One Degree Off From a Gold Mine

0:00return. So, I own a very niche company in an obscure industry. >> Mhm. >> Um and I have no idea how to uh market it and clearly the marketing firms didn't know how to market it either. So, now I've got money tied up that should be used somewhere else. >> Yeah. >> Do you have any advice on >> Uh it's I work through B2B, but mostly it's B2C. >> Okay, what do you sell? >> So, what we do is we help people prepare for moves like just for an example is seniors moving into um

0:29>> Senior living? >> Yeah, but what we do is help them to go through a lifetime of stuff, decide what to do with all of their items per item. >> Uh-huh. >> So, we're not a junk hauler, we're not a mover. We just we literally hold their hands and help them through that process. >> That feels not that niche. >> It kind of Well, I don't have very much competition, so. >> Yeah, I mean I mean it's like that doesn't sound insane to me. >> Right. >> Um it it it feels like you're like one degree off from like a gold mine. Um

0:57>> That's how I feel, too. >> Yeah, right. So, um because I wonder if I wonder if it's like basically how cuz targeting uh people who have elderly parents is not difficult. >> Right. >> And so, it might be having two offers. One is like, "Hey, let me get you ready." And then when you are ready, let's pull the trigger. And that might be the way that you basically build out this massive pipeline and then they pay a little bit of money to kind of do the initial prep.

1:24And then that way you can say, "Listen, hey, cognitive decline actually happens overnight and it takes longer than you think and then happens faster than you can imagine. Listen, I've been there and it's a horror and you don't want to do it. You want them to be able to make these decisions when they're more cognizant. And so, let's knock this stuff out now. And then when it happens, you can pull the trigger in 30 days and get them into a home and we have recommendations there, which of course you get kickbacks from all the places you recommend." >> Yeah. And we've we've had that. We've we've followed someone from home into independent living into assisted living into memory care and then post-death.

1:50So, we follow families through that process. >> Which I love that. So, your LTV's probably huge. I'm guess I like I'm surprised that they had a hard time with this. Um so it may it may mean that you might just need to learn how to do this because I I genuinely don't think it's that complicated. Um you would want to use meta would probably be the the advertising platform that I would be on.

2:16That's where the oldest people are. Um and you're just going to have to experiment with lead magnets to just make sure that the right people are getting on the phone. But this shouldn't be a tremendous amount of money to build out. >> Yeah. >> Like this is like lead magnet to lead capture form to phone call. Like this is this is not a $100,000 build. This is like five grand in a weekend. >> Yeah, totally. >> You know what I mean? And so the issue probably comes down to the targeting of the audience and making sure that the copy is calling out the right people.

2:43Um do you sell more to the kids or to the people? >> Uh 50/50. >> Okay, right. Well then it's even easier cuz then I would just I would just target the people if I know that half of them are still, you know, aware enough to do this and I would spin it in a way that's like, "Hey, you don't want to be a burden." >> Yeah. >> Because that's probably what they don't want to be, right? Right. So that would probably be my angle. It's like, "Hey, are you afraid of this thing?" >> Yeah. Cool. Thanks. >> No, you bet. I do I do think that like you haven't you haven't stumbled on some magic thing that marketing doesn't work for.

3:08It is yet to happen. Sometimes for really high-ticket B2B, outbound is just the best approach. But I don't think that's where you're at. Like if you're like, "I only serve Fortune Fortune 100s." And like, yeah, don't run ads. >> Yes, sir. >> Hi Alex. It's Patrick from Germany. Thanks a lot for hosting us. It's been an amazing experience. Um so we struggled for like three years with the same problem.

3:33Uh I made one cardinal mistake of starting the business with a person who has the same experience. >> Mhm. >> And the same time commitment and the same money. >> Yeah. >> Um and so we are below 1 million right now. >> Okay. >> To get to you like in the next phase 1 to 3 million. >> Yeah. >> Um the easiest way to [ __ ] it up would be to just redo it, right? >> Not necessarily a lot again.

3:59>> Okay. >> Okay, I believe so. Maybe I'm wrong there. >> So, what's the question? What's the constraint? >> How would we think about separating the roles between the two of us now and I'm going forward because I guess it's like sales and delivery. >> Uh-huh. >> Should we just commit to that separation and >> Yeah, I don't think there's any like Yeah, two years. >> Yeah, the problem is if you if neither of you can agree on what the role needs to be in the business. And so Leila and I both started with a sales background.

4:25And so it just was like one of us had to make the call, one of us is going to be in charge of marketing and sales, the other one's going to be in charge of delivery and and team. And so Leila just took the delivery and team and I took the marketing and sales and that's how we split it. So, I don't think it's that um if you have the same skill set coming in, you can't do it. It's just that you need to quickly differentiate and specialize your role so that you can put all your focus towards the thing that matters most or that is the constraint for the business. >> Okay. Thanks.

