I spent the past week reading the book "Unlimited Clients" by Kevin Kruse. He calls his book...
"The Playbook for Consultants, Coaches, and Entrepreneurs Who Want High Paying Clients and Speaking Gigs (Influencer Marketing and Branding)"
And although the title and the description of the book are more than a little misleading, I still think there is some good information to be gleaned. Here I'm going to talk about my thoughts while reading this book.
If you're interested in reading it for yourself, you can find it on Amazon.
But first, who is Kevin Kruse?
Kevin Kruse has apparently built and sold several multimillion dollar technology companies, Winning both the Inc500 and Best Place to Work Awards.
In addition to being a Forbes Leadership Columnist, he's also the author of several books including a New York Times Bestseller.
He's also been named to the Trust Across America Top Thought Leader in Trust. Which I thought was a little funny, because the book I read had almost nothing to do with it's title and description. (Way to build trust Kevin!)
What is his book really about then?
His book actually says very little about getting clients (if anything at all.). I can't actually remember him talking about it.
But it does talk about how to create Superfans by giving members of your audience individualized attention. Kevin likes to call this, "Intimate Attention."
Throughout the book he discusses the benefits of giving your audience, and people that you hope will buy from you, intimate attention. He also talks about different strategies for doing it effectively.
I believe that the gift of Intimate Attention is so rare that a single touch point - a single email or video response - can move the recipient through all three stages of know, like, trust. - Kevin Kruse
I feel like I need to mention that this guy is weirdly obsessed with Gary Vaynerchuck.
One of the downsides of this book is that most of the quotes in the book were Gary Vaynerchuck quotes. Look... I think it's fine if you're a big fan of someone, or if you have someone that's been a big influence in your life.
But if you're a bestselling author, I really feel like at that level you need to have quotes from more than one or two people in your book. After all, you're portraying yourself as a thought leader in the industry. You should have many different perspectives to draw from.
There are things that I liked about this book....
I really liked that Kevin put such an emphasis on personally connecting with people from your audience. In my experience, this kind of personal contact really makes a difference.
For example, I tend to only buy courses and masterminds from people who have spoken to me directly through DMs or email. Because after years of dealing with shady gurus, I personally believe that if you spend your very limited time reaching out to me than you're probably not going to try to swindle me out of my hard earned cash.
Plus Kevin makes a few good points about this strategy...
For example, "If someone has actually taken the time to ask a question or give you a comment, they are signaling that they are highly interested in what you do."
Meaning that if they're interacting with you, than they're probably more likely to buy than not. So if you focus your attention on people that have signaled that they're good prospects, than you're probably more likely to be successful.
What does this look like in real life?
One time I reached out to a course creator with a problem that I was having. And instead of trying to sell me something, he literally gave me one of his shorter courses directly related to the problem I was experiencing.
He just said, "Here's a course. It's usually X amount of dollars, but I think it will help you. Take it." And I have been a huge fan of his ever since he gave me that first course.
Since then, I have spent thousands of dollars on his more premium courses. Which I might not have done if he didn't give me that first one for free.
I have other examples, but I think this one is the best one. People who have gotten on calls with me, or just emailed me back to answer my questions... I don't know why but I just like them more.
And so I buy from them more.
There are also some things I didn't like about this book...
For all the good points about this book, there are several bad ones as well. The biggest problem is that this strategy will not work for those just starting out. And I've laid out the reasons why.
This strategy only works if you have a big list, or people reaching out to you everyday.
Kevin sort of takes for granted the fact that he has tens of thousands of people on his email list, and a huge social media following. It's sort of hard to answer everybody's questions if nobody is asking you anything.
And the book's title is "Unlimited Clients," so you would assume that the people reading this book don't have many clients or connections to begin with. It just sort of feels like the content of this book doesn't match the intended audience.
It effectiveness on social media is questionable.
Maybe this strategy was hugely effective back in 2017, or whenever this book was published. But since then people have caught on, and there are hundreds of individual replies every time a big social account posts something online.
This is especially true on LinkedIn, where you have a ton of people trying to sell their courses and services. Someone will talk about a problem, and there will just be hundreds and hundreds of replies.
So if you don't have a big list, and you're just starting out... Unless you have something incredibly insightful to share, you'll probably just get lost in the noise anyway.
Which leads us to bots and A.I.
Because commenting on social media posts is becoming less and less effective, people have turned to bots to do it for them.
Of course this is not at all useful, but people do it anyway. You can usually tell the people that use bots for commenting, because their comments always sound a little crazy.
And all it does is make the people trying to make thoughtful comments have harder time trying to stand out from the crowd. (So don't do it, ok?)
Well that all sounds depressing and awful, what should I do instead?
There are really only two ways to use this strategy if you're just starting out.
Number 1: Send messages to people.
I'm talking about DM's and emails right into their inboxes. And I'm not talking about scripts or sales pitches. Try to form a connection with whoever you're reaching out to.
I try to go into it with no expectations, and I try to be as genuine as possible. Personalize each message. Try to be an actual human being. And I think that people will at least try to help you.
When I send messages to people, my response rate is incredibly high. Generally people will either want to hire, or help you. There are very few bad outcomes.
Number 2: Grow your list.
If you are a business owner, priority #1 is always going to be growing your list. As long as you have a list, you'll always have a way to get money. All you have to do is create offers.
Send messages to your list asking them what they need help with, and then create offers around the responses that you receive.
But before you can do that, you've got to have a list. So start working on that... right now. ;)
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