LinkedIn Lead Generation: 60-Day Client Pipeline System

John Nemo: A, B, C, A Always. B, B, C. Closing. Always be closing. Always be closing.

Eric Ward: Shirley.

John Nemo: Uh, you can't be serious. I am serious.

Eric Ward: And don't call me Shirley.

John Nemo: Put that coffee down.

Eric Ward: Coffee's for closers only.

John Nemo: Come after me. I'm a man. I'm 40. Uh, all right. Eric Ward. I'm so excited to talk to you. How have you been, man?

Eric Ward: Doing good, man. Living the dream.

John Nemo: Now, for those that don't know, Eric, self proclaimed computer dork, which, hey man, you're owning it. Um, but obviously you've had an incredible journey professionally. I think the simplest way for me to kind of introduce you to people is to say that what Eric does is he really helps kind of eliminate manual kind of repetitive work specifically for architecture and engineering firms. And he does it by building these really cool automations and connecting all these systems that are disconnected. And you're kind of the guy that can turn like three days of manual work into one click.

Eric Ward: I call it the hero role. Um, it's really fun. It's really rewarding. Ah, to see someone take what they're doing. Example, clients clicking print for a day and a half, uh, on a thousand PDFs a month and all of a sudden they don't have to do it anymore. Uh, it's the excitement level is pretty fun to. That's why I call it the hero role.

John Nemo: I love it, man. I love it. So before we dive into kind of some of the different LinkedIn stuff that we're working on together, I want to give people a little bit of your background. So kind of take us back to the career journey from the Texas A and M days, um, and forward it and kind of how you've ended up where you are.

Eric Ward: Well, that's a long journey. But I'll give you the highlights.

John Nemo: We'll start with your birth, but I

Eric Ward: mean, you know, start with. Yeah, no, um, I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I always felt drawn to it. I've really had very few jobs put them m in air quotes, you know. Um, but, so after college, um, I. First thing we did was it was right when the dot com domain names were coming out. Like so, uh, very few people were doing domain names and so. And yah. Back in the day, um, uh, it was Yahoo was the big search engine. It wasn't Google, it was Yahoo. And we figured out, uh, through a bunch of trial and error, we built a website that registered, uh, domain names. Um, and we did an integration with the domain companies that automatically registered and, and we figured out how to get on the front page of go of Yahoo. We were number one. So when you searched for registered domain names, we were there. Um, um. And that lasted about probably 30 to 45 days. And then like any good company, they changed their algorithm. Um, and we tried to get back, we got onto page two, we got onto page one a little bit, but uh, never uh, got back to number one again. And that number one generated a lot of revenue. It was really fun. It was really fun to see those orders come in as people were m doing domain names. Um, and finally after years of trial and error, we found we landed on ERP Integrated websites. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. Big old fancy name, but really it is your QuickBooks, your Dynamics, your ageras. All these systems that run a uh, company's back end. So it runs their inventory, their payroll, their pricing, their customers, all that stuff. It's, that business management system's huge. So we, most of the systems out there are not designed to run, to run a website. So a lot of our, and we were running B2B. We did some M. B2C but a lot of B2B where our customers, what they really wanted, um, was they wanted their customers to see their, their pricing, their customer specific pricing, their tax rules, um, you know, their inventory rules. So connecting the website directly to ERP to get all that information, um, it doesn't work. They erp, you know. Um, you may not know. I mean, I know you know, John, but what an Atari is, right? It's an old. The, the, the power of the computers that run these ERP systems are equivalent to an Atari often.

John Nemo: So anyway, you're talking about my glory days. You're talking, get me River Raid. Get me Combat. Now you got, come on 80s children unite. Okay, go ahead, buddy.

Eric Ward: No, no, yeah. That. Most people, when I say that are like kind of deer in the headlines.

John Nemo: Like, all right, 2600 ruled. Yeah.

