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Hey there - it's Brian 👋

I’m shocked.

Last week’s issue was one of the most popular issues of the last 12 months.

I shared how to use the 4 types of funnels I have on LinkedIn that get me 20 businesses a month to ask me to run their marketing.

Then 27 people replied to ask:
Can you explain your fastest LinkedIn sales funnel in depth?

Ask and you shall receive.

Because I went IN DEPTH.

So by the end of this email you’ll have the confidence that you know exactly how you get customers on LinkedIn today.

Actually, I went so in depth that I even made an audio version to make it easy for you.

Today I’ll walk you step-by-step into the fastest way to get customers: LinkedIn outreach.

But… I hate cold outreach.

Those messages are annoying. So I’ll show you how to make outreach genuine (and feel natural).

This issue is for you if…
• You want to get customers online and just need to get started
• You need results fast and can’t wait 3 - 6 months to build other funnels
• You’re willing to put off building for scale and want quick wins

This method is great for business that don’t need high volume of customers, but rather a few big wins.

Examples:
High-ticket service/product. Enterprise sales etc.

If step-by-step tactical guide aren’t for you?

Jump to the end to vote on which issue you want next Thurs, and I’ll see you then.

Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇

Today we’re focused on getting you customers fast

I hate cold outreach.

It’s annoying. It feels fake.

But it’s the fastest way to get revenue. AND the most predictable.

Here’s why I hate it…

I’m in business because I love business.

Heck I read business books for fun. My hobbies are side businesses. My friends are business owners.

I just love helping people with their business.

So my “sales secret is…” I build genuine relationships with people.

There’s nothing sales-y about it.

But there’s a problem… when I help clients get customers through marketing, it takes time to build demand this way!

Most people don’t have LinkedIn followers or 3 - 6 months to build the warm funnels I mentioned in last week’s issue.

So I’ve had to come up with an outreach approach for clients that are just starting out online so they can quickly get customers in a genuine way.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

This approach works whether you have a $5M business or just starting out, but won’t scale to a high volume of customers.

So keep in mind you’ll need to build a more scalable funnel in the background.

Also - this method will also work for any platform.

I actually created this approach myself using Twitter, but I’ve since refined it for LinkedIn.

Okay here’s the 4 steps to get your first customers on LinkedIn

We’ll find your customers and reach out to them.

Reminder:
“Warm” outreach means the customer has seen you before. “Cold” means they’ve never seen you before.

The 4 things we’ll cover today are:

1. How you build your customer list

2. Tag each customer as warm outreach or cold outreach

3. The process for warm outreach

4. The process for cold outreach

So let’s dive in and build your customer list.

Building your customer list

LinkedIn has 1 BILLION people on it.

Your dream customers are in there somewhere.

This means you’ll need to filter these people down to who you can help the most.

You can only send 20 messages per day so it’s worth filtering down and making sure each message counts.

Besides, we’re here to help people. Not spam people.

You’ll also need a tracker to manage your list.

Just steal mine.

Reply to this email with “tracker” and I’ll send it to you (bonus points if you say hi and tell me about yourself!)

Now I’ll show you the exact filters you use to find the customers that go on this spreadsheet.

For context this is what the LinkedIn search filters look like (it’s how we’ll find your customers!):

There’s a ton of filters. Don’t worry about most of them.

Just focus on these filters (ignore all the others for now):
• Job title
• Industry
• Location

Aim for ~125 people on your list.

Why 125 people?

You’ll send 20 connection requests per day and 5 comments for warm outreach.

That covers you for a week.

• Cold: 20 connection requests per day

• Warm: 5 comments for warm out reach per day

Now for the important part… let’s reach out to these people.

I’ll show you how to divide the list into HOW you’ll reach out to each person.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

If you’re anything like me you think:
“Woah just making this list is a lot of work.”

You have 3 options to find customers for your list:
1) Do it in-house (or yourself)
Free, but takes a lot of time.

2) Use a scraping tool
I don’t recommend this approach. LinkedIn is aggressive with banning people who use 3rd party tools. If I learn ways to do this safely I’ll share with you.

3) Use Virtual Assistants (VA)
This is the approach I recommend. I’ve built a team of VAs to help me look for people who would benefit from our resources.

This is hard if you don’t have systems in place. Easy if you do.

I have systems for each part of bringing on a VA:
• Recruiting
• Onboarding
• Training
• Managing

Vote at the end if you want a deep dive.

For now, I love the blog at onlinejobs.ph.

I like to overpay my VAs. They tend to get low rates, but I want everyone who works with me to love it.

How to know if a person is better for warm or cold outreach (🔥 vs. ❄️)

🔥 Warm:

Tag a person on your last as “warm outreach” if the person posts on LinkedIn 2+ a week.

Why?

We’ll cover in detail in a sec, but the warm outreach approach means you need them to see you multiple times.

You’ll need to engage with 3 of their posts so they see you.

if they post less than once a week that means it’ll be at least 1 month before you can reach out to them! Way too long.

