The Lead Product Method: The Basics
How to close clients into your big projects is one of the biggest challenges that most small branding agencies have.
It's hard to get clients to pay the top dollar that you want them to pay in order to deliver your highest value.
And on top of that, you may be like a lot of small agency owners I meet who hate sales.
Well have I got an idea for you. In the post, I want to tell you all about the Lead Product Method.
This is a process that I implemented in my business over 10 years ago, and I have since taught 1000s of people how to do this with incredible results.
We're going to be talking about Lead Products in the next few posts, but today, I want to share the basics with you.
The problem with free proposals
For most small agencies, the process of closing a client is based on the free proposal process.
But here's the problem.
Free proposals are a lot of work, especially when you're going to do them thoughtfully.
And I have written so many proposals over the years in my early days, where I would literally create a beautiful deck that was branded for the client, pages and pages, 20 or 30 pages sometimes, because I would stack the back of the deck with beautiful case studies, anything I could do to show how much we cared and how great our work was.
No matter how great the decks were, half the time, the clients wouldn't get back to us, we would get ghosted, or they would come back looking for all kinds of concessions, asking to take this or this out trying to lower the price back and forth back and forth - the whole process took so much time and effort.
And those projects didn't always close.
And you know how it feels when you go back and forth and put all this energy into pitching someone, and then, in the end, they just decide either to go with someone else because they're cheaper.
Or they just decide, you know what, we're going to put this project on hold, we've decided something else is more important.
It feels horrible.
The other thing I don't like about the free proposal process is that writing a proposal for someone is based on the idea that whatever the client is coming to you asking for is what you should pitch them.
So the whole project scope in a free proposal is going to be a list of things that the client has told you they think they need.
But let me ask you this.
How many times have you had someone ask you for just a logo, or they just need a simple website, or they just need an email series, but you look at what they have, and you realise they don't have a brand, they don't have their messaging, they don't have clear targeting, or they don't have all of the above.
And so this little project that they “just need” is really not going to get them anywhere - it's not going to get them where they want to go.
Most clients, in my experience, don't have their ducks in a row, especially when they're looking for these one off projects.
But if somebody comes to you and says, ‘Oh, I just need a simple website’ and then you write in a proposal, something that's much bigger, because you tell them ‘you really need this and branding and messaging and positioning’, they're just going to ignore you and they're going to wonder why you're pitching them this much bigger project when they told you exactly what they wanted.
And they should. They will feel unheard, because you weren't really making sure that they felt heard and felt understood.
Well, enter the Lead Product.
The Lead Product Method
Let me give you the basics.
The Lead Product is a productized service that replaces the free proposal step when you're pitching for clients.
It is an interview with a written brief delivered at the end.
And that brief is valuable on its own.
A Lead Product brief also has a section I call the ‘Moving Forward’ section - that is the part that acts as a proposal.
And that part comes at the end and it is separate from the brief itself.
And to be clear, this is not just a proposal that you're slapping a price on. Just charging for a proposal wouldn't be very helpful for a client.
This is a brief, really it's a strategy/discovery brief, but we don't call it that, because clients don't want to pay for strategy most of the time.
So we call it something else. Mine is called a Brandshrink.
So it's not a proposal, and it's also not any execution.
There is no design included, there is no copy, there are no mood boards, there are no examples of what you think this thing is going to look like.
And there shouldn't be.
It's not just that doing some execution is going above and beyond, it's actually that doing execution is going to take away from the value of the brief.
This is something that a lot of people don't get when they just hear about this concept.
The Lead Product must only be the strategy and the brief, any sort of execution is actually going to make your brief less effective.
Why Lead Products Work
Okay, that's what a Lead Product is.
Let's talk about what it does.
First things first, Lead Products save time.
No longer will you write free proposals for clients that may very well not close.
No longer will you chase prospects.