Eric Ward: Yes, yes. So anyway, we uh, built high performance websites. Uh, we built a bidirectional sync between the ERP system and the website. So uh, customers could see their customer specific pricing, taxing, shipping, um, they could pay, make orders, pay invoices, do RMAs and all that data with your back and forth. And that's really when our business took off, was when we found the right market niche, where we found the right problem to solve. Um, um, and we, I mean we, we did good for the, for the. Trying to figure out to that. But when we hit that, that's when we, our business really took off. I um, don't Know where I was going with that.

John Nemo: But anyway, well, so I mean you start your career at bp, right? At Amaco.

Eric Ward: Yeah.

John Nemo: Corporate job. And then you help kind of co found. I guess the best way to describe is like a SaaS company, right? Software as a service.

Eric Ward: It wasn't called that back then, but it is now.

John Nemo: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, and you do that for 24 years and you're the chief Technology officer. And so, so then you exit. Right. And, and you kind of say, okay, and I love, we'll talk about your ebook in a little bit. But you're like, okay, I thought I'm, I think I'm kind of done now. I'm 51. I had a successful exit of this company. I spent 24 years building. Then you have this 19 hour flight delay that changes everything. So, so now tell us about that part of the story.

Eric Ward: Yeah, yeah. And really my exit, an important point and, and thanks for helping me get, get there. Um, uh, is during the exit I had this, I had a three year exit, which is really long. It was three and a half years.

John Nemo: Wow.

Eric Ward: But towards the end, and it's because, and, and it was fine because I built all the technology and trying to bring in PE three or four people to then run that technology because I want the business to accelerate. I want it to do good. Right. I, I, I want, I to want, I set it up for success. So during that exit though, I started levels of, of stopping work. Meaning, uh, I was working for three days a week, then two days a week and then one day a week. And these each were quarters of that. So I had a long span where I was barely working and the work they were giving me was, you know, wasn't much. Um, so I got really bored. And that, that's a good precursor to when I kind of, you know, know it wasn't like, oh, I'm not done. It was, um, it was a long turn of getting bored. Like, I don't do bored well, there's only so much Netflix I can watch. There's almost so much I can sit by the swimming pool and work out and all that stuff's great. But like I said, I, I'm not done. So, yeah, flying with my family to my niece's graduation in Portland, Oregon. Oh no, Seattle, Washington and get stuck for nine hours in an airport. Uh, dfw, American Airlines shout out, um,

John Nemo: boy, I see some horror stories. I just saw dfw. It said, and they quoted the Hotel California song. He's like, I met DFW Curtis. A hotel Courtesy of American Airlines. You can check out, but you can never leave.

Eric Ward: It was terrible. It was terrible. And. But you know, long story, you know, long, uh, story short, it's been very fruitful because I met um, another business owner, um, who had a lot of technical issues, um, and struggled to find someone who could help them solve it. And it kind of working with that company ignited a passion, ignited my passion again. I realized I was tired from what I was doing. I had time to rejuvenate. Um, and now, uh, I'm doing something similar but different. Um, and I'm back in new technology. And one thing with doing SaaS is you're continuously building the same application, you're trying to keep it better and better. Um, this is, I'm doing different things all the time, which is, just ticks the box for me.

John Nemo: So I love it. I love it. And it ends up. So you make this connection that starts kind of this new direction for you, right? The outside the box solutions. So kind of tell us kind of in a nutshell and we'll talk more about, you know, the approach we're taking on LinkedIn. But in your own words, kind of what that is, you know, what the focus is, what you do.

Eric Ward: So what this kind of again matured from just trial and error with this company, a couple other small companies, but basically, um, I help executive teams optimize and um, um, automate workflows that they already own. Okay, so take third party, er, the third party system, erp, CRM, project management, CAD and even their internal workflows. And we find, we don't redo those, we don't put in new systems. I'm not bringing a new, hey, let's replace your ERP with this new automated one. We find optimizations inside of those. And so what we do is we can tailor our existing automations and I can touch on a few examples. But uh, we also, I also work with these companies on their existing automations that print. One I talked about is a good one, right. Where there, there is no AI involved. Right. So let's bring up AI. Okay. It's the buzzword. It's the uh, it's the new craze and it's awesome.

