Dan Lok

Richard Branson’s Top 9 Rules For Success

December 3, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Photo credits: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

There are many entrepreneurs that I study and follow. Richard Branson is one of my heroes. Not just because he is a billionaire, but because he is the only entrepreneur in the world who has built 12 different billion-dollar companies in 8 different sectors.

To build one billion-dollar company in one sector is already extremely difficult for a person to accomplish in their lifetime. So, how did Richard Branson build 12 different billion-dollar companies in 8 different sectors?

To accomplish this, he’d have to be an incredibly innovative, intuitive, intelligent entrepreneur. That’s why he’s one of my heroes.

Richard Branson, one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in the world, is worth an estimated $4.9 billion. Branson is a British business magnate, philanthropist, investor and best-selling author. He founded the Virgin Group in the 1970s, which controls more than 400 companies in various sectors. His companies under the Virgin group include successful travel companies, airlines, health clubs, hotels, radio stations, as well as the cell phone company Virgin Mobile.

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Let’s not forget the famous record company Virgin Records, which he sold for a cool $1 billion. He used the money to invest into his billion-dollar airline company, Virgin Atlantic. Branson recently began a cruise line company called Virgin Voyages, which expects to board its first passengers in 2020.

Branson always wanted to be an entrepreneur. His first business venture, at the age of 16, was a magazine he founded called Student. Today, Branson is far too humble about the 12 billion-dollar companies he has founded. In the year 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for “services to entrepreneurship”.

Below are Richard Branson’s top 9 rules for success:

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1. Overcome Obstacles

In a TV interview, Branson once explained that at an early age, he found conventional schoolwork hopeless, and didn’t know at the time that he was dyslexic. Because traditional school seemed hopeless, he decided at a young age that he needed to get out of that environment and carve his own path.

As a student, because Richard Branson had a learning disability, the school system labeled him in a certain way to make his future seem bleak. The school system probably wasn’t telling him, “You’re going to be super successful! You’re going to be a billionaire!”

Branson later said, of overcoming obstacles: “Sometimes, if you see an amazing opportunity, but there is a stubborn obstacle in the way, you have to think creatively to get around it.”

My experience as a young student was similar to Richard Brason’s. When I first came to Canada, I was a C student. I didn’t speak much English, which is probably why I flunked English. What felt worse, was that I didn’t have many friends. I definitely did not have a great report card at school. Considering how successful I am today, would it surprise you to learn that I never graduated from college, either?

C Students – the ones who don’t do well in school – often are the ones who go out there and build mega-successful companies. They often become successful entrepreneurs. And the A students often end up working for the C students.

I didn’t do particularly well in school, and neither did Richard Branson. So, if you’re not an A student, don’t let that stop you. Know that your skills probably can’t be discovered within the walls of a rigid, traditional educational system. If your skills are entrepreneurial, you’ll soon realize that out in the real world, you have high-income skills. Meanwhile, those A students are unhappy at high-income jobs with hostile office politics.

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2. Just Do It

Richard Branson once said in an interview, “To become an entrepreneur is not easy. A lot of people who try to become entrepreneurs fail along the way. Good ones pick them up and try again and try again until they succeed. An entrepreneur simply needs to come up with an idea that will make a positive difference in other people’s lives. And say screw it, let’s do it.”

“Screw it. Let’s do it.” This quote became a famously-shared quote of Branson’s. It’s still one of my favorite Richard Branson quotes.

Being a great entrepreneur isn’t about knowing everything and being able to do everything. You might have a chance for success if you have a good idea, and have good people around you who support you.

Here is my definition of being an entrepreneur: I believe that an entrepreneur is a person with a vision, who orchestrates other people’s time, money, resources and talents to make his or her vision real.

In other words, the best entrepreneurs are the ones who understand the importance of a good team of people behind you, who believe in your vision and want to be part of it.

Having a vision is one thing, but actually doing something to make it come to life is another feat. So, what are you waiting for? Just go for it.

3. Shatter Perceptions like Richard Branson Did

I remember when I was a copywriter, struggling to get clients. At the time, I was young and I had a thick accent. I spoke with average English, so it wasn’t easy to get clients. What could I do to elevate and get myself to that next level, and start seeing success faster? I needed to pay off my debt and support my mom, so I wanted to start succeeding faster.

I talked to some more seasoned, more experienced copywriters. They told me things like, “Dan, you have to pay your dues. You have to write for a lot of people for free, for many years, and then eventually you can charge what we charge, which is about $10,000 per client.”

I decided to ignore conventional wisdom like this. Why? Because I didn’t want to write for free for years, like they were suggesting.

I decided I’m not taking the stairs to success. I’m taking the express elevator.

So, I came up with an idea to fast-track my own success. I put together a product called, “Million Dollar Marketing Secrets of the World’s Greatest Copywriters”. It’s a long title, and it might not be the best title, but I was young – so give me a break.

I interviewed some of the best copywriters in the world to create this product full of their marketing secrets.

There I was, in my one bedroom apartment, living with my mom. I recorded the interviews using a little cassette tape player. Using just my phone – my landline – and I held the phone up to my little cassette tape player. You can laugh, it’s okay.

I was a nobody. But you’d be surprised how many big influencers are willing to provide an interview to just about anyone who actually asks them. About 18 of the biggest marketers and best copywriters agreed to do it. That’s how I was able to put together this product.

When I approached some of the best copywriters and marketers on the planet, nobody said no to me. Nobody questioned me. Especially if I name-dropped who my last interview was with.

This is branding by association.

I would say, “I interviewed several successful copywriters, and I now have an educational program, and several exclusive interviews with the masters. If you buy my product, you can access all of their secrets for only $3,000.”

I was resourceful enough, clever enough and creative enough to think of the best and most well-known copywriters who others would want to learn from, and call them for an interview.

I built my career from there.

Influencer Tony Robbins would agree that it’s not about having resources, it’s about being resourceful. Interviewing all those people was proof that I was resourceful. This was an early indicator that I was the type of person who would be successful later in life.

Photo credits: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

4. Take Risks

Richard Branson once said in a media interview that he’d be willing to put his house on the line for the next business venture if he believed in it.

Branson also said, “If your dreams don’t scare you they are too small.”

A lot of people think entrepreneurs take crazy risks, and often, they do. Richard Branson takes a lot of risks. He believed your dreams are too small if the idea doesn’t scare you.

I used to take a lot of risks, but now that I’m matured and I’m wiser and more experienced, I now take calculated risks. Before I do anything, I’m not so blinded by my own ego that I’ll put everything on the line. I don’t just look at the upside of the risk anymore, I also look at the downside. Now, I expect the best, but also prepare for the worst.

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5. Be a Good Leader

Richard Branson said, “Never use the ‘I’ word. You’re a team. It’s we’re doing this, we’re doing that. Be a great leader of people.” I like that he reiterates the importance of using the word “we” instead of “I”.

One of the most important qualities of a great entrepreneur, is leadership. Leadership is not easily taught. There are many leadership books out there, and you can learn a lot about leadership from the media as well.

Are you a Game of Thrones fan? I learned a lot about leadership from Jon Snow. Yes, plenty of books and media can teach you about leadership, but it can’t easily be taught. Some people, however, are just natural born leaders.

Great leaders treat their team well, so that their team wants to be loyal and help the company grow.

Richard Branson said, “Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

Branson believed in the importance of a good team, and good people. With team Dan Lok, I feel the same way. It’s not about me. It’s about “us”. The company might use my name, but I only play a part in team Dan Lok. Everyone else on my team plays an important role as well.

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6. Be Good With People

Richard Branson once explained, “The absolute key, is how good you are with people. If you genuinely care about people, and surround yourself with people who are genuinely excited about what you’re doing, and you draw out the best in people. If you inspire your people and praise your people, not being critical of your people.”

This is easier said than done. Part of being a great leader is being able to inspire others to be great. As a leader, you need to get them to believe in themselves, and show that you believe in them. That’s leadership. That’s how you empower and inspire people.

Richard Branson has always been a people person. Branson said, “My family brought me up to always look for the best in other people. I love people. Love spending time with people. I love learning from people.”

In the early stages of my career, I used to be a control freak. I was a rugged individualist. I mistakenly believed in the expression, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” and, “It’s my way or the highway.” I didn’t trust other people to care like I do, or do something as well as I could do it. That limited my company’s growth.

Now, I have this amazing team, and I count on my people. Each member of my team has their own specific skills, and they’re experts in their field. This means that they can do certain things way better than I could. I know what I’m good at, and now, I only focus on a few core competencies where I excel. I only focus on the things I’m brilliant at (my genius zone) and I delegate the things I’m average at to people on my team who are experts at those things.

7. Think Big and Plan Ahead

Richard Branson said that selling his record company for a billion dollars was a bit like selling his child. It wasn’t an easy decision for him. In a media interview, he said, “People said we were mad for selling the record company and putting the money into an airline. As it turns out, of course, the record industry has collapsed, and the airline industry hasn’t done so bad for us.”

Richard Branson is so humble. He says, “It hasn’t done so bad” when referring to his airline company, when it’s another billion-dollar company. In 2000, Branson received the Tony Jannus Award for his accomplishments in commercial air transportation.

Photo credits: Craig Russell / Shutterstock.com

Branson sold the record company and invested the money into an airline. That was a smart business decision, even though it was extremely difficult for him to let go of his baby, Virgin Records.

