$10K Blueprint

UGURUS
BY DIGITALOCEAN
Table of Contents

Fundamentals: How to Start Earning More Right Now!

Set an Annual Reminder
Update Billing Platform
Communicating with Clients
Strategy 1: Your Customer
Customer Segment and Problem
Customer Segment and Channels
Customer Segment and Revenue
Before You Fill Out Your First Canvas
Create an Avatar Value Proposition
Find Your Champion
Recruit Your Early Adopters

Sales 1: Interaction Model

The Model
Projects 1: Anatomy of a $10k Project
Fee­based Projects
Value­based Projects
Strategy 2: Creating Marketing Momentum
Let’s build Marketing Momentum!
Sales 2: Artful Discovery
Proven Process
Weekly Meeting
Strategy 3: Your Website, Your Lead Funnel
High Value Content Opt­in
The Simple Site
Sales 3: Proposal Presentations
Critical steps:
Handle Objections
Projects 3: Expand Your Team
How to Hire
Hiring Process
Onboarding Process

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$10k Blueprint
Fundamentals: How to Start Earning More Right Now!
Increasing your target hourly rate right now is one of the simplest ways to increase your revenue
,
but more importantly, your profit. Later in the program and Blueprint, we will cover techniques o
n how to build more value to increase your rates even further, but the first step is changing the
hourly you compute your estimates and invoices with.
Many web professionals work on a “fixed­-
price” basis and do not identify with an hourly rate. The
objection is: “But I don’t charge my clients by the hour.” This belief is false. All service
businesses are charging by the hour. They are “time for money” businesses.
Other web professionals set an hourly rate, but then end up not earning that much because they
fail to include time such as: client meetings, project management, or admin tasks like setting up
accounts and billing.
If you don’t have an hourly rate defined, or even if you do have an hourly rate defined but are
unsure if you are actually making that much per hour, simply do the following:

1. Add up the total revenue earned of your last three “typical” projects in $dollars (A)
2. Add up the total time (all time) it took you to deliver those three projects (B)
3. Divide A by B and you get X (A / B = X)
4. X = your effective hourly rate

From this point you now know what you currently charge per hour. At uGurus, we speak to many
web professionals about hourly rate and price. Here is what we find the spectrum looks like:

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Now choose how much you are going to increase your rate:

● 10% (minimum increase) [almost zero risk of losing clients]

● 20% (target increase) [low risk of losing clients]
● 50% (overachiever) [might lose some clients]
● 100% (rockstar) [you will lose some clients]

The question you have to ask yourself is:

“How can I get the most value for my time based on what the market will allow?”

And NOT:

“How much do I think my time is worth?”

Set your new rate by multiplying X, your effective hourly rate, by 1 plus your rate increase
percentage [X * 1.1 = Y, your new hourly rate (for a 10% increase)] or [X * 1.5 = Y, your new
hourly rate (for a 50% increase)].
Set an Annual Reminder
Assuming that you are constantly improving, gaining new experience, and are delivering better
quality projects all the time, you should increase your hourly rate at least once per year.

Set an annual reminder in your calendar for the following day each year to make sure to remind
yourself, it’s time to bump up your rate:

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MONTH / DAY

Tip: Remember, use a tool like Google Calendar to set a yearly recurring reminder to
increase your rate. I like to use the “Email” reminder as a way to put the task right in my
inbox and not something I can snooze.
Update Billing Platform
If you use a platform like Harvest or Freshbooks, make sure that you login and update your billing
rate immediately. It’s not just enough to tell customers, you need to make sure that your invoices
are ready to start collecting based on this higher rate today.

Remember:

● All billed services that you provide should be billed under a single hourly rate.
● Don’t value your time with some clients less than others.
● Don’t let old clients convince you that they should be charged less because they’ve been
with you a long time. They should get charged the most as they’ve gotten the most value
from you!
● Charge one rate for all services your agency provides. It’s simpler for your clients and
more profitable for you.

Communicating with Clients

There are two key places that you will need to communicate your new rates: 1) to your new
opportunites and 2) to your existing clients.

