S5E11 – The 4 Key Steps to Scale a SaaS With Tim Branyan

• (00:42) – Show intro and background history
• (06:16) – Understanding his background business history
• (09:31) – Deeper into his business strategies
• (12:50) – Understanding his business today
• (14:48) – A bit about his course
• (15:39) – Deeper into his business portfolio
• (18:03) – Deeper into his current service business
• (21:50) – 4 key steps to increase sales
• (38:14) – A key takeaway from the guest
• (44:18) – Guest contacts

Transcription

[00:00:00.360] – Show Intro

Introducing payback time, the podcast for entrepreneurs looking to build and scale their startups, gain access to actionable tips, proven strategies, and valuable data that can help you avoid mistakes, skyrocket sales, and optimize profits. Your business breakthrough may just be an episode away.

 

[00:00:18.970] – Guest Intro

Are you trying to build a B2B SaaS, but you’re having a hard time increasing sales? Look no further. My next guest has built multiple SaaS products, and in this episode, he talks about four key steps on how to increase sales. Hint number four is the equivalent of striking gold. It’s absolutely brilliant, and it’s extremely easy. If you want to increase sales, this episode’s for you. Please welcome Tim Branyan.

 

[00:00:42.650] – Sean

Tim, welcome to the show.

 

[00:00:44.230] – Tim

Thanks for having me, Sean.

 

[00:00:45.610] – Sean

Good to have you here. So, before we kick things off, why don’t you tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know?

 

[00:00:51.590] – Tim

Yeah. So most people know I’m in business and know I have a family, et cetera. But most people don’t know that I am a super nerd gamer. League of Legends, a game called Team Fight Tactics, which is a five on five kind of interactive board game. And most people don’t know. They do now, though, now that it’s public, it’s public that I’m a super nerd and I play that game. It’s.

 

[00:01:15.090] – Tim

It’s out there for the world to see a gamer. All right, that’s a new one on the show. Well, sweet. Let’s dive in here. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your background, and then we’ll get into what you’re working on today.

 

[00:01:25.740] – Tim

Yeah. So I grew up here in Kokomo, Indiana, about 30 minutes north of Indianapolis in a small town called Kokomo, not the island. It’s also known as the city of first. You and I were just jamming about that before we started the podcast, and, you know, my options and opportunities weren’t robust. Right. I could go work at the factory. I could work at, you know, some of these blue collar rolls, and that was never really appealing. Very primitively, I looked at who was going to college and who went to the military, and I thought that the folks going to the military route had cooler career titles, and they had money in their pockets, and they came home to the. To the bar, and I just admired who I saw them become verse some of the college folks that I knew. So I was like, you know, maybe there’s something to this. I jumped at the chance. I joined the United States Air Force when I was 18. It changed my life. I went to good places, bad places, learned about teamwork, learned, you know, had a high level of camaraderie. The mission was admirable. So first ever time I really had a career, a job or a team that I was really proud of the history and the valor and such.

 

[00:02:35.380] – Tim

As a military police officer, I learned all sorts of tactics and mission planning, and I was in charge of logistics, arsenals, if you will, millions and millions of dollars worth of ammunition and weaponry at a young age. And I think just who I became through those four years is just, you know, I still have some of those characteristics I’m proud of. Integrity, service before, self, excellence in what I do. And, you know, the transition point from the military. I tried to go to university after I was, after my time in the military. I got really just depressed. I felt like cattle, like folks were just there, because that was this next kind of linear milestone, maybe an expectation. The energy was low. I ultimately felt restless and discontent and jumped back into service. But as a civilian contractor, I worked for a company called Constellis, doing similar work to the military personnel security detail, military police style work. And I did that for three and a half years in Kuwait and Dubai. And that was cool. But ultimately, it’s what really activated the entrepreneurial spirit, the desire for true freedom, which I believed at that time, still believe today, that the only way to really do that is through entrepreneurship and ownership and selling to the market, providing solutions.

 

[00:04:01.000] – Tim

So I racked my brain for months and months and months, really kind of creating an escape plan and technology made sense. It was something that was low cost, it was something that could be global. It was something in my head at the time that I didn’t require a huge infrastructure, I didn’t need a bunch of team members and different personnel to put on payroll. It just seemed like low hanging fruit. So got into the industry that was like eleven and a half years ago, I got scammed for $25,000. My first intro into the software world was trying to find developers that could take this crazy idea and turn it into fruition. Got SAm for 25k that. Fortunately, I didn’t quit. I kept at it. I knew that I had something about $115,000 later and two and a half years of just failure and learning, we arrived at a really great product that ended up doing well. And that was kind of the first home run and this realization that, oh my gosh, I can do it, I can do this and that. Long story short, it’s continued to progress. We’ve launched multiple different software tools some have done multimillions of dollars.