The lesson is to be able to see a little further ahead. You want to sell in an up market. You don’t want to sell in a down market. Whatever I’m doing now, what if the technology becomes obsolete? What if consumer behavior changes? What if the needs in the marketplace changes? You need to predict the future, because you don’t want to be reactive when these changes happen. You’ll be better off if you can predict where things will be in a few years from now, and plan ahead.

For my organization, I think of things that could take us out of business or make us obsolete. If I know something is going to disrupt what I’m doing, then I want to be the one that kills my own business and replaces it with a better business. I want to be there first. If anyone is the disruptor, then I want to be the disruptor. I’d like to think three, five or ten years ahead. I want to reinvent my business model and put my old business out of business with a better one.

Blockbuster and Netflix are perfect examples of this. Blockbuster didn’t see how video streaming and the internet would disrupt their business. They didn’t see themselves as being big players in the entertainment business, they simply saw themselves as big players in the video rental business.

If they understood that they were in the entertainment business, and predicted what could disrupt their business. They didn’t predict the changes in how people would consume video content.

Photo credits: m.kru / Shutterstock.com

8. The Secret is Delegating

I remember watching a Richard Branson interview and hearing him explain the importance of delegation. “The art of delegation is one of the key skills any entrepreneur must master,” Branson said. He always said that a great entrepreneur is a great delegator.

He explained that whatever you’re spending all day doing, you need to stop and find someone better than you to replace you. That way, you can use your time to think about the next big thing. You can use your time to be a visionary.

Branson’s theory is that an entrepreneur is held back by trying to be a manager. An entrepreneur is not a manager. Rather, an entrepreneur is someone who is great at conceiving ideas, starting ideas, building ideas and then handing over to really good managers to manage the businesses.

I am not a micromanager, but rather, I am a visionary. I think of ideas, I come up with ideas, but I need implementers and managers to execute my vision. It’s important that I know I’m the creative type. That’s what I’m good at.

Like Richard Brandson said, good entrepreneurs are always thinking about the next big idea, and thinking about where the company’s going, and thinking about what’s next. When they delegate, they have more time to innovate. Elon Musk is another influencer who believed in the power of innovation and creating new ideas.

If you build a great team, and you delegate tasks, that gives you the freedom to spend more of your time thinking of the next big idea.

Photo credits: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

9. Create a Brand That You Can Be Proud Of

Richard Branson has over 350 Virgin brands around the world. Regarding this, he said, “We actually have something we’ve got to protect and nurture. The brand is ultimately what Virgin is all about.” In another interview, he said “We want Virgin to be a company which we can be proud of . . . making a real difference in the world.”

We all have a primary question that drives us everyday. As an employee, that question might be “When is payday?”

For those of your who are entrepreneurs, your primary driving question is “How can I make it better.” We are always looking to come up with a better solution, or find something missing in the marketplace.

As Richard Branson once said, “From my very first day as an entrepreneur, I’ve felt the only mission worth pursuing in business is to make people’s lives better.”

Did you like these rules for success from Richard Branson? If so, check out the Related Posts on rules for success below.

How To Successfully Conduct An Elevator Pitch

October 24, 2019 by Dan Lok

Do you know how to conduct an elevator pitch, if you unexpectedly find yourself face-to-face with a high-ticket client? Imagine that your dream client gets into the same elevator as you, just by chance. It’s your lucky day, because you are alone in an elevator with a powerful decision-maker. This is it. This is your golden opportunity.

You would never want an opportunity like this to go to waste, all because you froze up, didn’t know what to say to them, and didn’t know how to conduct an elevator pitch. When you actually visualize your dream client getting into the same elevator as you, by pure luck, it’s understandable why the concept of the elevator speech is so fundamental.

Remember that ‘luck’ happens when preparation meets opportunity. This expression is attributed to the Roman philosopher Seneca, and reminds us that we create our own luck.

By memorizing an irresistible elevator pitch, you’re ensuring that the opportunity won’t go to waste. You’re ensuring that bumping into an influential person in an elevator will be lucky, rather than a tragic, lost opportunity.

What Exactly is an Elevator Pitch?

An elevator pitch is a short description of an idea, product, service or company that explains the concept in a clear and concise way, so that the listener can understand it in a short period of time. A captivating elevator speech should entice the listener by overviewing a problem they have and do not want, or a result they want, but have not yet achieved.

Short and sweet, elevator pitches are nothing if not persuasive. In essence, an elevator pitch is a compelling summary or overview of your offer. Think of your elevator pitch as the most important bullet points of your sales pitch.

An elevator pitch is a short and compelling summary of your offer. Think of your elevator pitch as the most important bullet points of your sales pitch. Click To Tweet

The original term stemmed from actual sales pitches taking place in elevators, back when catching a Hollywood executive in an elevator was a golden opportunity for the likes of a hopeful screenwriter. Today, the term is used for any sales pitch delivered quickly, concisely and effectively.

A common myth is that elevator pitches must be only 30 – 60 seconds long. An elevator pitch doesn’t actually have to be quite that short. However, it’s certainly not a bad idea to have a 60 second version memorized – just in case you just happen to ride the elevator with a top executive.

Is it possible to have an impact on someone in under 60 seconds? Absolutely. You can be remembered by someone based on a short and compelling elevator pitch.

Where Did the Term “Elevator Pitch” Come From?

It’s popular belief that the term “elevator pitch” comes from the studio days of Hollywood, when aspiring screenwriters knew they might catch an unsuspecting Hollywood executive on an elevator ride. There, with the decision-maker trapped within the confines of an elevator, the screenwriter would quickly pitch their idea during a 30 second elevator ride, hoping to make an impression in a very limited amount of time.

There are, however, other origin stories for the elevator pitch. One commonly-known origin story is that of Ilene Rosenzweig and Michael Caruso, two Vanity Fair journalists in the ’90s. Caruso was a senior editor at Vanity Fair and, according to Rosenzweig, he was always attempting to pitch story ideas to the Editor-In-Chief. However, he could never pin her down long enough to pitch her, because she was so busy. In order to pitch his story ideas, Caruso would join the Editor-In-Chief during her elevator rides. This was one of the few occasions where she would actually listen to him. Thus, the concept of an elevator pitch was created.

Essentially, the concept of an elevator pitch originated because high-level executives at companies (the decision-makers who you want to pitch yourself to) are notoriously tight on time. There may not be many opportunities to get their time or attention, but an elevator ride is a window of opportunity. Pitching a busy executive during an elevator ride is a wise way of finding the time to deliver your pitch.

It Might Not Happen in an Elevator

You need an elevator pitch ready at all times. You literally never know where you’re going to meet your next high-ticket client. It could be in an elevator, but of course elevator pitches don’t always take place in elevators. It could happen at a networking event, it could happen on a train, you might meet a prospect at an open-bar mixer before a conference, or you could even meet your next client in line at Starbucks.

Imagine for a moment that you’re in line at Starbucks. It’s the morning rush. Two businessmen are behind you in the line-up. You can’t help but overhear them discussing their need for an excellent SEO copywriter. You just happen to be an SEO copywriter. That just so happens to be your high income skill. You can turn around, tell those businessmen that you couldn’t help overhearing, and pitch them on why they should hire you. But if you’re going to pitch them, you’d better have a solid elevator pitch memorized.

The Modern Day Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is not a new concept, yet it’s still relevant and widely used. The reason the term “elevator pitch” is still used today, is because it’s important to have a very short version of your sales pitch memorized, in case you’re lucky enough to get even just one minute of an important executive’s time.

Because the short version of your sales pitch should not be much longer than the average elevator ride, the term “elevator pitch” has stuck around, and is used when referring to the quick version of your pitch.

This type of quick sales speech is not only used by modern business people and high-ticket closers, it’s also used in interviews. When you sell yourself in an interview, that is essentially an elevator pitch about yourself. An elevator pitch for an interview is a short sales pitch on why you’re the best candidate for the job.

Today’s elevator pitches are also used by students. If you are a student networking at a career fair, you might memorize a short “elevator pitch” that provides an overview of your skills, experience, passions and goals. That way, a company’s representative will be more likely to remember you, and put you in touch with HR.

Generally speaking, a modern elevator pitch is a condensed version of a sales pitch, used by entrepreneurs and people in business, with the object of obtaining a longer sales meeting.

An elevator pitch is a condensed version of one's sales pitch, with the object of obtaining a longer sales meeting. Click To Tweet

In her book Small Message, Big Impact: The Elevator Speech Effect, Terri L. Sjodin explains how an elevator ride is a metaphor for an unexpected window of opportunity where one does not have much time to act. In her book, Sjodin explains,

An elevator ride is a metaphor for unexpected access to someone you want to sell on some idea, project or initiative.

An elevator ride is a metaphor for an unexpected window of opportunity. Click To Tweet

The Difference Between an Elevator Pitch and a Sales Pitch

Yes, an elevator pitch is a form of sales pitch, but there are key differences between the two. A sales pitch typically occurs when a lead has expressed interest and agreed to a meeting to hear more about your offer. An elevator pitch is the short and compelling introduction of your offer that gets a prospect interested.

It is often because of an impressive elevator pitch, that a prospect agrees to a sales meeting where you will deliver a more in-depth sales pitch. While elevator pitches are more casual and conversational, a sales pitch is typically longer and more formal.

