Today I’m going to take you through the exact step-by-step system that our top clients are using right now to hunt dream clients and lock in thousands of dollars’ worth of work every single month.
This is something that we’ve been working on for the past 5 years now… and we have continuously honed and refined the process so that no matter where you’re starting from or what you have to work with, if you follow what I teach you today, you’re guaranteed to get results.
We’ve had a client win a $660,000 job in just 5 days…
We’ve had a client win million-dollar contracts with companies like CV services and QM Properties…
And to bring it back down to a smaller scale, we’ve had clients target clients like builders and property managers to bring in an additional $10, $20, even $60,000 dollars’ worth of work every month.
For those who don’t know me, my name is Bayley Peachey, client advisor at Trade Business Accountants, and we help trade and construction business owners scale their profits and cash.
We make these videos because we want you to make a lot of money from them and then our hope is that you’ll apply to work with us to scale that even further, in a lot less time.
So, with that being said, let’s get stuck in!
One of the biggest challenges that exists in business is getting more quality people to know that you exist. And in today’s day and age, there are so many different marketing strategies that you CAN use. The problem is now knowing what strategies you should use.
There’s so much conflicting advice being thrown around, there’s a shit tonne of information online, and just about everyone seems to be a marketing guru trying to promise you the world.
And maybe you’ve experienced this?
I’ve seen some absolute horror stories of people dumping thousands and thousands of dollars every month into Facebook and Google ads or into ‘high performance’ landing pages that really doesn’t get them anywhere…
Or they get all these useless leads that are hours away or tyre-kickers and all you’re really doing is just pissing you’re marketing budget down the drain… when you should be growing your company!
Or maybe you’re stuck working for fussy and demanding clients who always fight you on price… you seem trapped bidding on the same tender lists and you’re just not sure how to get better quality clients?
You’re trying social media, email marketing, flyers, networking groups… just about everything right? But you feel like you’re just taking a stab in the dark trying everything so that maybe just some of it actually pays off.
Either that or you’re just relying on word of mouth which is another problem in itself.
Don’t get me wrong, word of mouth is fantastic, and you definitely want a large portion of your business to be generated by referrals… but the only downside to that is you have no control of your client acquisition.
It’s a bonus, not a strategy.
And I always say, think of it like a free lunch, sure it’s nice when you get one, but can you really rely on it to feed your family?
And so, while it has never been easier to access your dream customers, it’s also never been harder to get their attention.
So, what do you do? What do you actually do to grow your company?
Because if you’re not careful, you can waste a lot of time, energy, and money and not really get yourself anywhere… which can leave you feeling confused or even really frustrated…
Because if you’re anything like me, you don’t necessarily want to know EVERYTHING, you just want to know what works, right?
You need a predictable method that you can rely on to acquire new customers, fill your pipeline with more work, and grow your business on demand.
Well, we refer to this as the dream 100 strategy.
A system that you can use in your business to pursue much higher quality clients, and lock in more and more work on demand, just like clockwork.
We’ve seen some amazing results using this system and it continues to prove itself time and time again…
So, get keen, because if you implement what you learn here today, you could very well double or even triple your business in a matter of months. Let’s dive into how it works…
This is our ‘never go hungry again’ hunting framework…
If you ever need more business and more clients, this is where you need to go.
This is our holy grail.
And we’ve distilled this down to 6 simple steps.
Establish, Identify, Dig, Interrupt, Pursue, Uncover…
This process, as simple as it seems, will outperform just about any other marketing strategy that you’ve probably ever tried within your business… and it’s also going to cost you next to nothing while you do it.
And the best part is, it doesn’t matter what markets you’re in.
Business to consumer, business to business, even business to government… it’s all the same!
This framework still applies.
But for this system to work, and I mean really work, you need to follow it step-by-step… because while a lot of people might do elements of what I’m about to cover, they often miss critical steps along the way and don’t get results.
So, if you want to win, follow this order exactly.
Starting with step one, establish.
Step one: Establish
Step one is simple… we need to establish who it is that you’re going to target.
Who is your dream client?