 

[00:05:16.110] – Tim

We’re completely bootstrapped, which I’m proud of. We were talking about that earlier, Sean, and I’m still aggressively curious, I’m still learning, and, yeah, the team’s growing, and I’m excited where we’re at in that world and outside of the business world. I’m a dad with a beautiful wife, two awesome kids, a three and a five year old. And, you know, I guess over the years, my objectives has switched from profit to purpose. I want to use my gifts and align them with my, what I, what I think is my responsibility. I’m a proud christian, christian man just trying to live my life towards, you know, servant, servanthood. And technology has now become this thing that, that has shifted to allow me to do that in a multitude of different arenas. So that’s kind of a little bit what’s going on now. And, and I’m excited to get into a conversation. And like I told you before we started, I just want to be a value to your listeners and folks that end up hearing these sound waves.

 

[00:06:16.740] – Sean

Really enjoyed your backstory there, and thanks for your service, by the way. You’re not the only guy who has left the military jumping into college thinking, like, what am I doing? Like, it’s just like, you’re going 100 miles an hour and you slam into a brick wall. Like, now I’m going slow as molasses. So you made a move there. I like some of the moves you made. And it led into tech. Let’s drill into that first business you created. You said you invested about $150,000. Is that correct?

 

[00:06:47.410] – Tim

Yes. Well, the first one that I failed to create was called Media Rocket Pro, and I learned several valuable lessons with this one. This tool was, back in the early days, an Instagram automation tool. The idea was to help create traffic and awareness for an individual user. And if you’re an individual user on Instagram, let’s say you have a profile, you could basically digitally tap an ideal prospect on the shoulder and have them come and view your profile. You had the ability to filter your and automate your functionality on Instagram to then drive ideal traffic and views back to your account. We built a software that allowed people to filter through account size followers of a specific account. We did all that. So that platform cost about 25,000 to build. Get it up. It ended up giving me a really big learning experience. Actually went on to be really successful, but we got a cease and desist from Facebook because of how it engaged with their API. So this was my first learning experience into what API was and how it functioned, what are terms and conditions. I was just out solving problems and didn’t put that into account, that there were rules and regulations and how you operated with other social media platforms.

 

[00:08:11.860] – Tim

So it was a big, great learning experience. Where I failed for 100,000 was a tool called drawing a complete blank. It wasn’t called lead feed, but it was the adaptation of that tool. We worked with a stateside team and, uh, just nothing came to fruition. I couldn’t even log into the platform. It was a long, elongated time frame of a ton of communication, a lot of money and resources, and nothing ever left the shipyard. So it was this terrible feeling of, like, you know, time waste and resources waste. But ultimately what I learned about myself was that I can love someone and I can want them to be who I want them to be. But when somebody’s showing you that they’re not throwing touchdowns, it’s better for the best team, it’s better for the entirety of the team to take that person out of the game. So you can put in someone that’s, that’s actually putting rubber to the road. So my, my problem there was spending way too much time trying to get someone to be someone that they were not being. And, you know, that’s almost like over loving someone versus really focusing on the mission and the team in general.

 

[00:09:17.900] – Tim

So that was a tough lesson because I deeply care and I knew what the person was capable of. So, anyway, that was the learning experience from the loss, which was 100 and some odd thousand dollars in a whole year.

 

[00:09:31.570] – Sean

Was this a developer that was on your team or maybe external that you invested that $100,000 in?

 

[00:09:37.210] – Tim

This was. I was attempting to build a state side development team at that point. And I found key people, and the key people that I found had some good synergies, but ultimately they didn’t vibe. They were all part time. Each was doing something. It was very much bootstrappy and didn’t work out the way that I had initially envisioned and hoped that it would. Gotcha.

 

[00:10:01.740] – Sean

So you moved on from that. Let’s backtrack a second. Meteorocket pro. Did that sell, end up selling that business?

 

[00:10:10.180] – Tim

Yeah, I did. Once we, once we got the cease and desist, we had a pretty crucial conversation of who do we want to be, what do we want to do? Obviously, we complied immediately and shut everything down. So we went from making a great residual to literally virtually nothing within a matter of 24 hours, which is a huge uppercut. And, you know, I pulled the team together. It’s like, well, what are we going to do? We’re not going to just stop, right? Like, who do we want to be? What do we want to do? Is really crucial conversation moment. And we hit the drawing board. We started figuring out, okay, what other pains are out there? Where are some low hanging fruits? Where do we think we could sell to? We knew that we could build solutions or vehicles, if you will, tech vehicles. But we wanted to just kind of remove ourselves from that social media space and focus more so on, like, small business owners and such. So the next tool that we built is a platform called Repustream, which is a reputation management platform for small business owners that want to translate their offline sentiment, offline reviews to online, where it matters.

