Grow Without Hiring

[00:00:00] Ken: It is the most wonderful time of the year and no, I'm not gonna sing that for you. Everyone in the world is trying to sell us something, but it's often the more subtle I
[00:00:11] Ken: not in your face tactics that actually cause us to buy.
[00:00:16] Ken: Nowhere is this clearer than this little brand called Starbucks
[00:00:20] Ken: and their little red cup. Most people think Red Cup Day works because it's festive, or because it's free, or because maybe even people love holiday drinks,
[00:00:32] Ken: Even if that's why it works for consumers, it's not why Starbucks keeps doing it each year.
[00:00:38] Ken: This year, red Cup Day drove 45% more foot traffic than Starbucks yearly average, and that's up from 32% just a year earlier.
[00:00:49] Ken: And the real reason nothing to do with Starbucks coffee.
[00:00:52] Ken: So in today's conversation, you're gonna be wowed by how the economics of a little red cup can help you [00:01:00] grow without hiring.
[00:01:01] Ken: you might be aware of this, but Starbucks already has massive daily volume.
[00:01:06] Ken: Red Cup Day isn't about a struggling channel. It's a behavioral move, not a promo.
[00:01:13] Ken: Let's look at what's actually happening here and why this applies to you and your business. Even if you sell five figure retainers.
[00:01:20] Ken: Now whether or not you like Starbucks, and I won't even share my own opinions on it,
[00:01:25] Ken: it wasn't always what it is today. In 1976, it was just a single location at Pike Place. It was the unknown spot.
[00:01:35] Ken: Today people basically call it the McDonald's of coffee, and it's almost hard not to find a Starbucks depending on where you are in the world.
[00:01:42] Ken: I'm sure that they would object to this, but in many ways they're not even a coffee company anymore. But they are marketing wizards and they do have a way. To continue to stay relevant.
[00:01:54] Ken: Now, I know what you might be thinking. Ken, I'm not selling coffee. I don't like [00:02:00] coffee. I don't even drink Starbucks. I'm selling high-end services as a founder or a consultant, and I want to grow without hiring. What in the world does this have to do with me?
[00:02:10] Ken: And I get it. I built high-end applications for Levi's PBS and Toyota.
[00:02:15] Ken: My clients typically would start paying me six figures by the time my agency got to $5 million a year, and often over the lifetime, would be paying me seven figures depending on the kind of work we were doing for them. But I still used the thinking shown by the little red cup.
[00:02:33] Ken: so if you're sleeping on understanding the rhythms of. Your business, your industry,
[00:02:39] Ken: and even life itself, you are absolutely leaving money on the table.
[00:02:45] Ken: Some of my biggest clients were landed at this time of the year because there was money that needed to be moved because I built something during a time of the year that made it more relevant.
[00:02:56] Ken: Throw away money might get you in the door. Only [00:03:00] to allow that account to allow that client to grow dramatically the following year.
[00:03:05] Ken: And if you remember in episode 13, the offer mistakes costing you big money, I'll be sure to link it up in the show notes. I talked about iterating, testing angles, and seasonal timing.
[00:03:17] Ken: It might be, like I said, that they have budget that needs to be expended before their fiscal year restarts. Or it could be like me, who benefited from industry moves
[00:03:29] Ken: like apple's. WW DC. Or Google io, which gave us natural ways to refresh our offers throughout the year.
[00:03:38] Ken: And it could be even just a simple refresh. I talked about that in Offer Fatigue episode 22. It might even be a similar offer with a different hook. Starbucks, yes, has a seasonal menu, but ultimately the red cup is still about coffee.
[00:03:54] Ken: so no, you won't be offering a half calf peppermint latte Mochaccino [00:04:00] with oat milk whip and charco bark bits. But you need to exercise the habit of seasonality and timely offer thinking.
[00:04:09] Ken: Now, the crazy part about this, and again, what can we do in your business to think about it the same way people. Love these red cups. They also just love the seasonal cups, but they especially love the red cups. Again, 45% more foot traffic compared to the daily averages of this year.
[00:04:27] Ken: The interesting thing about this, there is a boundary. There is a constraint. Not pressure, but a constraint One day, miss it and it's gone.
[00:04:38] Ken: Now, in the businesses that we run in complex sales, especially, your scarcity, most likely is not gonna last a unrealistic. You're not gonna have someone sign off on a high five figure retainer or six figure engagement. And tell them that if they don't make a decision on that day, you won't work with them.
