
this in companies that we still to this
day who do tens and hundreds of millions
of dollars in revenue is that I know
just just like you do if I get a green
textt that clearly is from a you know a
chat interface for a sales rep or an
automation I'm way less likely to
respond if I get an iMessage I'm an
Apple user and so I know that this is a
real person on the other side and so
what do you think I have our sales teams
do do we use the interface or do we do
the unscalable yes guess what we send a
personalized voice note we send a
personalized video we send it via
iMessage from a personal phone now does
it mean that they have to have a
personal phone no I don't need use their
phone I can buy them an iPhone again
there's leverage there's leverage in the
beginning you're like what am I going to
do buy everyone an iPhone well
eventually yes but in the beginning you
don't have money and that's okay but you
think that something isn't scalable
because you don't have the context from
which to scale it but if you had
unlimited money and unlimited Talent you
absolutely could scale it and so just
don't use that as the excuse to not do
the thing that you know would work
better because you have to be more
efficient per lead per opportunity when
you're small and so you have to pull out
all the stops Gary Halper has this
amazing story about this he says
whenever I want to write a sales letter
I imagine that I can only write one
letter for my life or I'm going to die
and so he says if I he starts with that
hypothetical Max saying if that's what I
had to do what would I do he's like well
first I would have a handwritten
envelope that I'd handr write the name
on it I'd have a stamp that I would lick
and put on it on the inside would be a
handwritten letter from me and then the
words themselves would be all these
things and I'd have some lumpy thing in
there and he starts at the hypothetical
extreme because if you only have enough
money to send a 100 letters then
handr write all of them right now over
time you're like okay this worked how do
I scale it but guess what now you've got
the sales from you writing a 100 letters
and guess what you have the skill of
writing a 100 of those letters and all
of a sudden you start develop a system
for how you write those letters and you
expand your capacity to 500 letters and
you 5x your income and you're like okay
now what are the elements that of my
unscalable solution that had the highest
effect or impact on the throughput well
80% of the stuff uh didn't have as much
of the impact this 20 % did I can use
cash from my earlier less scalable thing
to create more leverage in the more
scalable thing and get 80% of the effect
and 10 times the output so it still
makes sense and so you always are going
to lose efficiency at scale but the
question is in the beginning start with
the absolute most efficient process and
this is fundamentally the opportunity
for all starting or smaller businesses
when I say small business I'm saying 10
million and under all right so don't get
your get your ego all up like I'm a
seven figure ENT I don't give a the
point is is that you're not you're not
Apple you're not A3 trillion company
you're not Microsoft right so you can do
things that they can't that is the
advantage of the small business and that
is why there will always be small
businesses because they can do things
that big businesses can't because they
don't scale but the fact that they don't
scale 100% is 100% your opportunity to
beat them if you're not doing this it's
like getting dealt pocket aces and then
choosing to fold because you're saying I
can't have pocket aces on every single
turn because my next turn I might not
get it and so I have to not use them now
you have them in this chapter so use
them use what you've got the first rule
of Entrepreneurship use what you have
and if you have an advantage if you're
the small fish then that's the advantage
you play now become a midf fish then you
have other advantages you have resources
you have a little bit of reputation and
you use those resources to leverage up
so now that I've talked about scaling
the unscalable hopefully you're sold on
that concept there's two Frameworks that
I introduce you one is the sales to
delivery Continuum and understanding the
dynamic between both polls and secondly
the done for you done with you do it
yourself pyramid so the first thing is
is understanding something that I called
in uh the offers book the sales to
fulfillment Continuum and basically the
sales to fulfillment Continuum states
that the easier something is to sell the
harder it is to fulfill in general now
the only main exception of this is
technology but when it comes to Services
uh it's usually if it's really easy to
sell it means hey I'll do everything for
you no matter what very easy to sell
very easy to make that promise very hard
to deliver on that promise now the other
side of that is that if I said hey you
have to do it all yourself then that's
something that's very hard to sell uh
but very easy to deliver on and so what
I find interesting is that the vast
majority of people who are starting
businesses try to start on the thing
that's the hardest to sell and I think