 

[00:11:14.200] – Tim

So that was a cool tool. Since rebranded, I own a minor equity position in it now. I’m more so a consultant or passive owner, and it’s called sendly now, and it’s specifically for real estate agents. So we just, you know, after going after. Once you start investigating, like, new client acquisition, you start going down the rabbit hole of what I call chopping the tree. You start getting into sales and outreach. You tend to discover opportunities or niches that you don’t often think of right off the bat. It’s just a requirement to start swinging the ax, if you will, to find out. Yeah, to learn. So that’s kind of what happened as a result of that pivot is just.

 

[00:12:03.040] – Sean

Learning now, just to connect the dots here before we dive into what you’re working on now. Media pro, rocket, you sold repustream. Did you sell it? Is it still in place? So it generates residuals.

 

[00:12:17.330] – Tim

It’s still in existence, but it’s called Sendley now. S y n d l y. Got it. Real estate agents. Yep. And meteorocket pro, I exited that to a friend. He wanted the source code. So that wasn’t like a, you know, I think when I think of an acquisition or an exit, I imagine, like attorneys and all these c level guys sitting around and doing numbers and such. That was definitely not that way at all. It was, hey, man, this thing’s making this much or out of it? It was a friend deal. He got a great deal on that source code, and I have no idea what they’re doing with it now, to be honest, but.

 

[00:12:51.530] – Sean

So then, Sendley, is that your main business today or what’s your main business?

 

[00:12:55.450] – Tim

No. So my main business now, I own logic Square Technologies LLC, and we are a custom development house. We have 67 developers. We build custom solutions for the federal government. We build custom solutions for the state of Indiana now, which we’re really proud of. We also build custom solutions for solo entrepreneurs or companies, individuals all around the world. So that’s one of my primary focuses right now, specifically government tech. So GSA, and there’s a whole sea of different opportunities in that industry. And then the main software that I’m focused on is called true fans, which is one that we built. It’s in a social media space. It’s really kind of a direct competitor to Instagram, Twitter, meta, whatever you want to. And what it is, it’s a wholesome alternative for creators that want to monetize without the stigma. So while it’s similar to OnlyFans or Patreon, we think it’s better because it pays more, pays faster. We’re 100% invite only more features and functions for creators to earn and monetize, but we don’t allow porn. So we’re more of a classier, wholesome alternative for creators that want to make money, but again, don’t want to be associated to the typical stigma.

 

[00:14:14.930] – Tim

So the whole emphasis of that platform is just to give folks a stage, if you will, a home. So they own their data, there’s no ads. They can create a space to create their own residual passive income and have upsells and such host their courses all that really easily. So instead of having to typically build your own platform or hire a web developer or use maybe an existing kartra, things of that nature, this is a very simple, familiar environment to most influencers or creator types.

 

[00:14:48.850] – Sean

You mentioned a keyword there, course. Would you say it’s a course platform competitive to maybe a teachable or kajabi or something like that?

 

[00:14:56.860] – Tim

Yeah, definitely. It just offers more, I think, in comparison to some of these. Those are specifically for learning management style, course material. So videos, photos, uploads and such. Ours has a section for that. On top of an active encrypted messaging system, the opportunity to go live and earn through live events. Lockable and unlockable content. Meaning you may have paid for subscription content, but you can also have free content dripped in. So it’s just there’s a lot more versatility in simplicity than a kajabi or. I think that’s our competitive advantage, is just the fact that it’s super simple and offers a little bit more.

 

[00:15:39.140] – Sean

So it sounds like your main business is a service business. You have an agency, essentially you’re building software for other entities. Right on.

 

[00:15:47.370] – Tim

Yep, that’s the main focus right now is building tech specifically for the federal government. We’re wanting to get larger contracts with organizations internal of the federal government.

 

[00:15:57.980] – Sean

Got it. So you get your focus on the service business, but it sounds like you’ve got this umbrella over a few other businesses, sendly being one and then this. True fans being another. Do you have any others under the portfolio?

 

[00:16:14.100] – Tim

So there’s true fans. There’s Senly. Closewise.com is another one that I have equity in. That is for notaries. It’s basically a notary network similar to like an Uber, if you will, but for notaries to do signings and closings. Really unique platform. My buddy Tyler Temple owns it and I basically facilitated the connection to a development team and then helped with strategies and, you know, brought them to some events and again, now more so like a springboard or a guide, if you will, some obstacles. Let’s see. I think that’s. I think that’s it. We’re working on a couple. We also have partnerships with large insurance companies, professional service providers where we’ve built software for them. We don’t have equity, but we do have performance based incentives written into some of our contracts and that’s cool. I always look for those mutually profitable win wins where maybe we reduce dev cost upfront. We get an ongoing for, you know, supplying a service or supplying an enhancement to what they have going on. That’s, those are always fun. Those create mutually profitable benefit.

