Hormozi's Marketing Matrix

Entrepreneurship is about acquiring skills, beliefs, and character traits. To advance, I find that we must determine which skills, beliefs, and character traits we lack. Most times, we simply need to improve.

-Alex Hormozi

Introduction:

Let’s face it. One of the hardest things about starting a business is lead generation. 

Where do you find your ideal prospect?

How do you captivate their attention?

When do you make them an offer?

These are all questions that new founders & aspiring entrepreneurs have.

In this post, I’m going to be distilling all the important points from Alex Hormozi’s “100M Leads,” so that you can get out of analysis-paralysis, and catalyze your professional success. Hormozi brought disruptive-innovation to the “online guru/course indoctrination” niche. While most gurus gate kept information behind their paid course, Hormozi’s main focus is to provide as much free value as possible. I still remember his most recent book launch… I had literal goosebumps. This guy is a marketing genius & he currently runs a private equity firm called Acquisition.com.

Marketing 101:

The internet & digital media have built empires, while simultaneously eradicating old-school businesses.

We’ve outgrown orthodox marketing practices, however, we’re still being taught the same marketing concepts as we were in the 50s.

Traditional marketing will tell you to focus on the 4P’s (marketing mix).

Product, Price, Placement, & Promotion.

There’s multiple issues with this.

Firstly, the product phase is just market research. You’re trying to understand your competitors & your ideal customer avatar. These are both steps that need to be completed prior to developing the product.

Secondly, the price of a product is decided during the offer creation phase of the venture, not during the lead generation. Not to mention, competing for price is the equivalent of shooting yourself in the leg. You’re literally commoditizing your offer by making the price industry standard. The goal should be to increase the value & price proportionally, so that you differentiate yourself & create a niche of 1. 

With 2 of the 4 Ps not making sense, the framework doesn’t really have much ground to stand on, does it?

Look, my point is simple: The “marketing mix” framework is just outdated & inefficient. 

Hormozi’s Framework:

What really works is Hormozi’s simple 2X2 matrix:

Here’s the basic premise: 

At any given point, you can either reach out to strangers, or people you already know. 

You can sell to these people in a 1-to-1 setting, or in a 1-to-many setting with more leverage.

Warm Outreach: When you’re an absolute beginner with a tight budget, this is your ideal strategy. You might not be able to afford an expensive lead list, but what you can do is reach out to people you already know. Friends & family, or anyone who has an existing relationship with you. Contact them & be as authentic as possible. You’re disguising the exploration phase of a sales call by using small-talk to ask questions & expose pain-points that you can solve for them. Make general small-talk to break the ice. Then, once the prospect has clearly revealed their problem, proceed to make them an offer.

Cold Outreach: This is a little more advanced, but still within the domain of beginners. The key with cold outreach is to differentiate yourself from the crowd. You’re in an extremely competitive & saturated market here. Keep in mind that these prospects are receiving 1000s of cold messages & they’re absolutely fed-up with it. Getting cursed-out is very common & some people will absolutely violate you verbally. Cold outreach is not easy, but make sure to respect the prospect’s time & don’t sound intrusive, even though that’s exactly what you’re doing. If you follow those general guidelines, you’ll make it out alive. 

Tip: If you’re cold-calling, make sure to ask for the prospect’s permission first. Your transparency will reward you. I’ve booked many sales calls just by being transparent. 

Legally, it’s a lot easier to do cold outreach in a B2B setting vs a B2C setting. Just make sure you’re staying compliant with all the rules & regulations. 

Organic Content: If you’ve been consistent with cold outreach for a few months, your business should have some cash-flow & testimonials. Congrats! You’ve built your foundation at this point. The issue with cold outreach is that you’re reaching out prospects from a position of low authority. This will cause them to perceive you as a newbie & they’ll never treat you as the expert you are. This is where creating a personal brand comes in. When you start producing content on social media, prospects begin to view you as a person with lots of authority. Most experts are on social media, so when you start creating content, prospects will assume that you’re a credible source. Obviously, it takes time to grow on social media, but choose a platform you’re comfortable with, and start creating content. Once you establish a decent following, your brand will do all the heavy lifting for you. Educate, inspire, & entertain. 

Follow this basic structure to create attention captivating content:

1. Hook - attention grabber

2. Lead - intro & agitate the problem

3. Body - key points separated by headlines to help understand & learn topics

4. Conclusion - a summary of step-by-step advice to solve problem

5. CTA - next steps 

Paid Ads: This is the last step of the journey. At this point, you’ve had numerous conversations with prospects, & you understand what it takes to convert objections into conversions. You understand all the pain-points. Now, it’s time to take all your knowledge & refine it into a high-converting, well-designed ad. An ad is like your most effective salesperson, on steroids. The copy, creative, & CTA should all be developed with a single focus in mind. They need to provide a clear path for the prospect to educate themselves & raise their awareness to the point of purchase. Hormozi always says that “If the customer knows what you know, they should buy your product.” Each campaign is different, so stay compliant with the rules of the platform & focus on rapid iterations. Start small & scale slowly based on tangible feedback & metrics. All your decisions should be data-driven. 

Closing:

That’s it for this one. Apply this matrix when you’re starting your business & watch how it catalyzes your growth. Let me know if you have any feedback, and I’ll catch you next time.

Peace,

J.R.