John Nemo: But it's the Atari 2600 of the 21st century, Eric. Let's just call it what it is.

Eric Ward: That's right. It's a little more technologically advanced and it's awesome. Right? But it is not the solution for everything. Ah, much to what everyone says, at least from my experience working with real customers Working with real problems. And we use AI all the time, and we use it as a leverage, you know, a force multiplier, not as a gimmick. Right. So not every solution needs a. Right. Not most of them don't. Right. But there are ones where it can really make a difference. Um, so right now I'm focused on civil engineering, or the A and E architecture and engineering space. Uh, civil engineers, um, companies architectural, structural, those kind of companies. But really what I'm doing works with any company, um, any type of company. But, um, having a bunch of experience, uh, with the main customer that I worked with for a couple of years, um, that it made sense. Right. There's a real need most. Most of these companies are behind and know they need to catch up. So it's. It seems like a sweet spot. Uh, I guess time will tell. Tell on that. Right?

John Nemo: Yeah.

Eric Ward: Well, it's m. So good.

John Nemo: I mean, the rich is being in the niches.

Eric Ward: And I was going to say that, but I didn't want to steal it.

John Nemo: Don't steal my thunder, man. Come on. Yeah, no, I love it. Um, well, let me pull up the screen share for the video and obviously we're doing audio for the podcast too, so I'll read some of what I'm sharing. But with your profile page, you know, and this is where we kind of got connected on the LinkedIn side, obviously, really understanding kind of some of the key takeaways. You know, now that you've heard Eric's story, was we really wanted to position him a. There is, you know, riches are in the niches and what we always look for in our clients. And what Eric recognized was who, uh, who am I already working with in certain industries that there's a need. I've had success. I have case studies, I have testimonials. It's so much easier because Eric's right. He can do this for any company. Um, but what we really did with Eric, and even starting with your profile headline, was obviously using this formula that I really like, which is the service you provide and then the target audience. The service Eric provides is automation and integration expert, and then it's for who's the audience? Architecture and engineering executives. Then we've got some nice social proof we can add. Because you're a founder, you're a former SaaS founder and CTO, we're really able to kind of do that with your profile and then even in the about section, really getting clear. And this is just good takeaways for anybody watching or listening. You know, that first Sentence is so key. And the formula that I like is, you know, what I do and then it's I help this type of client get these benefits by providing this service. And so for Eric, what it says is what I do. I partner with architecture and engineering executives. Then here's the key is the benefits that they get from Eric. Eliminate inefficiency, connect disconnected systems and automate repetitive work. How does he do it? Custom business automation and integration solutions that transform how the organizations operate. So really like that, man, it just, it feels so clear, doesn't it? Of uh, like they can scan your profile and immediately know kind of what's in it for them.

Eric Ward: For sure.

John Nemo: Yeah. I like whoever wrote this. Hell of a job, no doubt. And then the other key thing too, that I would just want to share with Eric's is, you know, kind of highlighting, you know, the key thing, who you work with. And he's got listed out, right, the CEOs and presidents. And I like too that we added the what they're looking for, looking to scale look, seeking to streamline, wanting to eliminate bottlenecks, wanting to optimize workflows, wanting to connect, you know, disparate systems and then listing out the services. Right. Business process automation system integration, civil 3D automations. There's all these kind of niche services. Then we're even adding in a little bit of Eric's story we talked about. Started at BP, migrated. Wow, 30,000 email boxes. Holy cow.

Eric Ward: Yep. That's a lot of work.