 

[00:17:26.010] – Sean

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[00:18:31.170] – Tim

Each company has different partners. Some have more of the same partners than others. One of my most active partners is Logan Shippy, and then Chris Beatty is another one of my partners. And then Vineet Harbijenka is one of my. He’s my CTO, and pretty much all of these, he’s everything I’m not and vice versa. So he helps really manage some of the tech infrastructure and identify what a good paint job is, if you will, and helps coordinate the team around ideas. I’m more so facilitating visions and ideas from stakeholders into blueprints and cross communicating. That’s really kind of my strength is to fill in gaps and have empathy and understanding to what’s being communicated, what the aim or result is that somebody’s aiming for, and then helping them solidify an actual plan visually and written that will get that across the line.

 

[00:19:30.620] – Sean

Kind of like a product owner slash project manager all in one. I kind of look at your role as.

 

[00:19:37.090] – Tim

Yes, definitely. That would be my kind of sweet spot on a team is product project manager. Just helping lead and facilitate cross communication and even putting out fires sometimes I’m really good at that because I understand everybody, you know what I mean? Everybody’s got a different lane, and sometimes we step on one another, whether it’s front end or back end, or a product owner that wants to move fast doesn’t realize expectations and the reality of a situation I’m pretty good at, I guess. Yeah. Ensuring that things are smooth across departments.

 

[00:20:10.690] – Sean

Right on. Or I should say, here’s a question. It’s, what is it? Logic square technologies, is that correct? Okay, how big is your team?

 

[00:20:21.250] – Tim

We have about 67 developers. Wow. Got four guys here stateside, and then the rest are in Delhi and Calcutta. It was just in Delhi, in Calcutta. We launched a new office in Calcutta. That was really exciting to be a part of that, participate in the ceremony, which was very unique for me as a north american guy, to see just kind of what that ritual looked like and that blessing in the building. But our team’s very young. It’s funny, I was the old guy, I’m 34 years old, and my partner, Vineet, is 38. But the rest of our team are very young and just sharp. They’re 21, 22. I think our older senior developers are like 38. So it was just cool to see that and get to know their stories and, yeah, that’s. That’s our core team. That’s, yeah.

 

[00:21:11.420] – Sean

A good perspective on who’s behind the scenes here, billing the tech. So, pretty sizable team which is awesome. Sounds like a really small percentage here in the states. Then you do leverage offshore talent. We, we do the same thing. Our dev team is completely offshores. I’m actually the only person here in the states. But anyway, with one of these online businesses, let’s dive into it a little bit. I’m going to look at close wise, the notary platform. Is this a SaaS platform?

 

[00:21:40.670] – Tim

Yeah, this is a SaaS and it launched pretty much, I think, last year. We got it live and started putting people in it.

 

[00:21:50.590] – Sean

Let’s walk through the journey a little bit. From the point of where’s the pain? Where do you identify solution? Did you start interviewing people and then start billing the product? Kind of walk us through the journey a little bit.

 

[00:22:02.060] – Tim

Yeah. So this one, this one. The pain was already understood. My partner, his family is one of the largest notary networks in South Carolina, and they’re very familiar with the industry. They’ve been doing it for a generation and they have relationships with banks, so they’re getting closings now. Their software was extremely outdated and not efficient. Really not functional. It worked, but it required a ton of time and due diligence, like manual to manual, excuse me, due diligence. The idea was from real pain, like real experiences of annoyance. And those are typically the best when somebody is going through something and they’re frustrated with it. Whether you’re looking to build something, or you’re looking for an idea, or you are the person that’s experiencing the pain, writing those down is a good step one to identify opportunity and gaps, or ways to speed things up or slow things down, or organize them. So for me, fortunately, Tyler already knew what sucked, what needed help. And meeting with him and showing him what we had built in the past started to put together the pieces to the puzzle, if you will. So we had a CRM component that we built for my own use.