New Opportunities
When asked your hourly rate, make sure you do this:

● Respond with confidence, “I bill $[Y, your new effective hourly rate] per hour.”
● Use as an opportunity to build value for your services by following that up with: “But I find
hourly rates misleading. I help you [value proposition, example: find customers using the
internet] and typically work within a fixed­price fee structure. The only time I bill by the
hour is for small work after our initial large project. In my experience, as long as I am
delivering value that far outweighs my rate, my customers seem pretty happy.”
● You can also follow up with a question, “Which is more important, hourly rate or return on
investment?”
● Finally, get back to what’s important, “As long as my rate isn’t a showstopper for you, I’d
like to dive deeper into your business. What did you say [pickup back in discovery,
example: your clients number one pain point] was?

Remember: Don’t let your client get hung up on price. Be sure of your price, your hourly,
and why you believe you are so valuable. Confidence sells!

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What NOT to say:

● “I don’t have an hourly price because that’s not how I bill.”

This is very mushy and misleading.
● “It depends on the type of work I’m doing.”
This means you do not believe your time is always as valuable as other times. not good
for confidence.
● “I don’t tell people my rate unless I work with them.”
Hiding information or beating around the bush is a terrible way to build trust and
credibility. If you think your potential client can’t afford you, then you shouldn’t be working
with them. But let them make that decision.

Existing Clients
While increasing your rates is a good thing for you, few clients see this as “great news.”
Remember that you are delivering bad news for them. They might know it’s coming because
they have been paying under­market rates for some time, but I would refrain from being too
excited about this announcement.

Remember: While you can “explain” why your rates went up, don’t feel that you need to
immediately be defensive. It can be good to “sell a little” to your existing clients to make
this an easier pill to swallow, but it’s not absolutely required. Businesses increase prices
all the time. It happens.

Here are a few tactics for spreading the news that have worked well:

1. Just do it.
Don’t tell anyone. Change the number in your billing system and if the client calls, explain
that your rates went up. This is the easiest, most efficient, and fastest way to increase
your rates.
2. Single, concise communication.
Use an email program to broadcast a very to the point message about your rate
increase. While effective, not the most personal approach and maybe not a good use of
marketing.
3. One­on­one call.
Call each of your clients to let them know about the rate increase. Make sure you use this
as an opportunity to provide value to your clients and possibly talk to them about any
future work potential.
4. The grand offer.
One of the best tactics that I’ve ever done with a rate increase is to turn it into a
promotional opportunity. Instead of just communicating to your entire client list that you
are increasing your rate, let them know that your rate is increasing AND for a limited time
they can pre­buy hours at your current rate (or even a deeper discounted rate). The first

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 time I did this, I generated about $10,000 in revenue for my business. The second time
over $25,000.

Remember: Whichever direction you choose, stay steadfast in your decision. Your time
is worth more and you need to make this change in your business now.

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Strategy 1: Your Customer
When asked about a “target market,” “ideal customer profile,” or “niche,” most web professionals
get immediately defensive. There is a false assumption that if one chooses a tight market to
work within that they will be leaving business and opportunity on the table.

The reverse is true: Focus breeds opportunity.

First we must understand what defining, or a lack of defining effects with our businesses
strategy. To get a quick one­page overview of your business model, let’s use the Lean Canvas
as a tool…

Before filling out your own canvas, it’s important for us to illustrate some key relationships
between the various boxes (and for a more detailed walkthrough, please watch the self­paced
videos in the $10k Portal).

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Customer Segment and Problem
Different customers in different markets have different problems. For example, a restaurateur's
top problem with his website might be that he can’t take online reservations. If you have a great
solution for this problem, then that should be a part of your communication to potential
customers.

But if you aren’t committed to a market, you might be scared to talk about this solution as it might
turn off an accountant who does not have this same problem. By simply not defining a customer
segment, you limit your ability to communicate effectively about the problems you solve.
Customer Segment and Channels
A key to marketing your business successfully is identifying channels where you can reach large
groups of potential customers for as low cost as possible. When you lack a clear customer
segment, the types of channels to you are very generic and expensive. When I think of trying to
reach all “small businesses” in my area, my local Business Journal comes to mind. The last I
checked, their smallest advertisement costs $10,000 per issue.