John Nemo: Yeah. Founded your own Company in 1999, 24 years as the CTO, you know, and then launches outside the box. And then he's got some great client outcomes. Right. So being able to explain some of these different outcomes that he's had. He's got a nice testimonial from a, you know, a client here. And then the other thing I really wanted to highlight that I think has been really helpful is just going through your ebook, you know, and some of your case studies. And so I'll share that as well. But one of the key things that we found with a lot of our clients is having some sort of content, you know, and Eric has both case studies and ebooks, which we'll show. But I really like the ebook because when it's done well, it can really showcase two things. One is, you know, your story, your journey. And then the other thing is actually demonstrating expertise and frameworks and strategies. And I love the example with your ebook and you tell the story obviously really well yourself, but you know, the 19 hour delay that Changed everything. I thought I was done. It's like, Whoa, what? Right? 51, co founding and exiting a successful SaaS company where I spent 24 years as CTO. You know, I figured I'd earn the right to step back, maybe travel, spend more time with my wife, Julie and our boys, work out, relax. But like you said, I'm not wired that way, so.

Eric Ward: So we're starting out, Liam.

John Nemo: Yeah, but what I like about this for people, you know, listening and watching is like you're really understanding. Like there's a story behind this guy, behind this company. And I think we forget in marketing, we still want a connection. Right. As much as, you know, everything's a commodity now. Like, we want to know who is Eric, you know, why would I trust him? What makes him unique, different and better? What's his story? And he talks about, you know, in the ebook, obviously, you know, the 19 hour flight delay and meeting somebody from your hometown, Keller, Texas. And you talk for 10 straight hours and before you get on the plane, the guy's like, hey, we need to do something together. Call me. Right? And then you go back to the computer dork. You had the Trash 80. I love it. That's what they called those, the TRS 80s. Um. Oh, man.

Eric Ward: See, I love cutting edge back then, man.

John Nemo: Yeah, I remember the. I remember one kid on our block got like an Apple 2e or something and we were all like freaking out the early Apple computers. Yeah. But, yeah, so it's a great storytelling, you know, great job in this ebook. And then the other thing I wanted to share too was credit for the

Eric Ward: ebook, by the way.

John Nemo: No.

Eric Ward: Well, your team did it.

John Nemo: Yeah, but I like to these case studies where you're able to say you're able to actually show a case study and what we've put together is a simple PDF where it's like, here's the challenge, here's the solution, here's what happened, here's the results, here's the benefits of doing this automation. And then kind of your bio at the end. And I think, I'm curious, kind of what's been your impressions? Um, you know, with LinkedIn in general as a lead source, I guess before you talk to us, now that you're kind of, you know, in the beginning stages of your project, what you've seen, what surprised you, I'd love your feedback.

Eric Ward: Yeah. Um, what I didn't realize getting started and overall it's been, it's been great. Um, so it's been great working with you and the team, but what I Didn't realize going into this when I said oh I'm going to go after architectural and engineering, um, I basically had no, none of my first levels, none of my 20 last 20 plus 25 plus years was in that space. So I'm basically starting from scratch. I'm not known there. Right. So um, the one thing that's, that stands out as a, well that was a key learning. Maybe I should have thought about that was I'm building a brand new network inside of LinkedIn around this uh versus targeting existing um, uh areas or, or places where I have connections and people know me and you know in, in different spaces. Um it, I say that but I still have kind of, I still have a uh, no compete in some of these spaces. So it become very tricky in walking through some of that. So but regardless that that was a key learning was it's going to take a little longer now. I've already had some success, I'm sure you want to talk about that. But um, uh one key learning was going in and building a brand new network where nobody knows uh, me uh, is is proving to be a longer process than I didn't even think about that piece of it.

John Nemo: Yeah, yeah and it's a good point like understanding like you know, depending on what you've used LinkedIn for previously. Like to your point I'm connected to all these people in all these different places. You might have older coworkers from bp, old college friends from Texas A and M M. You might have people that you worked with at your previous company. But it gets complicated. Right? Cause yeah, you've got some non competes or you've got you know, kind of scattered connections all over the place. And so one of the things we really try to do is focus on where can Eric have the most, get the most bang for his buck. Like what's. Where is the niche where the riches are right. And so for you, you know, trusting the process and saying like yeah okay architecture and engineering firms, I don't have a huge footprint there. I'm not known as that gu. But because of your background, because of your stories, because of your client experiences, you, you have the juice to kind of prove to that audience once they get to know you. So yeah, I mean tell me a little bit about you know, kind of the early results and what you've been happy with, what you know, what the success has looked like for you as far as from your perspective.

