How Joe & Troy Closed $34.5K In Retainers - Master Filmmaker Case Study

What's going on, guys? I'm here with one of our clients, Joe from Snowy Peak Films, who added $34,500 in video deals to their agency. Joe, what's going on?

How are you?

I love it. Absolutely. I guess for anybody who doesn't know you guys, your production company, do you mind giving us just a little bit of background on what you guys do? You know, kind of the background of the company and all that?

Yeah. So we've been in business for 16 years. Just started doing retainer packages about 6 months ago. Other than that, we've been doing commercial production, corporate production for a very long time and at a very high level.

Yeah. And what, what kind of had you guys want to move into more of the retainer model as opposed to maybe doing some of just the one offs or, you know, mix and match between those two?

I think it's really the classic. You keep chasing client after client after client. And we needed something just to be a little bit more consistent so we could bring in guys full time and not have to always be having to find contractors to work for us because that gets expensive. It's hard. Guys have different projects they're working on. You can't always have the guy that you really want to be shooting for you. We're a little bit unique in that. Troy, my business partner and I, neither one of us actually do the filming. We come from a post production background, so we've always found cam ops and DPs to work for us. We shoot when we have to, but for the most part we hire guys that are really good at that. And then we do the post production on the back end.

Yeah.

So that's.

It's just hard to kind of retain top talent if you don't have that consistent income coming in and stability.

Yeah. And we found that, you know, over the years we'd find somebody that was really, really good, but then we'd hit a lull and they'd have to go find other stuff and then we couldn't get them back. So by doing it this way we, we can actually have somebody full time and be a little more consistent in our income.

And just to recap, I know. So that the 34,500, there was a $10,500 retainer and then there was a $24,500 ret. But that's really just a trial. You said for a yearly retainer where they pay you like 30k. You said quarterly. Was that right?

Yeah. So that one should end up being as long as we do a good job for them. A $30,000 retainer per quarter for two years.

Nice. What is that total?

It's be about $240,000 for 10k a month.

Yeah, it's not bad. I love it. And had you guys, because I know we jumped into the world of running ads, right? Had you guys ever done ads before to get leads? Has it always been referrals? How did that process work for you guys?

We've used, We've used Google AdWords forever. We tried Facebook ads a long time ago, but with very limited success because we ran a very limited budget and we didn't have a pipeline set up. We didn't have really the whole lead form set up and it didn't work.

Like there was no backend basically. Whereas like you'd get people, but then there was like nothing to nurture them, convert them, get them on a call, get them to close, like pre nurture kind of thing. Is that right?

Exactly. Yeah. There was no, no way to kind of follow them all the way through a pipeline. So building that out, what you guys offered, how you guys set it up, how you guys helped us set it up, was instrumental in us actually being able to find, track and close some of these deals.

Yeah, I mean a lot of the, the success of ads, I always say, is from the back end, right. It's like you can get somebody's contact info, but if you don't give them the right information, pre nurture them, show them case studies, like get them in the right mindset to talk to you, like, it's very difficult to get those to close. What had you done previously? Were you guys just running a Facebook lead form? Were you like, what were you doing to like run ads in the past?

To be perfectly honest, it's been six years, so I can't actually speak to what we did because I had accounts set up still, but I hadn't actually done it for so long that I don't remember specifically how we had it set up. I just can tell you that I think we ran a few really text based, quick videos trying to get people to stop. And what we found, it was for roofers at the time.

Yeah.

And what we found was that Facebook is so passive that really you might get one or two people to stop, but you could never really get that engagement. You could never get that, that interest. Because it's not an active search for video production. They're on there just scrolling at night, you know, mindlessly. They're not really thinking, oh well, what do I need to do for my business today. So they weren't looking for our services, so we didn't find any. Any. We didn't have any luck using Facebook in the past.

Well, now you have video ads. I think your top performer is one with your kids.

Right.

Doing the ad, is that still.

It's killing it. We're getting two leads a day.

That's three leads a day. That's awesome. And it's. Isn't it doing the script? I think you've played it on a coaching call and I loved it. It was so. It was awesome. It was so good.

Yeah. My business partner, he's got a. He's got a 10 year old little girl and I've got an 8 year old little boy. And we had tried the exact same script going back and forth between the two of us and we got a couple leads, but we did it with our kids and they killed it. They. First of all, they memorized the whole script, which was awesome. And, and they had so much fun just doing it. And it catches people's attention and it also leads to a little bit of a believability, a little bit of a trust factor because our kids are the ones that are actually talking about us. So it makes us more relatable right away.

Yeah, yeah. And it's home. And just for people maybe watching, it's like you're targeting home service businesses in a local area, is that right?

Yeah, we're trying to primarily target home businesses in Colorado, so we are willing to branch out from that. But for now, that's where we're getting a lot of leads in the Denver market alone.

That's awesome. I love that. And I know we've been in the program for a little while. Like is there. Has there been anything that we've helped you with that you feel like is particularly helpful throughout the process of us working with you? Like anything that you feel like you'd like to highlight.

Yeah, I've been doing this a very long time. The video production side of things, all of even running a business has been. We've had business consultants in the past, so we understand all the back end stuff. We understand the business piece of it, we understand the actual execution of it. What neither Troy nor I are very good at is sales. And what you guys provide is not just when you guys offer a full turnkey service, but the sales piece. Learning how to build a gap, how to sell the gap. That's something that I never really knew of, looked into, understood. And so that's really something that we have found to be critical to success. You know, we're. We're actually talking to an attorney right now about doing some work for him. And in the course of our conversation, the conversation switched to he doesn't really like the practice area that he's in. He wants to focus on a different one. So now we haven't really gotten too deep into the. Into the weeds with him yet. But that's a pain point for him. He really doesn't enjoy what he's doing. He wants to do something else. Can we help him get into that other piece that he wants to do instead? And what's that look like from a financial. From a financial, you know, piece for him? Is it going to be super expensive for him to go into that? Is there an ROI for him? All those things. So really kind of learning how to listen to the client find out what they really want to do, how they're doing it or what they're not doing that could get them there. And then once you really dive in and dig into that pain, how to. How to help them with it and solve that problem for them.