The Anatomy of a Great Elevator Pitch

A successful elevator pitch will be short, clear, direct, and uncomplicated. The message should be extremely clear, as should the value proposition. What makes you different or better than other options out there? Below is the anatomy of a great elevator pitch:

1. The Hook: The hook draws the listener in, and should happen right away, within the first sentence or two of your elevator pitch. The hook can be a question, such as “Have you ever wondered how certain businesses similar to yours have two, three, or four times as many social media followers as you, even though they haven’t been around as long as you?”

2. The Problem: The goal is to lay out a common problem that you have a solution for, hoping that the listener will resonate with this problem because it’s one they are currently experiencing.

3. The Value Proposition: Your value proposition, or your USP (unique selling point) is a clear explanation of how your product or service solves the problem in a unique or better way. You need to be certain of the specific value you offer. If you have a special skill, know how to explain why your unique skill is so valuable. What is your superpower? If you have a special, highly sought-after skill, then build your pitch around that.

4. The Benefits: In one or two sentences, briefly lay out the benefits that come with solving this problem. For example, you could briefly provide some statistics on how social media followers convert to customers.

5. The Foot in the Door: Don’t forget to ask for their contact information so that you can schedule a meeting to discuss your offer in more detail. Remember to end your elevator pitch with your foot in the door. You could say something like, “Since you’re interested, why don’t we schedule a meeting?” Another option is to ask them a question it’d be hard to say no to, such as, “I’d love to rewrite one of your ads for free, just to show you what I can do. How does that sound?” In general, the goal of every elevator pitch should be to set up a time to talk in more detail, and to get the contact information of the person you pitch.

Other Key Components of a Successful Elevator Pitch

What are some other qualities of a successful elevator pitch? For one thing, you need to know how to properly introduce yourself. You’ll start by introducing yourself, with your full name. Then, provide some brief background. Say something like, “I’ve been an SEO copywriter for 10 years.”

Ask questions. You don’t want to talk at someone. Elevator pitches should have a conversational, informal, and easy-going feel to them. Be sure to sound natural, not scripted.

Building rapport within a short pitch can be achieved various ways, for example through compliments. Compliment them with comments such as, “I am a huge fan of your brand” or even, “That’s a great suit you have on.”

Elevator pitches are best delivered in person. Most people want to hire someone they like and have met in person. Hiring a faceless candidate who submitted a resume online is less ideal.

Enunciate your words and speak slowly, because they are hearing your offer for the first time. That means you can’t talk too fast, as you have to give them a chance to process what you are saying.

It’s key that both your verbal and non-verbal communication skills are on point. Why does this matter? Because it’s not just what you say in an elevator pitch that matters. It also matters how you deliver the pitch. Your tone of voice should be strong, upbeat and confident during an elevator pitch. A stand-up comedian could deliver the exact same joke to two different audiences in two different ways, and only make one of those audiences laugh. It’s all in the delivery. If you have personality in your voice, people will pay more attention. If you speak in monotone and you don’t sound upbeat or excited, people will tone you out. Now, let’s discuss non-verbal communication.

Body Language: What You Need to Know About Non-Verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication such as your body language, can make a world of difference in how your elevator pitch is received.

Body language is a strong indicator of one’s confidence. If you stand up straight, stand tall, and stand with good posture, you’ll appear more confident during your elevator pitch. Why does this matter? Because if you don’t seem confident in yourself, your prospect won’t be inclined to feel confident about you, either.

Don’t forget about other non-verbal cues that improve your overall delivery, such as eye contact, hand gestures, and a nice big smile.

Your eye movements matter, too. Looking downwards or off to the side reflects low self-confidence. That’s why your best bet is to maintain eye contact during the delivery of your pitch.

Many people argue that non-verbal communication such as one’s body language, is even more important than verbal communication.

Albert Mehrabian, who was a Psychology professor at the University of California, was known for his extensive research on non-verbal communication and its importance. In his popular book Silent Messages, Mehrabian concluded that prospects base their assessments of credibility on factors other than the words spoken verbally by the salesperson.

Build Your Pitch Around a Niche Area of Focus

The more narrow or niche your area of focus is, the more unique your service is. This is a good thing. People are more likely to remember you and the service you provide, if it’s very niche, and narrow in focus.

Many people mistakenly think they will miss out on opportunities and lose clients by being too narrow. But it’s actually the opposite. Being narrow positions you as an expert. They will have that “ah hah!” moment feeling that you offer exactly what they’re looking for. And when that happens, price is not typically an issue.

Let’s imagine a relationship coach’s elevator pitch as an example. A relationship coach who says “I help people solve their relationship problems” won’t get very many clients. But if they say, “I help married couples on the brink of divorce save their marriage and rediscover their love for each other”, they will get more clients. Being an expert on one specific thing holds tremendous marketing power.

How to Memorize Your Elevator Speech

Practice, practice, practice. Rehearse your elevator pitch to friends, family, or by yourself in front of your mirror. Repetition is how you memorize a speech. Practicing it out loud helps you memorize it, too. While you practice your elevator speech, you can also change it, modify it, and continue to test it out. Just like a stand-up comedian tests his jokes in front of a live audience to see which jokes get the most laughs, you can test different versions of it with friends.

When you set out to memorize an elevator pitch, you’ll first need to write it out. How long should an elevator pitch be, on paper? It should definitely be less than one page long. Aim for about half a page, or a maximum of 250 words.

While you’re rehearsing your speech, get some feedback from friends and family about your non-verbal and verbal communication skills. Since elevator speeches are a form of public speaking, ask yourself if you are confident when it comes to public speaking. If not, continue to practice your elevator pitch on real people, so that you can get used to the idea of public speaking. Since your elevator pitch won’t always be delivered to just one person, and can sometimes be delivered to a group of people, it’s crucial that you develop some public speaking skills.

Elevator Pitch Mastery

A great elevator pitch is a key component of a first impression. Introducing yourself at a business event could lead into an opportunity to deliver an elevator speech to a powerful decision-maker. How can you become a master at conversation, so that when you conduct an elevator pitch, you’ll successfully make a great impression? My Perfect Closing Script is a great resource to use when crafting a compelling elevator pitch. By reading my exclusive Perfect Closing Script first, you’ll have an easier time when you write and memorize your perfect elevator pitch.

The Fastest Way to Build a Superstar Copywriting Team

October 5, 2019 by Dan Lok

If you have finally realized that you need a superstar copywriting team in order for your business to succeed, I want to congratulate you. Understanding how important it is to put together a talented copywriting team is a step in the right direction.

Poorly written marketing copy and website copy will silently destroy your business if you don’t do something about it. What you must do, is put together a team of talented copywriters. Copywriters know how to close in print, and a superstar copywriting team can help grow your business fast.

If you’ve become wise to the fact that hiring skilled copywriters can lead to increased sales, then you’re probably motivated to build a superstar copywriting team. My guess is that you want to build this team as soon as possible, so that your business can start seeing results as soon as possible, right?

If you’re an entrepreneur or business owner looking to scale your business, you’ll want talented copywriters in your corner. Your business is in the best possible position when you’ve secured the loyalty of talented, skilled individuals who specialize in particular skills. That’s why when you hire a copywriting team, you should look for individuals who specialize in copywriting. In other words, seek out the experts.

So how do you build a superstar copywriting team? And what’s the fastest and most effective way to put together this team? I’m going to give you some tips that you should read before you start putting together your copywriting team. However, I’m going to start by emphasizing some of the most important reasons why your business needs talented copywriters.

Why You Need To Hire a Copywriting Team

You can tell your customers why they should buy your product or service until you’re blue in the face, but only copywriters can do this the right way. A talented copywriter will understand your key message and your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and communicate it in a way that persuades the reader to take action. The best copywriters know how to speak your customers’ language, and can write copy using the lingo and emotional triggers that influence your target market. They’ll write copy that pushes all the right buttons.

It’s not uncommon for a business to pay a talented copywriter $5,000 for a project, and find that the copy they paid $5,000 for generated $100,000 in additional sales. That’s why hiring copywriters is typically a worthwhile investment for your business.

Copywriters understand that it’s their job to make you more money. It’s their job to write copy that results in more sales, more revenue, and more growth for your business.

Now, let’s get into some of my best tips for quickly building a superstar copywriting team.

Tip #1: You Get What You Pay For

The best copywriters charge high prices because they can. They have made a lot of businesses a lot of money with their skills, and they are well aware of their worth. If you can’t afford to hire the best-of-the-best, that’s okay, but don’t hire the cheapest copywriters either. Remember that you get what you pay for. Remember what your goals are. If your goal is to hire copywriters to write copy that converts, and your goal is to increase sales, don’t expect the $10/hour copywriters to achieve this for you.

SEO copywriters, for example, charge more money – but it’s worth the extra money. SEO (search engine optimization) is a specific skill that requires extra training. It requires knowledge of Google algorithms and SEO practices. Copywriters who are well-trained in SEO will write copy with strategic keyword placement, resulting in more search engine visibility, and therefore more views. More views means more potential buyers. The value of this is beyond any extra cost associated with it. That’s why paying extra for a copywriter who excels at SEO is worth the money.

Warren Buffet said, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” When hiring copywriters, think about the value – not the price. The value you get is much more important than the price you pay.

Photo credits: Mark Reinstein / Shutterstock.com

Buffet also said, “Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing” and believe me, it’s risky to hire a copywriter who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Tip #2: Ask About Their Research Practices Before Hiring

Ask any star copywriter, and they’ll tell you that doing proper research is integral to writing great sales copy. So, when you’re interviewing copywriting candidates, ask them what their research formula is.