[00:04:59] Ken: But having [00:05:00] an incentive, having something that gets you to yes or no faster is the reason why I've closed hundreds of B2B clients this way,
[00:05:08] Ken: what that element is. You have to do some homework on it. I can't come up with it in this conversation, but working with lots of people like you and looking at what clients already value and what the offers currently entail, I can tell you that I have had multiple clients and one that stands out in my head that more than doubled their revenue over the year because of thinking about this constraint, stopping deals from stalling.
[00:05:37] Ken: No more sales friend zone and getting to that yes or no faster. Now you might say, oh, was it all from that? Maybe, maybe not, but I'd much rather have someone tell me no and move on to the next deal, then continue to go back to something that never is actually going to close.
[00:05:53] Ken: So creating a boundary around scarcity, even if it's not said in the same [00:06:00] urgent way, or positioned in the same urgent way that Starbucks does, is absolutely going to help you add in some little red cup economics to your own offers and business.
[00:06:11] Ken: If we actually think about what someone is getting here, it's a plastic red cup. It's a reusable red cup, and obviously there's an element even around that in terms of why people like that.
[00:06:22] Ken: But in terms of what you actually get, it's a 10 cent discount. I don't think that's why people are lining up. The reason why the red cup doesn't sit dusty in the cabinet has nothing to do about the discount, but the 25 bonus stars. Yeah, that's why people care about it. That's why it matters.
[00:06:42] Ken: The cup itself definitely seems a reward. It's sort of a prestige element for a customer as well.
[00:06:49] Ken: But for Starbucks, it acts as what I talk about as the conveyor belt of clients that you've heard me mention in a number of other conversations. It is a conveyance back [00:07:00] to Starbucks. It's a conveyance back to the store.
[00:07:02] Ken: And a really important nuance here is it conveys people into other parts of one business, not multiple businesses. Here's what I often see consultants, coaches, and founders do instead, they build. These different kinds of offers, let's call it your own little red cup. But then you do it for different clients with different ways to deliver for those clients.
[00:07:28] Ken: So when you apply these economics incorrectly, you're not diversified. You are actually building and running multiple businesses disguised as one.
[00:07:39] Ken: And this has actually become something more and more prevalent, especially I think as people use things like ChatGPT and Claude and Perplexity to try to build out their offers. I love ai. You hear me talk about it a lot, but it does not do offers well and it doesn't understand this particular aspect and component.
[00:07:57] Ken: So what I see with a lot of these [00:08:00] people is they wind up having. Multiple ways of marketing to get different kinds of leads. That leads to different kinds of sales processes. They go out and build these massive decks in certain cases, proposals, they send emails, so they have lots of different ways that they have to close.
[00:08:16] Ken: And then on the back end of that, you have a bunch of different ways that you actually have to deliver the work.
[00:08:22] Ken: So what happens here, marketing doesn't scale, sales doesn't scale, delivery doesn't scale, and you're working really hard. I describe it this way, and you might've heard me say this before, it's not just that you're getting burnt out in this situation. You're pushing a really, really heavy boulder up an ice cliff at 45 degrees all while on a treadmill.
[00:08:43] Ken: And without a warmed banana loaf sitting on the bar.
[00:08:47] Ken: So yeah, big lessons from a little red cup.
[00:08:52] Ken: And the question isn't if you have a similar offer or your own little red cup economics. It's whether you [00:09:00] understand how to make offers timely,
[00:09:02] Ken: constrained. And ensuring that they convey into a conveyor belt of clients. And you need to do this throughout the year, not just when things are festive, not just during a holiday. How do you find this in a way that's not fighting against the natural rhythms of your business, your industry and life?
[00:09:22] Ken: And that's gonna be where we leave this conversation for today. Always appreciate you taking a few minutes with me. If you learned something today, just got one nugget and I make these super tactical and practical. Please take a moment to leave. A rating or review.
[00:09:37] Ken: Helps me know I'm doing my job and also I base future conversations on the feedback that you're giving me. I'll ensure that the most relevant episodes are also linked up in the show notes, and I keep them very tight.
[00:09:47] Ken: So take a look there. That's also where you can connect with me on LinkedIn. Send me a DM with podcast so I know that you're listening to the show, or you can get on my weekly briefing where I talk much more about how to [00:10:00] grow without hiring.
[00:10:00] Ken: That's it for today. Keep following along, getting insights like today's conversation,
[00:10:06] Ken: and I can't wait to continue to help you to grow without hiring.
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