SECTION 1

Defining Your Moonshot (Weeks 1-2)

Before you can start to put the pieces of your business development pipeline in place, you need to know exactly what you want your business to achieve. Sure, success is never a straight line. But like any major expedition, you at least need a map that will guide your directional heading.

In this module of Project Apollo, you’ll develop your 5-year-plan. You’ll identify how many clients you need to bring in, as well as the revenue and profit margins you need to hit your 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5-year income targets. You’ll also map out how many employees, contractors, or support staff, and additional resources you’ll need to achieve your goals.

Then, Jeff, and the Project Apollo team will review your growth plan. We’ll evaluate it, scrutinize it, and make sure your projections make sense.

By the end of this module, you’ll have a model that you can use to guide every significant financial decision you need to make about your business over the next 5-years. This roadmap will show what’s going to bring you closer to your goals. And it will help prevent you from lusting after the shiny objects that will take you further away from your Moonshot target.

Mission Objectives

• Define your one-three-five year Moonshot Goal
• Identify your financial targets
• Build your roadmap for the investments in hiring, infrastructure, and processes you’ll need to achieve your targets profitably
• Get your 5-year Moonshot plan reviewed approved by the Project Apollo team

SECTION 2

What Are Your Service Offerings? (Weeks 3-4)

Defining your “best” service offerings is crucial to achieving your Moonshot goal. The sooner you can hone in your most in-demand and profitable services, the faster you will grow.

But it’s not always obvious which service offering will give your business the best chance to thrive. Sometimes your best services are the ones you currently view as “complementary” goods, or they are the services you only offer because clients “keep asking for them.”

In this module, you’ll put your service offerings through our three-pronged test. Next, you’ll learn how to use your customer data to hone in on your best offers. Finally, you’ll work through a keep, kill, combine exercise to determine which services have the best chance to take you where you want to go.

Mission Objectives

• Put your services to the test
• Find your service-sweet-spot using a Data Driven approach
• Keep, kill and combine to package your best offer
• Receive input from the Project Apollo team and your peers on the niches you decide to target

SECTION 3

Your Unique Selling Proposition & Elevator Pitch (Weeks 5-6)

​All too often, businesses develop marketing material, paid media, or “dial for dollars” without considering what makes a customer want to buy from them. Maybe you’ve worked for one of these businesses.

Perhaps that describes your business today (Trust me, I’ve been there!).

But selling high ticket items (services) without a great Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is hard! Super hard. On the other hand, when you nail your USP, selling gets a lot easier.

Think about it, if you can answer the question “What do you do?” in a way that makes your prospective customer say “I want that!,” how much easier would selling become? A LOT easier.

In this module, you’ll develop the perfect USP for your services.

Mission Objectives

• Use the Project Apollo framework to draft your new USP
• Put your newly crafted USP to the test with your peers in a Project Apollo workshop
• Get your “I want that!” USP vetted by the Project Apollo team

SECTION 4

Your Target Customer Archetype (Weeks 7-8)

Understanding the industry, company size, location, budget, culture, and pain points of your ideal client companies is vital to targeting the right individual prospects with your marketing efforts.

Identifying details about the individuals within the companies you hope to reach makes targeting even easier. Knowing their job titles, behavioral details, needs, and networks is the icing on the cake.

Once you’ve defined these characteristics, relationship building becomes a more achievable process. You can appeal to your ideal customers through outreach, inbound marketing, and paid advertising.

The exercises in this module will help you identify who to approach, how to talk to them, and how you can stay top-of-mind as they negotiate the decision-making process. All so you can close more deals.

In this module, you’ll identify your Target Customer Archetype , and put together a list of prospects that fit your customer avatar. You’ll also develop a plan of action for establishing relationships with these target customers.

Mission Objectives

• Create your Target Customer Archetype
• Cultivate a list of advertising networks, industry associations, and outreach targets
• Build your customer relationship roadmap
• Get your Target Customer Archetype and target customer list approved by the Project Apollo team

SECTION 5

Epic, Cornerstone Content (Weeks 9-10)

​How do you attract more customers to your business at scale? Show them you’ve got the goods!

We do this by creating epic, cornerstone content that positions your business as a trusted authority in your focus area – based on your service offerings and USP. This section is all about showing your customers why you’re the best solution to their problems.