However, if I were to drill down by simply choosing a more defined customer segment like
“independently owned restaurants in Denver,” I would easily find an organization dedicated to
that niche that has a lot more affordable options. Matter of fact, an organization called Eat
Denver regularly hosts events I could attend for free and organizes webinars for restaurant
owners.

Remember: The smaller your target segment, the easier it is to brainstorm ways to reach
them. Most of the time it’s also easier to reach your potential customers from multiple
directions, increasing the chances that you become “known” in that market.
Customer Segment and Revenue
Our goal is to help you sell your first $10,000 web project. A requirement for a client to be able to
afford a $10k project is that they must have the revenue to support a web project of this size.

An annual rule of thumb marketing budget is:

● 5% of revenue to maintain current size

● 10% of revenue to grow in size

While these are generalities and there is no “one size fits all” calculation, it will provide some
clarity as to if your customer segment can support this level of project.

Sample Company Revenue with Projected Marketing Spend Based on Goals

Revenue Maintenance (5%) Growth (10%)

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 $50,000 $2,500 $5,000

$100,000 $5,000 $10,000

$250,000 $12,500 $25,000

$1,000,000 $50,000 $100,000

$5,000,000 $250,000
As you can see from the above chart, if the Customer Segment you are pursuing is not growth
$500,000
oriented and only doing $100,000 in annual revenue, the possibility of them spending $10,000 o
n a website is low. However, if you are pitching a growth oriented business doing over a million
dollars in annual revenue, then a $10,000 website project is well within the bounds of their annu
al marketing spend.
Later we will review when and how to ask about revenue. But for now, you need to realize that
who you target as customers directly affects your ability to get bigger projects before you even
speak with your first lead.
Before You Fill Out Your First Canvas

Selecting a well defined Customer Segment does not limit future opportunity. Over the years I
have worked with many different industries. However, to have any chance of a strategy getting
traction for you, defining a Customer Segment is a must. We’ll talk about this later when we get
to “Creating Marketing Momentum” but for now, don’t think of this as something that you are
deciding once and for all.

Use the Canvas as a place to brainstorm and think into the future. Allow yourself to fully explore
ideas around a potential business and service model.

Then we’ll talk about how you can validate this Canvas by talking to customers.

Remember: Completing a Lean Canvas for your business and service should only take
about fifteen minutes. The power in the Canvas is that you can create possibilities in
rather short spurts without having to fully commit to an idea. If you are getting stuck,
simply write down whatever idea you is causing an obstacle and move on.

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Additional Resource: Checkout the Lean Canvas samples in the $10k Portal for more
examples.
Create an Avatar

As you refine your Customer Segment, you’ll need to get to know who your Ideal Customer is.
We do this by developing an Avatar. This is simply a mockup of who you would ultimately like to
work with. This allows you to think of an individual when you are crafting your marketing
message versus trying to attract everyone. When you are specific with your marketing message,
it will deliver a more potent punch and will attract more ideal customers.

Qualifiers
These are high level constraints that you can use to search for potential customers. Imagine
going to a service like Linkedin and searching for your Ideal Customer. These are the types of
search queries that you can provide a service like that to narrow down your search.
● Geography: Where does your Ideal Customer live?

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 ● Revenue: How much annual revenue does your Ideal Customer make?

● Industry: What industry or market can you target?

● Team Size: How many employees do they have?

Qualities
These are traits that are more difficult to search based on, unless you are able to use a service
like Facebook that allows this type of filtering.
● Demographics: What is their specific age, gender, or interest?

● Psychographics: personality, goal, or mindset

When thinking about the difference between “Customer Segment” and “Ideal Customer”, it’s
important to note a few things…

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Value Proposition
Your Value Proposition is a single sentence that tells your potential client exactly what you do in
terms of the value that it provides them. Saying that you are a “web designer” immediately
makes you a commodity. Millions of people do web design and many for a lot cheaper than you
want to. Your Value Prop should have three key traits:

1. Be different.
2. Target early adopters.
3. Focus on finished story benefits.

UVP = End Result Customer Wants + Specific Period of Time + Address Objections

Examples:

Get more sales in twelve weeks without the frustration of DIY website solutions.

Build an online business in ten weeks that converts leads without the uncertainty of a freelancer.

