FREE CHEAT SHEET:
7 Steps to Selling
ANY
Lead Gen Site
for a
FLAT FEE
(Without Previous Sales Experience)
NICK WOOD
You SHOULDN’T take my advice.
You shouldn’t take ANYONE’S advice…
Unless they have done what you want to do or are in the position you eventually
want to be in.
So let me share with you where I’m at & you can decide if you want to continue
reading this or not.
My name is Nick Wood. My lead gen agency’s revenue was over $1,000,000 in
2020. In August alone of this year (2021) myself and one “setter” brought on
$24,610/month in NEW recurring revenue (all with contracts).
I’m not one of those “self proclaimed guru’s” who had ONE great month, decided I
was an expert, and then made millions TEACHING people how to start an agency
(however I don’t hate on those people, I applaud them). I’ve made multiple
millions of dollars from my agency DOING what I’m going to share in this cheat
sheet.
If you’ve been in the lead gen game (specifically rank & rent) for any period of
time you know that there is one deal structure that is the holy grail of ALL deal
structures…
FLAT FEE.
This is where the client assumes all the risk & pays you the same amount of
money month in and month out regardless of how many leads come in or what
time of the year it is.
Its the deal structure that allows us local lead generators to sleep at night, to
actually look forward to Christmas and not dread that the “winter” is on the
horizon. It allows us to scale our businesses confidently knowing how much
money is coming in…
EVERY. SINGLE. MONTH
Look, I went down the “pay per lead” path when I first started and thought I was
KILLING it… that is until my first winter when the calls slowed down, and so did
my revenue, but my expenses stayed the same.
Things got tight, real tight...
I knew selling flat fee deals was the answer, but had no clear process or strategy
for how I was going to convince business owners to sign a contract for a set
amount with NO GUARANTEE.
So I went to work like a mad scientist in a lab looking for the perfect duplicative
formula that I could not only repeat over and over and over but that I could teach
to my sales team.
In 2020 I perfected that formula. We used it to grow our local lead gen agency to
7 Figures in revenue for the first time ever and have since continued to have
nothing but 6 figure months in 2021.
In 2021 we’ve had multiple months where we added $10K+/month in NEW
CONTRACTS including this past August where we hit $24,000/month in NEW
CONTRACTS (all in addition to the 6 figure months we were already doing).
I’ve taken that EXACT formula & broken it down into a digestible 7 step cheat
sheet that is included in this PDF.
We’ll cover everything from how to select which of your lead gen sites to sell first
(or how to pick a niche if you don’t already have one) to how to make that initial
contact to how to properly setup the close so that it’s 90% closed before you go
for the “close.”
What I’ve included here is the combination of 18 months of trial in error until we
finally perfected the recipe.
Enjoy.
Note: this is the EXACT formula I have exclusively used to build a 6 figure PER
MONTH lead gen agency… HOWEVER reading this PDF without actually doing
and implementing these steps isn’t going to change a thing for you and your
business.
I can lead you to the water, but you have to decide to drink.
ONE
Pick the Perfect Project:
Select Niche & City
When deciding which project you should focus on selling first, you should choose the
one that is already producing leads.
Regardless of the niche, if you have a project/lead gen site producing organic leads,
this is your starting point!
Just starting out with no website or looking to start fresh?
Choose a niche with medium to high ticket. (concrete, tree service, etc)
Choose a niche with decent volume. (concrete, tree service, etc)
Choose a city that isn’t packed full of competition. (self explanatory)
But Nick, I have a site that is producing SOME leads but they aren’t consistent, should I
still focus on selling this one?
YES, YES, YES.
Let me tell you about my masonry site that fits into that exact category.
When I first got into the SEO/Lead Gen space I had bills to pay, 2 kids, a wife, a house
payment, and 2 car payments. Even though lead generation was the place I wanted to
focus my efforts long term I also knew I had a monthly nut to cover. For quick cash I
would do web builds and SEO gigs to keep the lights on.
Near the beginning of all of this I got referred to a man in town who owned a masonry
business that needed a website but didn’t want to pay for ongoing SEO.
We agreed on $800 cash for a full website build (built on weebly of course) and I did the
best I could.
He gave me the cash and never paid me another dollar.