Who is it that can refer you work on an ongoing basis, and that you would love to work with?
This could be…
- Building managers
- Property managers
- Interior designers
- Builders
- Engineers/design consultants
- Commercial property managers
- Franchises
- Insurance companies
- Aged care facilities
Just to rattle off a few examples and get the ball rolling here…
And if you’re purely a service-based business just wanting more residential customers for example without having to go through a property manager… it’s the same process… you just need a 1-to-many mindset rather than a 1-to-1.
And what I mean by that is simple. There are key, let’s call them ‘influencers’, all throughout your service area that have already worked hard to cultivate an audience of your dream clients.
You need to target these people.
Instead of worrying about trying to acquire 500 new customers, direct your focus to the ONE person who already has 500 of your dream customers, and build THAT relationship...
Because here’s the cool part… if you 10X that effort, your potential pipeline is 5,000 new customers, but your marketing efforts have only been focused on 10 people.
This is why hunting works. Putting your energy into pursuing 10 people to get access to 5,000 potential clients… rather than the overwhelming task of targeting 5,000 people individually.
So, this could be…
Local businesses that are complimentary to yours…
- Any businesses that aren’t in competition with you that serve the same customers
- For example, other trades, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, fridges, cleaners, arborists and landscapers, pool or shed builders, butchers, or really any other local small business
You can find podcasts to jump on…
You can target FB group owners…
- A funny story about this one, I did this personally for Trade Business Accountants and after my first FB message I’d been appointed administrator/admin for a FB group called ‘Plumbing Contractors Forum (AUS)’ with over 6,200 of my dream audience… and it didn’t cost me a cent
Basically, any key influencer with access to your target audience. That’s who you want to target
Our best win from a 1-to-many perspective was with one of our clients pursuing an influencer in the property development space… and by just reaching out through this process they scored access to a whole range of events, speaking opportunities, and even an email list of over 9,000+ active dream clients that he could now market to, FOR FREE, which was just massive for his business.
So, whether it’s a builder for a 1-to-1 approach, or it’s a local business in the hopes of a 1-to-many approach… this is step one. Establish what type of people you’re going to be hunting.
Who do you want to build a working relationship with? Who’s the dream client? Who do you want to get in front of?
Narrow the focus here.
Which then brings us to step two, identify.
Step two: Identify
Now that you know what type of client you’re hunting, it’s time to get clear on exactly who your targets are specifically.
This is where we build our dream 100 list.
In business, you naturally deal with people from all walks of life… the point of this strategy, however, is to go after dream clients. If we’re going to put in effort to go after specific targets, make sure they’re people that you would LOVE to work with… and people who have the potential to bring about massive returns to your company.
That’s why we call it the Dream 100.
So, step 2, what we’re doing is finding all the specific decision makers that you want to go after and gathering their details… so that’s their name, company, role, email, phone number, and their physical work address.
You can get away without the email and you can settle for an office number over a mobile if you have to… but the non-negotiable is the physical address. PO boxes are no good to us, you need a work address…
And as you find all this information, store it in a spreadsheet like this to make life easier.
Aim for at least 50 people here to start with because we’ll focus on hunting 10 people at a time.
Now, full disclosure, this will take a little bit of time and focused effort, and this is probably the most time-consuming part of the entire process… but finding the right targets is also the MOST important part of the process.
We’re not talking about some boring chore; we’re talking about exponentially growing your business… as the business owner and leader of your company… this is your high value task.
So, go through and systematically fill out the spreadsheet… it’s like anything in business, allocate the time and just chip away at it – you’ll get it done a lot faster than you probably think.
We want a lot of targets because the likelihood of you building more relationships, attracting more opportunity, and ultimately scaling your company if we follow this process with literally 100 people is very high, as opposed to us just trying to reach out to 5 people then calling it quits.
As a general rule in business and especially when it comes to marketing, I like to say that generally if you do more, you probably won’t get less…
So, how do we do we built our hit list and get the information we need?
Outside of people and companies you already know of there’s two ways I like to do this:
- Start on LinkedIn
- Then go to Google
That’s the process you want to go through.
