What If Your Referrals Dried Up Today?

You have a system for getting new clients. It's called referrals.

The problem is, you don't control it.

Direct Answer: If all your referrals dried up today, how would you get more leads?

Specifically: How would you get qualified leads that would lead to sales conversations that would lead to clients?

Using a guaranteed system that's sustainable, predictable, and doesn't require you to become your own marketing department.

If you're like many marketing agency owners, online service providers, or consultants, you probably don't have a simple, repeatable system that you CONTROL. Sure, you have a system that you don't control: that's called referrals. But where's the predictable revenue in that?

What "No Control" Actually Costs

If you don't control it, it's an unreliable, risky system.

And then you wonder why you have feast or famine months.

And you have revenue you can't plan around, like finally investing in your 401k or expanding your team, or as simple as taking that vacation you'd been putting off for years.

This is called referral risk.

Referral Risk: putting your revenue goals at the whim of a method you can't replicate and have no control over. You're stuck between a consistent output (i.e., reliable bills and paychecks) and an inconsistent source (i.e., referrals).

Or smaller obstacles like:

Breaking into a new market or niche, and not blowing your entire budget on expensive messaging tests disguised as marketing, like ads, content marketing, or starting a podcast...

All in the name of client acquisition.

More importantly, you put the lives and well-being of your family (and any of your contractors') at risk by not having a way to get clients when you need them.

For clients are the very livelihood of your business.

Why "Just Get More Leads" Isn't the Answer

Because the name of the game isn't just to get leads.

Leads mean squat.

They're empty, useless, limp numbers...

unless they're qualified and correct leads for your business. At that point, those leads become clients, which become cash to run your agency or service business, and fuel your life.

Just the other day, I was chatting with an agency owner who sent 4k emails, spent $25,000, and got two clients in return. He said the mass cold emailing agency that he hired was sending generic, templated emails.

In short, they were playing the spray and pray numbers game.

The secret no one wants to tell you about this game is: it doesn't work anymore.

Because I spoke to another agency owner who was sending 2 million emails a day and seeing conversion rates drop.

The Spray and Pray numbers game doesn't work because your recipients are more sophisticated and skeptical.

Which means they know they're a number on a list of 1,000s of leads and your templated cold email is you fishing for the 3-5% of the market that's ready to buy now.

Not a great way to start a client relationship off.

The Two Kinds of Growth That Actually Work Together

You need Fast Burn and Slow Burn.

Fast Burn is sending WARM cold emails to hand-picked leads to pitch them on being a new private client. This is feel-good outreach. With the right messaging, gap signals, and lead researching methodology, this strategy can get you clients in as little as next week.

Like what happened with Nicole who signed two repeat clients and two new retainer clients in two weeks for multi-thousand dollars.

Slow Burn gets you clients in a sustainable, evergreen way. With Slow Burn, you tap into an existing pool of your ideal leads by borrowing OPA (other people's audiences).

Think: guesting on podcasts, presenting webinar or workshops, list swaps, affiliate or JV relationships.

One piece of content can live on forever in front of someone's audience.

Like a Copyhackers' blog post I published back in 2017 that still brings in new hot leads and major street cred.

Putting the two together -- Fast and Slow Burn -- creates a combo of fast and long growth.

Fast: you get new leads and conversations (thereby future clients) now with the sales emails.

Long: you start building an unending stream of warmed up leads for the future of your business.

FAQ

Why isn't relying on referrals a real system?

Sure, you have a system that you don't control: that's called referrals... If you don't control it, it's an unreliable, risky system.

Why doesn't just getting more leads fix an unpredictable pipeline?

Leads mean squat. They're empty, useless, limp numbers... unless they're qualified and correct leads for your business.

What happens when someone tries to fix this with mass cold email instead?

An agency owner sent 4k emails, spent $25,000, and got two clients in return using a mass cold emailing agency sending generic, templated emails.

The secret no one wants to tell you about this game is:

Mass outreach doesn't work anymore.

What actually replaces referral dependency?

A combination of fast and long growth: sales emails to hand-picked leads for immediate conversations, plus borrowing other people's audiences to build a warmed-up pipeline for the future.

If this resonated, the next step isWhy Can't I Just Use ChatGPT for My Cold Emails?