Research skills are crucial for copywriters, because it’s their job to understand your target market and your ideal customer. It’s their job to learn the lingo, trends, and principle emotions of your ideal customer.

Superstar copywriters don’t just research your target market, though. They also research you, your business, your brand, and whatever it is that they’re selling. They seek to understand the product or service they are selling and its unique selling points, so that they can build a story around it and sell it to the best of their ability. Superstar copywriters will familiarize themselves with your industry, business, brand, product, target market and competitors.

Tip #3: Assign a Trial Project

Many of you probably don’t want to hire a copywriter without seeing what they can do first. Assign them a trial project so that you can see how they write. Think of this as their “audition” for a long-term copywriting job. Of course this trial project should be paid, since the copywriter will have to do research and spend time writing the copy.

Before you assign a trial project, figure out what your needs are. If what you really need is someone competent in direct-response copywriting for landing pages, then there’s no point assigning Facebook ad copy as the trial project. The trial project is most effective when it helps confirm that the copywriter possesses the specific skill you are looking for. So, it should be tailored to whatever your current needs are, instead of being random.

Tip #4: Have Each Team Member Focus on Their Unique Talent

One of the smartest things you can do when building a superstar copywriting team is honing in on each individual copywriter’s core talents. What I mean by this is, figuring out the specific talent or niche area of expertise each copywriter on your team is best used for. For example, perhaps one copywriter on your team is great at writing Facebook ads, while another copywriter on your team is great at writing email sales letters. If you focus their training, responsibilities and assignments on one or two specific types of copy, do you know what will happen? You’ll watch in awe as they excel within their areas of expertise. They’ll become masters at writing the specific type of copy you’ve encouraged them to focus on, and their copy will start to perform better and better.

It’s important to recognize which team members excel at which types of copywriting. Writing for social media, for example, is a special skill not every copywriter possesses. The restricted character limit on social media platforms such as Twitter, requires a talent to be able to write enticing, clickable content, within the character limit. By recognizing which copywriters on your team possess certain specific skills, and encouraging them to focus on what they’re gifted at, you’re well on your way to building a superstar copywriting team.

Tip #5: Hire a Copy Editor as Part of Your Copywriting Team

Some business owners make the mistake of thinking that if they hire expert copywriters with advanced skill sets, they won’t need to hire a copy editor. However, even if you trust your copywriters to produce high-quality copy, you still need a second pair of eyes on it. You need a star copy editor as part of your copywriting team. Below I’ve laid out some examples of the types of editing skills your copy editor should be able to implement:

Proofreading: Checking for grammar, spelling, sentence structure, punctuation and proper capitalization.

Why it’s important: This makes your copy look professional, and helps you establish credibility with your prospects. Proofreading is one of the most important types of editing.

Fact-Checking: Ensuring all facts are accurate, relevant, not outdated and not misrepresented.

Why it’s important: You can lose the respect of your audience if your facts or statistics aren’t accurate and up-to-date.

Editing for SEO: Double-check the copy for appropriate use of keywords, and edit the copy for search engine optimization.

Why it’s important: If you use SEO best practices, your copy will be ranked higher by search engines, and will therefore be seen by more people.

Substantive Editing: Assessing the piece of copy as a whole, ensuring the message is clear. Checking for any inconsistencies in language, tone, and style.

Why it’s important: Until you fully trust your copywriters, it’s important to check for clarity and consistency in their work.

Other types of editing include formatting and link-checking. As you can see, the role of an editor is quite complex, which is why this team member should focus solely on editing – not writing – the copy.

Tip #6: Send Them Through a Training Program

When it comes to training your copywriters, why take on the burden of training them yourself? One thing you can do, is take a master copywriter’s knowledge, and use it for training purposes. Have a master copywriter take what they know, and turn it into a very structured, systematic formula. This formula can help you train your other copywriters.

Make sure to have separate training for separate types of copy. For example, have separate training just on headlines. There should also be specified training for the hook, story messages, sales letters, Facebook ad writing, direct-response landing page copy, etc.

This way, you’ll end up with exactly what you need. You’ll have some copywriters who are very good at landing pages. Some who are great at Facebook ads. Others who are great at email sales letters. The list goes on. Each copywriter will excel within their niche areas of expertise that they’ve been trained on.

When you train copywriters on specific types of copy, what happens? You now have structure. This type of structure works. For example, if you provide advanced training on Facebook ads and product copy for one copywriter who seems to excel in these areas, don’t let them touch anything else. Have them focus entirely on this type of copy. Watch what happens. Copywriters will maximize their potential by narrowing their focus. As their leader, it’s your job to help them narrow their focus on the type of copy they’re best at writing.

You can also have an onboarding process where a training program is involved. Perhaps when you onboard copywriters, you’ll send them through a training program such as my 7-week High-Income Copywriter Certification Program. Once they’ve completed basic training, you can level-up their training to level 2 training, level 3 training, and keep escalating based on the competence of the copywriter.

Tip #7: Keep Upgrading Your Team’s Skill Stacks

You can upgrade the skills of the copywriters on your copywriting team with training programs, seminars, workshops and master classes that focus on relevant and up-to-date skills training. Copywriting is a modern skill that needs to be consistently upgraded and continuously exercised in order to stay current.

You can provide your copywriting team with copywriting exercises, designed for mastering the skill of copywriting. Check out these fantastic copywriting exercises for some ideas. These copywriting exercises could certainly help someone on your team become a better copywriter. You can also send your team members to a modern training program.

Ultimately, proper training allows you to spend less resources and time revising and critiquing the work of your copywriters. Level up their skills and keep them well-trained so that you get higher quality copy, less revisions, and more speed. You do not want that back-and-forth where you have to critique their work, and have them take a second go at it. You want them trained so well, that they get it right the first time, and revisions aren’t necessary.

Summary

Hiring a team of talented copywriters is crucial for the growth of your business. Poorly written marketing copy and website copy will silently destroy your business if you don’t do something about it.

Hiring skilled copywriters can lead to increased sales, because copywriters know how to close in print.

Here are 7 tips for hiring a superstar copywriting team:

Tip #1: You Get What You Pay For. (The value you get is more important than the price you pay.)

Tip #2: Ask About Their Research Practices Before Hiring. (The best copywriters are great at doing proper research on your industry, your company, your brand message, your target market, and your ideal customer.)

Tip #3: Assign a Trial Project. (Let copywriters audition before offering them the job.)

Tip #4: Have Each Team Member Focus on Their Unique Talent. (By narrowing their focus, copywriters will excel in their niche and make you more money.)

Tip #5: Hire a Copy Editor as Part of Your Copywriting Team. (Copy editors are integral to any copywriting team.)

Tip #6: Send Them Through a Training Program. (Let them learn from a master.)

Tip #7: Keep Upgrading Your Team’s Skill Stacks. (Have your copywriting team keep exercising their copywriting muscles by updating their skills.)

Enroll Your Copywriting Team in My 7-Week High-Income Copywriter Certification Program

If you’re motivated to make sure your copywriting team is well-trained and capable of closing in print, enroll your team members in my brand new copywriting training program. My 7-Week High-Income Copywriter Certification Program is valuable even for copywriters who think they already know what it is to be a copywriter. Anyone who enrolls in my program is likely to learn something new and develop better copywriting skills. It’s also a great program for any team members who you’re attempting to transition out of their current role and into a copywriting role. You can’t go wrong with a modern training program taught by a master copywriter.

4 Types of Entrepreneurs: Why Some Have Freedom But Most Still Have A Job

September 18, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

It’s an entrepreneur’s dream: unlimited earning potential, control of your own schedule, and the freedom to choose your own destiny. But the reality is, most entrepreneurs trade in their job for less time and less income and only a few achieve the freedom they wanted. Why is that the case?

Why is it that most entrepreneurs live a reality that’s the exact opposite of their dream?

This is their reality: They’ll agree to meetings with a client at 6:15 in the morning because they desperately need the sale. They don’t want to be homeless and working at a broken desk at a shelter in two months. After struggling for a long time, working as a grocery bagger starts to look luxurious.

It doesn’t make sense. Why do some entrepreneurs have freedom and money while most are still working like they have a job?

To understand this, we need to look at the four levels of business, and the four types of entrepreneurs.

Watch this video about the four types of entrepreneurs.

Technician Tammy: Level 1

The first level is what I call Technician Tammy. A Technician Tammy focuses on survival. As a Technician Tammy, you’re trading hours for dollars. You could be a bookkeeper, a consultant, an accountant, or a lawyer.

You could be making a high income, but at the end of the day, if you stop working, your income stops. In this case, you don’t really have a business, you have a job.

A Technician Tammy frequently says, “I’m exhausted,” or “I need a day off,” or “I don’t want to work on weekends.” Another common saying is, “I haven’t taken a vacation in three years,” because you’re not making enough money.

Life for a Technician Tammy looks like a seesaw. First, you’re working and working, then to tip the balance, you’re chasing the work. When you’ve chased enough work, you’re doing the work. You’re trying to maintain balance by going back and forth, doing one and then the other.

In level one, you’re getting paid for your time and not for results. A lot of entrepreneurs stay at this level and they don’t understand why. But if they evolve, they reach level two, and they become a Manager Michelle.

