The 30-Day Close a Whale Sprint! EP #353

G', day guys. It's Dan here with episode 353 of the how to Scale Video Business Podcast. And today I want to call it out. The industry is going through a very odd and peculiar phase and I think a lot of businesses are at real risk of disappearing. Let's talk about why in just one second.

Welcome to the Video Business Accelerator Podcast. Each week we uncover the secrets to creating a wildly success and scalable video production business. With your host, Dan Lenny, discover how the accelerator program is transforming the lives of our members at www.videobusinessaccelerator.com. enjoy this episode.

Okay, so if unless you've been living under a rock, I think you will probably be experiencing some kind of slowdown, some kind of constraint in your video business. At the moment, it's not happening in every niche, but it's happening to a lot of generic video business owners. I was talking to a client this morning who'd been to a major ACS Australian Cinematography Society awards ceremony in Victoria in Australia recently, and everybody was talking about how slow the industry has been this year. And we've seen that start to creep in to a lot of other video businesses in the kind of Latter half of 2024. Now, I believe there are some significant.

Global pressures which are slowing down spending across lots of industries. My accountant has reported it. Other accountants have reported a lot of businesses are struggling just now and we have to understand the context. When Covid happened, everyone's business was shut down, but the government gave lots and lots of money away for free and everyone felt like they're having a party.

