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For Growth Leads With A Case Study: How To Make Your First/Next $5M As A Leveraged Growth Consultant

  • Nick Kozmin (507) of Salesprocess.io   21 days ago

    Figure 1: First Growth Lead Case Study
    AdvisorStream ($0-$1M ARR In 12 Months). They later went on to sell to Broadridge after scaling past $5M ARR. Case Study 2016ish (dates needed to be redacted). Growth channels were paid advertising + inside the sales team. 


    Figure 2: Second Case Study (CoPilot Advisor)
    $0-$1M ARR in 10 months. Completely reworked the product after running initial marketing and sales tests. Growth channels were outbound prospecting and paid advertising + inside sales team. Case Study Collected In 2017.

    Figure 3: P/L Statements From 2018, 2019, 2020 For Salesprocess.io, growth consulting agency.
    A growth consulting service that focussed on helping customers get their first $1M in revenue). The consulting service was scaled up to service more than 2000 customers. The price ranged from $6k-$50k based on customer needs. $18M was sold. $5.7M was collected in profits after-tax. Access channel was outbound prospecting, paid advertising and sales team. A rails app was built internally to help deliver on the consulting service. A protocol was made to solve the product-market-fit problem. An operator was trained on the protocol to help scale customer results.

    Customers were backed by firms:
    100X.VC, 500 Startups, 9Mile Labs, Aarin Capital, ABRT, Accel, Acceleprise, Adam Eldaba, Adam Neumann, Advanced Technology Centre, Airbridge Equity Partners, AirTree Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator, Aldrich Capital Partners, Ali Omar, Alper Celen, Alumni Ventures Group, Alven, Amarendra Reddy, Amrita TBI, Ange Basile, Angel Academe, AngelPad, Angels 5K, Anges Quebec, Anil Advani, Ann Arbor SPARK, Aurelia Ventures, AV8 Ventures, Axilor Ventures, Bank of Montreal (BMO), Banque Internationale Luxembourg, Barclays Accelerator, Bass Investment, Bay Wharf Capital, BDC Venture Capital, Be Angels, Beringea, Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, Better Capital, Bianca Rusu, BIP Capital, BITS Spark Angels, BlueChilli, Boldstart Ventures, BOM Brabant Ventures, Boomtown Accelerators, BootstrapLabs, Bootstrapped Debt Financing, Brand Foundry Ventures, BRANDED STRATEGIC HOSPITALITY, Brian S. Cohen, Bright Stone, Brightstone Venture Capital, Broad Street Bulls, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Business Development Bank of Canada, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Canadian Technology Accelerators, Capier Investments, Capital Innovators, Capital Invent, CAPNOVA, Captii Ventures, Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, CE Ventures (CEIIF), Centricus, Charlotte Street Capital, Chloe Capital, Chris Adelsbach, Christoph Lymbersky, Chrysalis Ventures, Cinco Capital, Clarment Buyse, Clashrock Capital, Commerce Ventures, Concrete Ventures, Connecticut Innovations, Constance Freedman, Construct Capital, Craft Ventures, Craig Dewar, Creative Destruction Lab, Credo Ventures, Crocker Mountain Capital, Crowdcube, CRV, Cultivation Capital, Daniel Curran, Data Point Capital, Desjardins Venture Capital, Digital Attraxion, District 3 Innovation, DMZ, e.ventures, EASME - EU Executive Agency for SMEs, East Ventures, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Edison Partners, EEC Ventures, Elaia, Elderstreet Investments, Eleven Ventures, Elron Electronic Industries, Enabling Future, Endemic Capital, Eniac Ventures, Enrique Posner, Enterprise Ireland, [email protected], Equal Opportunity Ventures, Equity Gap, Espresso Capital, Expansion Venture Capital, Expara IDM Ventures, Extreme Venture Partners, Fast Investment, Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital, Firstime Venture Capital, Flat World Partners, Flint Capital, Flyover Capital, Flywheel Fund, Fortino Capital, Founder Collective, Founder Friendly Labs, FounderFuel, Founders Fund, François Van Uffelen, Fuel Ventures, Fulmer Capital Partners, FundersClub, Fidelity International, Gaingels, Ganesh Mohan, gbeta, GC Angels, Global Brain Corporation, Global Founders Capital, Government of Karnataka - Elevate 2018, Grand