How I Built a 6-Figure Solo Agency Without Spending a Single Penny on Advertising

I built my six-figure Salesforce CRM implementation agency solo without spending a single penny on advertising, and it’s still going strong six years later. Nothing I did was magical, and no luck was involved.

I simply followed sales best practices, which you can leverage as well. But before you even start thinking about selling, you need to be incredibly clear about two things: your Ideal Client Profile (ICP) and your Ideal Client Journey (ICJ). I recommend you read the linked articles and do your own research to ensure you are confident about who you exist to help and how you provide them with a unique, transformative experience.

Your goal is to escape the commodity perception in your chosen market. You want to be the go-to choice for your ideal clients. You want to operate from a position of uniqueness, where ideally no one can offer a competing service. Once those strategic elements are in place, you are ready to hit the market!

Validate your product with your past clients

Before I quit my full-time job to start MVRK, I spent over a year designing my ICP and ICJ. I only stepped out on my own when I fully believed in my hypothesis for how to flip the Salesforce delivery model on its head.

The moment a potential client showed interest in my approach and gave me verbal approval, I handed in my resignation. Guess what happened? That potential client ghosted me!

For most people, that shock would cause them to immediately give up and beg for their job back. But I took it on the chin and stuck to my strategy. I knew I hadn’t designed my business for one client. I had designed a delivery model that I was confident had huge value for my ideal clients.

Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I did what I was always planning to do. I connected with past clients and colleagues — but not to pitch them my services. That would have been a desperate approach. No, I did it to validate my ideas and plans. In doing so, I spread the word about my services.

And guess what? This approach resulted in my first paying client. The comptroller of a former client told his VP of Sales that I was now working solo. This VP reached out to me, and the rest is history. I’m proud to say that they are still my client to this day.

So, what is the lesson? Your first job in sales is not to pitch, it’s to get feedback from people you trust and people who care about you.

Don’t extract value, lead with it

With my idea validated by a paying client, I knew I was ready to go to the open market. But I wasn’t going to try to compete through the traditional marketing methods of advertising and cold email/calling. Those would have been money sinks that would result in nothing. My competition was well established and had much bigger wallets.

So, I knew I had to focus on creative activities that didn’t scale. Activities that the incumbents were too busy to do. I decided to connect with people, help them with small problems and build relationships for the long term.

That meant my approach was to lead with value and help those who appeared to be in my ICP. I didn’t expect that every person I helped would pay me. I simply wanted to genuinely help. I knew the worst that could happen was that I would feel good for helping someone and get to see how different businesses used the technology I was an expert in. There was no downside.

But the upside was huge! By investing nothing more than my time, I quickly gained my next clients. This is what I call “Selling by Helping.” And you need to do it, too! Getting started is simple: Find where your ICP asks for help and simply help them!

Your clients’ success builds your sales flywheel

With those first few clients rolling in, it was time to get busy! I never sell by the hour, because I don’t want to create friction in delivery. And while I had only a handful of clients, I invested my full energy into them.

I wasn’t thinking about the payoff in terms of their monthly invoices. I was thinking about the payoff years into the future. I was building my agency sales flywheel. I knew that the success I could build for my clients would be the kinetic energy the flywheel needed to maintain a smooth momentum.

But what did that momentum look like? Those initial clients stayed and referred new ones. As team members from those clients left and found other jobs, they brought me into their new companies. The sellers from Salesforce who shared relationships with my clients saw the results I achieved and brought me into new deals, too.

The success I brought to my clients was the advertising engine that I have used to maintain and grow my business through qualified referrals. The best advice I can give you is that as you start to work with your initial clients, put all your energy into them. Focus on their success because it is that legacy that will build your sales flywheel!