But his phone started ringing off the hook! (I knew because I saw it ranking WITHOUT
ongoing SEO and he constantly called and told me how many leads it was producing)
I told him that I was going to use my own money to build a lead generation site to target
this specific niche and that I would love to sell him the leads exclusively.
I got a little excited, built it with my own money, and never could get him to commit.
Within a few months leads started trickling in.
I called around & got referred to a local company that did stucco & masonry… they
weren’t super keen on PAYING for work since they were local in our town and got a ton
of word of mouth business, however I decided to send them some freebies at no cost
and no risk to them.
It worked.
After just a few leads they called me.
They asked the price to keep things going. I told them it would be $850/month with a 6
month contract and then would go up to $1200/month.
I was shocked when they said yes, handed me the credit card details, and signed my
contract.
I went from ecstatic to panicked.
How was I going to get the lead volume high enough for them to justify what they were
paying me? I wasn’t getting but a few organic leads PER MONTH at this point.
I was stressed.
I didn’t know what I was doing but I decided to do something that made sense in my
head. I took half of the $850 they were paying me per month, set up a Google Adwords
express account, and threw up a simple ad, setting the budget right around $15/day.
Bang, bang. Like magic, it worked.
I wasn’t getting a crazy amount of leads but it was enough that combined with the few
organic leads I was already getting it kept them fat and happy. Meanwhile I hustled
and got my SEO dialed in, my GMB optimized, and within a few months we ranked the
site right to the top. Shortly after I shut off ads and increased my profit to about 85%.
To this day that site still makes me over $1000/month.
After this experience I knew I was onto something.
This (supplementing organic with paid ads in the beginning) has become one of the key
strategies I’ve used over the years. I use it to not only sell lead gen sites with
inconsistent volume for a flat fee, but also to PRE SELL lead gen sites knowing that I
can artificially make the phone ring.
The project you should start with first is the project that is producing organically!
You’re already paying to keep it up and running, you already have time and effort into it,
and it’s already producing SOME leads.
Start there.
TWO
Sell to the Already “Sold”:
Build Your List
You’ve picked your project, (or if you are just starting out you’ve picked that
perfect medium to high ticket niche)…. Now what?
How do you decide who to work with?
Sell to the people already SOLD on your service.
Instead of simply opening google maps and dialing at random, strategically
build a list of people who are already sold on paying for leads.
Outside of working for my dad on the family farm from age 10 until I
graduated high school at age 18, the only other job I had was that of a
commissioned door to door salesperson selling home security systems.
I went door to door selling $50/month packages with 5 year contracts to
complete strangers. Most of which wanted nothing to do with me or my
company. (more on this later)
I wasn’t stupid and I learned pretty quick that it was a lot easier to look for
people with security yard signs in front of their houses. It was much easier to
knock on their doors and make a sale than it was to knock on a random “fresh
door” as we called it.
Why?
Because when you knock on a fresh door you are required to make 2 sales…
You must sell the homeowner on why home security is a good idea/worth their
money AND you must sell the homeowner on why they should choose YOUR
company.
When you knocked on the doors of folks already paying for home security,
there was only 1 sale to be made: sell the homeowner on why they should
switch to your company.
This strategy allowed for quicker sales, which meant a higher volume of
sales, and better morale because you were able to have conversations with
people that already believed in your product and service.
So let me repeat myself:
Sell to the people already sold on your service!
What does that mean?
Make a list of people paying for Google Adwords, HomeAdvisor (now Angie’s
Leads),Thumbtack, etc.
Personally I prefer to start with people paying for Google Adwords &
HomeAdvisor because they generally are already spending a healthy amount
of money PER MONTH and it's an easier sale.
The beauty of targeting people already sold on the service you are offering is
that YOU DON’T NEED PREVIOUS SALES EXPERIENCE to find success
doing this.
I’ve trained some complete knuckleheads how to do a simple pitch to
business owners already paying for leads and advertising and they’ve had
immediate success. These are knuckleheads with ZERO PREVIOUS SALES
EXPERIENCE.
Build your list of business owners already paying for leads in the area you’re
targeting.
You’re Welcome.
THREE
Digital Steroids:
Set Up Paid Ads
This is self explanatory.