Manager Michelle: Level 2

As a Manager Michelle you focus on security. The most common thing that a Manager Michelle says is “If you want something done, do it yourself.”

Manager Michelle values independence, doing things her way because she wants things to be done right. A lot of the time, she’s saying that, “I can’t find good people these days. How come they don’t care like I do? I told him a million times how to do it, but he never gets it. They’re so incompetent, these employees.”

I say it’s better to have one percent of a hundred people’s effort than a hundred percent of my own. Delegate!

As a Manager Michelle you’re running a business and you’ve got people working for you or with you, but you’re running in circles. You’re putting out fires.

You’re fixing all the mistakes made by the people that you employ. You think that they work for you but in reality they don’t work for you, you, you work for them. As a Manager Michelle you don’t own a business, your business owns you. As a Technician Tammie, you also don’t have a business, you have a job.

And that’s how 97 percent of entrepreneurs operate. They don’t even understand why their business model doesn’t work. The intention right from the beginning doesn’t work.

When you’re doing the work, or you’re hiring some people, you’re making a little bit of money, but you don’t have freedom. You cannot walk away from your business. If you want to walk away, even for a little bit of time, you need to move to level three.

Owner Olivia: Level 3

A small percentage of entrepreneurs, around three percent, graduate and move up to this level. You have what I call an Owner Olivia.

Owner Olivia focuses on growth. As an Owner Olivia, you’re not doing the work but you have to be physically there in the business. You’re not actually doing the hands-on technical work but you have to monitor the business. There’s a big difference.

The most common things that an Owner Olivia says is this, “How can I empower my team? How can I put some systems in place so my business runs more smoothly? How can I put in a marketing or client attraction system that consistently and predicatively attracts clients to my business?”

There’s a shift in mindset at this level. You’re not just focusing on making more money. You’re thinking more strategically. You want to know that what you’re doing today is going to lead to where you want to go tomorrow.

You identify your goal and then reverse engineer it by identifying what you want to create and what you want the business to look like.

The biggest difference between an Owner Olivia and a Manager Michelle is what happens when they go on vacation. If a Manager Michelle takes a two week vacation, her income drops significantly or when she comes back, her business is a mess.

If an Owner Olivia takes a two week vacation, she will come back and business is just fine. Her income is the same, the revenue is the same, and the employees didn’t even know Olivia was away. That’s the difference. But to achieve complete freedom, you need to reach level four.

Entrepreneur Eva: Level 4

As an Entrepreneur Eva, your focus at level four is freedom.

The most common questions that an Entrepreneur Eva asks are “What’s my next big idea? How can I find someone to run my company? How can I leverage my contacts, my resources, my capital, and get the highest return?”

The mindset and focus aren’t even on the same planet as the other three levels.

As an Entrepreneur Eva you have total leverage and total freedom. You’re not doing the work and you don’t even have to be physically there. People have asked me, “How can you run sixteen companies?”

I tell them “I can because I don’t run sixteen companies.” Every single company has a partner or an operator running it. Management is not my strong suit. I learnt that many years ago. I’m a lousy manager.

I’m a concept guy. I’m a strategic thinker. That’s the highest and best use of my time, and you have to ask yourself the same question. What is the best use of your time?

If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re struggling to make a profit, what I’ve just said may shock you, but it’s a learning process. If you’re a Technician Tammie or Manager Michelle, now you know what you need to do to change your level and gain the freedom you dreamed of when you decided you no longer wanted a job.

Final Thoughts On The 4 Types Of Entrepreneurs

People become entrepreneurs because they want freedom and the ultimate control of their own destiny. Unfortunately, many find themselves trading a 40 hour work week for an 80 hour work week, making even less income.

They don’t have a business, they have another job. Or other business owners have employees but they spend so much time putting out fires that they don’t own their business. Their business owns them. Only three percent of entrepreneurs make it to the top two levels of business.

At levels three and four, their business flourishes even when they aren’t physically there. At level three, entrepreneurs are growing their business. But when they reach level four, they have the freedom that people dream of when they first decided to become an entrepreneur.

What was your reason for becoming an entrepreneur? Comment below.

How To Scale Your Business in 7 Powerful Steps

September 16, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Should you scale your business if you’re ready to increase your profits and revenue stream? Many entrepreneurs and new business owners desire to be the next fast-growing business. They’re ready to get more clients or sell more offers. But too often they don’t have the capacity or the know-how to move to the next level. To move to the next level, first, we need to talk about why you want to scale it.

What To Consider Before You Scale
1. Sell High-Ticket Offers
2. Sell An Offer That Is Infinite
3. Invest In More Lead Flow
4. Hire Skilled High-Ticket Closers
5. Hire Rainmakers That Are Hungry
6. Hire Qualified Closers
7. Have an Offer, a Flow, and an Army of Closers

Some business owners think, “If I want to make more money, I need to scale.” This may or may not be the case. A company can make over 50 million a year, yet have a net that’s less than 100 thousand dollars a year. So bigger is not always better. Better is better.

The point of scaling is to make more profit, but not every business is meant to scale.

What To Consider Before You Scale

Whether you scale your business depends on your goal. You might be happy with a laptop lifestyle, being a digital nomad making a couple hundred thousand a year to be able to travel. If that’s all you want, there’s no need to grow your business.

If you’re scaling just to make more money, that’s not a good enough reason. A better reason is you need more capital so you can have better infrastructure. Or, you want to reach more people and serve more people. Or you need to scale in order to invest in better technology. Those are all good reasons to scale.

If you’re ready to scale, ask yourself these questions. Does there need to be a margin? How many more employees would you need to hire? Would you need a new office? Would you still have the same margin?

If your business is making 50 million and nets 100 thousand a year, and you double that to 100 million, that’s great. Now you’re making 200 thousand net a year. But to get to this next level, how many employees would you need? Would you need more inventory or equipment?

You want gradual growth for your business. The Startup Genome Report’s coverage of premature scaling found that “70 percent of startups scaled too soon in some aspect of their business, directly contributing to their eventual failure.”

70 percent of startups scaled too soon in some aspect of their business, directly contributing to their eventual failure. - Genome Report Click To Tweet

Think about what your margin would be. Your ideal profit margin depends on the type of industry you are in. For example, if you’re in the food service business, you could have a profit margin of 3.8%. If you are an accountant, you could have a profit margin of 19.8%. It doesn’t necessarily mean one business is doing better than the other. One has less overhead, while another may need to rent space and equipment and invest in raw materials.

Watch this video about the steps to scale your business.

To scale your business, you will need three things: a high-ticket offer that is infinite, a steady lead flow, and a team of high-ticket closers.

1. Sell High-Ticket Offers

Most businesses are what I call a one product pony, which limits their ability to scale. They have only got one product that they’re selling for $30. If the product cost the business $5, they’re making a $25 profit per unit. Or, if that’s a $30 product they’re selling through e-commerce, the most that they could invest to acquire a customer is $25 because that’s their profit margin. For each sale that they make, they can spend no more than $25 to acquire a customer because $5 is their cost.

You can only go to so many channels or use so many ways to acquire that particular customer if you’ve only got one product. The customer buys it once and they don’t have to buy it again. That means you have to constantly market and get new customers.

Now let’s take a look at a different scenario. Let’s say you’ve got not one product but a product line or back end products that you sell to the same customer. And instead of selling low ticket, you’re selling high-ticket.

If you’re selling high-ticket items, you’re first selling a $2,000 product, then a $5,000 product and then a $10,000 product to the same customer. In that case, the annual value of a customer is not $25 for a one time sale. It is $10,000. You have a percentage of customers that will first buy the $2,000 product. Later, they buy the $5,000 product, and then the $10,000 product. Hypothetically let’s say that’s the case. Now it’s a very different game.

Instead of spending $25 to acquire a customer, you can spend $500 to $5,000 depending on the lifetime value of the customer. Maybe the lifetime value of a customer who stays with you is 2 to 20 years. The first year I could spend up to $10,000. That gives the business owner an edge over someone who can only spend $25.

2. Sell An Offer That Is Infinite

Another aspect to consider is how easily you can scale your offer. I call that the fulfillment aspect. If you’re selling something that takes a long time to make, like a sofa, or something handmade, it’s going to be difficult to scale. If you’re selling software, it doesn’t matter if you’re selling 1, or 500 or 50,000 of the same product. You can scale the business just like that. I’ll need more customer support and more infrastructure, but the product itself is basically infinite.

Businesses or Offers That Scale

Tech companies using a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model of producing goods and services. With the lack of physical inventory, low operating overhead, and little need for infrastructure, these companies can scale quickly.

Other offers that scale quickly include eBooks, online courses, and paid subscriptions. You do the work once, and have the potential to reach hundreds, thousands, even millions of people.

Rental property is another type of scalable business. It requires more capital, but you receive payments for years after the property is paid for. Downsides include difficult tenants and repair overhead.

Short term rentals such as Airbnb are growing in popularity as a source of income.

Software as a service, eBooks, courses, rental, and Airbnb are scalable. Click To Tweet

Businesses or Offers That Don’t Scale

Businesses which have operating costs tied to an increase in sales are not ideal to scale. For example, a dry cleaning business has natural limitations: location, size of equipment, and proximity of customers. If you want to scale, you will need to open a new location and incur a new set of risks: hiring new employees, hiring a manager (since you can’t be there), investing in new equipment and a new location. And you will never be able to serve over a million people at any given location.

