Servicebusiness aus der Vergleichbarkeit holen

0:00Unternehmer/Gast Hey, yeah. >> What's up, dude? Occumed. >> Yeah, that's uh that's my business. >> 18 million top line. Congratulations, dude. Stud. Stud status. Okay. 1.5 million bottom line. Heard. We got 5 minutes. What's your What's the constraint? What can I help you with? >> Sure. So, brief context. Uh we do employment medical evaluations. Mostly, we're selling to large companies or uh large employers, cities, counties, defense contractor agencies, those types of of companies.

0:30>> Okay. >> Our best client is going to be someone who's geographically dispersed because we manage network medical providers all throughout the country and then in about 50 other countries as well. Um And so, that's kind of our target audience. Um it's a fairly cost-competitive area. We mostly get clients through competitive RFPs. Occasionally, it's through word of mouth. We're currently doing next to no advertising or marketing. We basically grow through word of mouth or the occasional trade show and the RFP process. So, to speak. Um I I think one of the challenges is still uh two challenges. One, um I think we need a money model and improve money model and so, excited to get my hands on this book and work through some of that.

1:12Um And something that can bring clients in a little bit more easily and then over time, you know, increase the the ticket price because right now it's a you know, we're perceived as a commodity in in lots of instances, but how we operate is very different. Uh we've really good customer retention and like 95% plus. >> Yeah. >> Um and so, you know, if we can service them in any form or fashion, then we typically can can keep that going for, you know, years or decades.

1:40>> Heard. >> Um So, and aside from money model, the other thing that I think we could use is better awareness. I think not enough people outside of our specific niche of defense contracting know who we are. >> Heard. Yeah. >> And so, I I'm looking at potentially getting into some sort of um you know, uh uh content creation of some sort. Yeah, exactly. >> Yeah, yeah. Got it. Yeah. >> Um probably LinkedIn being as big as it can be is our you know, business. So,

2:09>> Yeah. >> um no experience in that whatsoever. Don't post content at all and uh I'm on with the experts. So, >> So, you got you you you brought up three different things. So, I want to like let's just take them one at a time. So, one there's the like I want to basically increase the brands so I have, you know, more pricing power and more inbound inbound deal flow. That's number one, right? Uh I'm doing this in reverse order cuz I'm just rewinding what you said. Uh the next thing is that you need you need pricing power. So, you were selling commoditized, you know, good and so it's like how can we create more pricing power? So, brand is one element of that and the other is just the value itself, right? And so, um I don't know if you've been on this live stream that long, but the problem that you're having is a super common one. Um and basically we need to pick one angle so that you can decommoditize.

2:54And so, uh Sharad and I were talking about this yesterday for a different business, but it's like you have the price and then you have you have sorry, you have the service and then you have the consideration, right? And so, we only have commoditization and I know you have to respond to an RFP, but there's still the benefits that you can uh throw in on top that make your service different because you can still win in RFPs without it being lowest price.

3:19So, do you think you can win on speed? Do you think you can win on ease? What do you think you you can win on risk more than anybody else? >> Yeah, I think we do particularly well um on risk and speed. >> Okay. So, then basically again, I I I I sound like a broken record with this particular thing um because I just it you want to get stats to demonstrate the cost on a global level. And so, the big thing is that you want to approach their business from a holistic perspective, rather than try to win on a component of the business. And so, when you can look at the whole system, you can start pricing against value, which is what they are ultimately deducing from the RFP, but they limit the scope because they think that by doing that they're going to get the most competitive bids.

4:09But you just need to have a better understanding of the business overall to understand the other levers so that you can reframe the pricing so that you can decommoditize against the other bids. >> Yes. Yeah, so I think what I mean to say is like the proof of how we save them money through other things that aren't our price, but that they're spending money on. They're just not captured in the fees that we charge. >> Can I give you a hack? >> Please.

4:33>> At the end of your RFP, put one to three case studies, or ideally the case study that is most similar to the client that you were, you know, that you're bidding for. And then have that client do the sale for you. Like, even though they weren't the cheapest, boy did they save me the most money, and this is how they did it. Speed and risk. You know, I mean, and then they they they hit on the buttons that you hardcore focus on within the RFP.

5:02>> Awesome. >> Yeah, so you'll win more bids just by throwing that in. And what's crazy is that so like no one does that. >> Correct. >> It's like no one does it. >> Yeah. >> Do you want to throw something in front? >> Yeah, I have one idea. By the way, the case study closes whenever you think RFP, think case study close. That is the cuz everyone reads the RFP and and all the folks in the RFP mode are instantly in that commoditized like I'm looking for the price mode, but once they see that and they also see the case study, then the if the delta is not that much, you get you get the win. The second thing I I don't know if you can do this, Andy, which is is there any way to to include a provision in the RFPs, which we've suggested in the past, where any new services that you can probably do consulting for that you would automatically charge us at a 25% discount. And all that it means is that you're opening the door for consulting one-time consulting opportunities that you can do during the term of the RP RFP. And they're like, "Oh Mash, you know, Alex is such a good guy. Even though he's not only giving us this RP, if he chooses to one-time consulting within this, we can also get a 25% off."