Your turn. Brainstorm a few options for your business.

[insert box for Value Prop brainstorm]

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Find Your Champion
A key concept to gaining traction in a target market is that of developing a Champion. It will not
always happen, but if possible, you need to develop a strong Champion relationship.

A Champion is the customer or contact that you already know in your chosen Customer
Segment that best represents your Ideal Customer Profile.

Champions are super­connectors to other people within a Customer Segment.

Champion Examples:

● Leaders of associations
● Veterans of an industry
● Thought leaders

Recruit Your Early Adopters

Your early adopters are three to five customers that are as close to your Ideal Customer as

possible. These potential customers will be crucial for you to build Marketing Momentum b
y
getting to deeply understand the pains and problems that exist in your Customer Segment.
You can often provide Early Adopters an incentive to work wit

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Sales 1: Interaction Model
The cornerstone to selling higher value projects is to increase the number of interactions you
have with your clients during the sales process. This accomplishes a few things:

1. Sets up a mechanical process to build a relationship with your potential client.

2. Reduces unwanted urgency in the sales process.
3. Gives you time to do Discovery with a capital “D”. (a necessary step to find problems and
build value)
4. Uses a series of pre­defined interactions to filter out non­buyers (tire kickers, time
wasters and penny pinchers).
5. Reduces stress in your sales process by eliminating The Chase.

Remember: Never leave a meeting without a scheduled commitment for the next
meeting. This will keep you from falling into “follow­up hell” with your potential client.
The Interaction Model relies on meetings being chained together to work.

But also: If you decide during the Interaction Model that you no longer want to work with
a potential client, then hit the eject button. Do not continue scheduling meetings if you
have decided it is no longer a good opportunity for your business.
The Model

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Interaction 0: Cold Call
Any unscheduled interaction with a potential client.

Objective:
● Intake lead (contact information)
● Schedule appointment
● Overcome objections to scheduling appointment
● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 1: Qualification
Decide if you want to work with the potential client. This is them pitching you (even though they
will think it’s the other way around).

Objective:
● Ask qualification questions
● Score against your Ideal Customer Profile
● Identify red flags
● Get buy­in to commence Discovery

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 ● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 2: Discovery 1
Learn the business. Discovery is about a mutually agreed upon exploration of your potential
client’s business.

Objective:
● Learn about their business
● Intake stated needs
● Understand their buying process
● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 2.1: Discovery 2

Learn about their customer. Most businesses have never built out a customer avatar. Work with
your potential client to get a deeper understanding of who they want to attract and how to find
them.

Objective:
● Create a customer avatar
● Understand customer problem and business solution
● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 2.2: Discovery 3

Time to look at external factors. Exploring where your potential client fits in the market and how
they view themselves as different. Both based on their perception and the internet’s reality.

Objective:
● Market research
● Competitive study
● Search, social, and paid traffic analysis
● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 2.3: Discovery 4

Let’s talk strategy and tactics. Work with your potential client to see what kind of opportunities
that exist in their market for various marketing and growth strategies.

Objective:
● Email list building
● Lead / sales conversion funnels
● Inbound and content marketing
● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 2.4: Discovery N

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Depending on your potential client’s business and requirements, you might have to conduct
additional discovery meetings. This could be with outside vendors or with your customer.

Objective:
● Learn whatever you need to know to find problems worth solving
● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 3: Solution Presentation

Present a draft solution of your project without a formal proposal. Show high level project, scope,
budget, goals, strategy, and tactics.

Objective:
● Pivot solution before formal proposal
● Identify objections prior to submitting proposal
● Verbally review all big ideas
● Start of pitch
● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 4: Proposal Presentation

The big pitch. Reviewing your proposal page by page, section by section, provides you an
opportunity to make sure your potential client comprehends why you are doing everything.

Objective
● Cover “why” of each section
● Ensure comprehension
● Address objections in real­time
● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 4.1: Proposal Q & A

Clients will almost always ask for time to review a proposal following your presentation. Instead
of allowing the opportunity to go into unscheduled territory, queue up a question answer session.

