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Hey there - it's Brian 👋

Before the holidays I shared the change I made to get 20 leads a month.

I can’t help everone.

So I wanted to share the complete CMO system we use to grow clients from $3M - $20M.

Not at $3M (yet)? You’re still in the right place.

I’ll share which parts apply to you and which you should hold off on.

The full CMO program is hard to share in one newsletter, but I’ll share the overview. Vote at the end for which section you want a deep dive.

This issue is for you if you aren’t sure what your first step in marketing should be and you’re looking for a playbook.

Grab your coffee. This issue is more in depth than usual. We’re getting you comfortable to take your first steps in marketing.

Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇

Finding fit vs building systems

From $0 - $1M, there’s nothing more important than finding product/market fit. (or service/market fit).

You focus on rapid testing that your solution fits a specific customer and their pain. A marketing channel is just a way to reach that customer to test that you’re on the right track.

So pick one channel where your customers are and iterate fast.

At $3M you have product/market fit. And your focus starts to shift.

Maybe you’ve grown to $3M by yourself. Or you’ve been selling over the phone and you want to try using the internet. Or you’ve hired agencies but they aren’t getting you the customers you want.

The challenge starts to be… your current systems worked great to get you to $3M, but you struggle to see how it can scale to $20M.

You shift from “finding fit” to “building systems.”

This CMO Program sets up those systems.

I’ll go through each step of the program. And if you’re not at $3M (yet) I’ll share which parts apply to you.

Note: $1M - $3M is a blend of fit + systems. Depends on your business.

Okay so here’s the Outlier CMO method:

1. Positioning: Match your product/service with the right customer need.

2. Design Funnel: Get strangers to hear about you, warm them up, then get them to buy.

3. Run Test: Create the smallest fastest version of your funnel to test if it gets customers.

4. Execute: Build marketing systems to scale.

Nail this process and your business no longer has a cap on its growth.

So first… how do we get customers passionate about your product/service?

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

If you’re below $1M there’s two big differences:

1) Positioning is MUCH more important.

There’s a higher chance that you haven’t found the positioning that makes customers rave about you.

Be obsessive about finding your positioning (“fit”).

2) Use fewer channels in the funnel design

You don’t have as many resources (people, processes, learning, money etc). So you don’t want to be diluted over multiple channels.

Step 1 | Positioning: Find the fit that makes customers passionate about you

When customers love you there’s much less friction to grow fast.

But if they “sort of like you” then putting more effort into marketing is like upgrading your car’s engine when there’s a hole in the tire.

Positioning is the foundation that sales & marketing is built on.

It’s just 3 things:

1. Who’s the customer? (get uncomfortably specific)

2. What’s their pain?

3. How do you solve that pain better than anyone?

Once you have those 3 things, just find the right words to communicate your idea and BOOM. You have a solid foundation to scale.

What’s this mean for you?

You may not have your positioning figured out.

That’s okay! It’s an iterative process.

Take your best guess at those 3 questions. Make your landing page speak directly to your new positioning. Test it out with real customers.

How?

Make two landing pages. Different positioning on each page.

Run traffic to both through ads or socials.

Watch which page gets more sign ups.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

Below $3M in revenue, positioning is the most important thing you need to test to find product/market fit.

Here are some signs you don’t have good positioning:

• Lower conversion (it’s more expensive to get customers)

• It’s harder to sell (potential customers are price sensitive or less than excited about you)

• Customers leave you faster (your total revenue per customer is lower)

If this is you, prioritize positioning before you move on to the next step.

Step 2 | Funnel Design: Get strangers to hear about you, warm them up, & buy

Okay. Funnel Design is just my fancy term for how do you get strangers to find out about you and turn them into customers?

Most people either don’t get enough traffic or don’t build enough trust before getting to the sale.

For complete transparency, here’s how I designed my own funnel (to get ~20 leads a month):

So to have a good funnel design we need to find out:

1) What marketing channels will you use to so strangers find out about you?
2) How do you build their trust?
3) How will you get the sale?

The details are too much for this newsletter, but click here if you want to learn how to choose your channel and flow customers to the sale.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

This is more advanced, but I can’t resist sharing it.

Each channel creates different levels of trust. That’s too detailed for now. But know that we take into account how much trust you build as part of the design.

Example: Paid ads = low trust. YouTube video = high trust.

Depending on where people come from you need to wine and dine them more (or less).

Here’s more if you want to learn how to build trust online.

Step 3 | Run test: What’s the fastest, cheapest way we can check that this funnel is actually getting customers?

You don’t want to waste a ton of money at this stage.

Build a lean version, test it, scale it once it works.

Here’s an example of my own test:

I built an Excel model of my email marketing funnel.

I found the math only works if I could get a 5% click rate on my first email. I tested with 800 readers.

We got 6% so now we can run ads to scale.

We won’t get deep in testing in this issue, but reply if you have questions and I’ll deep dive in a future issue.

Step 4 | Execute: Make the marketing systems a reality

It’s go time.

In this stage we design the processes to execute at scale.

This includes:

• Which tech do we use?

• What people do we need?

• What metrics to we track for results?

Marketing strategy is useless without the execution.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

The hardest part is the people.

Start by outsourcing (at first).

Finding A-level talent to bring in-house takes longer than you think. A LOT.

Agencies are the best way to quickly get going with A-player talent. Take the knowledge/best practice, teach it to your in-house team.

Eventually you migrate talent in-house (because no one understands your business as well as your in-house team).

Let’s make your business an outlier

Do these 4 steps right and your systems are ready to scale past $3M.

If you’re below $1M in revenue, start by testing your positioning. Focus on one channel. And I’ll be the first to congratulate you when you hit $3M and are welcomed into the CMO program.

Over $3M?

Get free feedback on your marketing here. I’ll take at whatever you have and help you through your first steps in this process.

Chat soon.

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See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
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P.S. Want us to help you through this method (for free)?

I’ll check out your SEO, ads, socials, & landing pages. Then, I’ll give you a list of small changes you can make to get big results (paying customers).

If your business is over $3M in revenue, grab time for free.

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