3. Invest In More Lead Flow

One key step to scaling that many entrepreneurs and business owners underestimate is ad spend for marketing. Many of these owners want to go cheap. They want to spend the least amount of money to acquire the customer.

Identify Your Ideal Buyer

That kind of mentality is not effective for a business growth strategy. In order to scale, you need to outspend your competitors. First, identify your ideal buyer and their needs. How do they learn more about what they want to buy? Do they conduct consumer research by reading consumer reviews? Do they read blogs and industry publications? Build a company presence where your buyer does their research.

If my competitors can only spend $200 to acquire a customer and I can spend $2,000, I could go to so many more channels and test so many more traffic sources in order to scale. I could go to Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and many more.

That gives me way more options to scale fast. If my competitor cannot afford to go offline or do any offline marketing when I can, the lifetime value of my customer is high.

How much should you spend to acquire your leads?

The amount you spend depends on your industry. According to a recent benchmarks report, “The media and publishing industries report the lowest cost per lead at $11 to $25. Software, information technology and services, marketing agencies, and financial services companies all report the highest average cost per lead at $51 to $100.”

A company’s ability to reach their revenue goals depends on the number of leads it can generate. In the same survey, “over 70% of companies not achieving their revenue goals generate fewer than 100 leads per month, and only 5% generate more than 2,500 leads per month.”

Your company could be running ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Google to bring in the leads. Then your marketing campaigns and the traffic generate a steady stream of leads. At that point, you are ready to scale up to the next level, to take your focus from marketing to sales. At that point, the next bottleneck to scaling your business will be having enough closers.

To scale your business, invest in leads on social media and other sources.

4. Hire Skilled High-Ticket Closers

At what point when you are scaling your business do you need closers? It depends on the value of your offer. When you’re selling products or services that cost more than $5,000, it’s very difficult to make a sale through a webpage or video. You need someone to get on the phone one-on-one and close that particular prospect. What you’ll need is a high-ticket closer, a salesperson who closes premium value offers.

At this level, sales are consultative, not transactional. With transactional sales, the business is more focused on selling the product, so it could become just a one time purchase for the customer. With consultative sales, the business is more focused on a long term relationship with the customer.

The Role of The Closer

When the prospect is ready to invest in a $5000 offer, they book a call with a closer. The closer builds rapport with the prospect and asks questions to find the prospect’s pain points and challenges, budget and timeline. It is the job of the closer to find out if the offer is the solution to the prospect’s pain points. If the offer is not the solution the prospect needs, then there is no sale.

The closer also asks questions to learn more about the prospect’s budget and timeline. Some prospects may think that a $5000 or $10,000 program is a huge investment. The closer handles the prospect’s objections and answers questions the prospect may have. For example, a $10,000 program may seem like a big investment, but if the prospect can 10x their revenue from $100,000 to $1,000,000 as a result of the program, then they will see the value of the investment.

Most entrepreneurs realize they need closers when they’re scaling their marketing. Click To TweetTheir ad doesn’t increase sales, so they bring someone on to close the sale. If the closer isn’t trained to close high ticket offers, they will struggle to close the deal.

Having a Closing Team

The way to scale quickly is to have access to a group of trained closers who are ready to talk with prospects as soon as you ramp up your marketing and have the leads. If you have enough closers to follow up with the increased lead flow, you don’t have to lower your marketing budget or pause your ad.

You always want to have more than one closer even though you might just need one to scale. This way if one leaves, you have a replacement.

At my company, we have over 100 closers to close our own programs and products, so if one leaves, there are 99 to replace that particular person. That’s how we are able to scale quickly. We have enough skilled closers to close prospects on the phone after they’ve seen our ad or watched our masterclass.

5. Hire Rainmakers That Are Hungry

You’re not going to find good salespeople the traditional way. I’ve gone to sites that run ads. The problem is any salespeople that are looking for a job are not good salespeople. If they were good salespeople they won’t be looking for a job. The best salespeople are already making good money and commissions.

The best salespeople are also hungry. If you hire a salesperson and pay them a base salary and even some kind of bonus, they can’t even close. A good salesperson is like a hunter. They believe that, “You eat what you kill.” A bad salesperson is not hungry. Most of them want safety and security. They become the typical salaried person that isn’t motivated to bring in sales. A good closer needs to be commission based, not on a salary. The more they close, the more sales they make, the more money they make. The sky is the limit for their income. They are even able to sell at a higher price point. If you do find that superstar that is producing a lot of sales, that person becomes your rainmaker.

6. Hire Qualified Closers

After you find closers, how do you know if they are good? One way is to role play with them. Play the prospect and ask them to sell you your product or service. Give the closer different objections and listen to how they handle those objections. Do they sell like a typical salesperson? For consultative sales, they need to sell more like an enrollment coach and not push the sale.

Find out more about their closing philosophy. Do you want them to have a Wolf of Wall Street angle? Do you want them to just get the money? Or do you want them to sell to the customer only if it’s a good fit? You don’t want customers who never want to hear from you again.

Also, while they are closing for you, pay close attention to the sales that they don’t make. Are they pissing off the customers or forcing them to buy something? You don’t want a salesperson who could ruin your reputation and relationship with your customers without your knowing it.

7. Have an Offer, a Flow, and an Army of Closers

If you’re thinking of scaling your business, think of a triangle, because you’ll need three things.

First, you need a scalable offer, an offer you can deliver to massive numbers of people without more infrastructure. Maybe it’s software. Maybe it’s a digital product. It’s something that you can sell to one person or 10,000 people while your work is essentially the same.

Second, you need consistent lead flow. It can be through social media, pay per click or even an infomercial.

Third, you need closers that can close. If you have a scalable offer and steady lead flow, you can add more closers and have 100 to 400 thousand dollars more to your revenue. Next, you can take your profit and reinvest into that lead source so you can scale and get more leads. And then you hire more closers, get more leads, hire more closers. Before you know it, you’ve got a pretty decent sized business.

Summary

Should you scale your business? Some business owners make the mistake of scaling their business as soon as they can to try to maximize their revenue. However, there are many factors to consider before you scale, such as your profit margin.

Businesses that have a high ticket offer that is infinite have a higher chance of scaling successfully. They also invest more into their lead flow.

Once a business has a steady stream of leads, they can hire a team of trained high ticket closers to close deals for them. These highly trained salespeople are like enrollment coaches. They will close the sale only if the prospect is the right fit for the offer.

They are paid by commission only, so everyone wins when an offer is closed. This means the prospect invests in an offer answers their needs, the closer has made a commission, and the business has a sale.

Are you making six figures and you want to take your business to seven figures and beyond? Do you want to take your business to the next level and generate predictable and sustainable ROI every month? Click on this link to find out more.

How To Negotiate A Retainer Fee With A New Client

August 29, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Are you a freelancer or independent contractor who is currently only closing clients on a per-project basis?

Do your clients only pay you once you complete a project, and are they often late paying your invoices?

If so, it’s time to learn how to negotiate a retainer agreement with your clients. I believe that closing clients on a monthly retainer fee is the best business model for freelancers, or anyone trying to succeed in the gig economy.

Closing clients on a monthly retainer fee is the best business model for freelancers, or anyone trying to succeed in the gig economy. Click To Tweet

Retainer contracts are formal, written agreements made between a freelancer, consultant or independent contractor and their client.

A retainer agreement means that the client is agreeing to pay for your services in advance, thus retaining your services.

A retainer fee is a fixed fee that the client agrees to pay based on their anticipated need for your services, and the anticipated volume of work.

The fixed fee is either a single advance payment, a recurring monthly fee, or an annual fee.

The benefit of successfully negotiating a retainer agreement for the freelancer is obvious: Guaranteed, predictable, and consistent income that they can count on.

It’s not just the freelancer who prefers being paid via a retainer fee. Many clients prefer retainers, too. Why? Because it means they’ll secure your services.

Essentially, the client is securing your commitment with a retainer fee.

Your clients are promising advance payment in order to hold your services for a given period of time.

Why would a client want to pay in advance to guarantee your dedication to them? It’s usually because you have a highly sought-after, in-demand skill – or it’s because you’re great at what you do.

If the client perceives your services or your specific skills to be in high demand, they will be motivated to sign a retainer agreement to ensure they don’t lose you to a different client who was willing to sign one.

That’s why people with high income skills are successful at closing retainer contracts.

Should You Propose a Retainer Agreement to New Clients?

If you have a few clients who currently give you steady work each month, it’s completely appropriate to propose a monthly retainer fee. But what about new clients? You might feel nervous asking a new client to sign a retainer agreement.

Freelancers often feel more comfortable proposing retainer agreements to existing clients with whom they’ve already built a good rapport, and clients who already regularly request their services.

It’s these clients who are more likely to see the value of formalizing an agreement and developing a long-term partnership.

New clients, however, might be less likely to agree to retain your services, since they haven’t yet seen how skilled you are.

But is it still possible to convince a new client to sign a retainer agreement? Absolutely.

I’m going to give you a few tips for negotiating a retainer agreement with a new client, as well as some examples of retainer agreements and how they work. But first, let’s discuss some of the main benefits for clients who sign these types of agreements.

Benefits For Clients Who Agree On A Retainer Fee

If you’re going to close a client on signing a retainer agreement, you should be able to articulate the benefits to them. So, what are some of the benefits of retaining your services?

Think of the retainer contract as a down payment for future services. The retainer secures your services, and your loyalty. As I said earlier, this is beneficial if your skills are in high demand.