Eric Ward: So I've had started uh, around December 1st when we, we launched the campaigns. Um, and I've had four calls um, for booked calls which um, two. Two. One basically is a flat out no. So the other learning from this was. And I, I take it all as a learning opportunity to how to what's the market telling me? So every call I try to step back and say what is the market telling m me? Um, so early success like when we started the campaign, um, I had a customer, a lead reach out, booked a call immediately. It went friggin awesome. I thought oh man baby here we go. And then it just, it Christmas it and it went dead. Um, and I thought okay. So I went in kind of into a follow up mode and Amy helped me get into you know a good cadence of, of reaching out and I had a call with them circling back to that customer yesterday. I'm quoting them now and I'm, I'm unless I blow it, it's going to be a victory. It's going to be a sale for sure. Now the type of sales I do that was my other big learning from this meeting with those four people so far. Uh, and I want lots more by the way.

John Nemo: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. We're just getting started.

Eric Ward: But we're just getting started. And that's where the realization of okay, I have no footprint in here. Like yeah, it's going to take time to build up and you know, if I secure this new company which I will assuming I don't blow it, um, that'll be another customer in the A E space that'll give me a reference that'll you know, that's just going to start the small snowball that'll, that'll build up. I'm, I'm acutely aware that it's going to take time. Um but uh, that that's going to be a big success. Right. So what the real realization is it's going to take time and it's going to the type of stuff I'm doing with this consulting it's not like I'm selling a 200 or a thousand dollar thing. These, this I'm trying to get into a monthly large sale every month where I'm just helping them month over month over month. Um, call it a retainer. Um, so it's going to take time. Um, so that's the other thing is just key learning. Like I thought I was going to have a quick win. It's going to be you know the snowball is already huge at the top of the hill and think of any entrepreneur as, you know, you think as you're building and then reality sets in. But Even the no's, um, realizing that there are. I'm not for everyone. So that was the other key big learning from. And the, the company I talked to that gave me a, um, let's say a high quality note, gave me lots of good detail on why. And that's just taking that as a business owner and saying okay, how do I adjust to that? Right. So there are some companies that are, I'll uh, call them late stage adopters. They don't want all this new stuff until it is uh, rock solid and there are no problems. And then I have other, there's other companies like this, I'm quoting this week that are cutting edge. They want to be right on the forefront. So trying to dial in where those are and potentially then I, then I was like, okay, well let me start a little separate campaign. And Amy and Becca helped me do that. Getting that going where I'm targeting those late stage with what would look like a more mature product that's more of a turnkey managed service. So that's the other thing is realize is using you guys um, to test different options in the market. Right. So keeping the main churn going, like just, I look at it just in the background, like just churning and churning, um, and then trying little targeted things to see where I again get information back from the market, figure out what's, what opportunities are there and then just keep tailing it's there. There's like gut instinct, gut feel. Call it whatever you want. There is something here. I just haven't hit it 100% yet. Right. I don't know what it is. Same thing I did in the, in the previous business. I'm hoping it's a little bit shorter timeframe to get to it this time. But uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep trying and, and different uh, tactics and different, different offerings to see where, where it lands.