LinkedIn is insane for business, believe me, there is no other place you can directly message the CEO of a multibillion-dollar company – it’s just crazy… use their search functions and filter as you need… for example you can search property manager, Sydney… and instantly generate a list of 1,000+ contacts. See where they work, Google their company… and start researching from there… it shouldn’t take you too long to find what you need.
An important point to make here though is that if you’re pursuing premium targets… you need to make sure you come across as a premium contractor.
Because it doesn’t matter how good you are, if your perceived value is low.
People make assumptions, that’s how we operate.
So, this means for new targets, new clients, new anyone, it’s entirely up to your front-end marketing to communicate how good you are.
If you’re not investing in your brand, your image, your logo, website, social media, great uniforms, vehicle wraps and spending money to make sure everything is professional…
Then the ‘high end’ people that everyone likes to say they want to work for won’t give you the time of day because the message that you’re sending is that you’re not on their level.
Premium clients are looking for premium providers.
So, you absolutely have to invest in your image, invest in your brand, and you have to look the part.
So, make sure your marketing is up to scratch based off the people you’re wanting to pursue.
Step three: Dig
This brings us to step three… digging your well before you’re thirsty!
If you want to build a business relationship with someone that’s actually worthwhile, then you have to start it well before you ever ask for anything…
And this is where so many trade business owners go wrong…
The most common mistake that I’m seeing is contractors trying to approach a cold target with a deal that only benefits themselves straight off the bat without any prior relationship.
An easy example of this is property managers… they’ll literally just cold call and ask for work…
But why the hell would a property manager want to give you the time of day? Let alone any work?
They don’t know who you are… they don’t give a shit about you…
It’s like if you drop into an office unannounced and leave a business card behind, chances are that cards being thrown in the bin. They’ve already got plumbers, sparkies, frigies, carpenters or whatever trade… and they don’t give a care about you just because you want them to… they have no idea who you are…
If you’re looking for better results with higher quality targets you dig your well before you’re thirsty.
What this looks like is showing up online and trying your best to establish some form of rolling dialogue so that your targets feel as though they know who you are before you ever ask for work…
You’re trying to become a familiar face… This is going to take things as far as we possibly can from a cold outreach.
- Once again, start on LinkedIn, not everyone is on here but if they are it’s a great place to get some easy wins in… connect with them, open up dialogue, keep it all about them.
- Next you want to follow their business or the company they work for on all your social media accounts…
- Engage with their content publicly (comment on their stuff, like posts, react to stories)
- Message them (something light-hearted like: love the stuff you guys are posting you do great work etc. or I noticed you’re doing xyz, congrats on winning this new project)
Basically, do what you can to start conversation, to get them talking about themselves and what they do, and to open up that dialogue prior to ever asking for anything!
This way, before you try to ‘pitch’ them anything, they likely already know who you are.
And believe me, for most of the people you’re going to be going after… how much engagement do you think they would be getting personally online?
Probably very little…
So, if you follow this step and give it the attention it deserves… and you’re the ONE person engaging with their stuff online – who do you think they’re going to remember every week!!
Who is going to be top of mind…
You’re going to be the ONE contractor consistently showing up, commenting, touching base, reacting, and engaging… but never asking for anything!
How many people do you know spend the time to do this?
They’re going to be thinking, who the hell is this guy… right??
And look… I’ve had people do this to me… and I KNEW what they were doing literally WHILE they were even doing it… and it still worked!
Step four: Interrupt
Which brings us to step four in the framework. Attention.
The most valuable currency in the world right now, is attention.
It’s never been easier to get in front of your dream clients, but it’s also never been harder to get their attention.
People have so much going on in their lives personally and at work and in business… and on top of that, people are constantly clawing for our attention, constantly advertising to us, constantly asking things of us… and it’s making it harder and harder to break through all that noise.
People like builders, property managers, and larger contractors especially would be getting phone calls and emails from trade business owners asking for work all the time… so, you’ve got to stand out from the crowd.
Which is why, in true TBA fashion, we don’t compete for attention, we command it.
What you’re going to do to cut through all of the noise out there, especially online, and send what I call a ‘pattern interrupt’! A lumpy mail package.
