Winning More High Value Projects. EP #198 - Den Lennie

Howdy guys. Dan here it's Thursday here in Australia and it's time for this week's episode of the how to Scale, a video business podcast. And today we're going to be talking about how to win more high value projects. This is probably the number one area that I have questions sent into me about. So I wanted to do an episode about this because it's, it's a really important subject and it's because it covers the topic of sales. And before you start freaking out and going sales, let me share with you that it's not all bad.

You know, Selling and sales done right is a service to your clients. Okay, let me say that again. Selling and sales done right should be a service to your clients. It should be a straightforward no brainer. If you've done your marketing right and you've elegantly taken them through a process of identifying the needs that they have and that the solution, if you believe you can provide them with a solution that is appropriate for the needs that they have, then selling becomes a very transactional matter of fact.

Conclusion to that process.

But at the same time, if you have to work hard for the sale, then it showed there's a deficit in your marketing. And as we've talked about previously in the growth accelerator series that I'm taking you through this one's number six, winning more high value projects, which really it's all about sales and the sales process. So let me talk a little bit about that to give you some context. I get it. You know, most creatives hate the idea of selling. But there is a way to ethically persuade and influence the outcome of a prospect conversation. So you get a yes and it's non salesy so you won't feel weird. You know, let's say you have some inquiries coming into your business or some leads as we call it in the marketing world. What percentage are you converting into customers? And do you know?

Now one way to do that is to track every single call you have and take the whole number of calls across the year, calculate the ones that you won and the ones that you lost and you'll have a closing percentage and that percentage is what your sales conversion rate is. Now, do you use a CRM? Do you know what a CRM is? A CRM is a customer relationship management piece of software. And what it does is it tracks the opportunities in your business and also where people are at in what we call the funnel or your sales pipeline. And a sales pipeline is the foundation, the backbone, if you like, of a sales process.

And you may not have considered having a sales process before, but if you're looking for a sales process to implement into your business, then in its simplest form it's just about mapping out where someone is in the journey. Not everyone is ready to buy and hand over cash straight away, but they might be ready to buy in six months time. So if you're not nurturing those opportunities early enough and with enough consistency, then the chances are you're going to struggle to have any consistency six months down the line. And this is where a lot of people get caught out is they're busy on jobs, they're shooting, they're producing, they're flat out on post. And then it gets quiet and they're like, right, where's my next job coming from? And it's the most common problem I see. So when we start to build a sales process and a sales pipeline, we understand that there are, there are different stages of the buying journey. And so do you know how many people are in your prospect stage, for example, or your lead stage, or your nurture stage, or your conversation stage and your even after sales stage. And do you have a user sales script? And you know these, I'm not saying this to kind of like freak you out. These are answers to questions that you need to be thinking about if you want to be committing to higher quality projects with better paying clients. Because none of that stuff just happens by accident. And the truth is, you know, selling and sales can be very daunting for creators. But like anything, it can be systemized and you can use scripts. In fact, in our accelerator program we've created done for you scripts that our clients use when phoning up and reconnecting with existing clients or in fact talking to new clients, we actually make it easy for you because having a solid strategy for converting your prospects into clients, it's absolutely critical if you want to grow and sustain your business. And it's certainly easier with pre done scripts and templates. So let's think about the sales process. You know, not everyone is ready to buy right now. In fact, only three in every hundred are close to being ready to buy right now. That means that another seven out of a hundred might be interested if the offer is right. The next 30% might be interested sometime in the next six months. The other 30% aren't interested and the final 30% wouldn't buy off you even if it was free. So what that means is out of every hundred people you connect with 1, 0, 0, 100, only about 40 of that hundred might be interested. In buying something at some point in the next six to nine months. So what we have to do is we have to kind of start to look at those opportun and say, well, you know, who's ready to buy right now? Can I satisfy that need? But if you're not ready to buy right now, what are you doing to nurture that relationship? And I would argue that most video businesses aren't doing anything. And that is a huge opportunity that's being wasted, a huge opportunity that's being left on the table. Because nurturing those opportunities until such times as they're ready to buy is the key to really, you know, closing the deal. But then having some kind of process, some kind of system that you can follow which allows you to keep on top of that is critical. We talk about it regularly inside the vba. We're always talking about the focus being on sales. In fact, every month we have a planning session. And in that planning session we evaluate what were the successes of the previous month, what were the lessons learned, and what are the priorities for the next month ahead. And we always start with sales. Sales is the number one priority. In fact, you may have heard me say this before, that any business doing under a million dollars a year equivalent is a sales and marketing company that happens to sell and produce video content. Because everything you should be doing should be focused on winning a sale and developing opportunities for the future. Because that funnel needs to be continually filled up. If you stop focusing on sales, what will happen is your pipeline will dry up and one day you'll wake up and there'll be no phone calls. And so what you want to be doing is creating a system.

That enables you to be continually funneling people into your process.

So in simple terms, you know, you want to be connecting with people on social, maybe on LinkedIn. Very, very powerful method of connecting with clients is on LinkedIn. Our clients do a lot of that, and we see a lot of consistency in that outreach. Again, we have scripts, we have processes. Everything is mapped out so you don't have to do any thinking, you just have to execute. In fact, we actually help a few of our clients even with their LinkedIn outreach. It's a service we offer just to our existing clients so that they can kind of be freed up to do other things.

