Recently, I stumbled across a case study that still has me reeling.
If you sell high-ticket coaching services or courses, it is THE blueprint for sustainable growth.
It’s a repeatable strategy that one of our clients, Michael DeLon, used in December to bring in 102k in new client revenue from a single 1-hour virtual training session.
- He didn’t run a single ad to promote it
- None of the attendees came from his email list
- No crazy funnels were involved
Oh, and here’s the really interesting part…
There were only 30 people in attendance!
Out of those 30 people…
- 9 booked a phone call to learn about Michael’s services
- 5 of them purchased a packaged priced at $20,500
- For a total of 102k
- All because of one virtual presentation to 30 people
That’s why I hopped on Zoom and had Michael walk me step by step through the process of discovering the opportunity for this partnership, booking it, and executing it.
Check it out so you can see how to do the same thing for your business:
In this interview with Michael, you’ll learn:
- 2:27 – The exact process Michael used to identify his partner and pitch the idea of a guest training
- 5:24 – Why Michael’s offer converted so well with this particular audience
- 6:08 – The 2 key reasons why Michael’s partner agreed to promote the guest training to his members
- 9:33 – How this partnership pre-conditioned Michael’s prospects to buy before they even got on the phone with him
- 14:17 – How Michael plans to scale this approach and make 6-figure months the norm in 2021
- 15:56 – The “middleman organization” strategy that consistently gets Michael in front of large groups of ideal clients
Resources:
- Check out Michael’s website at PaperbackExpert.com.
- Use Michael’s Credibility Calculator to get a free credibility score in under 5 minutes.
Want to Execute a Partnership Like Michael’s? Here’s a Closer Look at How He Did It… 🔍
This is a type of partnership you’ve probably seen before, but it always helps to zoom out and look at all the mechanics from at a high level.
First, let’s look at how Michael’s business works.
His Business:
Paperback Expert — Michael and his team help business owners establish and market their credibility by creating and publishing an Amazon bestselling book.
The process is part of a large package of coaching and services that takes about a year to execute.
- First, Michael and his team identify the client’s brand strategy
- Then, they create and publish the client’s book
- Next, they launch a podcast for the client, which gives them a platform they can use to attract customers
- Finally, they coach the client on different marketing strategies so they can monetize the credibility their book and podcast have given them
The price point for this full range of services and coaching is typically around $20,000.
His Best Fit Client:
Michael’s ideal clients are independent professional business owners who sell through a consultative approach—people like attorneys, financial advisors, doctors, etc.
They need prospects to see them as absolute experts in the solution the prospect is seeking. Credibility and authority are critical.
Type of Partnership: Guest Training — Michael partnered with the leader of a paid mastermind group to host a 1-hour online training for his 30 members.
The mastermind group was made specifically for tax resolution specialists. Basically, they’re the experts you hire if you’re having trouble with the IRS.
These are the EXACT kind of professionals who are great fits for Paperback Expert (Michael’s past clients have typically been attorneys, financial advisors, doctors, etc.).
The leader of the mastermind group knew his members were interested in learning how to publish a book…
But he didn’t have expertise in that area.
This is why it made sense for Michael to pitch him on doing a virtual training for the group (and why he said yes).
During the training, Michael taught his partner’s audience how they could use a book and a podcast to boost their credibility and attract more clients.
At the end, he simply let them know they could schedule a call with him to learn how he could help them implement what they’d just learned.
Partnership Results:
Out of the 30 people who attended the training:
- 9 scheduled a phone call
- Those 9 calls turned into 5 new clients (4 of them were one-call closes)
- The package they purchased was priced at $20,500
- That’s a total of $102,000
Remember—this is from ONE presentation to only 30 people.
The Secret Why This Small Audience Converted So Well 🔑
The single biggest challenge you have as a coach, consultant, or course creator is getting prospects to trust you.
That’s why you see so many marketing gurus bragging about their crazy complicated 20-step sales funnels…
Because when all you’re doing is buying cold traffic, it takes TONS of nurturing, an expertly crafted sales process, and followup to get people to convert.
Meanwhile, Michael’s funnel from this partnership looked like this:
Why was he able to keep things so simple?
Because he was able to borrow the trust that the leader of the mastermind group had already built with his audience.
Remember, 4 out of the 5 calls he booked with people who attended the guest training bought during that first call.
One of them literally said he hadn’t even looked at Michael’s website yet. Once the leader of his mastermind group said Michael was the guy, he didn’t need to hear anymore. (Michael described this at the 20:18 mark of the video.)
“They were preconditioned to buy before we ever got on the sales call,” Michael said. “It’s not even a sales call, really. It’s ‘are we a good fit and here’s how the whole thing works.’ Makes a big difference.”
How to Find Partners for a Virtual Training Partnership 👀
I can hear the excuses already…
“But Bryan, I don’t know anyone who runs a mastermind group…how am I supposed to do this???”
First of all, you don’t need to know someone personally in order to pitch them on a virtual training partnership like this.
You just need to know how to find them.
And luckily, there’s this thing called the internet that makes it pretty easy. 🙂
For example, let’s say you sell a high-end course that teaches accountants how to master QuickBooks Pro.
Head on over to Facebook, pop “mastermind group accounts” into the search bar, and click “See all groups” on the results page.
There’s gonna be some junk to search through. But you’ll also find promising groups that might be a perfect fit:
It’s usually pretty easy to track down the leader of the group so you can pitch them directly (I’ve covered how to write a great pitch numerous times—see this case study for some good examples).
The cool part is that you don’t have to limit yourself to mastermind groups. Any kind of audience that’s at least partially made up of your ideal customers can be a great fit for a virtual training partnership.
For example, check out all these other non-mastermind accounting groups that popped up in my Facebook search:
You could easily pitch all four of those groups on doing a Facebook Live training session for their members.
And look, while there are lots of benefits to getting in front of a mastermind group (like Michael pointed out in the interview)…
It’s just one of MANY types of audiences you can get in front of using partnerships.
We regularly help our clients use the same approach to get their business featured by…
- Podcasts (like Diana did)
- Companies you’re a customer of (like Ian did)
- Virtual summits (like Joe did)
- Lead magnet swaps / guest emailing (like Alp did)
- Facebook groups (like Shannon did)
- And more
Once you have a system in place for regularly identifying ideal partners and pitching them, you can get your business in front of a brand new audience every single week.
Want My Team to Personally Help You Implement This System in Your Business?
I’m looking for 15 course creators and coaches who want my team and me to personally help them get results like Michael’s. We’ll find out what a dream case study would look like for your business, create a custom plan to help you reach it, and then coach you through the implementation step by step.
Interested in learning more? Click here to schedule a time to chat with us.