Objective:
● Answer questions about proposal
● Intake any revisions necessary
● Handle objections
● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 4.2: Proposal Revised Q & A

Just like in Discovery, your proposal review, question answer, and revision cycles can go on for
many rounds depending on the complexity of the client and lots of other factors. Continue
serving up Q & A sessions until the client is ready to move forward.

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Objective:
● Answer questions about proposal
● Intake any revisions necessary
● Handle objections
● Schedule next meeting

Interaction 5: Work Plan & Close

When there are no more questions or revisions to the proposal, it’s time to schedule your project
kickoff meeting. Part of scheduling this meeting requires you to ask for the business. No tricks
here, simply, “We’re excited to move forward, do you want to work with us? I’d like to schedule
our kickoff meeting.”

Objective:
● Handle objections
● Close the deal
● Get signature and check
● Introduce team and resources

Tip: While we recommend that your $10k+ sales process should consist of between 7
and 10 interactions, we know that might be overwhelming when just starting out. This is
why we reduced the Interaction Model down to 5 Key Interactions. Most web
professionals are currently selling their projects with only one or two interactions (cold
call to meeting to emailed proposal and chase). Try simply adding one interaction to your
existing process, working through an opportunity, then add another on the next
opportunity until you feel comfortable with the whole process.

But Also: We also know that every deal and opportunity is different. Sometimes you
won’t need the full model, but be warned that by spending more time with clients on the
front side of a deal almost always results in a higher value project and a stronger
relationship with your client.

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Projects 1: Anatomy of a $10k Project
There are two key ways that you can sell a $10,000 web project:

● Fee­based (all about the Scope)

● Value­based (all about the Return)

When selling projects in the $1,500 to $8,000 range, we know based on our experience working
with thousands of web professionals that the core thing you are selling is a website. You might
be including a small amount of internet marketing services, but it is not a key part of your value
proposition.

We think that as long as you can build a core website, you will be able to learn the missing
strategy elements to turn the website into a higher value asset for your client.

Fee-based Projects

Here is a typical $10,000 fee­based project:

Planning ($500+)
● Project setup (< 1 hour)
● Timeline & milestones (< 1hour)
● Surveys (1 hour+)

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 ● Business
● Design
● Sitemap (1 hour+)
● Content inventory (1 hour+)

Conversion Strategy ($1,000+)

● Customer profile brief (1 hours+)
● Visitor workflow (1 hours+)
● Sales letter exercise (2 hours+)
● Opt­in page sales copy (5 hours+)
● Autoresponder series (5 hours+)

(Scope per Target Customer Segment)

Content ($1,000+)
● Page copy
○ Write 350 words ($200+/page)
○ Edit
● Product copy
○ Write 100 words ($50+/product)
○ Edit
● Photos
○ Stock (pass­through + 20%)
○ Custom (50­100% markup)
● Video
○ Stock (pass­through + 20%)
○ Custom (50­100% markup)

SEO ($1,000)
● On­site keyword optimization ($100/term)
● Local page claim ($100/property)
○ Google local
○ Bing local
● Local directory claim ($100/property)
○ Yelp
○ Citysearch
○ Industry specific directories

Design ($2,500+)
● Moodboards (3 hours per board)
● Design
○ Template (select from theme site, 2 hours+)
■ Customization (5 hours+)
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 ○ Custom design (20 hours+ per concept)
● Mobile/responsive (10 hours+)

Website Build ($2,500+)

● Base template setup (10 hours+)
● Pages ($100/page)
● Custom Modules
○ Priced per module based on estimate
● Setup tools
○ Google Analytics (1 hour+)
○ Webmaster Tools (1 hour+)
● Browser test (3 hours+)

Email Marketing Template ($500+)

● Custom design based on site design (3 hours+)
● Email and browser test (2 hours+)

Completion ($500+)
● Go­live/launch
○ Final Q/A (5 hours+)
○ DNS switch (1 hour+)
○ Email routing/setup (1 hour+)
● Warranty
○ 30 day post­launch (10 hours+)
○ Items within scope, no questions asked

Training ($500+)
● 3 x 1 hour sessions (structured as credits)
● Basic CMS training
● Custom module training
● Email marketing & blogging

Value-based Projects
As you build a reputation and track record for being able to provide a high value return to your
customers, your ability to move away from charging based on time and towards the value you
provide will increase.