6:01So, sometimes what I found there is once you get you can still get a one-time kind of consulting job, which you can then turn into adding to some recurring revenue after. Is there Maybe that's an idea. >> Okay. >> Also, depending on the size of the business, you probably seen this before, but it's significantly harder to get approval to get the bids Sorry, to get the money flowing. But once the money spigot is turned on, it's much easier to adjust scope and get an increase in budget than it is to get the budget turned on to begin with, which is what what Sharan's doing. It's kind of like you you have your RFP thing one, which is what everyone's doing. But then you add in the case study piece, which is thing two, which differentiates a little bit more, and then basically resells the primary sales points of the RFP. But then in addition to off addition to that, you're saying, "Hey, don't worry about it. I also have this you know, one-off consulting. So, if you do find someone cheaper, I can help you bridge the gap." But now your foot's in the door, and then you can cross-sell those services, but now you already have a rider there. And so they can start jack You can start basically inserting yourself in these other process. Again, this depends on the size of the business and how their procurement process works.

6:56>> Yeah. >> And if you're curious, anyone who's watching like, "Why I have any knowledge of this?" The first thing I had out of college was I did space, cyber, and intelligence for a boutique strategy firm, and we all did was was public sector contracts. So, the RFP world. I told you I have this very odd mix of background. >> But I think the way to think about it I think you nailed it. The way to think about it is every time you're selling something to a client, if you're in a sales process, you're you if you should be thinking about it from a value frame as to what what kind of hit and you should be thinking about it from an RFP frame on the floor.

7:26>> Yeah. >> Every sales process People are always like, "Well, what is my USP?" No, they're thinking about it. When people walk in they're saying some are RFP-minded buyers. So, you have to have the RFP frame on the bottom, which whenever you think RFP frame, think case study close. And then when you have have value frame, you can say, "Hey, here's all this other thing I can do for you. So, if you just approach any sales conversation as a synthetic RFP conversation, your chances of winning go up significantly. >> Yeah, it's like at the frame that and like I think giving great examples of this of like when we want to set the frame for the entire conversation, like the first paragraph of an RFP, obviously you have the pieces that are required, but I want to set the frame as early as possible on this. So, that I can say like this is how we approach these things. So, like if someone were to say, "Hey, get me the cheapest leads."

8:07You don't actually want the cheapest leads. You want the highest ratio of dollars in to dollars out from customers, which might not and very likely will be not the cheapest leads, but the best leads that convert at the highest percentage at the highest prices. Right? And so again, it's like we have to have some very simple analogy that we can reframe and decommoditize ourselves. So, it's like listen, you want the best return, not the lowest price. >> Yeah. >> Makes sense. I have one question about the case study close.

8:35>> Yeah, yeah. >> Is it effective if I can't disclose the customer, like they won't actually do the talking for me and I have to anonymize it because of >> it's fine. Yeah, it's fine. >> Yeah. And and >> You can also whitewash it, too. >> Yeah, you can whitewash it. And the way to do that is to provide as many meta detail details as possible of the about the customer. So, like for example, if you see, you know, Alex will talk about providing proof in a testimonial. If you cannot put Alex Hormozi, you can say AH Baltimore, Maryland, right? You can do you you want to go as close to providing the the reasonable believability of that of that testimonial as possible. So, get as close to it as you can.

9:12>> So, cuz I know you you donated 800 bucks, so I appreciate it. Um, but inside the proof playbook that's in the sales system that you have for free, um, there's a the 13-point proof checklist. Basically, when you're going through the case study, check off every single one of them that you can that's just not the the name. >> Right. >> Makes sense. >> Cool. >> So good, man. Hey, hey, I want to say one last thing for everybody just for them to understand.

9:37People will talk to Alex will share with you a lot saying you know, I need to build a brand right away, but this is a great example of building an awesome business. And he said that I've never posted any content. You can still run a great business. So, first off, kudos to you, man. Like, you built a great business. Yes, it's in Yes, it's a little commoditized, but you have now have a chance to You have dry powder to build and stack a new money model on top of it. So, kudos to you for building this. It's a great example for others to saying, "Hey, I You don't need a brand all the time. You just need a great money model."

10:05>> Well, a lot of uh what's happened recently has been, you know, secondary I think to some of the readings and and learnings from Alex. So, I actually really appreciate you and and Shawn your advice today and in the past. Um it's gone a long way. And so, I think you're you're really hitting the mark in terms of helping entrepreneurs. >> Thanks, man. Appreciate that. >> Thank you for donating to >> If you are a business owner and you are not growing as fast as you'd like, I'd like to give you a free gift. So, my team and I put together the $100 million scaling road map, which is basically 200 hours of us looking over all the portfolio companies we've got and what stages of growth they went through and more importantly, where they got stuck and how they got past it. And so, we've broken 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 acquisitions.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 just 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.