Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.
Key Takeaways
To plant seeds of alternative, first perceive who you’re finest suited to assist. Then establish the place these folks ask for assist and share your information.
Lead with worth, as an alternative of trying to extract worth, to construct belief.
A well-designed shopper journey will create worthwhile transformation and lifelong partnerships.
Would you consider me if I informed you that I’ve spent $0 on promoting in virtually six years of operating my CRM implementation solo company? I gained’t blame you if you happen to don’t, however it’s true. As an alternative of spending cash on promoting, I’ve invested my time in constructing relationships with my supreme shoppers.
Because of the sheer quantity of promoting focusing on enterprise stakeholders, I reasoned that as a solopreneur, I might be unable to make a significant impression by means of paid promoting. So, I made a decision to make use of the opposite, arguably extra worthwhile, asset I’ve as an entrepreneur: my time.
In early 2020, I began discovering my supreme shoppers on the platforms the place they had been asking for assist and serving to them with out asking for something in return. I believed that by doing so, I may generate a big return on my time funding. As I write this in early 2026, I can confidently say that the returns have been far better than I ever anticipated.
However this method doesn’t simply work for me. The solopreneurs I’ve coached to do the identical have skilled related outcomes. It’s a scalable and evergreen technique that may assist any company proprietor construct their enterprise free of charge.
Design a transparent shopper journey
To observe in my footsteps efficiently, you can not skip this primary strategic train. It’s crucial. That you must, in as a lot depth as doable, reply the next two questions:
Who’re your supreme shoppers?
What set of deliverables will convey your supreme shoppers a worthwhile transformation?
For the primary query, dig deeper by asking your self a number of easy questions.
The place on the earth are these shoppers situated?
How huge are their groups?
Which industries are they working in?
What roles inside a workforce do you wish to join with?
It’s additionally vital to focus on what excludes folks out of your Best Consumer Profile (ICP) alongside figuring out what your supreme shoppers appear like.
To bridge between the primary and the second query, you’ll want to outline the shopper’s emotional state once they want your assist. That you must empathize together with your ICP. And you’ll want to outline the way you need them to really feel after they work with you. That is how you’ll outline your distinctive worth proposition.
Lastly, you will need to craft a compelling set of deliverables that can take your shopper from their pressured begin level all the best way to the profitable finish level you think about. This structured method to convey the transformation into actuality is your Best Consumer Journey (ICJ).
With these two parts outlined, you’re prepared to start out serving to folks.
Plant seeds of alternative
Conventional promoting methodologies encourage the vendor to at all times push for the shut. To hurry the shopper by means of the choice course of. To chase probably the most senior particular person within the group for the deal. These sorts of gross sales techniques will not be solely stale, however they’re additionally impractical for a solo company proprietor.
Once you begin, you’re unlikely to have a gradual movement of inbound potential patrons. Even if you happen to pump {dollars} into paid promoting, you’re unlikely to realize important traction. That is sometimes when entrepreneurial desperation kicks in. And desperation is the most important blocker to enterprise success.
So, what must you do as an alternative? Assist folks! However not simply anybody. That you must assist the ICP you outlined. That is the important thing precept of my “Promoting By Serving to” methodology. That you must lead with giving worth, not extracting it.
Earlier than I began my Salesforce CRM implementation company, MVRK, I used to be keenly conscious that key decision-makers who had been answerable for managing their CRM instruments had been incessantly posting their questions on-line. Within the ecosystem I work in, one of the well-liked platforms for questions is the Trailblazer Neighborhood. During the last six years, I’ve answered hundreds of questions requested by those that match my ICP.
Most of my shoppers have come by means of these efforts. It’s the motive I can construct and develop my company with out having to spend a penny on advertising and marketing. And you are able to do the identical!
Ship a worthwhile transformation
The belief you constructed by serving to a potential shopper, with none stress, will convey you into the room. However your well-designed shopper journey will probably be what helps you create a business settlement. That ICJ exhibits them that you’ve a plan to take them from their present struggling state to a profitable state. It helps you body a transparent Assertion of Work (SOW) that will probably be compelling to their workforce.
As soon as that SOW is signed, you’ll want to get to work! At occasions, I discovered that I cherished the act of promoting (or serving to) greater than the act of delivering the venture — to the purpose I typically had anxiousness when beginning to work.
I shortly realized the design of my shopper journey was the supply of my anxiousness, so I modified it to allow fast wins to materialize early within the supply. This has eased my supply anxiousness considerably! Nevertheless it had one other profit.
By first serving to with out promoting, beginning small and delivering outsized worth early, I constructed a a lot stronger basis for the working relationship with my shoppers. This multi-phased method to engagement has constantly enabled me to ship success for a variety of nice shoppers and to construct lifelong, mutually useful partnerships. All and not using a single penny spent on advertisements.
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Key Takeaways
To plant seeds of alternative, first perceive who you’re finest suited to assist. Then establish the place these folks ask for assist and share your information.
Lead with worth, as an alternative of trying to extract worth, to construct belief.
A well-designed shopper journey will create worthwhile transformation and lifelong partnerships.
Would you consider me if I informed you that I’ve spent $0 on promoting in virtually six years of operating my CRM implementation solo company? I gained’t blame you if you happen to don’t, however it’s true. As an alternative of spending cash on promoting, I’ve invested my time in constructing relationships with my supreme shoppers.
Because of the sheer quantity of promoting focusing on enterprise stakeholders, I reasoned that as a solopreneur, I might be unable to make a significant impression by means of paid promoting. So, I made a decision to make use of the opposite, arguably extra worthwhile, asset I’ve as an entrepreneur: my time.
