Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.
Key Takeaways
To plant seeds of alternative, first perceive who you might be finest suited to assist. Then determine the place these individuals ask for assist and share your data.
Lead with worth, as a substitute of trying to extract worth, to construct belief.
A well-designed consumer journey will create useful transformation and lifelong partnerships.
Would you consider me if I informed you that I’ve spent $0 on promoting in nearly six years of working my CRM implementation solo company? I received’t blame you for those who don’t, however it’s true. As an alternative of spending cash on promoting, I’ve invested my time in constructing relationships with my ideally suited 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 via paid promoting. So, I made a decision to make use of the opposite, arguably extra useful, asset I’ve as an entrepreneur: my time.
In early 2020, I began discovering my ideally suited 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 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 higher than I ever anticipated.
However this strategy doesn’t simply work for me. The solopreneurs I’ve coached to do the identical have skilled comparable outcomes. It’s a scalable and evergreen technique that may assist any company proprietor construct their enterprise without spending a dime.
Design a transparent consumer journey
To observe in my footsteps efficiently, you can’t skip this primary strategic train. It’s essential. You might want to, in as a lot depth as potential, reply the next two questions:
Who’re your ideally suited shoppers?
What set of deliverables will deliver your ideally suited shoppers a useful transformation?
For the primary query, dig deeper by asking your self a couple of easy questions.
The place on this planet 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 essential to focus on what excludes individuals out of your Superb Consumer Profile (ICP) alongside figuring out what your ideally suited shoppers appear like.
To bridge between the primary and the second query, you might want to outline the consumer’s emotional state once they want your assist. You might want to empathize together with your ICP. And you might 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 may take your consumer from their pressured begin level all the best way to the profitable finish level you think about. This structured approach to deliver the transformation into actuality is your Superb Consumer Journey (ICJ).
With these two components outlined, you might be prepared to start out serving to individuals.
Plant seeds of alternative
Conventional promoting methodologies encourage the vendor to all the time push for the shut. To hurry the consumer via the choice course of. To chase probably the most senior individual within the group for the deal. These sorts of gross sales techniques usually are not solely stale, however they’re additionally impractical for a solo company proprietor.
If you begin, you might be unlikely to have a gentle circulation of inbound potential patrons. Even for those who pump {dollars} into paid promoting, you might be unlikely to realize vital traction. That is sometimes when entrepreneurial desperation kicks in. And desperation is the most important blocker to enterprise success.
So, what do you have to do as a substitute? Assist individuals! However not simply anybody. You might want to assist the ICP you outlined. That is the important thing precept of my “Promoting By Serving to” methodology. You might 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 had been accountable for managing their CRM instruments had been often posting their questions on-line. Within the ecosystem I work in, one of the vital in style platforms for questions is the Trailblazer Group. Over the past six years, I’ve answered hundreds of questions requested by those that match my ICP.
Most of my shoppers have come via these efforts. It’s the cause 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 useful transformation
The belief you constructed by serving to a potential consumer, with none stress, will deliver you into the room. However your well-designed consumer journey can be what helps you create a industrial settlement. That ICJ reveals 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 can be compelling to their workforce.
As soon as that SOW is signed, you might want to get to work! At instances, 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 rapidly realized the design of my consumer 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 strategy to engagement has persistently enabled me to ship success for a variety 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 might be finest suited to assist. Then determine the place these individuals ask for assist and share your data.
Lead with worth, as a substitute of trying to extract worth, to construct belief.
A well-designed consumer journey will create useful transformation and lifelong partnerships.
Would you consider me if I informed you that I’ve spent $0 on promoting in nearly six years of working my CRM implementation solo company? I received’t blame you for those who don’t, however it’s true. As an alternative of spending cash on promoting, I’ve invested my time in constructing relationships with my ideally suited 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 via paid promoting. So, I made a decision to make use of the opposite, arguably extra useful, asset I’ve as an entrepreneur: my time.