 

[00:23:21.520] – Tim

We had an affiliate system that we built for my own use. We had an email sending and receiving system, a notification system, all these pieces already existing. So just enlightening him to what’s possible. He then took over, creating more of a lay of the land as far as coming up with the ideal minimum sellable product. So typically, just to frame it all out, step one is identify what sucks, what’s going on in the market, what is annoying, what is the pain, and kind of follow that journey, what’s the result of the pain, dig into it, find the actual damages that’s related. That also becomes a unique selling proposition. But identify and exaggerate this pain and then step two is some people are better than this at others, but identifying the solutions, right. Like what could be done to. And most of the time with tech, you’re going to save time, you’re going to save energy, you can reduce cost, I’m not saying all the time, but generally there’s a way through technology to speed things up or slow things down or repackage, reorganize, redistribute. That will solve some of those general pains. Right? So in that same phase, you want to communicate very clearly.

 

[00:24:43.200] – Tim

Ambiguity is the killer of software projects, I think is when there’s lack of planning, there’s lack of full understanding and cross communication, that’s ambiguity. So as you’re in phase two and you’re deciding these features and functions and filling the gaps, you want to communicate through every means of communication as possible. So like audio visual, written is super helpful when you’re then going to maybe find developers or communicating with your own developers. I know a lot of times folks like me that are wanting to build software or have an idea for an app like you go out to the market. Typically, maybe the strategy is go to upwork or go to fiverr. That is rolling the dice. Not that you can’t find great people, but good luck. And I guess hire and fire fast in that. If I was to go back, I would say that it would be more wise to find somebody that has a scaled product and ask them who they work with or who they’re working with and just kind of reverse engineer it. Find tech owners and work through their teams or work through their connections. And once you have a good blueprint and an understanding of what it is that you want to build or do, that’s going to help you get measurable quotes, it’s going to help you start comparing and contrasting teams based on their communication.

 

[00:26:05.500] – Tim

And that’s really step three. Right? Like once you have an ideal team, you’ve got your blueprint, you’ve got your, your concept that you know is going to fill gaps or solve problems. It’s solutions oriented. It’s an amazing product that people would be dumb to say no to. The third step is, you know, getting it built, having that built. Let’s assume that you get that done right away. Awesome. Yeah.

 

[00:26:28.300] – Sean

To interject here real quick with this, step three, are you, I want to hear your perspective because it might be the same as my process. Do you bring the, like your first customer or customers into that process? Do you bring them into that journey and say, hey, this is what we’re looking to build and we want to use you as a key stakeholder, get your feedback along the way so we don’t deviate away from something you won’t use.

 

[00:26:53.250] – Tim

That’s a genius idea because you’re going to collect the answers to the test. When you bring people in that have an invested stake in using the thing that you’re building, they’re going to give you intel and the answers to the test. The cool part is they also become early bird users. There’s an entire platform dedicated to this concept called Appsumo, which is really cool. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Appsumo, Sean. We’re.

 

[00:27:22.970] – Sean

Yeah, we’re on it. We’ve brought in a lot of customers from it.

 

[00:27:27.060] – Tim

You could say, yeah, and that’s a, you know, that’s a cool platform that people could at least know exists for exactly what we’re describing, which is getting the answers to the test, even potentially getting paid for the process of learning and adapting your product. It’s a genius idea. And definitely recommend that if you can get a test group or an early bird access group. And what you’ll find is a lot of people love to test and be a part of a build. You just have to frame it right and give them an environment where it’s easy for you and easy for them to communicate. So some folks use Facebook, some folks use WhatsApp groups, Telegram, Discord. Discord is a little challenging and wonky for some, but yeah, find a good environment where you can create a test group and learn and adapt. It’s a great idea. The hardest one is, I guess, step four, we’ll say this is step four. Once you have this great product and it’s live and it’s functioning and it’s solving problems. Where I see a lot of tech companies struggle, or companies in general is just sales, like new client acquisition, getting people in.

 

[00:28:36.710] – Tim

They typically do a lot of hope marketing or hope referrals and hope, you know, and that’s some people’s strengths are building the product and engineering. You got to have somebody that has a strength with outreach and marketing and new client acquisition. And one of the things that I typically recommend is direct outreach. So assuming, let’s say, we’re still talking about close wise, I know that it’s through trial and error. I know that it’s not effective to send messages on LinkedIn, like text messaging on LinkedIn. It’s just not. I mean, you can go try it and prove me wrong. At least it hasn’t been for me. So what we do is send video messages. I’ll literally step one, I need to search for my ideal client or who I think it is. I get on LinkedIn the search and I’m literally screen sharing myself on the individual’s profile and I say, hey, Sean, my name’s Tim. I’m literally looking up CFO’s or CEO’s just like you. Here’s exactly why. I have a product that’s going to help you save time. Same energy. Da da da da da. Hey, man, if I scheduled a quick demo call, would you attend?