Once Covid eased, then all of those businesses had pent up need and demand and they had to spend a lot of money making content, I guess celebrating the freedom again. But then as the money was given away was basically printed, so inflation went through the roof across the planet. And as a result of that, slowly but surely interest rates climbed to the point that they're at today. And in most cases, everybody is feeling the pinch, which means larger businesses are easing back on spending, they're laying off employees. In some cases, no one wants to be seen to be frivolously spending money on video projects that aren't essential. Combine that with a massive increase in the number of people creating video content because it's become a lot more accessible and you suddenly have this melting pot of the current situation. Now, not all businesses are going through a rough time in construction, in transport, logistics, in healthcare, in anything to do with finances still booming. But what it does is it really goes to highlight that you cannot be running a generic video business in 2024 and expect it to grow and scale. You have to be specializing and you have to be picking your niches or your niches very, very carefully. So what I wanted to do on this session today was just reinforce that now is the time to start digging into your best clients and how you can support them and getting creative with the projects that you do. And I don't mean creative. And I kind of like, you know, use nice colored gels and, you know, make it super fancy. I mean creative from a business point of view. How are you going to get in front of clients and give them an offer that's irresistible? And one of the things you can do is call your clients and say, hey, we are just looking to fill the back end of the year's calendar. It's traditionally a slower time for us. What can we do for you? That would be a no brainer. How can we structure this deal? How can we make this work for you? Any no brainer capacity. Now if you're in North America, it's coming towards the end of the financial year, perhaps you can say to your clients, hey, growing going towards the end of the year. Is there any budget you need to spend before next year? Can we help you spend it now and give you, you know, 90 days into 2025 to utilize that? That's one option. Second, we're coming out to Black Friday, so you've got an opportunity to go to all your clients and say, hey, we've never done this before, but we're thinking of putting together a Black Friday offer and we're not quite sure how to structure it. We don't want to just necessarily give you money off because in some cases that's not the most valuable thing to you. But if we were to structure a Black Friday deal and it was to be a no brainer for you, what would it look like? So really what I'm saying is the business owners who are willing to get on the phone with clients, have a conversation, be honest and say, hey, we're looking a bit slower towards the end of the year. Is there anything we can do to help and how can we price that or deliver that and package that in a way for you, that is a no brainer offer for you. So what we have to start doing is asking our clients the question, how can we make this work for you? What is it that we can do to make your life easier and you know, kind of make this a win win for everyone because here's the thing with business, right? Both parties have to win. And if both parties win, you'll continue to win together. So that's what I wanted to share with you today. Also, we are coming up to our own Black Friday offer this week, which is we are putting together a brand new sprint. It's called the 30 day close. A whale sprint. Working on one simple outcome if you decide to join this. Our goal for the next four weeks is to close your biggest deal yet, or at least one of them, by Christmas time without cold calling or following some cringy sales script. So really for Black Friday, what we're doing is I'm putting together some good film folks and showing them exactly how to take their existing services. Includes a five figure deal, $10,000 minimum right before Christmas so you can start the new year strong. We're starting this in the 2nd of December and we're going to install four key systems in my whale closing system in your business. So in the first phase we're going to install my reverse selling system. So brand clients with whale budgets typically interview dozens of freelancers or have a roster of freelancers before hiring one of them. And they usually hire on the basis of price, experience or speed. This is why instead of hope and praise salesmanship, we're going to develop a reverse selling to make you a category of one and the clear and obvious choice. Even if you aren't the most qualified, you'll flip the sales process on its head and practically have them sell you on working with them, giving you clear budgets as they do now with this one system alone, you're going to close more deals than ever before because you're looking at the right data and the right metrics. Most businesses and I work with a lot tend to spray and pray. They like work with every client, they respond to every request and say yes to everything. But if you start identifying the real opportunities and you identify the most profitable clients, you can then go to them with unique offers. Now in week two, we're going to implement what we call our Frankenstein Lead activation system. Now the world is yours when you can make every lead and every prospect count. And if you think about it, every inquiry that's come into your business had an intention. So we got to start looking at these opportunities as individual human beings, not as just leads or lists of potential customers. Now you don't need hundreds of leads, you just need our battle tested lead activation system to turn your current lead database into a gold mine. That's why the second system we'll install is my Frankenstein lead activation system to resurrect your dead leads, activate your warm leads and multiply your hot leads with more projects and or referrals. Now with this system your every lead will skyrocket in value and give you more projects and more referrals than ever. Now in week three, we're going to be pushing our highest grossing million dollar proposal template. Now this is actually Caleb's template that he's kindly shared with us and we're joint venturing to share this with more filmmakers. Caleb's greatest value is helping other creatives succeed. So with hot leads rolling in a transparent client budget and sales process to make you the only logical choice, now is the time to seal the deal. With a proposal so powerful it's produced the bulk of my clients $52 million in combined sales. Now the flagship proposal system developed by Caleb will seal the deal and give you the legroom to close a five figure or multiple five figure deal without any objections. Even if the project goes over their budget. With some of our clients winning as much as 78% of their proposed deals thanks to this proposal template. Now with this system, you'll now be able to close bigger deals faster and easier than ever before. And finally in week four, you're going to get my $297,000 a year videographer business growth system. Now by this point, you'll have everything you need to turn your currently database and existing or past client roster into your biggest deal of the year. I want to show you how to close how our clients close one to three of these big deals a month. Now only my private clients have seen this entire roadmap laid bare. And now you're going to discover the exact process that allows our average client to generate $297,000 a year and work less than ever before. Now with this system, you're going to discover how to close one to three big deals like this every month like clockwork. So in just four weeks, you'll have everything you need to close by far your biggest deal ever. Easier than before and our battle tested client only roadmap to closing deals the size or higher every month like clockwork, while working less and spending more of their time and money on family and passions. And that's only if you want big deals every month. So at this point you've got a choice. Okay. Keep pushing to new income levels and scale with one to three deals a month or take a step back and enjoy the labor of a simple cash flow business with one to three deals a quarter. Now, just so you know, for the timeline. We're starting phase one on the 2nd of December and the first watch is going to cover that in client renowned go to system for making filmmakers the only go to. You're going to get crystal clear on how to position yourself as an on demand creative, how to make it clear you're the only logical choice, and what to ask for to practically guarantee the sale, and how to easily get the brand's budget ahead of time so you'll know the scope of the project that you can propose without hoping they can afford it or putting a number into the sphere of like will they take it? All of which is going to give you an unfair advantage in every sales call you ever take. On top of that, there will be the optional homework that you can post in the community for feedback, guaranteeing that you've got Harvey Specter mode on. That's a suit's preference long before you get any actual sales calls. So by day seven, you'll have a sales process so powerful and easy you'll feel confident in control of every sales meeting you'll ever take, even if you have no sales experience. Then in phase two from the 9th of December, armed with this unfair advantage for making you the only real option in every sales call, now is the time to line up those initial sales. Inside the second workshop, we'll install our Frankenstein lead activation system to make sure every leading client is more valuable. Together we'll create your new lead activation system, new prospect activation system and your new client cloning system so you can either get multiple projects or multiple referrals from each current or past client. Once created, we'll use my process to start booking calls from your existing database. Everyone from your old dead leads to currently to prospects to old and current clients. So between days 14 and 21, depending on the size of your current pipeline, we'll aim to book two to five in time intent sales calls. Now from the 16th of December, while you book those meetings and use a reverse selling to get them to practically beg you to work with them, in the third workshop, you're going to create your very own million dollar proposal that's easy and fun to customize and doesn't need any more than an hour or so to customize per project, we'll use it to easily convert those pre sold clients into your first or next five figure project without any hassle. So the milestone between days 21 and 28, you'll be aiming to close at least one client on a five figure project. And then finally in phase four from the 23rd of December, once the sales calls and deals are, you know, starting to be executed, you will be closing your biggest deal ever. And after workshop four, I'll share with you the exact process our clients use to close one to three whale clients every month predictably whilst working less than they ever have before. So the milestone next is you'll finish the Sprint with the exact rose map to close 20 to 30k deals on demand. That nets our average client $297,000 a year. And here's the thing, right? This is a very unique beta program. We are going to be selling this for $997 and running the sprint three or four times a year beyond Black Friday. But for Black Friday we're doing a special deal. Now what you're going to get is a private one on one call with me to help create your 12 month growth plan. Four live workshops, myself and Caleb, the systemized filmmaker, community access and calls with us so you can help integrate the workshop material and ask whatever you're struggling with and get a solution inside the community or on the weekly support call.