The retainer secures your services, and your loyalty. Click To Tweet

The benefits for your clients who retain your services are obvious if you really think about it. I want you to imagine that you are a high income copywriter. Copywriting is your gift, and you have therefore decided to pursue a career as a freelance copywriter.

If a potential client knows they’ll be using your services a lot, because they often need sales newsletters written, brochures written, and press releases written, what should that client do?

The answer is obvious: Put you on retainer. This way, they won’t have to contact you to get a quote every time they need something written.

Instead, they can simply pick up the phone, call you, and get you going on writing it for them right away. You’re on retainer, so of course you’ll get going right away, as soon as they need something written up.

It’s easier for you, and it’s also easier for the client.

You can position your monthly retainer as a necessary recurring payment to ensure that the client gets your time, easy access to your services, your dedication and your ongoing loyalty.

For example, if one of their competitors wants to hire you, you’re less likely to be swayed if you’re already on retainer with your client.

You can position your monthly retainer as a necessary recurring payment to ensure that the client gets your time, easy access to your services, your dedication and your ongoing loyalty. Click To Tweet

Preventing talent poaching is a real motivator for clients to sign a formal agreement.

If your client is automatically paying you a monthly retainer fee, you will be much less likely to be poached by one of their competitors.

You can offer your clients extra services that you reserve for your retainer clients, such as a few hours of consulting each month, monitoring services if they have active marketing campaigns that need tracking, media outreach on their behalf, and more.

Your clients will also get the most value from your services if they use them every month on an ongoing basis, and monthly retainer agreements encourage clients to do this.

Benefits For Freelancers Getting Paid Via Retainer

A monthly or annual retainer fee is the ideal way to get paid if you want to succeed in the freelance economy, for many reasons.

First of all, it’s guaranteed income, and it’s often set up as guaranteed steady income.

This reduces the uncertainty when it comes to cash flow, budgeting, and your monthly income.

Additionally, it’ll make your life easier when you no longer have to remember to invoice your clients, and it’s also nice to no longer have to chase clients for payment.

Using retainer agreements as your payment model will help you sleep better at night. It’s a very comfortable and safe position to be in as a freelancer.

Once you start using retainer agreements as your payment model, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without them. You’ll wonder why you didn’t think of this sooner. Click To Tweet

If you used to have a traditional 9-5 job, you probably took for granted the predictability of automatically getting paid every two weeks.

The reality is that most freelancers don’t know when they’re going to get paid for their work. It’s simply not very predictable when you’re a freelancer. But retainer agreements change everything.

With retainer fees in place, predictable payment is a perk the freelancer reclaims.

With a retainer agreement and automated payments in place, you’ll become more motivated to dedicate your time to your clients. It encourages the client not to go dormant on you, and it also encourages you not to go dormant on them.

Financial freedom is the number one benefit of having clients on retainer agreements.

No longer will you have thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices, putting limits on the way you live your life while you wait to get paid.

No longer will you be scrambling to get invoices paid in time for your rent and other fixed monthly expenses to come out of your account.

If you need funds to book a vacation or make a big purchase, you’ll already have those funds available, and you won’t have to wait to get paid first.

Once you have that financial freedom gained from securing a few retainer clients, your life will get much easier, and your business will grow.

Let’s say you have three clients on retainer. All three of them pay you an agreed-upon lump sum on the 1st of each month.

One of them pays you $2,000 per month, one of them pays you $3,000 per month, and one of them pays you $5,000 per month.

You now have $10,000 per month of guaranteed income.

Receiving these lump sum payments each and every month in the form of retainer fees, exactly when you are expecting them, helps you budget and grow your business.

Financial freedom is the number one benefit of having clients on retainer agreements. No longer will you have thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices, putting limits on the way you live your life while you wait to get paid. Click To Tweet

Which Clients are Good Candidates for Retainer Agreements?

If a client will indisputably have an ongoing need for your services, then they’re a great candidate for a retainer agreement.

Your client might have a blog that needs new content on a weekly basis, social media accounts that need daily post, monthly marketing initiatives that need to be written and monitored, or a bi-weekly newsletter that must be compelling and engaging.

Any client who is looking to grow their business, and needs monthly upkeep and monthly services in order to grow their business is a good candidate for a retainer agreement.

As long as the client is willing to set aside a certain budget – a fixed monthly fee – for the purpose of meeting their growth goals, they should be open to paying an ongoing retainer fee.

If a client will indisputably have an ongoing need for your services, then they’re a great candidate for a retainer agreement. Click To Tweet

How To Negotiate a Retainer with New Clients: Why Should They Pre-Pay Before Seeing Results?

With new clients, you’ll have to be able to intelligibly communicate your value in order to convince them to pre-pay before seeing results. Perhaps you have client testimonial videos you can show your new clients, or reference letters from past clients.

It is possible to convince a new client to sign a retainer agreement, but first you’ll have to make your client feel comfortable and confident.

To make your client feel comfortable with this type of payment model, you’ll have to have established some rapport with them first, either via phone conversations or a couple of in-person meetings.

You’ll also have to exude confidence and clearly lay out what your value is. What will you be offering them each month? What will your monthly deliverables be?

A big reason why some clients are willing to pre-pay before seeing results is if your specific set of skills are not only in demand, but also exactly what they’re looking for.

You can explain to a potential client that your services are in high demand, and because of the limited space in your schedule, you’re currently only taking on retainer clients.

Before you try to close a new client on a retainer agreement, take some time to identify what some of their current pain points and challenges are.

From there, you should clearly communicate exactly how your services can help solve these problems, and why.

Types of Services That Would Be Most Efficient Under a Retainer

There are certain freelancers who have an easier time landing retainer clients than others because the service they offer is a type of service that would be most efficient under a retainer agreement. This is typical because it is a service that requires ongoing work or ongoing maintenance.

Social Media Managers, for example, offer a service that requires consistent monthly effort.

A monthly retainer would make sense because they need to post several times per week on their client’s social media pages, monitor social media marketing campaigns, and consistently engage with the community to attract followers.

Content Writers who write for company blogs on a freelance basis could easily get retainer agreements signed since most of their clients require a certain number of blog posts per month on an ongoing basis.

If the client knows their blog needs a set number of posts per month, they won’t mind retaining their writer’s services if that writer consistently produces great content.

Copywriting is another service that typically requires ongoing work each month, and is therefore well-suited for retainer agreements. High income copywriters offer various services that are required on an ongoing basis.

These services include writing advertising copy, press releases, newsletters, direct copy for marketing materials, copy for brochures, and website copy.

Website maintenance services are also required monthly, on an ongoing basis, which is why many clients wouldn’t argue that it would make sense to retain the services of their website specialist.

Web developers often are retained in case emergency website services are required to quickly get their client’s website back up and running, or to fix website issues quickly.

Those are just a few examples of services that work well on retainer.

How Much Should a Retainer Fee Be?

How much is a retainer, on average? It depends on what service you are offering.

Freelancers with a high income skill such as website development, Instagram marketing or SEO copywriting could charge their clients a monthly retainer fee of $10,000 per month.

If you’re not quite at an expert level in your industry yet, you might not be able to charge $10,000 per month yet.

How much should your retainer fee be if your skills are good, but not at the expert level yet?

A good rule of thumb is to charge at least $3,000 per month for your retained clients because this way you’ll only need 3 clients to sign retainer agreements in order to earn a six-figure income.

Your goal should be to develop high income skills so that each client is paying a $10,000 per month retainer fee.

Another option is to offer your clients different pricing tiers, where the retainer agreement starts at $3,000 per month, but can be as high as $10,000 per month depending on which tier your client chooses.

Pricing tiers give your client options to add on services that they find valuable.

Let’s take the Social Media Manager’s services as an example.

Tier 1 for $3,000 per month might include content creation, graphic design, daily scheduled posts, and strategic social media promotion.

2nd Tier for $5,000 per month would include everything tier 1 offered, as well as daily community engagement, strategic growth strategies, and marketing campaign monitoring.

Tier 3 for $10,000 per month would include everything tier 1 and 2 offered, as well as influencer outreach, strategic collaborations, partnership agreements, video creation and daily community management.

Your goal should be to develop high income skills so that each client is paying a $10,000 per month retainer fee. Click To Tweet

Common Objections to Retainer Fees

What should you do if a potential client is interested in working with you but hesitant to start things off with a retainer agreement?

The first thing you want to do is find out what their objection is.

Is it about the money? Are they hesitant to fork over that much money in advance, or worried about the high price?

Or, is it about value? Are they unsure of the value, because they haven’t worked with you before? Or, is it about results, and they aren’t sure they’ll get the results they’re hoping for?

If it’s about the money, do not offer them a discount.

Some clients might mistakenly assume that signing a retainer agreement comes with a discount on your services.

As a skilled consultant or contractor, however, you should never offer a discount.

You can offer a special package of different services, but don’t use the word ‘discount’. Offering a discount will only cheapen the perceived value of what you are offering.

Add value to your offer instead of offering a discount. They will still see this as getting a good deal, but you’ve avoided using language that cheapens your offer.

There are many ways you can add value to your offer, for example by offering additional services.

A freelance content writer, for example, is suddenly more valuable if they offer SEO-friendly content and add their SEO strategies to their writing offer.