We're connecting with relationships and beginning a relationship and over weeks and months, providing value and re engaging with those opportunities such that when they're ready to buy, you become the obvious choice. And look, most people give up on the sales process way too Early. In fact, most people follow up once or twice, and if they don't get a yes, they typically give up, or they go, well, that client's not interested. But in actual fact. And the more times you follow up, the more you become a factor in that prospect's mind. And in some cases, it will take eight to 10 connections with a prospect before they're even ready to have that conversation. But I guarantee that the person that makes those connections will be in the strongest position possible to win the deal when it becomes a reality. In fact, statistically, if you followed up with someone eight to ten times, then you become a fact in that person's mind. They know that when they need a video, they're going to come to you. And it can be quite uncomfortable for us as creators to do that level of follow up because we might feel we're pestering people, we might feel like we're being a pain. But if you flip that and look at it from the point of view of how much value can you provide to someone? Can you provide value to someone on an ongoing basis such that they'll see that you're willing to help them even without being paid, and such that when they're ready to make a buying decision, they're going to be like, well, this person here has helped me out a load without me paying them. I wonder what it's gonna be like when I pay them. Clearly it's gonna be good, but it is, it is a process of continually following up. And, and we do that with curiosity. We do that with, with, with messages that we've written that help to begin a conversation with the prospect. And curiosity is a great, a great hook in any sales conversation because we are naturally cur beings. And so if you find yourself in a position where you're struggling with what to say, come at it from a curiosity point of view. You know, people are always deeply curious to something that they want. And you can say something like, hey, you know, I've just created this new ebook which, which touches on the topics that will help, you know, basically your target market solve their biggest problems and headaches and would you like a copy? And then, and then what happens is people can't help but say, yeah, please, I'd love to, I'd love to read it. And then you've got a way into have a conversation. Now if you do that on social media, you can say, hey, look, what's your best email? Let me send it to you on email. And then you're beginning a conversation that's taking the conversation off the social media platform. But the truth is, you know, when it comes to sales and those kind of aspects of moving the conversation into a sales conversation, it's absolutely critical that you're deliberate and that you're confident and that you are consistent. The more times you follow up, the more likely you are to win a deal down the line. I've got clients who, you know, were following me for 10 years at reading books, buying DVDs, and then one day decided they wanted to kind of help scale the business. And they've been with me, you know, 18 months. So I don't mind how long it takes for someone to become a paying client, and they may never become a paying client. And that's okay because, you know, I can. I'm not for everyone, and not everyone needs what I'm offering, but I. But I won't ever stop sending out messages. Now. We send out an email every week with this podcast. We do two episodes of podcast a week. This is episode 190, 198. We've never stopped producing content. Now.

Why do we do that? Because new people come into the funnel all the time. New people discover us, and the more content we have in more places, the more likelihood someone's going to discover us. We have three published books, we have three or four ebooks. We're constantly pushing our message out with paid advertising, with organic, through referrals, to the point where we want to get our message out as far and wide as possible because we want to help as many filmmakers as possible to. To win more business, to. To build more sustainable businesses, to. To have the life they want beyond just having the kind of greatest camera I feel so many filmmakers struggle to. To build consistent revenues. And what we've done inside the Video Business Accelerator is create a system, a tried and tested blueprint, if you want, that actually works if people implement it to double and triple business revenues and enable, you know, freedom and opportunity to extend houses or move to the beach or, you know, have the car of your dreams or allow your partner an opportunity to maybe quit their job and do something they really want to do. You know, everyone in our program is centered around high values, around family, around freedom, around enjoying the freedoms that a business can give. And yet so many of video production companies that I come across who are not in the program are struggling. They're doing well for a while, and then they. Then they struggle. So what we do is we. We focus on building solid, reliable systems that will help you to sustain growth in a way that has you not working 70 hours a week. And for that to be sustainable, you have to be selling. But the great news is selling done right is a service to your clients. It's something that is, it's fluid, doesn't feel like it's going to feel sleazy. And I promise you, done right, it is an elegant solution for your clients.

So that's it, guys. For me this week I am, you know, pushing on with got two more growth accelerators. We've got our 200th episode coming up next week, which is pretty exciting. So, yeah, if you're interested in learning a bit more about what we do, here's a little bit from me around exactly that.

Ask yourself this. Has owning your own video business been everything you dreamed it would be when you first got started? It might be hard to admit, but think about whether you're genuinely achieving everything you set out to when you made that decision to grab the camera and go it alone. Are you really working less? Are you really earning more? And are you really in control? Chances are you're bloody good at what you do, but you're having to work like a dog, 70 plus hours a week. Whether it's filming, editing, marketing, or any of the other jobs that come with being the big boss of your own video company. When you're managing projects, constantly searching out for new clients and worrying about cash flow, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture or make real progress. Let's face it, that stress is the last thing you need when you're trying to run a profitable company that supports you and the people you care about. Truth is, a business that provides financial, professional and personal freedom really is achievable. But maybe you've got that nagging feeling that you're overworked, lacking stability, and struggling to get to where you really want to be right now. It could be that you just don't know how to make a positive change on your own. So I created the Video Business Accelerator coaching programs to really supercharge your video business. With these unique coaching programs, you'll learn all the tools you need to get complete confidence in the success of your video business. You can take the first step on your journey to a successful business that doesn't control your life. Let me show you how. Head over to Denlany.com and click on accelerator.