 

[00:29:47.060] – Tim

That way I can learn more about you, give you a quick tutorial or birds eye view of what this is and how I think it can serve you. All right, talk soon. And that puts me in a different caliber than most people like on LinkedIn. Somebody’s going to watch that, they’re going to respect that. I’ve kind of filtered myself away from the crowd that’s just sending DM’s. It’s an admired approach when I’m very direct and honest and also just showing that, hey, I’m putting in this effort to connect with you and here’s why. People’s guard typically goes down and then I get those bookings, which then oftentimes results in a new connection or maybe a referral from that person if they’re not directly interested. It’s just exposure. And in. When you’ve got a system to do that, now you can start digging into the numbers and how many DM’s you send out per week. The main thing is I get excited about this topic because it works. But the main thing is as you’re going the way, go the way so you can know the way and then show the way. Because you as the founder, you as the product project manager, you should be the most excited about your product product.

 

[00:30:56.110] – Tim

But when you go this way, you’ll be able to teach the next person and delegate and save yourself time with an effective method that then becomes scalable. Right.

 

[00:31:06.940] – Sean

I’m going to go through all four at a high level in a minute. But first, this is a gold nugget. Let’s dive into this tactical approach. You put together a video, a short video. Do you use like loom or what do you use to, what software do you use?

 

[00:31:22.800] – Tim

So I’ve got one that’s called Vidstream. I think it’s called Vidstream. I’ll find it real quick. I don’t want to say it wrong. Sure. It’s Vidyard.

 

[00:31:32.170] – Sean

Oh, I’m familiar.

 

[00:31:33.470] – Tim

Vidyard. Is really cool because it allows you to create. If I wanted to, I could create a thumbnail for it. I literally have one of the coolest strategies. This is fun. The little strategy I have is I have a whiteboard and I put the person’s first and last name on the whiteboard as the thumbnail. And that’s me saying, hey, Sean, you know, it’s before they even hit the play button, it’s got their first and last name on it on a whiteboard. And that’s really compelling. But the cool part about Vidyard is it shows you statistics, and if somebody pressed play how long they watched, it gives you some really good insight into how effective it’s. Yeah, it is.

 

[00:32:09.090] – Sean

And how long do you make the video, man?

 

[00:32:11.510] – Tim

Like less than 60 seconds. Less than 60 seconds. Yeah. It’s mainly, hey, here’s who I am. I’m real, I’m authentic. I’m actually on your page right now. Here’s why I’m reaching out to you. And I typically just give bullet points as to why the person should care. And then the ask is very tactical on purpose. It’s, if I. Would you. If I scheduled a demo call, would you attend? You know, how you sound matters. Everybody has their own tonality. But like I was saying before, like, actively chopping the tree down, going to the gym of sending these out, you’re going to develop your confidence, you’re going to develop your repetition and your tone. That is you. And that’s what people are craving, is authenticity. And that’s what makes you unique and really empowers your brand is your authentic you. And that’s what will resonate the drill with.

 

[00:33:11.330] – Sean

Into one point there, the way you phrased it felt a little weird, which if you were to show. How did you phrase that? If you were to show up for a call or would it phrase it like this?

 

[00:33:22.590] – Tim

Like, oh, if I. Yeah, if I. If I scheduled a demo call, would you attend? That way I can help you, help me, you know, help, help you see exactly how I think this platform could help x. You know, if I. Would you. If I did something for you, would you. You know, it’s a very reciprocal question that lets the guard down. It’s not, hey, what’s the best time to get on a call with you? Or, hey, could I grab five minutes of your count? I’m not asking. I’m saying, hey, if I did something for you, would you do something? Could we make this amicable? I’m starting the relationship on an amicable front, which is, hey, Sean, if I did that and genuinely, when I’m looking for prospects, I’m genuinely looking for something or someone that I can serve and create that long term relationship with, with the solution that we have. And I think that’s another, you know, key reason, like the heart and mind posture where I’m coming out with this. I’m not just trying to get their dollars. I’m genuinely trying to create this fruition, you know, you know, relationship between what we have and.

 

[00:34:23.390] – Tim

And what I think they need. And that’s a fun thought. Right? So as you’re going through the motions and those numbers, if you do have a product or service that’s gonna help somebody, you know, I think it becomes your responsibility to get out there and send some uncomfortable DM’s. Most people are going to find this radically uncomfortable because it is, you know, if you’ve never done direct outreach or if you’re in tech, you know, I know our industry, and it’s. It’s not marketable. It’s monotonous. It’s not. It’s not something that’s going to feel fun. It may be exciting. I hope you find it exciting. Eventually it’ll. It’ll push you into discomfort. But the results on the other side of going, proving one method of direct outreach to create, you know, warm traffic from cold can make you millions of dollars. I mean, I’m living proof.