You will need to start to prove:

● How much traffic are you able to drive ($ per visit)

● How many leads can you drive ($ per lead)
● How many sales can you drive ($ or % per sale)

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 ● How many conversions can you drive ($ per conversion)

Your price when charging based on these metrics is a limit of how much return you believe you
can provide (and you can prove based on previous case studies).

Depending on how much value you believe you can drive, you can either charge 2x or up to 10x
for your services depending on the margins and risk tolerance of your client. A 10x return is a
good rule of thumb for incredibly high perceived value and return on investment.

Blended Approach
While building up your value­based selling skills, you can begin to use goals and metrics as a
way to validate why you charge a higher per hour rate and fee schedule than your competition.
This can become a key differentiator for you in the sales process.

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Strategy 2: Creating Marketing Momentum
Use your planning work from Strategy 1 to seed a deeper look into your business strategy. We
want 10k’ers to attract more business than you pursue. This is sometimes called “Inbound”
marketing. We call it Momentum.

First lets take a look at how Momentum is created by analyzing our Marketing Toolbox…

By understanding how your Channel is directly affected by your Customer Segment, Problem,
Solution, and Revenue model, you will be able to use this information from your one page Lean
Canvas to build out a more complex go­to­market strategy.

Here is how Momentum is built:

● Champions help you clarify your market position and introduce you to Early Adopters
● Early Adopters refine your position and point you towards potential Channel Partners and
other key organizations like Associations
● Associations and Channel Partners will open up high leverage Content Marketing
activities (1 to many)
● Publishers will help you get super leverage

Here is how Momentum is lost:

● By not defining a Customer Segment

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 ● Not being able to work through a market and gain unique experience
● Lacking easily accessible high­leverage marketing activities (1 to many)
● Trying to work with everyone, but limiting yourself to low­leverage activities (1 to 1)

Let’s build Marketing Momentum!

(based on your conversations with your

Brainstorm a list of possible Channel Partners
Champion and Early Adopters)

Brainstorm a list of Associations that your Customer Segment finds relevant

Brainstorm a list of Publishing Outlets that your Customer Segment finds relevant

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Based on your research, what Content Marketing mediums are popular in this Customer
Segment?

What are 10 possible specific topics that you could write or present on to this Customer
Segment through a Channel?

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Sales 2: Artful Discovery
The single most important quality to bring to any sales interaction is curiosity. Learning how and
when to ask “why?” in your sales process can lead you to opportunities that your customer did
not know existed prior to speaking with you. The art of finding these problems, and then working
with your potential client to build a proposed solution that solves that problem will deliver high
worth projects to you over and over.

I find the best way to illustrate Discovery is through conditional mindmaps that carry you through
potential conversation and situation trees.

(Link)

Projects 2: Project Management Made Simple

Two things are lacking in almost every web professionals business:

1. A proven process to guide each of your projects to success

2. A pulse to make sure your projects are launched on time

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Project processes are best delivered through a series of “stages” with pre­defined checklists for
each stage. When you don’t have a defined process, the act of “inventing” your process on each
new project creates incredible waste. Not only that, but it also creates uncertainty for you and
your customer which leads to a negative overall experience.

Reminder: It is not uncommon for clients to negatively view a service business at the
completion of a project due to the project taking far too long and being left in the dark for
the majority of the timeline.

Proven Process

We launched hundreds of web projects using a process that looked like this:

Depending on your individual project scope, goals, and client, each project would have some
things that we needed to add or remove, but having a boilerplate to start from kept us consistent.

This also allowed us to do a pre and post mortem on each project to improve our process each
time around.
Weekly Meeting

After launching hundreds of projects and trying dozens of project management tactics, we
settled on one simple, mechanical tool that revolutionized how we did business with our
customers.

The Standing Weekly Meeting

From the start of a project and for the duration until it was live and through warranty, either a
project manager or project lead would keep a standing, weekly meeting with the client on the
books. This meeting was always at the same time, same day every week.

Here is the framework:

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Strategy 3: Your Website, Your Lead Funnel
Most web professionals think that their website should be a creative expression of their own
work. I’ve personally been there ­wanting to make sure every pixel is perfect, that the portfolio
glistens, and is an ultimate representation of your original work. While this desire is founded in a
good place, the results are rarely what you desire.