Central Tech, Greylock, Hackquarters, Harlem Capital Partners, Hasso Plattner Ventures, HATCHER+, Herald Ventures, Houston Angel Network, Hyde Park Angels, I2BF Global Ventures, IFM Investors, Impellent Ventures, Index Ventures, IndieBio, Inflection Point Ventures, Innovacorp, Innovate UK, Innovation Nest, Insight Partners, Intel Capital, Inter American Development Bank, Interpublic Group, Intonation Ventures, Inventures SA, InvestMichigan, Island Capital Partners, JAM Fund, Jeff Rothschild, John Katzman, Joint Journey, Jonathan Benhamou, Jonathan Seaton, Justin Mateen, Kee Siak Chan, Keiretsu Forum, Ken Savage, Kima Ventures, Kli Capital, K-Startup Grand Challenge, Laconia Ventures, Launch Academy, Laurent Rouach, Lavery Lawyers, LDA Capital, Lerer Hippeau, Lightspeed India Partners, LocalGlobe, Lofty Ventures, Louis Jonckheere, Lowe's Innovation Labs, Loyal VC, Luc De Vos, Luma Ventures, M/C Partners, Mactaggart & Mickel Investments, Mamad Alakbarov, Manish Satnaliwala, Manny Padda, Marco Rodzynek, Mark Francis, Martinson Trigon Venture Partners, MassChallenge, Matexi, Matrix Partners India, MedTech Innovator, Menlo Ventures, METRO Xcel, Meyer Equity, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, MMV Capital Partners, Moderne Ventures, Montreal inc., Mosaic, Moscow Seed Fund, Nataraj Sindam, National Institutes of Health, NCA, NDRC, New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, New York Angels, New York Venture Partners, Newark Venture Partners, Newchip, Newion, NEXT Canada, NEXT Frontier Capital, Next Studio, NextAI, NFX, Nidoco, Nielsen Innovate, Notation Capital, NTT DOCOMO Ventures, NYU Summer Launchpad, OCA Ventures, Olisipo Way, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio, Orgain, Outbound Ventures, Overkill Ventures, Panache Ventures, Parkwalk Advisors, Pelion Venture Partners, Pentech Ventures, Peter Clay, Peterson Ventures, Pfm Capital, Pi Labs, Pieterjan Bouten, Pillar VC, Piton Capital, PJC, Plug and Play, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, powered by Techstars - London, Pramod Jain, Presto Ventures, Privanet Group, PSL Ventures, Purppl, PwC, Quake Capital Partners, R/GA Ventures, Rahul Jaimini, Rajan Anandan, Real Ventures, Red Dot Ventures, Regal Funds Management, Revolution, Revolution Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, RevUp Capital, RFI, Right Side Capital Management, Roca X, Roman Bach, Root Ventures, Round2 Capital Partners, Royston Tay, Ryan Smith, S28 Capital, Sambrinvest, Sand Hill Angels, Sandbox Industries, SaskWorks Venture Fund, Saurabh Gupta, Scottish Investment Bank, SeedBlink, Seedrs, Senovo, Shashank Randev, Shasta Ventures, SICTIC, Sierra Ventures, Simpact VC, Singapore Angel Network, SixThirty, Slack, Smart Anchor Ventures, Social Capital, Social Starts, Soldiers Field Angels, Soma Capital, Sorenson Ventures, SOSV, SoundBoard Venture Fund, SparkLabs Ventures, Spiral Ventures, Srinivasan Venkita Padmanabhan, Standard Greases Family group, Star Farm Ventures, Starta Ventures, StartUp Health, Steve Ricci, Subconscious Ventures, SURGE Accelerator, Tamarisc Ventures, Tamra-Tacoma Capital Partners, Target Partners, Tech Coast Angels, Tech Nation Fintech, Techstars, Techstars Anywhere Accelerator, Techstars Bangalore Accelerator, Techstars Music, Techstars New York City Accelerator, Techstars Toronto Accelerator, TenX Ventures, Texas Venture Labs, The FSE Group, The Untitled Venture Company, The Venture Reality Fund/VRF, TheVentureCity Product-Led Growth Program, Thomson Reuters, Tigerlabs, TIMIA Capital, Todd Davis, Toshiba Corporation, Trend Investment Group, Tribal.vc, Tribune Capital, Trimantium, Uber, Uday Sodhi, Ulu Ventures, Uncork Capital, Urban Us, Urca Angels, Value Creation Capital, Venture Catalysts, Venture Kick, Victory Square, Vijay Kumar, Village Capital, Vulcan Capital, Watertower Ventures, Western Economic Diversification Canada, Wisconsin Investment Partners, Y Combinator

    The following guide is for an experienced growth lead with an existing noteworthy case study on which a growth consulting business can and should be scaled. Or this is for a growth marketing shop who hit operational capacity who wants to transition to a leveraged consulting model to scale further. 