No longer will you get ghosted, and if you get ghosted by a Lead Product client, (which happens every once in a while, but it's so, so rare), even then you've been paid for your time, you've been paid for the value you've delivered, and you can still feel good about the process that they went through.
I've also had many clients who do the Lead Product process for a client of theirs, and the client may not end up buying the full package at the end, because it's more than what they wanted to spend, or they're not ready or whatever it is.
But that client is still their biggest fan.
I just had a student post recently that the client isn't ready to invest at the $20k+ level that she had pitched, but it was okay, it was actually a huge win, because she said, ‘this client is going to hire me when the time comes, and it is very clear that this client is also going to be telling everyone she knows about me and anyone who asks for branding she's going to send my way, because there is so much love and trust built into this Lead Product process.’
Another benefit is that a Lead Product process positions you as an expert from the very beginning.
It shows prospects that your time is valuable, and that your advice is valuable.
When you tell somebody on a first phone call that the next step is a paid engagement, they will understand that the value you're about to deliver to them is worth money.
And that's before you've even put them through this process.
The process itself will have the client actually experience your expertise.
This will make them see the value of your services more and be willing to pay much more for them.
How many times have you tried to explain the value of branding to a client and it just went right over their head?
How many times have you tried to educate a client on how important their messaging is, or their positioning is, and they're looking at you like, ‘what is this person talking about, I just need a website?’
Especially explaining to small business owners the importance of branding, or the importance of strategy messaging - it falls on deaf ears, and it's a losing battle.
If you ever find yourself trying to educate your clients on the value of something that you have to deliver, you've already lost.
What we do instead in the Lead Product process is that we give them an experience where they see that value, not because we're explaining what strategy is and why these things are so important, but because we are taking them through this very deliberate process that I built.
It’s an interview that gets them to see all of the holes in their business and identify how plugging those holes is going to help them get the ultimate outcome that they want.
Another benefit of the Lead Product process is that when a client goes through this, it makes the whole experience of working with them after 10 times easier and much more rewarding, because the Lead Product experience is going to set up the relationship with the client based on trust, where the client actually trusts you to lead them.
How much easier is it to work with clients who come to you as an expert and hire you because they want you to tell them what this should look like, because they're looking to you for that guidance?
Another benefit is that it's much easier to sell that first Lead Product process than it is to sell a big project upfront.
It solves a problem for your clients at an easy to buy price.
If you have a tough time or you don't like selling big projects, or telling clients on the first call that your prices start at $10,000 or $20,000, because you think you're gonna scare them away, this Lead Product process solves that.
It is so easy to sell.
And in fact, so many of my students tell me that they hate selling, but they love the Lead Product because it really sells itself.
And honestly, this thing started because I hated selling and I just didn't want to have that conversation anymore.
So I built something that was so easy to offer to people and say ‘Hey, you have this problem, I have this solution, it costs this much, you can take it or leave it, no pressure’.
I found that it was so much easier for people to buy that than it was in the previous process where I was writing these free proposals.
It also makes it easier to sell the big project on the back end all at once instead of in stages.
You've probably had clients come to you, and they really do need a lot of things, let's say they need a full rebrand, a website and all of that, but they're not ready to buy that.
And they're also not ready to agree to a project like that with someone they just met.
Or maybe they've only known you for a little bit of time.
What ends up happening is they say, ‘Okay, well, let's do the logo first. And then after that, we'll see.’
And then, if they like working with you, they'll do the next part, right?
‘Okay, well, why don't we do this homepage next, or why don't we do some business cards, and they'll drip it out.’
And while that's fine, that can be really inefficient and really unprofitable.
And you end up working with a client over months and months and months to deliver a project that could have been delivered in much less time.
In my experience, that project, however big it is, could have been delivered within a week, maybe two.
Why does the Lead Product help with this?
Well, when a client is forced to step back and see the full picture of what they want, and what they need, and you show them why all these pieces fit together, and they see it for themselves, they're not being lectured on it, they are going to be much more bought into the big project idea.