they have it wrong I think they have it
backwards and in my career I've had
basically the the exact opposite uh
perspective or approach to starting a
business or starting a new product line
and so if you're a business owner I
would think about this when you're
thinking about selling a new product or
starting a new level of service and if
you're someone who's new then this is
going to be starting from zero to
selling the first thing now the second
framework around this the first is the
sales to fulfillment Continuum the
second is the order in which you attack
it and so the way that I recommend doing
this is following what I call you know
like the Tesla Model which is you start
at the top of the pyramid with the most
expensive thing first this is typically
done for you so this is very easy to
sell very hard to fulfill and that's
okay because in the beginning you don't
have that many customers you don't have
that much lead flow and so you want to
maximize the revenue per customer now in
addition to that it also sets you up to
go Downstream later because you will get
the highest percentage of people the
best results with done for you the
difficulty is that it's more difficult
to scale comma and that's okay because
again we're starting out and when you do
this you develop the Sops you develop
the products underneath of that larger
product that allow you to productize the
service that you're ultimately going to
deliver later and so imagine you take on
I'll use an agency as a simple example
here if I took on uh agency clients and
I did everything turned Key Well I'm
going to start developing Sops for lead
maget developing Sops for ads I'm going
start developing Sops for landing pages
and upsell pages and email followup all
of these things are things that I'm
going to have to develop Sops for now
once I have all of these systems in
place guess what happens next you go
from the top of the pyramid to the
second layer of the pyramid which goes
from done for you to done with you now
done with you you can typically charge a
fraction of or less than what you charge
for done for you sometimes a third of
the price a fifth of the price but by
doing that you've productized a great
degree of the service and then you
switch from a service provider to a
Consulting relationship where you're
helping someone do it themselves but
you're still there to assist and so
that's kind of in between the total not
even handholding it's hand doing to hand
holding to No Hands touching right which
is do it yourself at the end and the
thing is is imagine the opposite version
of this a branding perspective you've
positioned yourself you've price
anchored the most expensive version of
your service that has the highest
results with the best customers and so
you already have this strong Association
at the top of the pyramid which then
allows you to go and say Hey listen I
have you know 10 private clients they
all you know pay me $10,000 a month to
do whatever it is and I have a lot of
you guys who are asking me but you don't
necessarily qualify for my Private
Client Service and so I decided to take
all the stuff that I have for my Private
Client Service and make it available to
you and I'll help you walk through the
process that I walk through with them
but instead of me doing it you could do
it for yourself but I will be there
every step of the way and by offering
that you are able to sell 10 times the
amount of people because the amount of
handholding in terms of support that you
have to offer is on10th of you literally
doing it now from there again you say
hey there's a lot of people who know my
private clients they can't necessarily
afford that and they can't afford this
thing but they have they're enterprising
and they want to take things on their
own and so I take all the Sops and stuff
and I will give them to you so you can
just follow along and do it on your own
and that's one10 or you know oneir of
the price of my done with you and so I
prefer the top down approach to the
bottom up approach cuz let's play it the
other way hey I've got this really cheap
thing right that I've been selling to
everybody and I have you know everyone
in their in their and their mother takes
it now I'm going to start helping you
through it now to be fair I don't think
there's anything necessarily wrong with
that it's just that if I had a
preference between which one I would
prefer to build I'm going to have the
least operational uh drag at the top
because I have the fewest number of
customers and then I have more customers
and then I have the most customers and
as I move my way down the pyramid it
gets harder and harder to sell but my
skill in sales improves right because
I'll know the customers I'll talk to
them I'll spend time with them and so my
messaging can improve and get better and
better all right that's what I had
that's my money message of the day is
that scale the unscalable start there
stop being stop being brok and not busy
and uh get busy and you won't be broke
for long and if you like this then I
have a whole video that breaks down all
my business lessons from 13 years in
business which you can watch next
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