    Or this is for someone with a high-ticket consulting service who is operationally constrained and who wants to transition to a more leveraged model and take on more clients efficiently. 

    Core:
    It’s possible to effectively service many consulting clients simultaneously if you leverage protocol building and the proper tools. 

    Background: 
    Nick Kozmin. B.Sc. Engineering Physics Queen’s University, Canada. Represented Canada at international design competitions. Started in sales at 20 years old and trained in the door-to-door field. Full stack developer. I started scaling SaaS businesses in 2014 (specialized in early traction and finding product-market-fit). In 2018, I started using a leveraged strategy to deliver my services. I brought on 2000 customers and made $18Mish in sales with little overhead. I created training and tools to help facilitate this at scale.

    Step 1: Build Marketing Funnel and Validate Sales Process

    Figure 4: Case Study Marketing Funnel Example:
    The marketing funnel simply displays your case study/case studies. The case study needs to be good enough to perk people up in the market. Video sales letters and written sales letters are used to efficiently communicate the message. 


    Figure 5: Paid Advertising Example Data and Example
    Run outbound prospecting campaigns and paid traffic campaigns that display your case study to generate appointments. 
    Appointments can be bought for between $100-$300. 



    Figure 6: Net Cash Vs. Sales Reps Vs. Time
    Tune your sales pitch yourself before hiring salespeople. Notice in figure below that I scaled to $40k per month before I brought on other salespeople.


    Step 2: Work With Customers One-On-One To Flesh Out Protocol. Use Videos and Guides.
    To get scale you need to use robust protocol that either your client can go through on their own, or an operator can use to work with a client. 

    Figure 7: Protocol Example
    Use logic to map out the paths for each client. The more clients you work with, the more robust the protocol gets. Don’t take on clients with distinct problems since the protocol will get too complex. 


    Figure 8: Action Plan Example
    Transpose the logic version into actionable steps and guide the customer through the steps with written guides and video training. Keep things chronological. The action plan contains training that is edible.


    Figure 9: Training Example


    Figure 10: Assigning Training Example
    In some cases, you will be working with teams where you will need to reveal only certain training to certain team members. You can do this on an individual basis with Google docs or with a tool. We built one in-house to allow us to do this. 



    Figure 11: FAQ Index Example
    As you are working with clients, you are building up a repo of common questions and answers. You can choose to display this to your customers, or to use internally to train operations staff. If a customer question comes up, the operator can quickly search database and answer the question.


    Figure 12: One-On-One Feed Example
    Create a space where you can answer questions from each client in a virtual one-on-one environment. The clients want privacy and don’t want a group chat. For example, my service required me to edit sales letters and help with the sales process, so I would spend my morning running through customer support tickets and providing in-depth answers. This can be done with one-on-one calls as well where the info and notes are summarized in a private post.


    Figure 13: One-On-One Feed Example
    The figure below shows an operator helping deliver the consulting service.


    Figure 14: Partnership and Affiliate Examples
    Partner with tool providers and other service providers and display a resource index. 
    You want to keep everything in a single environment to handle many clients. When you are starting, you will likely just use email and Google Docs, however, that gets complicated at scale and you will need to either build your own tool, or use one.

    Step 3: Leverage Expertise and Awareness At Investment Level To Make Quality Decisions
    As you are working with your set of customers, you start to develop insights and your own unique lattice of a segment of a market that can be used to make high-quality investment decisions. For example, by working with customers to install their sales machines, I became very familiar with the CRM tools. I also became familiar with how SaaS businesses are and should be valued. I used this unique understanding to trade options when I saw an opportunity.  

    Figure 15: Trade Summary (Software Companies)


    Figure 16: Returns From Plays Made Using Unique Awareness

    Use these steps as a guide to scale your own growth consulting business or leveraged consulting business. 

    You may run into issues with building protocols and creating training, using the right tools, understanding at what point to sell and scale up and at what point to transition. 

    If you are interested in getting help on becoming a leveraged growth consultant, then book a call here: 

    Again, this is for someone who already has a case study and wants to scale it up with a protocol. 

    Nick 


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