In this package you’re going to have:
- A company capability statement
- A sales letter talking all about the targets pain points
- A special offer
- Your guarantee
- A KitKat and/or bag of chocolates
- And a lumpy item with a handwritten sticky note (For example it could be a big torch with a note that says ‘Don’t get caught out in the dark with an unreliable electrician!’)
You chuck all this in, you wrap it up, then you write in a sharpie ‘Private & Confidential’ on the package to add to the intrigue, so your targets almost feel like a kid on Christmas and also hopefully stop any gate keepers from opening the package first.
Now because this is called the dream 100 strategy, the aim is to keep this low cost.
So, when deciding what lumpy mail item you want to run, don’t overthink it and think you need to spend a whole bunch of money… the idea is to keep it light-hearted, a bit cheesy, and really if anything, just get them to smile and have a bit of a laugh.
All up, I really don’t want to see you spending more than $25 dollars per package initially.
For example, a plumber sent 52 packages, got 9 new clients, and locked in 16-20 jobs per month, and it only cost him $687 for the original campaign!
And I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a pretty damn good return on marketing dollars…
Another of our plumbing clients sent just one package to a property manager that cost him $22, it got a massive amount of attention, and she asked him if he could not only service the local properties in the area, but also up to an hour and a half down south… and so he started getting an insane amount of block drain jobs that were all easily $400+ and relining jobs where the gross margin was around 70%! And it cost him $22 to get that relationship…
Another one of our electrical clients picked up 14 property managers in about 2 months.
So, as simple as this process may be, it works!
And what’s awesome about this strategy is that if you were to send 45 packages at $22 a package, that would only set you back $990… even if you only get one client… that’s some of the cheapest marketing you’ll ever do… especially spread across a few months.
So, this is a very, very low-cost strategy.
Now, once we’ve put together our packages, we express post them to our targets.
Which brings us to step five.
Step five: Pursue
No matter how good your lumpy mail package is, it’s only an excuse to call them.
Don’t think that they will ring you simply because you sent them something, it doesn’t work like that… believe me… you need to follow up and pursue the target. And the best part about the package is that it’s just another way to take this further away from a cold call and really, it’s a great ice breaker!
So, once you send a package, you’re going to want to wait 6-7 days before following up so that you leave enough time for the package to be delivered (which you can track), and hopefully, enough time for the targets to open it and go through it.
So, once you wait that time, you then want to follow up!
And make no mistake, this is the most important part of the entire process…
Sometimes people are very disciplined with the first few steps, get really excited, dig their well before they’re thirsty, send the packages, and then completely drop the ball when it comes to following up…
They don’t schedule in a time to do it, they get ‘busy’ and they aren’t disciplined with it.
So, big thing to note here is – make sure you follow up!
And what that’s going to look like is calling each target.
And if you can’t get onto them, send them an email, and then ring the next day…
And keep that process going until you get onto them! People get busy and so silence doesn’t necessarily mean no or not interested.
That example of our client who won a $660,000 job in 5 days, he had to ring 8 times before getting onto someone… so relentless focus and consistency is key.
Because it can be disheartening sometimes when you can’t get onto people, but don’t let that waiver your spirit or commitment to the strategy. Silence doesn’t mean no.
Once on the phone with them, the ultimate goal is to book in an appointment to meet with your target in person, start building a relationship, and toss your hat in the ring.
And that brings us to step six, the final step in our process.
Step six: Uncover
Uncover.
This is where you meet in person, bring them coffee… build rapport and start diving deeper into their pain points and really just uncover how you can best provide value to them.
Again, it’s not asking for work. It’s trying to establish how you’re able to help them win.
Come prepared with some leave behinds like another copy of your capability statement and give it your best shot…
And some bonus info though as well here…
Even if you have a great meeting… you need to be proactive and on the front foot… keep in regular communications and don’t even rule out sending more physical packages… if you’ve found an amazing client but you can’t quite get over the line… send them something every month and follow up… stay in touch and prove to them that you’re serious.
And that’s the overview summary of hunting!
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