Welcome back 🤝

Being 4 months into business, I’m starting to understand how hard selling is.

I respect the hell out of people who work in sales because the last 60 days have felt like pulling teeth. Or like when my dog barks up a damn storm when the doorbell rings. Absolutely piercing 🫠

Anyway, selling has been top of mind, I’ve made it a priority in my daily routine, and I’m starting to find a good rhythm with it.

So today is a little BTS of how I’m approaching it.

Like I’ve told you before, I’m here to document what’s working and not working as I scale Ink Equity (strategy & written content for founders & execs on LinkedIn, for anyone new here).

My hope is that what I share today can help you with whatever you’re selling, whether it’s an idea, a product, or a service.

Let’s jump in!

Selling…with a Splash of Automation

Yeah, I have a sales system at Ink Equity. It’s called figuring it out as I go lol :)

No but seriously, it’s a work in progress. I have a system or two in place, but I still have to be scrappy. I do a ton of outreach every week where I’m sending out at least 40-50 DM’s and/or emails, so I have to get my hands dirty!!

When I first started doing outreach, my wife’s stepdad, who worked in sales for over 30 years, offered his help in any way possible over a phone call back when Ink Equity first launched. It was really nice of him to offer his expertise.

So I straight-up asked him to guide me b/c selling a service isn’t easy, and I really needed the accountability.

This was such new territory for me and if I’m being honest, a little terrifying. Having to sell yourself is one thing, but having to sell what you’re offering is a completely different ball game.

His first suggestion was to start tracking a list of leads and I loooooooved the idea!

So I found this tool called ClickUp — a project management software — and set up a dashboard that keeps me on course. The dashboard includes, but is not limited to (sorry my ex-corporate brain had to say this for some reason) Name, Company, Title, Temp, Status, Channel, and more.

Seeing leads visually has helped me keep track of who I’m targeting, what my cadence has been when reaching out to them, and how many leads I’ve been able to find and talk with.

Finding potential leads takes hours, and I knew typing all that info into a dashboard was going to take hours too…#yawn

So I thought an AI workflow would be perfect for this 🤖

I linked my ClickUp dashboard to my Ink Equity Project in Claude. As you can see below, there’s a chat inside it called Client Tracker.

That chat connects Claude to ClickUp through what’s called, in tech terms, an MCP (Model Context Protocol). This is a fancy way of saying one system is connected to another system and has access to it.

So all I do is voice-dictate what leads I find into this chat and how I’d like them tracked, and then Claude takes that info and goes into the ClickUp dashboard and inputs the lead info for me. So I never actually type a thing into the dashboard…it’s s amazing, and it’s still crazy to me that this is possible. This wasn’t something you could do a few years ago btw.

It’s easily saved me hours of manual entry. Tracking this stuff feels mundane at times, and it’s just a pain in the a$$ to do it myself, so having AI handle this part has been super helpful.

Selling…with a Splash of Content

Another way I’m selling is by putting out more content on LinkedIn about the services I offer, the solutions I provide to clients, and the benefits they get.

I’ve gotten some leads from it, which has been cool. Here’s one I got the other day, a LinkedIn DM from an ex-member at this country club I used to work at.

Content is going to play a massive role in getting inbound leads as I grow the business, because I can’t just rely on hours and hours of outbound.

Plus, somebody coming inbound from a post I put out is already interested in what I’m offering. That’s a warmer person than someone I just cold-outreached to and have never met. There’s a different level of trust and connection built through content, so I’m making it more of a focus each week.

This is also what I talk to clients about, and I can’t stress it enough. As a founder, there’s this new expectation to put out content. You don’t have to, don’t get me wrong. But in many conversations I’ve had with investors, founders, and other business owners, most understand the value of it. And if they’re going to do a deal, invest in your company, or want to learn more about you, how can they be more enticed? Well…from your content.

I’m so bullish on founder-led marketing, especially through written content. It’s still an undervalued area because not everyone wants to be a talking head and put out video content. Plus, I feel a lot of people are getting exhausted from the constant video doom scroll. I even find myself consuming less video content as time goes on.

Either way, whether written or video content, please don’t sell yourself short on putting content out about what you’re offeringg, what you’re creating or what you’re working towards.

There are plenty of people out there who need your service, your product, or your ideas. You just need to go out and market it, but more importantly, market yourself.

As always, I appreciate you reading and I can’t wait to see you next Tuesday!

To building together,

Dan

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