Shaun Clark, co-founder of High Level, joins A.J. to discuss the biggest problems businesses have: getting customers. In their conversation, they delve into many interesting questions like why SaaS on its own is not enough, what most businesses get wrong in their lead generation processes, and how being a bootstrapped company helps you better connect with your ideal customer. 

About our Guest: 

Shaun Clark is the co-founder of High Level. High Level offers a full suite of services to clients to help them turn leads into customers. His product is focused on conversions rather than clicks. Previously, Shaun founded InvoiceSherpa amongst other businesses. He used his past experiences to inform his current journey, helping businesses do what is most important to them: get clients.

On today’s episode: 

• Who is Shaun Clark? - 00:49 
• Asking customers what they need can give you your product idea. - 05:21
• The biggest challenge bootstrap SaaS founders in growing their business.  - 10:22
• How to overcome Google and Facebook Ad challenges (if your ads aren’t converting well enough). - 11:35 
• What is Shaun Clark’s High Level business growth plan? - 12:41
• Why every small business needs an agency by its side. - 15:09 
• Will High Level run a certification program? - 16:44
• The one thing most businesses get wrong with their leads. - 18:08
• Why having a community for agencies is the way to go. - 21:43
• A business model focused on actual conversions, not clicks (platform walkthrough)- 22:39
• Should you build your business piece by piece or all at once? (what they did at high level) - 29:32
• This is what the future of lead nurturing will look like. - 31:42
• Can one company do everything? - 35:54
• Does being a bootstrapped company help you better understand your customer? - 37:54 
• Should you 10x your previous numbers? - 39:00
• How can you learn more about High Level? - 41:50 
• Lesson #1: learning your customer inside out. - 43:47
• Lesson #2: Ask who not how - 45:41
• Lesson #3: Paid advertising is not enough, build a word of mouth campaign. - 47:56

Key Takeaways: 

• Distribution is the biggest issue for bootstrapped SaaS founders. Digital ads are the main distribution mechanism and big players flood the ad pipelines with huge budgets which creates a large barrier to entry for new businesses who don’t have a large ad budget. 
• Creating a great niched-down product can help grow your customer base without spending too much money on ads. 
• Lead capture methods change all the time, but what a lot of businesses keep getting wrong is lead nurturing. It can take up to 30 touches with your lead to convert them into a customer. 
• It is not always important to 100x or 10x your previous achievements. Building something sustainable that helps others in their journey is in itself a very worthy goal.

What every business gets wrong about their leads: 

[18:46] “Lead capture methods expand and mutate all the time. But ultimately, where we find the biggest drop-off is in the nurture. It’s one thing to capture a lead but leads aren’t customers and getting them from lead to customer - that nurture journey - that’s the place where everybody falls down.” 

How do you nurture leads? Tell us in the comments, and don’t forget to say hello if you would like to share your entrepreneurship story on our podcast. 

Connect with Shaun Clark:

• LinkedIn: @shaunclarkhighlevel
• High Level: https://www.gohighlevel.com/ 
• High Level Twitter: @gohighlevel
• High Level Instagram: @gohighlevel

Connect with A.J.Lawrence:

• Website: ajlawrence.com
• Email: [email protected] 
• Instagram: @ajlawrence
• LinkedIn: A.J. Lawrence
• Twitter: @ajlawrence
• Medium: @a.j.lawrence

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