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 seeking to extract worth, to construct belief.
A well-designed consumer journey will create priceless transformation and lifelong partnerships.
Would you imagine me if I instructed you that I’ve spent $0 on promoting in nearly six years of working my CRM implementation solo company? I gained’t blame you if you happen to don’t, however it’s true. As a substitute of spending cash on promoting, I’ve invested my time in constructing relationships with my very best shoppers.
Because of the sheer quantity of promoting concentrating on enterprise stakeholders, I reasoned that as a solopreneur, I’d be unable to make a significant influence by way of paid promoting. So, I made a decision to make use of the opposite, arguably extra priceless, asset I’ve as an entrepreneur: my time.
In early 2020, I began discovering my very best shoppers on the platforms the place they have been asking for assist and serving to them with out asking for something in return. I believed that by doing so, I might generate a major 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 strategy 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 without cost.
Design a transparent consumer journey
To comply with in my footsteps efficiently, you can not skip this primary strategic train. It’s vital. You want to, in as a lot depth as attainable, reply the next two questions:
Who’re your very best shoppers?
What set of deliverables will convey your very best shoppers a priceless transformation?
For the primary query, dig deeper by asking your self a number of easy questions.
The place on the earth are these shoppers positioned?
How massive are their groups?
Which industries are they working in?
What roles inside a workforce do you need to join with?
It’s additionally necessary to spotlight what excludes folks out of your Excellent Consumer Profile (ICP) alongside figuring out what your very best shoppers appear like.
To bridge between the primary and the second query, you could outline the consumer’s emotional state once they want your assist. You want to empathize along with your ICP. And you could 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, it’s essential to craft a compelling set of deliverables that may take your consumer from their burdened begin level all the best way to the profitable finish level you think about. This structured approach to convey the transformation into actuality is your Excellent Consumer Journey (ICJ).
With these two components outlined, you’re prepared to begin serving to folks.
Plant seeds of alternative
Conventional promoting methodologies encourage the vendor to all the time push for the shut. To hurry the consumer by way of the choice course of. To chase essentially the most senior individual within the group for the deal. These sorts of gross sales ways aren’t solely stale, however they’re additionally impractical for a solo company proprietor.
Whenever you begin, you’re unlikely to have a gentle move of inbound potential patrons. Even if you happen to pump {dollars} into paid promoting, you’re unlikely to achieve important traction. That is usually when entrepreneurial desperation kicks in. And desperation is the most important blocker to enterprise success.
So, what do you have to do as an alternative? Assist folks! However not simply anybody. You want to assist the ICP you outlined. That is the important thing precept of my “Promoting By Serving to” methodology. You want to 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 have been chargeable for managing their CRM instruments have been steadily posting their questions on-line. Within the ecosystem I work in, one of the vital 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 way of these efforts. It’s the purpose 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 priceless transformation
The belief you constructed by serving to a potential consumer, with none stress, will convey you into the room. However your well-designed consumer journey might be what helps you create a business settlement. That ICJ exhibits them that you’ve got 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 might be compelling to their workforce.
As soon as that SOW is signed, you could get to work! At occasions, I discovered that I liked the act of promoting (or serving to) greater than the act of delivering the venture — to the purpose I generally had nervousness when beginning to work.
I shortly realized the design of my consumer journey was the supply of my nervousness, so I modified it to allow fast wins to materialize early within the supply. This has eased my supply nervousness 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 strategy to engagement has persistently enabled me to ship success for a spread of nice shoppers and to construct lifelong, mutually helpful partnerships. All with no 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 seeking to extract worth, to construct belief.
A well-designed consumer journey will create priceless transformation and lifelong partnerships.
Would you imagine me if I instructed you that I’ve spent $0 on promoting in nearly six years of working my CRM implementation solo company? I gained’t blame you if you happen to don’t, however it’s true. As a substitute of spending cash on promoting, I’ve invested my time in constructing relationships with my very best shoppers.
Because of the sheer quantity of promoting concentrating on enterprise stakeholders, I reasoned that as a solopreneur, I’d be unable to make a significant influence by way of paid promoting. So, I made a decision to make use of the opposite, arguably extra priceless, asset I’ve as an entrepreneur: my time.