Go to Google and type in “Google Adwords.”
Once inside Google Adwords, follow the instructions, put in the URL of the
project you are focusing on and set up a simple ad. (if this is your first niche
or you don’t have a website see note at end of this step)
Nick, but I don't know anything about Google Adwords, I’ve never taken any
courses, blah, blah, blah.
Ya, me either.
I have a solution for you: Adwords Express.
Remember that masonry client I talked about in step 1?
I had no idea what I was doing, I didn’t really even know there was such
thing as regular Adwords AND Adwords Express.
Honestly I just took action & set up the one that was easiest because I was
desperate to make it work.
Did I write the perfect ad copy my first time?
Of course not.
Did I set the perfect budget? Did I choose the right keywords?
No & no.
Have I run ads in a city in the wrong state with the same city name?
Admittedly, yes.
MONEY LOVES SPEED.
I am a living testament to that. I value speed over everything and for this
reason I strongly suggest you use Adwords Express.
If you’re already a Google Adwords wizard, go right ahead and use your
black magic to set up negative keywords and all that cool stuff smart people
know how to do.
But remember, those of us in the rank and rent lead generation space are
here to rank a website and generate organic leads, not to perfect paid
advertising.
I’ve set up so many adwords express campaigns at this point I can set up a
new one from start to finish in less than 4 minutes and 30 seconds. (yes i’ve
timed it)
DO NOT OVERTHINK THIS STEP.
Two suggestions:
First, don’t set a budget higher than $20/day.
Secondly, choose your “keyword themes” based on the keywords that get
the most volume in that niche.
For example: concrete and concrete contractors are the highest search
terms nationwide for that niche… so make sure those are included.
Turn the ads on immediately as they usually take a day or 2 to get any
momentum, but hurry to the next step because I've seen leads come in
within hours.
This is the step that allows you to move forward with confidence to close a
deal for a site that is producing inconsistently. It also is going to allow you to
impress your potential client in the next step and to land a flat fee contract
quickly.
Note: if you are someone selecting your first niche or a niche for a new project DO NOT build
out the entire website yet… use any web builder, set up a 1 page website with a tracking
number and “free quote form” and use that as your URL for the ads. No reason to build out a
site using your own money when you can close the deal first and use the clients money to build
it. Building a site will slow you down big time as well and this is a game of speed.
FOUR
Set the Hook:
Find Hungry Business Owner
“Pick up the phone and start dialing.”
I’m giving you the same advice Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo
DiCaprio) gave to his sales force. If you remember the scene it was
moments before they started selling Steve Madden stock in the popular
movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
I could end with that one sentence because it’s that simple.
DO NOT overthink this.
Take your list, take your phone, and go find a business owner that is
interested in taking a few FREE leads.
Yes that’s right, you are going to give some FREE LEADS.
Just as the big box retail store Costco does every Saturday, you are going to
allow your potential client to “sample” your leads before you ever even begin
to talk about money.
Here’s the beauty behind this method
YOU DO NOT NEED PREVIOUS SALES EXPERIENCE!
I recently hired & trained a girl with ZERO previous sales experience. She
was working at an accounting firm doing office work. I brought her in, spent
exactly 44 minutes on a zoom call training her and the next week she
appointments for 10 business owners for 10 different projects I was trying to
sell.
TEN! (we went on to close about 30% of those appointments as well)
How can someone with zero sales experience and 44 minutes of training set
10 appointments and we end up closing 30% of them?
RESULTS IN ADVANCE aka free leads upfront.
This is the KEY to this entire process.
What do 99% of all lead generation agencies do? They cold call, cold email,
cold message business owners offering their service but asking for money
upfront.
These business owners don’t trust you. Why should they?
Imagine for a minute someone calling you out of the blue & saying “hey, i
know you don’t know me and you get a lot of these calls but i’m getting a ton
of businesses that need lead generation services coming my way and I want
to send you a few of them absolutely free. All I ask in exchange is that we
have a conversation in a few days AFTER you get a feel for what I can
offer?”
That is exactly what we are going to do.
You are going to leave these business owners scratching their heads
thinking “well that was pleasantly surprising.”