All the templates, trackers and video reviews of your work, guarantee to help you close a deal and accountability to make sure you stay on course. No one's gonna be left behind. It's a very small group. We are beta testing this so you're gonna be getting extremely hands on from myself and Caleb and we're selling this at a kind of practically we're almost making a loss on it, but we want to battle test it. So the investment for this is $100 now and three weekly payments of $100. Or you can pay $297 upfront. It is a literal no brainer and if you hate the close a wheel sprint, you can ask for a full refund within seven days of purchasing. Now results are going to be on you to implement and depends on the size of your total pipeline and how well you stick to the process. So next four weeks in a nutshell, phase one, create your sales process that makes selling easier than ever before. Phase two, create your lead activation system and book two to five hot leads. Phase three, create and install your million dollar proposal that converts up to 78% of prospects. Include your first or next five figure client before Christmas. And phase four, we're going to reveal how to close one to three deals per month. But there's more because the sprint includes that one to one call with me which is normally $500. So if you think about it, it's normally $500 to get me on the phone for an hour. This is $297 and as part of this program you get a call with myself or Caleb. It's a private zoom call. Map your exact steps to help you close an extra one three wheel clients a quarter and then one three wheel clients a month. You'll have a custom plan to hit your goals in the simplest way. No bespoke to you and your business. That call is worth $500. Then you've got the early access discount. You're saving $700 because if you join before the 30th of November, you'll get at the beta price of 297 or four payments of $100 for weekly payments of $100. Afterward the price of this program will rise to 997 or four weekly payments of 250. Bonus 312 months access to the systemized filmmaker group which is $197 a month. So it's $2,000 saving. So we are literally piling this up to make this an absolute no fucking brainer offer. So if you want to join the Sprint, it is as simple as this and listen carefully. You just email me I'm in to denleny.com all you have to do is email me I'm in at den nen@denleny.com I'll get you enrolled, I'll get you set up in the community and we start next week. So I wanted to share that with you because it's a no brainer. It's a one off and we're doing it as our Black Friday special. So if that's something you want to do, email me denleny.com with the words I'm in and I'll see you on the inside.

You've been listening to the Video Business Accelerator Podcast with your host, Den Lenny. If you are a video business owner who is tired of going it alone and would benefit from mentorship, support and weekly accountability, then mouse over to www.videobusinessaccelerator.com to learn more about how the Accelerator program can help you today. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show over on itunes and we'd really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review.

Sam.