 

[00:35:10.250] – Sean

So I want to touch on a few points here. Especially, I like to kind of break the fourth wall and speak to the audience a little bit. So, Vidyard, you guys, vidward.com. It’s a basic SaaS platform. I’m on their site. The pricing, they got a free plan, and then pro plan is $19 a month. Likes a really low price point. I love your four step approach here. I just want to read it back to you real quick. And you correct me if I’m wrong, but that fourth point is just gold. So the first one is identify a problem. Is that correct?

 

[00:35:45.610] – Tim

Yes, sir. Okay.

 

[00:35:47.070] – Sean

Step two, assemble a team. Yep.

 

[00:35:50.120] – Tim

All right.

 

[00:35:50.900] – Sean

Step three, develop a product with the customer. And step four, direct outreach with video. For those of you out there, stop LinkedIn messaging me on how great your marketing agency is. I probably get like five of those messages per day. Or here’s one. How I can get a. Like, you won’t believe the amount of pitches I get for editing podcasts or promotions. Like, I already have a team. I have a stop. You know, so I love this Vidyard approach. This is gold 62nd video. Here’s who I am. I’m a regular dude. Here’s why I can help you list some of the pain points, you know, they already have because, you know, the customer avatar, if you will. And then I like your pitch there. If I schedule a demo, if I schedule a demo, would you attend?

 

[00:36:39.220] – Tim

Would you attend? It will work exceptionally well. It lets their guard down. And you’ll be shocked at how many more demos you get just using that one phrase.

 

[00:36:51.400] – Sean

I like your approach there, too, because somebody did pitch me once, one time, and I did jump on a call with them. They had a little whiteboard probably like, I don’t know, ten inches by ten inches. What do you get one at Walmart for a few bucks, right?

 

[00:37:04.660] – Tim

I got mine on Amazon. I’m looking at it across from me right now. And what’s funny, you look at, like, that price, the $10. I mean, the ROI from that, if you use it and you get more, I mean, it’s. It’s huge. Yeah. It.

 

[00:37:17.640] – Sean

You know what? When it happened to me, I was like, that guy got me on a call pretty easily. And the fact that you’re saying this works, like, I tell you what, I’m going to Amazon right after this. I’m going to order one.

 

[00:37:28.930] – Tim

If you’ve experienced. See, the same thing happened to me. I didn’t come up with. I experienced this, and then a buddy of mine, Jordan, made a video about this topic, and I was like, well, no, this makes perfect sense as to why this would work. It’s. Yeah, it’s uncommon. You’re breaking up the norm and you’re standing out and you’re doing so with your own. Yeah, it’s. It’s. It just works. And I was in the same boat as you, Sean. I admired the person that sent it to me, and I appreciated the change of pace and just. Just a breath of fresh air, because I don’t read the long messages anymore. I just more so get annoyed and deleted or block somebody just because it’s like, dude, come on.

 

[00:38:11.260] – Sean

Yeah, right. Stop with the messages. Yeah, the DM’s. I love this. I’m going to title this video something like the four key steps to selling SaaS or B. Two B SaaS. This is extremely logical and simple strategy for selling software on that.

 

[00:38:29.290] – Tim

On number four. I mean, one of the things to consider, we can go into depth on each one of these topics. One of the things to consider is your vehicle as you’re doing outreach. If. If you look like crap in person. Right. And you go and try and talk to the gal she may not give you the time of day. The same thing is true if you look like crap on LinkedIn. Your vehicle’s got a flat tire. It doesn’t look trustworthy. It looks like it’s barely running. You’re probably not going to get the same response rate that you would. As if you looked awesome and your car was buffed and it was nice and it was a trustworthy vehicle. Consider before you do these outreaches that you’ve got a great profile picture. It doesn’t have to be super extravagant, but a filled out LinkedIn bio and your page is good. It represents you and your company and what you’re about and what you do and have done. Because 99% of the time people are going to click that button to look at who you are and what you’re about to do. A little bit of reconnaissance before they decide to fully confirmed to a call.

 

[00:39:30.400] – Tim

Or if they are on that call, they’re going to look you up, probably before then, you want to have already set the tone of who you are, why you’re awesome. And yeah, you can do that simply by owning your Internet footprint, if you will.

 

[00:39:43.770] – Sean

Yeah, to kind of speak to that. And then we’ll jump into the rapid fire round. Definitely. Like do the work, put in the work on making sure your video background. Like, I can tell you, for those of you that are watching this podcast or you’re on YouTube, you know, Tim’s got a great background. He’s got a really nice mic. He’s, you know, you get a nice shirt. You know, I usually go t shirts because try to simplify.

 

[00:40:08.460] – Tim

Normally I don’t look like this.

