5 builders who never spoke to each other

Borrow credibility from the customers you have

Each closed account gives you a better name to drop on the next call, so pick niches tight enough that one signed customer makes you credible to everyone like them. Where you have no reputation yet, go back to past clients and record the results, and instrument new work so the case study can state a number.

The method

1. 01

   Direct sales compound: each account you close gives you a better name to drop on the next call.

2. 02

   Pick niches tight enough that the prospects know each other, so one signed customer in their exact corner makes you credible to the rest.

3. 03

   Selling internationally from a country buyers do not associate with software means the first customers cost more effort, because you are buying trust before you sell anything.

4. 04

   To open a new territory, search your existing customer records for one person there who already trusts you and go and meet them in person.

5. 05

   Go back to former clients and record case study interviews with them, so you have proof of results to market with instead of a list of services.

What it returned

• 3

  A list of 3-5 customers nobody recognises is a hard sell; selling ConvertKit became significantly easier over two years of closing bigger names

• 1967

  Tasked with establishing Blue Ribbon on the East Coast in 1967, Johnson went through his index cards, found a runner he had corresponded with, and turned up at the family's door

• Worked through fitness blogs and men's fashion blogs this way

• RepairDesk sells to repair merchants in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia from Pakistan, and the founder reports prospects being openly sceptical on learning where the company is based.

Sources

• The $122Bn SEO Industry: 32 Success Stories (with Revenue Numbers) for 2024 - Detailed.comGlen Allsopp · detailed.com · Inbound Pursuit – $2M+ in Annual Revenue ($1M+ Profit) · 2023-01-23
• [Coaching: Brad #2] — Niching Down and Using Case Studies + Getting Off Upwork To Find Clients - Double Your FreelancingZach Swinehart · doubleyourfreelancing.com · AI-Generated Summary: · 2023-12-19
• How Jeff Johnson sold Nike's first shoesHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · An impossible task · undated
• Direct Sales for Bootstrapped SaaS Startups: from $1,300 to $725,000 MRRNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · It doesn’t scale · 2017-07-06
• Turning a Personal Problem into a $100k/mo SaaSUsman Butt · failory.com · What were the biggest obstacles you overcame? What were your worst mistakes? · undated