❄️ Cold:

Tag a prospect as cold outreach if the person posts on LinkedIn once a week (or less).

We’ll message them directly.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

In future issues, I’ll help you get posts in front of people so you can send warm messages even if the person doesn’t post.

This is my favorite method but it takes time to build.

So now we have a list of people we’re going to reach out to. Each one either a warm outreach or cold outreach.

Let’s reach out to them.

🔥 How to reach out to customers (warm)

Warm outreach is my favorite.

It’s how you build genuine connections.

You’ll want them to see you online a few times, move to their private messages, then move to a video call.

Here’s how:

1) Leave 3 - 5 valuable comments so they get to know you

Turn on notifications so you’re the first to know when customers post.

Then leave valuable comments 3 - 5 times.

But most people make horribly boring comments.

So let me give you the formula to writing a comment that makes them want you in their network:

By “valuable” comment - I mean something that the customer reads and thinks “woah that was helpful. I want this person in my network”

So you have 3 options for a valuable comment:

1. Share a new perspective

2. Share a resource (Book, video, podcast etc)

3. Introduce the customer to someone who can help them

Share one of these 3 ideas under your customer’s post and they’ll be dying to have you in their corner.

Now here’s my trick to move them from comments to a private chat:

2) Elaborate on the last comment in the messages

In your 3rd comment, you’ll tell the customer that you’ll elaborate more in their private messages.

Here’s an example comment:

Amazing. My favorite books for this are
• XXX
• YYY
• ZZZ

Don’t spend too much time on ZZZ though. Chapter 4 is worth it. The rest is ehhh.

I found an awesome summary online. I’ll send it to you in the messages.

Feels completely natural to move to the messages now right?

We’re one step closer to building a genuine relationship and getting them on the phone.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

See how casual my language is?

I love LinkedIn for business, but people on LinkedIn sound robotic.

This makes you stand out.

You don’t have to be as casual as I am but…
if you say a smart thing in a casual way, the two balance out. You’re taken seriously and treated like a friend they want in your corner.

Say a dumb thing in a casual way and you sound like an ape.

That doesn’t have the same impact.

3) Suggest to help them in detail over a phone call

In the messages, give them everything you have.

Make them feel you’re so valuable they can’t imagine how helpful you’d be when you get on the phone.

Then… Say you’ll explain in more detail on the phone to solve their problem.

Now let’s cover the cold approach.

❄️ How to reach out to customers (cold)

We’re already over 2,000 words! Geez I’m a monster when I have a big coffee.

We’ll need to keep this section short, but if you have more questions vote at the end.

Okay now for the customers who don’t post on socials how do we reach out to them?

Well 90% of people don’t post.

So to reach them, you’ll need to send a connection request with a message included.

Now, my method allows you to reach out to these people in a genuine way while also building your more scalable revenue sources.

Reach out to these people with a goal to find out what type of LInkedIn posts would help their business the most.

They tell you their problems to give you enough to write about on LinkedIn.

Two things happen:

1) They become passionate superfans who share your content (so you grow quickly).

2) You know their problems so if your business is the best solution to their problem, offer to help.

And BOOM. Sale.

Your goal with this message is NOT to sell. But to connect.

Here’s an example message:

Hey [NAME]!

I’m building free guides to help [CUSTOMER TYPE] like you.

I'd love to make you free stuff that solves your problems 10x better than paid stuff.

What topics are most helpful as you grow [BUSINESS NAME]?

Also I grew up in Boston too! Wonder if we worked with [NAME] for our Deloitte regatta?

I like to personalize the “Also” part of the message. There’s no template for that.

• Do you have something in common (a city, a school, an experience)?

• Did their business do something recently you can congratulate them on?

A little research will help them know you care and will start an amazing conversation.

Then just like in warm outreach, get to know their pain and offer to help on the phone.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

For those of you who don’t want to create LinkedIn content you can send more direct messages.

That’s not my style so I don’t do as much of it.

But here’s a few templates you can steal for more direct messages.

Now go get your first customers online!

That’s everything you need to get your first customers online!

If you have any questions vote at the end so I can make you a deep dive.

Let me know if you’d like to keep seeing this level of detail in future issues.

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See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
[email protected]
Twitter
LinkedIn

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, there’s 3 ways I can help you:

1) Over $3M in revenue and want your marketing reviewed for free?

I’ll give you actionable feedback on your SEO, ads, socials, & landing pages.

Then, I’ll explain your new marketing plan to actually get customers online.

2) Want 1:1 coaching to learn marketing or strategy?
If you want custom digital marketing or business strategy lessons from an ex-management consultant/now CMO.

This is for you whether you’re starting a new business. Looking to scale. Or you want custom coaching on strategy and growth.

3) Want your Google ads run for you?
If you’re not getting the results you want from Google Ads or want to explore ads to grow your business, get your ads done for you.

This team has managed $85M+ in ad spend for over 200 customers.

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