 

[00:40:10.290] – Sean

Yeah, you know, I’m not. My business is in a b, two b play. It’s b two c. And we try to make investing more approachable. So I probably won’t use your sales tactic for our general customer, but for business to business, definitely love it. But yeah, like the little things. Making sure your LinkedIn profile is like a waist up or shoulder up shot, not something of you like standing, you know, like feet up with sunglasses. You can’t see the person then or right. And you’ve got all your grammar on points within your title and your body of your paragraph or whatever your description. And then you know, the little details on how you’re writing the text that complements the video, the message that goes out because you’ve got the link, this Vidyard link, plus a little bit of text. You don’t want to make sure that’s all on point.

 

[00:41:03.050] – Tim

Yeah, I keep it simple. When I’m sending out connection requests, it’s just. Hey, Sean, my name’s Tim. Would love to connect with you. I don’t send long connection messages. It’s just super short. Hey, I saw this. Would love to connect with you. I’m actively connecting with podcasters. Would love to chat. Dash. Tim. Super short. Sweet. I’m not, you know, again, the objective is to try to not be like everyone else and just keep in mind, people like to do business with people that they know, like and trust. So as you’re setting up your profiles and as you’re creating your outreach, you know, think about what, what you would like and what you would want with Internet etiquette. So, you know, smart.

 

[00:41:45.060] – Sean

Yeah, yeah. Sweet. All right, we have a limited amount of time here, but I still want to get a few questions here with rapid fire rounds. So if you can, try to answer each question in about 15 seconds or less. You ready?

 

[00:41:56.970] – Tim

I’m ready. All right.

 

[00:41:58.430] – Sean

What is your favorite podcast?

 

[00:42:00.180] – Tim

My favorite podcast is Alex Sanfilippos podcast. Just because I’m a big Alex fan and his heart’s just in the right place for this industry in general. Just podcasting. He’s just fun to talk to too. Energy and all that.

 

[00:42:16.250] – Sean

All right, what is a recent book you read and would recommend?

 

[00:42:19.900] – Tim

Really, anything? Alex Hermosi is just so good for the actionables, but $100 million offer is wonderful for Foley, and it’s a good caveat to this, talking about creating a product, that’s a no brainer. Start with that $100 million offer by Alex Hermozzi.

 

[00:42:34.820] – Sean

Yeah, good suggestion. All right, what is your favorite movie?

 

[00:42:39.060] – Tim

My favorite movie is honestly the most radical movie that was way beyond its time. The Matrix. That’s still a cool movie to me. To this day. Just the concept of that movie is radical.

 

[00:42:51.890] – Sean

As soon as you said beyond its time, I was like, he’s going to say the Matrix. It’s the Matrix.

 

[00:42:57.150] – Tim

It’s still good, right? It is.

 

[00:43:00.250] – Sean

Classic. All right, what is the worst advice you ever received?

 

[00:43:04.970] – Tim

The worst advice I ever received was when I worked at Constellis group, one of the main PM’s always his mantra was just focus on the money. Just focus on the money. And I remember feeling empty and I knew that that wasn’t accurate, but that was like just the coached methodology to make it through the suck or make it through the tough days or focus on the prize. And the prize was just money. And that, you know, looking back at that now is the worst advice I think I’ve ever got or the worst pep talk? Worst? Yeah, worst advice.

 

[00:43:41.950] – Sean

Flip that equation. What’s the best advice you ever received?

 

[00:43:45.480] – Tim

The best advice that I ever received, man, there’s been a lot of good advice, but to keep it short, you’re paid in direct proportion to your ability to solve problems. And I just keep that in my pocket as I’m building things or ideating and trying to find gaps is to think about where can I be of service? Or how can I be of service? It’s such a great question to ask as your productizing and as your company owner. Don’t forget that in the metrics and in the rigmarole of it all, at the end of the day, the simple way to truly rock it out and succeed is to make your people really, really, really happy. That’s awesome.

 

[00:44:29.020] – Sean

All right, and where can the audience reach you?

 

[00:44:32.700] – Tim

So imbranion it pretty much covers it all. LinkedIn is timbranion. All major social media is timbranion. Timbranion.com. LinkedIn is probably my primary social media, though, so that’s a good one. Awesome.

 

[00:44:48.370] – Sean

Well, thank you so much for your time. We’ll see you, Tim.

 

[00:44:50.480] – Tim

Yeah, see you, Sean. Thanks for having me.

 

[00:44:53.600] – Outro

Hey, I’d like to say thanks for checking out this podcast. I know there’s a lot of other podcasts you could be listening to, so thanks for spending some time with me. And if you have a moment, could you please head over to Apple podcasts and leave a five star review? The more reviews we get, the higher the this podcast will rank. All right, stay tuned for the next episode. We’ll see ya.