Pulling back the curtain on your epic solutions enables you to separate the do-it-yourself’ers (DIYers) from those who can afford to work with you.

Defining an epic content strategy for your business heightens your industry position, showcases your expertise, and makes your business more attractive to prospective clients.

Share what you do best with the world and you’ll start to fill your inbox with new leads.

But it gets better from there. Use your epic content to land mentions in industry publications, get invitations to speaking gigs, and leverage paid promotion strategies to expand your audience exponentially.

Mission Objectives

• Outline your epic solution, from soup to nuts
• Map your epic content to drive demand using the Project Apollo Content Framework
• Organize and share your expertise in an industry-leading asset
• Line-up resources to produce the content and get it ready to publish and share
• Plan your long-term content marketing strategy
• Get honest feedback from the Project Apollo team’s expert copywriters

SECTION 6

Rocket Engine: Driving Referrals And Organic Demand (Weeks 11-12)

Once you have your epic content developed, it’s time to put yourself out there. But instead of trying to boil the ocean (i.e. spend your time and energy going after everyone and their second-cousin), we will show you how to play “small ball” with your efforts.

The truth is, you can drive all the traffic you want to service offerings but if you are missing the mark with the messaging, it won’t matter. That’s why we recommend playing a few “home games” with your solution before going after the masses.

Preach to the choir by sharing your epic content solution with your existing, receptive audience network. Show them all about the solution you’ve mastered.

Tell everyone. Shout it from the rooftops. Make it your status updates and your profile picture. You’re epic and you know it.

Let the DIY’ers try to replicate your expertise on their own. Let those who are looking for your white gloves solution identify themselves, and make it easy for them to connect with you.

Get feedback on your solution from the marketplace, and use it to make your content more clear, sharpen your value proposition, and gain confidence in your ability to deliver the goods.

Mission Objectives

• Plan where to share your epic solution for maximum impact
• Gather feedback on your solution from trusted sources and make improvements
• Discuss promotion strategies and networks with peers in Project Apollo
• Get feedback on your plan from the Project Apollo team

SECTION 7

Rocket Engine: Advertising Your Niche Service (Weeks 13-14)

What if I told you that at this point you’d be on the path to comfortably saying:

“I know my best solution, I know my target customer, and I have battle-tested USP. I am developing an epic solution that will position me as the leader in my field and it has been vetted by my target customers. Get me in front of the biggest audience possible.”

Would that get you excited about your future prospects?

Well, it’s time to light the match.

You have all the pieces of a winning combination for your business development rocket ship, and you’re ready to ignite the engines.

In this module, you’ll put together a paid advertising plan for your business, set up a campaign to match your target budget, and add tracking pixels to track of your audiences.

Mission Objectives

• Develop a paid advertising plan with budgets, realistic profit targets, and messaging
• Match your epic solution to the best platforms for reaching your target audience, as established in your Target Customer Archetype
• Decide whether you should manage your ads in-house or use an outsourced provider
• Share your plan for peer review
• Run your questions past the Project Apollo team before going live

SECTION 8

Rocket Engine: Partnerships, Outreach, And Automation (Weeks 15-16)

Your epic content that you developed ins section 5 that you want to tell everyone about? Well, you have a captive audience who is waiting to get in on that announcement. They just don’t know it yet.
Drawing from your Target Customer Archetype, it’s time to share your epic solution on the only network dedicated to professionals, LinkedIn.In this module, we will cover the 80/20 of LinkedIn outreach, so you can get your message in front of your specific audience in a few minutes a day.

Prove the model for generating leads. Then discover opportunities to train a staff member or assistant to take over of outreach on your behalf. Be epic, be targeted, and get ready to start fielding sales calls.

Mission Objectives

• Form partnerships with industry vendors, conferences, and publications to get your epic solution in front of a bigger audience
• Use LinkedIn search to find a steady stream of your ideal customers, form connections, and show them your epic solution
• Prove your outreach model using your hand-selected list of prospects, and then hand over the process to your “old prospector” colleague

• Have more conversations with prospective customers than you can handle, to the point where you need to develop a process for qualifying leads before even getting on the phone
• Get approval for your outreach plan from Project Apollo team members, including LinkedIn Expert Isaac Anderson

SECTION 9

Capturing Inquiries, Qualifying Leads, Appointment Setting, And Phone Screening (Weeks 17-18)

You’re ready to pique their interest with your epic solution, but are you prepared to handle the influx of inquiries once you’ve poured gasoline rocket fuel and lit the match?

