How can creators like us, who are new to building online businesses, who have high-value skillsets, how do we scale our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) to get us the freedom we desire? That is the question, and this newsletter will give you the answers. Be sure to subscribe if these are the type of answers you seek.
My name is Boysie Gordon, and welcome to Boysie Talks Business.
We are at episode 4! That’s pretty insane.
When I started this, it was only supposed to be a newsletter, but a voice rang in the back of my head. “Narrate your wooork. Make it a podcaaaasst.”—in a spooky, ghostly tone.
The voice of Russell Brunson was echoing in the back of my mind.
See, I’ve been reading “Expert Secrets” for about a week now.
You know those moments when you hear about something you know you should do but wish you had never heard it? Well, in his book, he discussed the demographics of people who listen to podcasts…
and all I could hear was him listing out my target audience.
Intelligent online entrepreneurs with high-value skillsets
I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't, and here we are… episode 4.
Thanks for all the support!
Anyway, let’s get into the meat and potatoes.
In today’s episode, I want to talk about my evolution through sales and the top 10 lessons I have learned along the way. But before I get into that…
Here are my credentials:
College Dropout Class of 2018
Sold cable packages both retail and D2D for 1 year—got fired
Got hired as a B2B account manager in Jan 2020
Averaged 3 accounts closed per month — record: 11 closes in one month
Grew monthly profit margins from $10k to $45k over the last 5 months of 2020 (peak of COVID)
End first year with a little over $1.1 Million in revenue
Got promoted to senior account manager in Jan 2021
90-day average of $350k+ in MRR to start the year
Facilitated 125+ orders per month without an assistant
Got burnt out and quit my 6-figure job
Started my first company in April 2021
Month 1 — $0 MRR
Month 2 — $67,807.70 MRR
Month 3 — $306,343.06 MRR
Month 4 — $414,228.60 MRR
…we didn’t scale operations properly, so the numbers fell off a cliff.
Regardless ended the year with a little over $1.4M in revenue
We ended the first fiscal year (April 2021 to April 2022) with over $2.5M ARR
I’m going to stop here because this is already starting to get too long!
I promise I’ll keep it short… ish!
So, as you can see, my journey has been a wild one!
Here are the top 10 lessons I learned!
Lesson #1: Compounding is Real!
This is something that gets overlooked in today’s society.
We are all about “look at me, I’m the best!”
More and more people are becoming scared to suck at stuff.
I sucked at sales. I was so bad that on my first day, I cried in the bathroom. I had never faced rejection like that before, and I had always excelled at things on my first try up to that point.
But regardless of the mental hurdle, I kept selling.
And I closed my first customer on the second day. Then, by the end of the week, I had made 4 sales. By the end of that first month I was making 2 to 3 sales per day.
I wasn’t some gifted genius… I just refused to give up.
And I’ve been that way since that moment. My compounding hasn’t stopped. Just look at the growth at each phase in my journey. It’s this proof alone that gives me confidence in what I’m doing, even when I have no clue.
Compounding is a real thing, and it’s the key to life’s algorithm…
Continuous applied effort—leverage it.
Lesson #2: The CEO Should Always Sell
I learned this lesson the hard way.
The first time I scaled my logistics company, it was a mess. I was so ready to be an official CEO that I gave up sales to operate in a more business management role.
This is a necessary move for CEOs to make, but not when they have less than 25 employees. By giving up sales too early, we lost business, I damaged the relationships, I had to pay more salary… and the list goes on!
No one will sell as good as the CEO, even when the CEO isn’t good at sales!
I’ll explain more in Lesson #4, but the CEO has the passion required to attract early adopters. A sales rep simply does not. At the beginning of a venture, you want to attract radical early adopters, and later, once your product/service is established, target a little closer to the mid-market.
Having a CEO manage your account stands out way more than a “sales rep”
If your company is new, learn basic sales, inject loads of passion into the pitch, and manage client relationships until you have a scalable infrastructure.
Okay, I have officially lied about this being short…
Lesson #3: Never Be Impatient
In the beginning, nothing ruined my sales faster than me being too fast.
I was attempting to close everything on the first try. My pitches would start off great! I’d build rapport with prospects and get them all giggly and comfortable. Then, we’d start talking about their business problems and I’d get so excited that I’d cut to the chase and offer to help them.
9 times out of 10, I could literally hear the vibe change through the phone.
No bueno.
Once I finally became self-aware (Lesson #8), I started to ignore my urge to sell. Then, the calls would turn into them asking me about my services. Then, I’d tell them whatever they wanted to know in a conversational tone and ask if they’d like to meet the team or if they had any orders they wanted to try us on.
Sometimes, they would even start pitching me on why they should work with me.
Just be patient and let the sale come to you.
If no opportunity presents itself by the end of the call, you can inject your spiel. But doing it too early kills your chances and deletes the trust you’ve built.
Lesson #4: Sales is the Science of Relationships
This is a science through and through.
The sooner I accepted that the easier things got. I treated each pitch like a trial and each day like an experiment. I studied what parts performed better than others: phrases, tones, numbers, etc.
I became a mad scientist who always experimented with his secret formula.
All I was trying to do was achieve the most efficient route to building legitimate relationships. I got logistics sales down to a 5-minute friend. And with this method, I was closing sales on the first call even when the market was bare.
What was the key to fast success?
NEVER MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE
Variations are okay, but making the same mistake was now. If you make mistakes, learn from them and try again. If you can gain the discipline to avoid repeat mistakes, you will shortcut your success greatly!
If you’d like some guidance building out your sales process and scaling your revenues the easiest way possible, schedule a call with me—mybluepath.com
If you enjoyed reading/listening, be sure to subscribe for more daily content!
Thanks for reading/listening!
EP. 4 The 10 Sales Lessons I Learned On My Journey From Joblessness to a $2.5M CEO in Under 5 Years Pt. 1