Or, an early sign of impending change……

Today I can say to prospective customers:

“I will increase your sales without spiralling marketing, IT or headcount costs” and make it happen. Which I think is a pretty cool thing to be able to do.

This is the story of how I got here.

Back in 2017, after spending a long time in business management roles, I was a year into a sales position with a Language Services company that had developed a neat piece of software that helped automate web content translation. It was a unique role in the business intended to leverage a tool initially developed for one client to a wider market.

I had gone back into a line role mainly because I wanted to maximise my earnings potential — the package was 1st class and the rewards for achievement generous. At 59, the next few years were the only ones left so my underlying concern was to get the most out of them.

At around this time came a big change in my personal life — my son, who I’d last seen as a three-year old, had made contact — so time was needed to make up for lost years whilst being committed to a high pressure role that entailed long hours and plenty of travel.

The problem was that with only a LinkedIn Sales navigator account and no marketing support, I learned I could not scale up getting the story out to enough people quickly enough. I had generated a 3.5M sales opportunity pipeline from cold but the long sales process prevented quick wins. Whilst my employer was happy, I could not exceed my target & hit big bucks. Any suggestions I made about how to ramp up marketing fell on deaf ears. I was depressed.

Then in April, a change of ownership and a block on software development was announced. I knew I was a dead man walking. It seemed as though I was painted into a corner career-wise — going back into management held no allure. Neither did being under-armed in another sales role — this was not the first time I had been hampered by an employer thinking no further than just hiring a salesperson without the infrastructure to support them. All my working life I had tried to do something about maximising incoming leads. There had to be a better way……

I quit my job. To be honest I was terrified — I did not consider myself to be an entrepreneur — but I felt I had no choice. Lead generation was the part of the sales process I felt most strongly about so I decided to equip myself with a toolset to offer a service. I researched commercially available tools to enable outreach at scale and looked at tools and techniques other types of businesses used to promote their products or services. Though I could not have explained it this way at the time, I was hacking funnels.

Then, I got lucky. An ex colleague, also in Language Services, reached out to find out what I was up to. When I explained, he asked me if I could do some lead generation for him. I launched his first campaign (using LinkedIn automation & email outreach) in September 2017. We saw response instantly & in November he closed a 200k annual contract. I had built my first successful funnel. With a success story from my first customer I picked up four more in the same sector, so the next couple of years were pretty busy.

By late 2019 I was stuck though. In the language services sector, I was perceived as too expensive for the little fish and irrelevant due to internal capability by the bigger ones. To grow, I had to diversify, but all my efforts were in vain without a broader service offering and a compelling argument on why my methods would work in other sectors. I had struggled with and failed to join the dots between a lot of the stuff I had initially looked at: Social media, Landing pages, opt-in email list building, recorded and live webinars, video ads…..

Then, quite by accident, I heard about ClickFunnels. Just from an initial investigation, it was plain that Russell Brunson had completed the journey I had dabbled with, to devastating effect. Any business LITERALLY ANY BUSINESS will benefit from a funnel. Funnels will disrupt marketing and web consultants (until they learn how to build them), obviate the need for internal IT infrastructure and make salespeople all over the world redundant — the funnel doesn’t take holidays, never asks for a pay rise or gets sick or leave. It works to the max 24/7 365.

I invested in ClickFunnels combination of training and technology to broaden my service offering.

Before completing the course I was able to sign up:

· An IT Hardware distributor

· A Management Training organisation

· A Motivational Speaker

· A Business Networking specialist

In addition, I have three more prospects with good chances to convert.

Obviously, there is some way to go before I can proclaim the success of these funnels, and I must work damn hard to make sure each of them yields maximum value, but I and my business are transformed. I have the real conviction, direction and focus I was searching for to enliven every day and best of all by far, my son is alongside me in a full-time role to help.