How to turn connections into clients 💰

Hey Engineers,

You ever wonder why some people have 50, 70, 100K followers and don’t make a penny whilst others like my client Mike make 6-7 figures/year with less than 10,000?

It’s because not all audiences are created equal.

And once you truly understand audience hierarchies you’ll be able to finally turn those connections you do have into paying clients (the ones that really matter) and end the cycle of posting and hoping.

Here’s how I look at audience hierarchy.

At the bottom and most basic level you have connections.

This is why most people sit.

They have a bunch of connections who vaguely know them and follow them but don’t trust them deeply or feel any real affinity towards them.

Any sales you make at this stage is luck.

Second you have community.

Fewer people in this stage but still a large proportion of the market.

These people have connections who know, like and trust them. Their relationship is bi-directional and they engage with each other frequently. Chances are people in your community will actively seek out your content.

Worth noting at this stage that the follower/connection number is not relevant. You can have a community of 10 or 100,000 connections. And vice versa.

Third you have culture.

This is harder to build. People in this stage have an audience who live by their philosophies. They don’t just consume content, but live by it and associate themselves as part of a group.

The likes of Codie Sanchez and Iman Gadzhi have nailed this.

Finally you have commerce.

This is where an exchange of value occurs. The prior 3 stages ultimately lead up to this. The audience here know you and like you. They feel a sense of belonging and probably attribute part of their identity to being a follower. What’s more, they have a burning problem that they trust you to solve.

Notice the use of commerce.

Commerce is defined as ‘the activity of buying and selling, especially on a large scale.’

You may win clients in the connection and community stages, but not the volume of clients you truly want. Not the volume that will change your life. Just dribs and drabs.

Commerce represents an exponential rise in the amount you are able to make because of the leverage you have (usually this is when you stop trading time for money).

Transitioning your audience from connection to commerce requires content. Lots of high quality content over a long period of time. It will not be easy, but my word will it be profitable.

As you transition through these phases, your authority, influence and bank account increase. So does your leverage.

Even better, your competition decreases.

So whilst this is hard, it sure is worthwhile.

Let’s get to work on turning connections into commerce.

A great place to start is by joining me in Skool to learn the Influence Engine System that has helped me generate over $2M in sales:

https://www.skool.com/the-6-figure-linkedin-system-4516/about

Until next week,

Sam