284 standard operating procedures
Growing a business from offer to team
What's your situation?
Pick the one closest to yours. Each opens a short reading route through the SOPs, in the order the job needs.
- You have an idea and want to know whether anyone will buy it.
- Buyers believe you but will not sign today.
- You suspect you are charging too little.
- You need to raise prices on customers you already have.
- You have no leads and no ad budget.
- You are about to contact strangers for the first time.
- You post content, but it brings in no customers.
- You are about to run your first paid ads.
- Ads that worked have gone flat.
- You need a steady supply of new ads.
- Customers get great results, but your marketing does not show it.
- Leads schedule calls but do not show up.
- A prospect says it's too expensive.
- A prospect wants to think about it, or to ask a partner first.
- You are the only person in the business who can close.
- The team gets leads but closes too few.
- A new salesperson starts Monday.
- Winning a customer costs more than you can afford.
- Customers buy once and never come back.
- Customers are canceling in the first few months.
- A customer says they want to cancel.
- You need cash soon, or you are profitable but always short of it.
- Growth has stalled and you do not know what to fix.
- You are tempted to start something new.
- You cannot hire good people fast enough.
- You are about to hire or promote your first manager.
- You have to let someone go.
- Everything still runs through you.
- Your written values are not what people do.
- You want an agency or affiliates to bring in customers.
Browse by job
The library's 17 groups, as set out in the index.
- 1 Choose the buyers and build the offer Pick a market worth entering, build an offer people want, and add the guarantees, bonuses, limits and names that get a decision.
- 2 Set and raise prices Set a price in the first place, test it, raise it on new and existing customers, and add small pricing moves that lift profit.
- 3 Get leads by reaching out Reach people who know you and people who do not, ask for introductions, offer a free lead magnet, and work events; earning referrals by giving more value is in group 12 (SOP 284).
- 4 Make content and build a brand Decide what to post, how often and where, put calls to action on it, build a brand that raises what people will pay, and give a talk built around one problem.
- 5 Write ads and gather proof Write hooks, bodies and calls to action, keep a steady supply of new ads, and collect the proof and testimonials that make them persuade.
- 6 Run paid ads and scale lead flow Choose platforms, target, test, and read what leads cost, then add people, agencies and affiliates to get more of them.
- 7 Get prospects to the call and run it Route and contact new leads fast, get them to show up, and run the call from the opening through discovery to the price.
- 8 Handle objections and close Sort an objection, then answer price, partner, time, trust and stalling objections with a close that fits.
- 9 Build and run a sales team Pay, recruit, onboard, drill and rank salespeople, and set the rules the sales culture runs on.
- 10 Sell again after the first sale Arrange attraction offers, upsells, downsells and continuity so a new customer pays back what they cost, and keep selling to them.
- 11 Customer economics and cash Work out what a customer costs and returns, how fast they pay back, what margins to hold, and how to bring cash in sooner.
- 12 Keep customers Find the point where customers start to stay, onboard them to it, score every account each week, run cancellation calls, read churn by cohort, run support well, and earn more referrals by giving more value.
- 13 Find the constraint and choose the next move Find the one thing holding growth back, decide where effort and money go, prune what returns least, and choose the next growth move.
- 14 Grow through the stages by headcount Find your stage from one person to several hundred, and set up the finance, insurance, technology and controls each stage needs.
- 15 Hire, pay and let go Build a hiring funnel, interview for skill and values, onboard, set pay and benefits, and let people go without surprise.
- 16 Lead the team Build culture and values, set ownership and recognition, write the work down as a process anyone can follow, run meetings and weekly planning, and score your management and leadership.
- 17 Build wealth outside the business Climb from earning more than you spend to owning things that pay you while you hold them, in general terms only and with no investment advice.