And they will want to do it all at once, too.
Another benefit of the lead product process is that it prevents scope creep in the future, when you flush out everything that a client is going to need upfront, instead of just doing a project based on what they think they need.
That's where scope creep comes in, when you write a proposal for someone based on a list of deliverables that they asked for, but they haven't really thought it through, and they don't have the bigger picture, because this is not their business.
That's where scope creep can often come in, that's when new ideas come while you're in the middle of a project, they realise they also need this lead magnet, they realise they also could use these other pages that they hadn't said originally.
And that's why the project's bloom and become bigger and bigger.
And while that may lead to more money on your end, it's also really hard to increase the pricing of a project midway and still keep it efficient.
This is where projects take so much longer and they feel like they never end. And I think one of the biggest benefits of the Lead Product method is that clients actually get much better results when you do this first, because the Lead Product flushes out the plan to get them the outcome that they want, not just the deliverables that they think they need.
A logo is not going to solve a business's problem, no matter how amazing the logo is.
So when a client comes to you and says ‘I just need a logo’, and they're trying to invest in a logo because they think it's going to help their business, nobody wins.
You don't win, because just making a nice logo isn't really going to help them and they're not going to be successful with that.
And they don't win, because they're going to spend this money and this time on a logo, and their business isn't going to be any better off for it, because it's never about the one thing.
So that's what I love about Lead Products most is that I can give my clients so much more value when we do this process first.
And the results are going to be amazing for your business too.
Because when you do Lead Products, your business becomes more profitable instantly, you're freeing up all this time.
And then you get to reinvest that time into doing higher value work, work that is going to make sure that you are increasing demand for your services, maybe through authority building, maybe through network building, maybe through a combination of both.
And then you can do that higher level work to increase the perceived value and the actual value of what you deliver.
Perceived value is going to be through your reputation, and actual value is going to be through the work that you do to increase the value of what you have to offer, like your process, your systems, just increasing your own skills.
Anytime you can free up wasted time in one area and reinvest it in something that is going to deliver higher value for you, your business value increases.
You also, of course, get paid for your time.
And not only is that nice, monetarily, as it’s good to bring in cash for work that you're doing, but it is also going to increase your confidence in the fact that you actually have value to give.
I cannot tell you how incredible it is, when I have student after student tell me that when they do this Lead Product process, they are more bought into their process and the value they have to deliver.
Sometimes it's easy for us to forget how much we really know.
Sometimes we think that because we know it, of course, everybody else knows it.
But the Lead Product process has you experience over and over again how some things that might be second nature to you are eye opening information for your clients.
When you see those clients experience that in this process, it is a constant reminder that what you have to offer is valuable and that confidence is going to be reflected back into your marketing, how you show up in the world and how you present yourself when you meet people and when you talk about your business.
There is just so much intangible value there, but it has long term effects on your business.
And then of course, people actually get the results that they need.
Instead of you just being hired as a freelancer to do the bidding of some prospect, because they think they need X,Y and Z, you get to help people actually get results.
You get to help people actually get real outcomes.
Because you aren't just solving the superficial problem they think they have, you're actually able to help them solve the core problem.
Lead Products are a game changer and 1000s of people that I have shared this with over the years who have successfully implemented this process will tell you the same. It not only makes your business easier to run, but it makes your process more valuable.
And that can be incredibly fulfilling.
In the coming posts, I'll share more about how to deliver amazing Lead Products and what not to do.
Here’s what you need to get…
Lead Products solve a problem for both you and your prospect.
You get to stop doing free proposal after free proposal, and your prospect turns into a client who can get results from a real expert - you.
It’s instantly profitable, and leads to bigger wins when you sell your full projects.
P.S. You can always jump on a call with my team if you want to fast-track creating and selling your Lead Products, and learn all my other tools and strategies to scale up your agency - just go here to get started!