Retention, Referrals, and Demand
"Over The Shoulder" Look
If you’re here, you’ve likely already been introduced to Laurel Portie.
When Laurel started her business, all the “gurus” said she was crazy - and that her strategy wouldn’t work. Years later, they’re all trying to copy her - many of them have reached out and now collaborate with her.
Of course, there is another set of guru’s telling her the next move she is going to make won’t work. And years from now, they’ll be trying to copy her and reaching out hoping to collaborate.
That’s what happens when you operate from sound principles.
Makes sense, right? But it’s much harder than people realize because operating from sound principles means fighting the monkey mind - it means going against every impulse the monkey brain throws at you or tries to distract you with.
We don’t know for certain what will happen. But here’s what Laurel is going and why we think it’s brilliant.
Retention, Referrals, Raving Fans and Brand
An “Over The Shoulder Look” at Laurel’s Strategy
Laurel has been a student for many years and each year she circles back to review Retention, Referrals and Raving Fans (R3). Since she’s mastered the basics, she has moved onto the more advanced stuff. The strategy below is advanced, the basic R3 framework in the book which is free for paid subs here.
Okay. Here we go…
Yesterday Laurel posted this:
It’s a pretty standard marketing post except for a two major things:
The reason for the change is to maintain a quality product
It’s real. Even if 12,000 people wanted to enroll today, they wouldn’t be allowed to.
Why is this important?
The first one is obvious: quality.
The second is less obvious. The most powerful force in the entire market is supply and demand. It’s the line out the door and the line around the block.
The line out the door and around the block cannot be faked. Not for long anyway.
Which means in order for the most powerful force in the market to work FOR you, people HAVE to miss it. That’s right, people with their credit cards out, ready to pay have to be told…”No, we will not take your money because we are at capacity”…
And for a business owner, turning people away can be the hardest thing to do. Greed and fear creep in quickly.
”I could make more money today, though!” (greed)
“What if they go somewhere else?” (fear)
But…
If 100 people want in and you let 100 people in, there is no “line out the door”, which means the supply/demand curve is not working in your favor.
Of course…
If you’re running a business you need to make money.
The trick is finding out how many clients, customers or members you need at what price point and then:
Getting to that point
Maintaining it consistently
Consider capping it like Laurel is doing
If you want to increase supply or capacity, increase it at a rate that is lower than the demand is growing.
Again, it will be difficult to resist trying to meet the current demand. What you give up in short terms sales will come back 100x over from the product quality and growing demand.
The cool thing is that Laurel is focused on quality, primarily. Everything else above is just a byproduct of focusing on quality.
So…
Gurus call her crazy.
They call her crazy because they aren’t willing or able to override their short term fear or greed. As they continue to grow they risk quality suffering . WITHOUT letting anyone miss out, the market forces will start working against them (they will blame ad fatigue, platforms and everyone else).
Simultaneously, the market forces will start working FOR Laurel.
And they’ll be wondering how the hell she did it.
Principles in action, friends.
Live to learn. Give to earn.
Guardian Academy.
If you’re looking to advertise or improve your advertising on Facebook, Laurel is one of the few people we endorse publicly. Her program is here and it’s $7.
If you’re not interested in or ready to spend money, that’s okay. There is a ton of free marketing, advertising, sales and business development stuff here.
Our “Out Of Print” Business Development Books and Letters are available by clicking here for paid subs. A lot of marketers try and resell this stuff, just get it here.
The pre-req or “Starter/Self Stay Guide” to understand marketing and sales through the lens of TGA principles can be found right here.
Most Popular Posts can be seen by clicking here.
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Hey Nic - you probably knew this, and it's just a tiny bit of friction added to the process (if so, I love it.) But that link above goes to her $37 workshop, not the $7/mo program. It's as simple as going to the main page of her website to find the $7/month program, so if people really want it, it should be easy for them. And of course if you want this all to be discovered on their own, just delete this comment! (Trying to help, not trying to be a pain in the a**)