Remember: Like when we are talking to our potential clients, the #1 problem a website
can solve is to help you get more customers. Your website is no exception.

First ask yourself the three golden questions about your homepage:

● What is it about?
● Who is it for?
● What do I get?

Additional critical questions to ask yourself about your own website:

● Do I have a headline that catches attention and speaks to my potential clients pain?
● Do I communicate my compelling value proposition?
● Is my websites setup as a sales funnel?
● Are there at least two obvious calls­to­action per page?
● Do I have a high­value content opt­in that appeals to my Customer Segment?

Things to avoid:

● Leading with a complete list of your services

● Using commodity words like “web design” in your headlines

High Value Content Opt-in

Just like your clients’ websites, you need to capture leads that are not yet ready to inquire about
your services.

1. Interview your Champion or Early Adopters about what their #1 problem is with their
website or online presence.
2. Use that information to create a simple, 2­3 page guide that solves that problem.
3. Add an email opt­in to every page of your website in a prominent position using a tool like
HelloBar.
4. When the customer adds their email address to your list, make sure the autoresponder
with the promised resources is a personal email from your email address. Keep your text
short and invite them to ask you any questions directly in that email.

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Remember: The more value you can pack into this free resource, the better. This lead
magnet works as your first sales interaction with the customer. It is the first time you
engage with them by sending this resource.

The Simple Site

It never fails. Every web professional I talk to is almost always, “redoing their website.” There is a
saying about the town cobbler never having shoes for his kids; he’s too busy making shoes for
everyone else.

Think back to how we create Marketing Momentum in your business by choosing a target
Customer Segment, recruiting a niche Champion and Early Adopters. When it comes to your
website, understanding the pains and problems within this Customer Segment are far more
important than building a fifty page portfolio. I have seen one page websites with very little text
and work history convert far more leads for a web professional than a fancy animated parallax
portfolio.

Remember: When you don’t have a tight target, your marketing doesn’t connect with
who you are trying to attract. It doesn’t matter how great your website looks, if it doesn’t

connect with your user, it is a waste of effort.

Here is a one page formula that you can build and swap out for your existing website in a day.

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This page is built from a modified “David Frey 12 Step Sales Letter” framework
:
1. Get attention 2. Identify the problem 3. Provide the solution
4. Present your credentials

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5. Show the benefits 6. Give social proof 7. Make your offer 8. Inject scarcity
9. Give a guarantee 10. Call to action 11. Give a warning 12. Close with a reminder
Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/2/frey2.asp#ixzz3AwRDq9co

From this simple site framework, you can slowly add to the site to make it more robust, but onl
y
do that if it’s going to improve the websites ability to collect leads for your web practice. Take
a look at eChimp’s (a $10k grad) application of this framework for their own website:

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$10K Blueprint | Page 34
$10K Blueprint | Page 35
Sales 3: Proposal Presentations
“People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you
believe.”
­Simon Sinek, Start with Why (watch TED talk)

A proposal is a What, your presentation is your Why.

Critical steps:

● Never just email a proposal.

● Present specific scope of work with budget and timeline.
● When possible, show – not tell.
● Explain why you do everything you are proposing.
● Schedule your next meeting. (the proposal Q & A)

Handle Objections
Objections happen any time a client asks a question, brings up an issue, or states a problem. It
is easy to be overwhelmed with an objection or be caught off guard. However, proper objection
handling can be one of the most powerful ways to build trust and credibility and ultimately land
you the deal. Example objections and scripts to handle:
Objection: “Let me think about it…”

Handle: “Absolutely. I don’t want to move forward with this project unless you are certain that t
his is going to be the right move to take your business to the next level. How about we meet in a
week to review any questions you have about the proposal after you’ve had some time to think
about it… does next Thursday at 2PM work for you?”
Objection: “I think we need a new website, ours it terrible, unprofessional and hasn’t
been updated in years, but the owner of the company is the one who handles that and
is really busy right now.”

Handle: “Not a problem. How about this, can we call the owner right now and see if he’s
interested in talking about how we can turn the website into a lead generation tool to drive more
sales? We’ll only take up five minutes of his time. If he’s not happy with where we are going with
the conversation, then I promise we won’t take up his time. Do you think he would be unhappy
with more leads?”