4:51>> So, what part of the Like let me ask the follow-up. So, what's what's the constraint of the business right now? >> Sales. >> Okay. Who's in charge of sales? >> It would be me after this meeting. >> Okay, great. >> [laughter] >> He's like, I am the problem. >> Yeah. >> Well, good. >> So, then at the same time you have to be like, this means that if there's ever a customer issue, it's you. Like don't call me because I'm going to be spending all my time working pipeline. And then as long as you both keep your ends of the of the deal and you both work your asses off for it, then it can be a great partnership. If one of you doesn't work as hard, then it becomes an issue.

5:20>> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Yes, sir. >> Hey Alex, Chris from uh South Carolina. >> What's up? >> We have a personal injury law firm. So, car accidents, a lot of competition, a lot of noise, a lot of clowns. We try not to be the clowns. Um we've identified our constraint is more clients. >> Okay. >> And and how to get those clients most efficiently. So, >> Mhm. >> as a founder, what exactly. >> Yeah. >> How should what framework should I think through about where to allocate the resource within that you you know PPC ads, social, you know there's just so many different ways to

5:53>> B2B or B2C? Like to get the Are you really >> client yeah B2C B2C. >> Oh no, to get the to get the >> who's been hurt in the accident at that time when it there's a lot of people marketing to that person. >> I just want to make sure I'm clear. Do you do lead gen for law firms or you are a law firm? >> We are a law firm. >> Oh got it. Okay, I understood. My bad. >> through lead gen companies too and that's how we grew pretty fast cuz it's just like pay-for-play. >> Mhm. >> And now we're trying to build our own brand while also doing this. So

6:20>> Are you national or local? >> We're Southeast but really local to South Carolina right now. >> Mhm. You know what's really weird about the law space? I mean you probably already know this but it's it's like the number one, two, and three in every market own all the billboard space. >> Oh yeah. >> Um and then everyone else basically has to compete on PPC. >> Right. >> Um which is really interesting. I've just noticed that like specifically about law um which is it's usually and it's almost almost all PIs. It's all personal injury. >> Yeah.

6:45>> Um So I mean there's a reason those guys do the billboards. It's because they work. Uh but you have to have a a big enough amount of uh real estate and it's a it's a big bill. And so I guess the follow-up question is I think one of the things that I haven't seen as many people doing in terms of you know blue ocean even though it's a relatively older space is the social media side. Like there's tons of PPC and there's tons of billboard stuff. I don't see nearly as much on just running like Facebook ads and things like that um in terms of opportunity. Um but for you to do that, who do you need uh that currently isn't inside the business?

7:27>> Somebody who has the expertise. We've We've outsourced to marketing agencies and we just haven't gotten it. >> Yeah, so this is what I would do. So I would go and look at the firms that you like and I would headhunt their top media buyers and say whatever they're paying you, I can pay you more. And do all that stuff and just know that I can deliver all of it and just like work your magic and you'll have more autonomy here, you'll get a bump in title, whatever. Um that's probably what I would do as my fastest course of action because they're making a margin selling you those leads, which means that if you were able to generate the leads, it's like you could just print. So, that is what I would probably do. And depending on the size, sometimes there's some firms that are small and you might just be able to aqua-hire them and just bring two or three guys. But what I have found from like the really good media arbitrage guys, like insanely good PPC dudes, is

8:15>> [sighs and gasps] >> they're usually exceptional and and make a ton of money. And so, um I would probably sell a little bit of a story of an enterprise play sale because those PI, you know, PI law firms are very sellable. Um because it's really just like what's the reputation, what's the what's the um uh reliability of acquisition. And so, if you were to say, "Listen, your your PPC thing is not super sellable. Ours is like pay sellable. If we put our powers together, we both make more money." And so, maybe they get a small share of the upside um in terms of it all of this depends on obviously how good the guy is, what his track record is, et cetera.

8:50But that would probably be my approach if I were you. If you are a business owner and you are not growing as fast as you like, I'd like to give you a free gift. So, my team and I put together the $100 million scaling roadmap, which is basically 200 hours of us looking over all the portfolio companies we've had and what stages of growth they went through and more importantly where they got stuck and how they got past it. And so, we broke it into these 10 stages and we made this little kind of quiz thing where if you put in your business information, it'll tell you where you're at and the most important part for you, what to do for each of functions of the business across product, marketing, sales, customer success, recruiting, IT, human resources, and finance. And so, no matter what you're struggling with, someone else has already struggled with it and solved it. And so, I'd like to give you this thing absolutely free. You can go to acquisition.com/roadmap, plug in your business information, and if you want us to actually help you deconstruct the business and you're trying to scale, we'd love to help you out. On the thank you page, you can book a call with my team and we will look at the business, see if we can help, and if we can, we'll invite you out to Vegas and we'll do this in person live.