From potato-guns to the fastest growing SAAS

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Subject: From potato-guns to the fastest growing SAAS

Russell Brunson is now one of the most recognized marketers and digital entrepreneurs.

He wrote 3 best-selling books about online marketing, founded Clickfunnels and led it to 100M revenue in just 3 years.

But in the early stages of Google, Russell recognized the potential of the internet to reach the masses - which we now take for granted - and started making his first bucks with a friend.

They were young and fun for them meant shooting potatoes out of PVC tubes.

They recorded a CD with video instructions on how to make those potato-shooting devices, placed an ad on Google and started making some money.

Now you must be wondering why I’m telling you this story…

How does Russell’s potato-gun venture help you sell your services?

Obviously, that idea of buying an ad and making a profit from a direct sale is long gone.

In fact, Google increased the ad cost while Brunson was advertising his potato launcher.

But this experience gave him an important insight; once you’ve captured someone’s interest, making a sale and moving on to the next customer is bad business.

You see, your audience needs you!

They might not know they need you yet…
They might not need you at this exact moment…
They might not be able to afford your services right now…

But they need you. And you have their attention.

You’ve captured their interest with your content. And if your content is relevant to your audience, so are your services.

So when Google’s ad cost went up and it was no longer profitable for Russell to sell potato-gun instructions, what did he do?

He started selling the instructions AND the materials. Increasing the value and the price of his offer.

As I was saying, if someone is interested in something you do or have, they’ll eventually want or need more.

For every problem you solve, a new one comes up.

Russell’s clients had the instructions, they knew how to make the device, but they still had to go and buy all the materials.

Is it fair to assume that out of everyone buying the instruction CD a good number of them never built their potato-gun?

Of course it is.

Let’s imagine that for some reason you really wanted to shoot some potatoes and purchased one of these CDs (nowadays it would be a digital course), would you be annoyed if they sent you a follow-up email asking if you’d like to also receive the materials for an extra fee?

You’d probably be thankful, right?

To send you an email, they’d need your email address.

If you’re posting content on LinkedIn, or any other social, you’re providing a group of people with helpful information.

By consuming your publications and following you, they’re giving you their attention…

And then, you just rinse and repeat.

Shouldn’t you be capturing their contact information?

Isn’t it your duty to help them further?

If you continue helping them, they’ll pay you for it, and you’ll have a profitable business.

Here’s the easiest way to turn attention into clients:

LinkedIn or other distribution platforms: post short snippets and ideas.
Your email list (can be a Newsletter): more in-depth and helpful information.
Your product or service: solves a specific problem they have.
Your next product or service: solves more problems that arise with the 1st one.

At each stage of the journey, you’ll make sure to suggest that they move to the next one.

You’ll be doing your audience a disservice if you don’t explain where to go next.

The most important thing here is to have a means of communicating with both potential clients and past ones, preferably all at once.

They won’t know how you can help if you don’t tell them!

Talk soon,

P.S.: I know I haven't sent you an email in a while... been busy with client work. But I'm pushing myself to start sending these weekly by starting a Substack publication, would love it if you'd go check it out!

P.P.S.: In the latest episode of LMM podcast, Dana and I busted 3 LinkedIn Myths that are keeping businesses stuck

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Subject: From potato-guns to the fastest growing SAAS