Objection: “Why do you cost so much more than [insert competition name]…?”

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Handle: “Great question! I actually find that we cost more than a lot of companies in our area. I’ve
spent some time looking into this, and it turns out that most of our competition are really focused
on building websites, while our goal is to help you get more customers using the internet. Sure,
we use websites, search, social, and a ton of tools and platforms which they might as well, but
our stated goal is to grow your business. We could probably be as cheap as them if all we did
was build a website and leave after the project. Curious, do you want a website or more
customers?”

Get More! Additional objections and handles can be found in the $10k Portal under
“Objection Dashboard”.

$10K Blueprint | Page 37

Projects 3: Expand Your Team
As you progress towards selling and closing more $10k+ projects, you will most likely need to
start bringing on additional team members. The question of whether you hire full time, part time
,
or contract employees is ultimately up to you. There is no right answer to what will work for you
r business. We know web shops that are 100% virtual with large contracted workforces,
solopreneurs that do everything themselves, and hundred person digital agencies that only use
their in­house teams.
We find that most people in the $10k Bootcamp are deciding on their first or second team
member. A common question arrises:
“Who do I hire first?”
In order to answer this question, we use a document from another program called EOS called
the Delegate and Elevate worksheet.

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$10K Blueprint | Page 39
Delegate and Elevate is a simple concept. List out what you currently do on a blank legal pad of
paper, then transfer all of the items over into the appropriate boxes. What the D & E worksheet
provides you is a straightforward tool to show you what tasks and responsibilities you currently
do that you don’t like to do, and you can look to find help to take over those tasks.

Here are common tasks that we see web pros hire to delegate out of:

● Invoicing and billing

● Bookkeeping
● Time track reconciliation
● Mail sorting/filing
● Bank and deposit runs
● Office management tasks
● Scheduling
● Appointment setting
● Personal errands (dry cleaning, groceries, etc)
● Small design assets
● Ongoing customer maintenance

The goal of D & E is to free up more of your time for high value activities. If you can do client
work and bill at $100 per hour, and you are currently doing unbillable tasks that someone else
could do for $15, then you are losing $85 per hour in opportunity cost.

Once you have elevated yourself to only doing the work you absolutely love doing, expanding
beyond this requires you to understand how your business should be structured. Most
businesses look something like this:

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When looking at the above organization chart, it’s important to note that you can’t have two
people responsible for the same thing. Another important concept is that you can’t sit in the
same seat at the exact same time. For example, when you are working on a project, you can’t
sell. When you are selling, you can’t process invoices.

Remember: When you are doing one thing, you can’t do another.

Early stage entrepreneurs get the feeling that they “wear a lot of hats”. This happens because
you are constantly switching gears ­but never in two gears at the same time. It’s just impossible
as a human to effectively do two things simultaneously (at least do them effectively).

“Imagine being on the phone with a client trying to sell them and also designing a
homepage...you won’t do either very well.”

When you are thinking about building a business beyond yourself, instead of thinking: do I hire a
designer, a coder, a search expert, etc? Think: who should I hire to start building out these key
functions of my business.

Experience Tip: When we divided up our company into just two basic functions: one
person sells, one person builds, our revenue doubled in a single year. Then we hired a
full time support person and part time office manager. This freed me up to sell almost
full time. Our business passed $250,000 in annual revenue and then $500,000 and then
past $700,000 in just a couple of years.

How to Hire

One of the mistakes you can make in your business is to not have predefined processes to help
guide you through critical steps, like hiring. When I fail to use my process when hiring new team
members, it never fails, I end up with bad fits. When I go through my process, the odds go up
insanely that I’ll get a great hire.

Critical notes:

● Referrals go a long way

● Can’t tell contractors how or when they need to work
● Culture fit is #1 priority, followed by mindset, and technical skillset
● Hiring (building capacity) takes time, allow plenty of it
● Ask for and call references; try to call past employers not listed as references

$10K Blueprint | Page 41

Hiring Process

$10K Blueprint | Page 42

Onboarding Process

$10K Blueprint | Page 43

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