Here’s a simple script:
“Hey (insert business owner name) this is (insert your name), do you guys
do (insert service) here in (insert city you are targeting)?”
“Okay great, and do you cover (insert zip code or street name) as well?”
“Excellent, lastly how far out are you guys right now?”
“I’ve got a lady/gentleman here in (insert city) that needs (insert service) and
I just wanted to make sure you could help them before I wasted any of your
time”
At this point they will probably stop you and say something to the effect of
“wait, so who are you?”
To which you will continue:
“Oh sorry, like I said my name is (insert name) and I have a website and a
phone number here in (insert city) that’s getting a ton of (insert service) jobs
every week. I was planning on sending you a couple for free before I take
any of your time, but to be candid with you I AM LOOKING to find a partner
here in (insert city).”
“I noticed you were already paying for (insert advertising they are paying for)
so i know you are hungry to take on more work and figured since I already
have the work, why not just work something out with you directly”
“So let me send you this one over real quick, and maybe another 1-2 and
then all I ask is that we have a conversation about possibly working together
on an ongoing basis?”
“You open to that?”
That’s it.
Do not discuss price, do not tell them you are looking to do a flat fee
contract blah blah blah… YOU WILL LOSE THE DEAL if you do this too
early.
If they ask repeatedly simply say the following,
“look, i’m not worried about that, that’s the easy part. I do this in a few other
cities in this same niche and it's all about finding the right partnership…
figuring out how to get me paid is the easy part. Let me send you a couple
for free and then lets talk.”
You can use the script if you wish or you can use your own.
Pick up the phone, call your list, and offer a couple freebies in exchange for
a conversation in a few days.
Don’t overthink this and remember:
YOU DO NOT NEED PREVIOUS SALES EXPERIENCE!
FIVE
Deliver the Good:
Send 3-5 FREE Leads
By this point leads will have started trickling in from your Google Adwords campaign.
You may also have some organic leads you can use.
If you don’t yet, it's not the end of the world, be patient, it does take some time and
depending on the time of year can take a minute to get rolling.
What you are going to do next is something no other agency is doing. Trust me.
Call the leads yourself, act as the operator or office manager for your new potential
client, collect their basic information and send them to your prospect.
Don’t know anything about tree service, concrete, or stucco? Great! The customer
doesn’t know that. Do your best and if you get hung up, tell them you don’t handle the
customer questions directly, but they can ask the business owner.
When I sold my very first flat fee lead gen deal years ago I remember it EXACTLY.
It was a Sunday, probably about 10 AM. I was sitting in sunday school at church. At the
time I was living in Huntsville, Alabama selling home security systems by day and
building lead gen sites by night.
The phone rang and it was a 256 area code so I thought maybe, just maybe this was my
first lead. I had set up the Google Ad the night before and thought there was no way it
could have happened that quick.
I’d chosen to go into the towing niche and I answered the call to the whisper message
telling me that it was a new call from my towing site.
I started sweating.
I answered it anyway and found out it was not only a legitimate lead, but it was
someone that needed help ASAP.
Keep in mind at this point I didn’t know this process I'm sharing with you.
I hadn’t built the list.
I certainly didn’t have a script.
I hadn’t even thought about calling a business owner.
I told the lead to hang tight and I opened up Google Chrome on my iPhone, typed
“towing near me” and called the first company I saw that was paying for ads.
His name was Brandon. He picked up after about 2 rings.
I told him I had a hot lead for him. He was shocked when I told him the lead was on
hold and I was going to merge him right away…and I did just that.
He booked the job, hung up, and called me asking what the heck that was all about, but
in a good way.
He was hooked.
You have 2 choices here with passing over these leads.
You can collect the info and tell the customer that the business owner will be calling
them momentarily, hang up, send info to the business owner and have them call
directly…
OR
You can call the lead, get the info, and do what I do with 100% of my leads and LIVE
TRANSFER these leads directly to the business owner.
If you choose option number 2 you are going to be able to listen to how the business
owner talks to customers, find out if he/she even answers the phone, and there are zero
excuses that the business owner can make about the leads not answering or being poor
quality etc.
Keep it simple.
Call the leads, act like the operator, and get them to your potential client immediately
after they come in.