Yeah, I think you said it very well. I think a lot of people are product pushers with video. A lot of times where they're like, here's this video. Let me just shove it down your throat. Here, take this. This is what you need. They don't actually listen to the client, like you said, and that's where the sale is. It's like, you have to listen to, like, what are their problems? Where are they? Where do they want to be, and how can you help them get there with content? You got to kind of reframe the mindset around. I'm not just a video provider. I'm a business problem solver, and I use video to solve those problems.

Right.

And I think you said it very, very well there.

So actually, one of the ones that we're talking about, the. The $10,500 retainer, he's an agronomy business, so he is. He actually seeds and sprays fields, large acreages. And his biggest pain point is that every time he's ever advertised in the past, he shows up as a landscaper or a lawn guy. So he instantly gets weeded out of the farms and the ranches that he's trying to target. So for us, it's a bigger thing of, okay, well, we need to go in and help him figure out a strategy to target acreages and to not fall into that category. And so it's a very niche market. So it's trying to figure out how to help him in that and target the right people. And that's how that sale went down. Was literally hearing him and saying, you know what? We're going to do this based on really almost geofencing and targeting using geofencing, targeting using zip codes instead of keywords, because the keywords aren't going to work well.

And for him, it's that epiphany of like, this is why everything I did in the past hadn't worked and why what you guys are going to do is different and is going to very likely get me to my outcome. I want. And if you didn't listen to that, you would have just been like, yeah, we just need to make another video ad for you. It's like, well, no, that's not my problem. And then you would have lost the sale. Cause it's like, no, it's not my issue. It's this. And it's like, oh, okay, we need to fix this problem with it. And it just comes down to listening. Most people don't listen. They don't listen to their clients. And then they wonder why people don't work with them or don't see the value or whatever. It's like, you just gotta figure out what is that problem that's gonna push them over the edge to work with you. If you solve it, you solve that problem, then they're like, hey, I'm ready to go. Let's do it.

Right?

Which is huge. I guess, kind of a weird question, but where do you feel like you guys might have been if you hadn't maybe taken the leap, jumped into the program? Obviously, it's an investment. It's scary. It's all the things like, where do you guys feel like you might have been if you hadn't made that uncomfortable step?

I mean, the simple truth is that the market's changed. How everything has changed, how we get business has changed. It used to be really simple. I had a conversation with a guy the other day. He asked me, you know, what's changed? And the truth is that companies used to come to us, they knew what they wanted, they knew what they needed. And they'd say, here it is, here's our budget. Can you do it? And as long as we could establish any rapport with them, we could usually get the sale. Our close rate was probably 65, 70%. Now that that close rate has dropped significantly because the way that companies approach things is totally different. They really. They come in with lower budgets, they want things done quickly. They don't care about a big production and all the stuff that we've always been able to sell. So shifting, pivoting, changing to how we do things with you guys through your program has allowed us to, to really kind of grow and or at least not go out of business. So you know, right now we are still, we're still learning, we're still trying to figure this out and it's still trying to come up with what works for us. But because it's not the same for everybody. You know, your, your guys system is fantastic. How it works, how it helps is great. And all the stuff that you guys have set up and pre built is a fantastic place to, to jump off and start. But you still have to tweak it. We still have to tweak it for our voice, for who we are and how we sell in our personalities. And we're still finding that, but it's made it to where now we have different conversations with clients. We're able to continue conversations that in the past would have died. And that has been a game changer for us.

I love it. And last question, I'll let you guys get back to closing deals. If anyone's maybe on the fence about just booking a call, seeing if this would be a fit for them, knowing what you know now on kind of the other side of the fence, what advice would you give them?

I mean, honestly, I'd say it's a no brainer. I'd say yeah, it's an investment, but you have to trust yourself. But the truth is it's a hell of a lot of work.

I mean, you got to do the work. It's not a magic pill. Is not a magic pill.

It is a lot of work. And it's all, it's all my work. It's all stuff I have to do. It's all the time I have to put in. It's the stuff that I have to do to make my business grow. You're not going to make my business grow. You're going to give me the tools, the knowledge that I need to do that and you're there to support me and help me do that, which is also huge by the way. Like the fact that you guys are there and if I have a problem on setting up a Facebook ad account, I can reach out and say, hey, Evan, help me out with this. And he's going to get back to me within a few minutes. Is that is fantastic. It makes it worth it all the way through because I'm learning how to sell to clients. I'm learning how to talk to clients in a different way. I'm learning how to build backends for them. I have support with everything I need. I'm learning how to track my sales in a different way. Even though I've had business consultants in the past, it's really. It's a value that's beyond what. What we expected. And it's a value because we understood that it took a hell of a lot of effort on our part to. To make it work. So.

And you guys, all. All respect to you guys, you made it work for you. You went in, you did the work, and now you have a system that will continue to feed you guys forever, right? It's like you have that cracked. So, I mean, I'm glad we were able to give you the tools, but I want to give all props to you guys for putting in the work and actually using them.

Right?

So that's. That's absolutely huge.

We have a lot more to do. We have a lot.

Just the beginning. It is just the beginning. Well, Joe, I appreciate your time, and we'll do another one of these once we've closed a couple hundred thousand dollars in deals, and we'll go from there. Appreciate you.