John Nemo: Well and this is a great, there's so many good takeaways there. But one of the key things that you said is what I always try to emphasize to our clients is like giving us feedback on the calls and saying like, hey, there's, there's a trend here between the, and the late stage adopters. Let's change up some campaigns, let's change up some language, let's change up some offerings so that we're not just like doing generic templated, throwing it against the wall for anyone and everyone. And I think that's the key to success is like listening, you know, you're listening to the real decision makers on these Calls, even in a high quality. No, you're getting clues of like, okay, this is how I need to change it for this type of company. And I think that's where the success comes, right, is understanding. Like the Beautiful thing about LinkedIn lead generation outreach is it is all digital, so you can change in a heartbeat what you're saying, who you're targeting. It's not like it's, you know, physical products and, you know, moving, you know, human beings around. So that's really been key. I think I'm very excited for the quote. So, I mean, I think that's another key thing too is understanding the patience that you have as a business owner. If you're doing significant, you know, engagements, investments, five figures, six figures, whatever ends up being. Yeah, it's not an instant, you know, yes, sometimes. And trust has to be built and that's really where, you know, the content comes in and the profile and the testimonials. But to your point, you're starting to see this momentum where now you're starting to get more clients in this niche and it's just going to get easier and easier the next time out. Man. So what other, I guess, advice would you give, you know, the small business owner right now, the coach, the consultant who. They're exploring LinkedIn, they're trying to get more leads, they're trying to build an audience like you are. What are, what are some key takeaways or insights you would share with just anyone in general about this?

Eric Ward: Um, I'd say it's not an overnight thing. Right? So it's not, uh, just like any, any marketing, any business. It's not an overnight thing and it takes time and there's not a one size fits all meaning. Um, you've, I guess what, I mean there. Let me rephrase that. You have to engage. It's not a meaning. It's, uh, with, with your project manager, with it as ongoing. You can't just let it in the background and they're going to fill, it's going to fill up your lead funnel. You've got to listen to customers, you've got to engage in, in the content and continuously be, you know, um, in, uh, in the software world, we call it continuous improvement. Right. We just continuously improve and I'm taking that approach with this. I'm highly engaged and with customers with you guys and trying to find where, where it is. So from, from the LinkedIn marketing so far, it's been awesome, right? So far I'm happy with the results. Of course. I want more of course, who doesn't?

John Nemo: Yes, I want more.

Eric Ward: Right. But I understand that it's going to take time and at some point I'm that uh, I just view it as a snowball, right? It's just this little snowball at the top of the mountain and I'm just pressing it forward and I might take a right turn. I got to turn it back left. You know, it's just be engaged. So my advice for, for running one of uh, you know, engaging with you guys and being successful is be engaged and be engaged with your customer. Continuously giving feedback. Like, you know, when I meet with Amy every week, I tell her what happened on the calls. Like I give her that feedback. I tell her, you, uh, know I share the text of the, the email that had all that information in it so that we can work together to m. Again, not one size fits all. Just massage the process. You know, continuously improve it over and over and in until we find where it hits. And I, I, I fully believe it'll hit and it's just a matter of time.

John Nemo: Oh, I love it, man. I want to clone you. I want to clone you, Eric.

Eric Ward: So that would be scary for, that would be scary.

John Nemo: It's scary for all of us.

Eric Ward: You don't want that. Nobody wants that.

John Nemo: Nobody wants it. Well, so where can people find you? Yeah, obviously, you know, um, for all the different business owners that want to take a look at you potential clients, where are the best places to direct them online?

Eric Ward: Well, LinkedIn.

John Nemo: Eric Ward on LinkedIn.

Eric Ward: Yeah, I mean that's the other thing is using you guys as advice. Like do I have a website right now? I don't, um, do I need one?

John Nemo: Probably not.

Eric Ward: Right. I've got a domain name, right? So otbox.com if you want to email me, it's e wardtbox.com or just go to my LinkedIn profile. Um, that's probably the best way to start. You know, email me or you know, and, and I'm happy to engage in any type of conversation around business, around how to, what I've done in the past, you know, talking about. I talked to my insurance agent yesterday called, um, and just wanted to talk about AI. Well, okay. I like to talk about it. Right. So, um, my whole, my whole goal, um, there's a book that, that is kind of the core, um, of what I, how I run my business called the Go Giver. If you've never read that book, read that book. Um, it's not the Go Getter, the Go Giver. And really my goal is just to provide value everywhere I can to everyone I can. Um, because, you know, it. It'll come back. Um. It. It. It will definitely come back to you. So I'm happy to talk about anything or help, uh, just about anyone.

John Nemo: For sure. That is fantastic, man. Eric Ward. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your story.

Eric Ward: You're welcome. Thank you for all your help.