When the client starts thinking about the value they’ll be getting, the money they’re spending suddenly starts to matter less. Click To Tweet

You can also say to the client, “Are you looking for a good price, or are you looking for results? My services are in demand, because very few people are as good as I am. So if you don’t want to sign an agreement with me, it’s perfectly ok, but I’m only taking on retainer clients at the moment.”

If the client says they are hesitant because they haven’t seen what kind of results you could produce, my advice is to offer them a trial period.

Not a free trial, because you should never give anything away for free. A trial can involve a one-time payment for the completion of a certain task or project. If the trial goes well, why wouldn’t the client want to continue?

In general, if a client has objections to this payment model, it’s your job to keep reminding them of the various benefits.

Focus on benefits to the client, such as the fact that you’ll now have a set number of hours per month that will be dedicated to them, and they’ll have guaranteed access to your services.

How To Close Clients on The Idea of a Retainer Agreement

How do you sell your client on the payment model of a retainer agreement? Should you propose the idea of a retainer fee via email, in person, or over the phone?

Closing clients in person isn’t always possible, especially if your client lives in a different city.

Don’t worry about that, though. The best way to close clients on paying you via retainer is to first introduce the idea over the phone. Then you will follow up with an email.

Below is a step-by-step guide for closing your client on a retainer agreement:

Step 1: Schedule a phone call with the decision maker. (There is no point even talking about the idea of a retainer agreement to anyone except for the decision maker.)

Step 2: Before you get on the phone with the decision maker, prepare an answer to the question… “How does a retainer agreement work?”

Step 3: Once you’re on the call with the decision maker… The first thing you’ll ask them is how much work they anticipate over the next 3-6 months. Ask what their goals are for the next 3-6 months. Help them estimate the volume of work that will be required in order to accomplish these goals.

Step 4: Suggest additional monthly services that could be of value to the client… In addition to what they’ve already mentioned they’ll need. Explain that you could offer these services as well.

Step 5: Tell the client that you’ll come up with a flat monthly fee that will cover all these services. Explain that the fee will cover the anticipated volume of work.

Step 6: Explain that what makes the most sense is a retainer agreement where the fee is paid each month. Wait for the client to ask, “How does a retainer agreement work?”

Step 7: Confidently explain how a retainer agreement works, making sure to include all of the benefits to the client. Explain that a monthly retainer agreement means the client is retaining your services. This guarantees access to your time, skills and expertise on an ongoing basis. Remind them of other benefits. They are saving time, getting more of your availability, loyalty and dedication. They are lessening the amount of paperwork, and speeding up the task turnaround time. Getting quotes or purchase orders will no longer be necessary,

Step 8: At this stage, the client will likely ask, “How much will the monthly retainer be?” This is when you explain that you will be sending them an email. They will receive three different monthly retainer fees. Each of which involves different options in terms of workload, monthly tasks, and add-on services.

Step 9: End the call and start working on your email proposal, with three different retainer agreement options for the client to choose from.

Here is an example email template:

“Hi John,

Further to our earlier phone conversation, I wanted to extend three different retainer agreement options to you. There are three different pricing tiers to choose from, each of which give you access to different services each month.

Based on the challenges you have laid out over the phone, and considering your growth goals for your business… I would suggest going with tier 3. I am confident that tier 3 offers you the most value and therefore the best possible results.

While on retainer, I will be sending you monthly reports. This way you can review the progress we make each month and feel confident that our partnership is valuable.

The retainer agreement will give you guaranteed access to my skills, expertise and dedicated time spent helping you reach your goals.

Please confirm which tier you have chosen, and I’ll send the agreement over.

Cheers!”

How To Keep Your Retained Clients Happy

Encourage your retainer client to clearly lay out their expectations.

What results do they need to see every month, to make their monthly retainer fee a worthwhile expense? Make sure you discuss what the monthly deliverables need to be, in order for the client to be happy.

For example, let’s say a client is retaining your services as a Social Media Manager.

Perhaps they’re happy to pay your monthly fee as long as they see specific results. This could include a certain number of new followers per month (growth). Or a certain number of post shares per month (engagement). And a certain number of conversions per month (leads from social media that convert to paid clients).

Your client might be too busy to track these results themselves.

However, that doesn’t mean they won’t notice if you fail to inform them that your monthly goals aren’t met. It is your job to keep track of your progress and results.

It is also your job to send your client monthly progress reports. If a client is too preoccupied to ask for reports, it’s still your responsibility to ensure you’re meeting goals.

It is still your job to ensure you’re sending reports. If you don’t, then you will burn bridges with your clients.

Don’t take advantage of clients who give you leniency. That is them trusting you to do what they are paying you to do. Never take a client’s trust for granted.

Summary

If your clients currently only pay you upon project completion, and they often make late payments… It’s time to change your payment model to a retainer agreement.

Negotiating a monthly retainer agreement is the best payment model for freelancers.

Retainer contracts are formal, written agreements made between a freelancer, consultant or independent contractor and their client.

A retainer agreement means that the client is agreeing to pay for your services in advance, thus retaining your services.

A retainer is typically a fixed monthly fee that the client agrees to pay based on an anticipated work volume.

Benefits for clients on retainer.

The retainer secures your services, and your loyalty. This is beneficial to the client if your skills are in high demand.

They might lose you to a different company who was willing to sign a retainer agreement, if they don’t sign one.

Your monthly retainer is necessary to ensure that the client gets your time, easy access to your services, dedication and your ongoing loyalty.

Which clients are good candidates for retainer agreements?

If a client will have an ongoing need for your services, then they’re a great candidate for a retainer agreement.

A client will be open to a retainer agreement if they want to achieve certain business goals. They are looking to grow their business, and are willing to set aside a certain fixed budget per month.

Yes, you can propose a retainer agreement to new clients.

With new clients, you’ll need to communicate your value in order to get them to pre-pay before seeing results.

You’ll have to make your client feel comfortable and confident with this payment model.

Confidently lay out what your value is. What will you be offering them each month? What will your monthly deliverables be?

Benefits of retainer payments?

Financial freedom is the number one benefit of having clients on retainer agreements. No longer will you have thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices. No more limits on how you live your life while waiting to get paid. It’s a very comfortable position to be in as a freelancer.

It is possible to close new clients on retainer agreements, which is the most ideal payment model for freelancers. Start getting paid on your terms, and you’ll get that much closer to financial freedom.

Learn How To Close More Deals On Your Terms

You deserve to be paid for your work on your terms. You deserve to be paid in advance and retained instead of chasing clients to pay their invoices.

It can be challenging to close deals on your terms sometimes, though. It’s not always easy to close a client on the idea of a retainer agreement.

Sales skills and expert closing skills are required to get retainer contracts signed.

With practice, you too can close more deals on your terms.

Dan Lok

1. Overcome Obstacles

2. Just Do It

3. Shatter Perceptions like Richard Branson Did

4. Take Risks

5. Be a Good Leader

6. Be Good With People

7. Think Big and Plan Ahead

8. The Secret is Delegating

9. Create a Brand That You Can Be Proud Of

What Exactly is an Elevator Pitch?

Where Did the Term “Elevator Pitch” Come From?

It Might Not Happen in an Elevator

The Modern Day Elevator Pitch

The Difference Between an Elevator Pitch and a Sales Pitch

The Anatomy of a Great Elevator Pitch

Other Key Components of a Successful Elevator Pitch

Body Language: What You Need to Know About Non-Verbal Communication

Build Your Pitch Around a Niche Area of Focus

How to Memorize Your Elevator Speech

Elevator Pitch Mastery

Why You Need To Hire a Copywriting Team

Tip #1: You Get What You Pay For

Tip #2: Ask About Their Research Practices Before Hiring

Tip #3: Assign a Trial Project

Tip #4: Have Each Team Member Focus on Their Unique Talent

Tip #5: Hire a Copy Editor as Part of Your Copywriting Team

Tip #6: Send Them Through a Training Program

Tip #7: Keep Upgrading Your Team’s Skill Stacks

Summary

Enroll Your Copywriting Team in My 7-Week High-Income Copywriter Certification Program

Technician Tammy: Level 1

Manager Michelle: Level 2

Owner Olivia: Level 3

Entrepreneur Eva: Level 4

Final Thoughts On The 4 Types Of Entrepreneurs

Table of Contents

What To Consider Before You Scale

1. Sell High-Ticket Offers

2. Sell An Offer That Is Infinite

Businesses or Offers That Scale

Businesses or Offers That Don’t Scale

3. Invest In More Lead Flow

Identify Your Ideal Buyer

How much should you spend to acquire your leads?

4. Hire Skilled High-Ticket Closers

The Role of The Closer

Having a Closing Team

5. Hire Rainmakers That Are Hungry

6. Hire Qualified Closers

7. Have an Offer, a Flow, and an Army of Closers

Summary

Should You Propose a Retainer Agreement to New Clients?

Benefits For Clients Who Agree On A Retainer Fee

Benefits For Freelancers Getting Paid Via Retainer

Which Clients are Good Candidates for Retainer Agreements?

How To Negotiate a Retainer with New Clients: Why Should They Pre-Pay Before Seeing Results?

Types of Services That Would Be Most Efficient Under a Retainer

How Much Should a Retainer Fee Be?

Common Objections to Retainer Fees

How To Close Clients on The Idea of a Retainer Agreement

Here is an example email template:

How To Keep Your Retained Clients Happy

Summary

Learn How To Close More Deals On Your Terms

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.