SIX
Follow Up On EVERY Lead:
The Close is in the SETUP
The time between making that initial contact with the business owner where he or
she agrees to a couple free leads and the actual “close” is where the deal is won or
lost.
For however many days it takes to get the business owner 3-5 leads, you and that
business owner are going to become best buds.
You are going to text them.
You are going to call them.
You are going to make sure they see how closely you follow up with each lead.
You are going to do this WITHOUT being annoying but WITH the intention of
providing value.
What you do during this period will make or break the deal.
When I first started experimenting with this 7 step process I initially got frustrated.
I would send the leads for free, even live transfer them, have them verbally commit
to being on a Zoom meeting the next day and would get ghosted.
Even worse they would jump on the Zoom call and tell me that after the live
transfer, the leads I had sent them had cancelled the appointment.
After all that effort I was essentially pitching someone that hadn’t “tasted the sweet
nectar” as so to speak.
It made for an incredibly difficult HARD CLOSE that I didn’t enjoy. On top of that I
was getting inconsistent results.
Finally out of sheer frustration I got pissed and realized that these business
owners' inability to contact these leads and make sure the appointment went
through was wasting my time and money and it had to stop.
So I began treating each lead like digital GOLD.
If I send a lead to someone, you can rest assured I'll be calling and texting them to
ask how the estimate went.
If they have to call the lead back because they have bad service you can
guarantee I'll be calling the business owner making sure they are back on the
schedule.
On top of that I don’t send lead number 2 until lead number 1 has been scheduled
for an estimate.
Why?
Because if the business owner is incapable of scheduling lead number 1, or isn’t
treating it with care or urgency, or isn’t answering my calls, I’m ONTO THE NEXT.
I’m not running a non-profit and I'm going to make sure they see that I run a tight
ship.
Follow up with your leads, develop open communication with the business owner,
provide massive value, and EARN their trust that you are doing this because you
want them to CLOSE DEALS not just send them leads.
Remember, the close is in the setup.
SEVEN
AMEX or Visa:
The Zoom Close
If you’ve done steps prior to this correctly, this shouldn’t feel like you have to “hard
close” the business owner.
In fact once you’ve done this enough times you’ll already know if the deal is in the
bag before you ever jump on a Zoom call.
This final step should be about building trust by letting them see your face
(virtually) and gaining their trust by showing them proof that you know what you are
doing.
My format for this call is as follows:
1. Show them how you are generating the leads
2. Show some example sites that are ranking & show the leads they are
generating
3. Show some social proof (screenshot of messages about happy customers or
deals they have closed).
4. Bring up price in such a way that they will feel stupid saying no
One last thing to remember before overthinking this step:
YOU DO NOT NEED PREVIOUS SALES EXPERIENCE!
The results in advance aka the free leads will do the selling for you!
The beautiful thing about sales is that no matter what you are selling the core
objections are always the same.
The entire point of this 7 step process is to remove objections along the way
BEFORE they ever come up so that when you get to the “close” the deal is already
done.
Although I took pride back in the day in being able to knock on a door of a stranger
and walk out an hour later with a void check and a 5 year contract, that’s no longer
my game.
Yes that’s impressive and pretty mind blowing to think about, but it took such
precision, such honed in skills, such strategic closing techniques that it wore me out.
I felt sick to my stomach every time I woke up only to remember that it was time yet
again to go and get back to the grind.
I had to endure a lot of discomfort to get to the yes.
Selling flat fee lead generation from the comfort of my home or office is such a
softer, more enjoyable sale that anyone can learn and get great at if they so wish
and are willing to put in the reps.
Why is this?
RESULTS IN ADVANCE!
It’s what allowed me to scale.
It's what allowed me to start getting predictable results day in and day out.
It’s what allowed me to train people with no experience to help me close deals.
STOP sounding like everyone else and calling business owners out of the blue with
your hand out.
START providing value up front with a couple free leads.
Follow up and gain their trust over a couple of days.
Get on a video call and let them see your face. Guide them smoothly through the
process. This will end with them handing over their credit card information and
agreeing to a minimum of a 3-6 month contract for a flat fee.
I started my career in this space with a $500/month flat fee towing deal.
I rinsed and repeated.
Over and over and over.
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