Is your website ready to take in leads directly? Who receives them, and what are your expectations for how quickly your business will respond? What is your policy for taking phone calls with prospective customers? How do you know if a lead is qualified? How do you separate the serious prospects from the tire kickers?

Truth is, you need a process and a policy to make sure nothing slips through the cracks with the leads you generate. What questions should you ask them? How do you discover red flags early in the process? When should you pitch your services?

In this module, you’ll develop a vetting process for the leads you generate. You’ll use our proven Data Driven blueprint to filter out the prospects who aren’t worth time, so you that don’t waste your efforts on low value sales calls.

Mission Objectives

• Use our 5-minute vetting process to determine if a lead is a good fit before spending hours on the phone or delivering proposals
• Develop a set of qualifying questions you can ask during your discovery session that helps you determine if an opportunity is worth pitching
• Craft responses for how to turn an inquiry into a lead, when to pitch your solution, and how to turn down weak prospects respectfully
• Evaluate tools for tracking opportunities, scheduling pitches, and staying in front of your best prospects
• Run your plan past the Project Apollo team before you make major investments of time and money

SECTION 10

Project Discovery And Feasibility (Weeks 19-20)

​Would you ask someone you just met on the Internet to marry you without getting to know them first? Probably not!

The same goes with prospective clients. You want to get to know them before you propose a legally binding contract for services, right?

You want to spend time discovering if you can move the needle for their business and meet expectations, right?

You want to understand what you’ll be getting into and make sure all the numbers check out, right?

Exactly. That’s why you’ll need to have a discovery process to make sure your project will run smoothly after the contract is signed. We’ll show you which questions to ask, when to ask them, and how to gain trust before the contract is signed.

Mission Objectives

• Learn how to build mouth-watering solutions without giving away your intellectual property
• Implement the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” technique for gaining trust before agreeing to contract terms
• Weigh the benefits and drawbacks of offering free assessments vs. paid discovery – decide which will bring you closer to your Moonshot goals (and if it really matters either way)
• Practice your discovery offer on your peers from Project Apollo using the “Quid Pro Quo Bono” method
• Convince the Project Apollo team that they should invest in your services (or kick us to the curb if we don’t pass your vetting!)

SECTION 11

Pitching And Closing Deals (Weeks 21-22)

If you’ve done your homework to this point and taken action, pitching your services is more of a formality than a crapshoot. You want to work with the prospect and they want to work with you – don’t screw this up.

Of course, you won’t screw things up if you stick to the script, which you will develop with direction from the Project Apollo team. We’ve seen it all in pitches and we’ve developed a process you can use to close more lucrative deals.

Using our PENCO method, you’ll define the exact steps to Pitch your services, Estimate fees, Negotiate, and send Contracts to your prospects.

Plus, we’ll show how to schedule and structure your follow-up messages when prospective clients go radio silent.

Mission Objectives

• Create a pitch deck that can be used for your sales pitches without reinventing the wheel
• Incorporate your client research to prove your value every step of the way
• Decide when to discuss fees with clients and how to make your fees sound reasonable
• Understand when and how you should negotiate deal terms using our “you take yours off, I’ll take mine off” method
• Define what language to put in your contract scope of work so you don’t get stuck with terms that are impossible to fulfill
• Get a grip on payment terms that go into a contract and how this impacts your cash-flow
• Practice your pitching process on peers to understand where you are strong and where you need to improve

SECTION 12

Forecasting Revenue And Resources (Weeks 23-24)

We complete the Project Apollo Accelerator program much the same way we started – projecting the impact of your moonshot goals on your business.

But this time it’s different. We are no longer making an educated guess on performance, we are bringing these numbers back down to earth by focusing on your actual results.

What will your business look like when your business development rocket ship takes you to the moon? We’ll walk you through the changes ahead for your business and how to navigate your upcoming success.

Mission Objectives

• Develop a revenue forecast aligned with your new business expectations and the actual results you’ve achieved
• Forecast the impact of employees, independent contractors, overhead, and investments on your cash-flows and net profits
• Work with the Project Apollo team to develop a list of actions to keep your business on track once you graduate from the accelerator program