Three years back I was convinced my content strategy work would sell itself as a €12k productized engagement. I built the pitch, diagram, the whole thing. Sent it to 47 people who'd been on my list longer than a year. Four replies total. Nobody bought. I'd assumed 'audience = buyers'. Wrong. The people who did want help needed three calls before they'd even tell me their budget. If I could redo it: smaller offer first, €900 sprint, done in a week. Then scale. What I still don't have is the proof buyers ask for — nobody sees results they can point at. So my question: how do you build proof when the clients you want are the ones who want proof before they'll start?
My €12k offer nobody bought (and what I should have done)
Case study
Author-reported results.
- Starting situation
- Had 3+ years of newsletter, 2,000 subscribers, and a clear method (content operating system for B2B founders). Kept getting 'love your stuff!' DMs but no path to a paid offer.
- What changed
- Packaged the whole system into a €12k productized engagement: audit, 12-week rollout, monthly reporting. Sent to 47 past newsletter engagers via personal Loom. Four replies, zero sales.
- Result
- Replies said 'interesting, timing is off' or asked for a case study I didn't have. One guy said 'I'd try it for €800 to see if you can actually do it.' I said no. In hindsight, I should have said yes. Now building a €900 one-week sprint as the entry point.
- Limitations
- This doesn't prove €900 is the right number for everyone. It proves *I* had no proof and expected buyers to take on all the risk. The bigger mistake was waiting three years to build any proof artefact. Also: my audience was readers, not buyers. Different list, different offer.
1 reply
Audience: Public. Replies follow this audience.
0Thabo MokoenaBlogger · self-paced courseSouth Africa·Established Solo·55m ago
Question first — when you say 'audience was readers not buyers', was that a positioning issue or a list quality issue? Because the fix is different. If it's list quality, no offer size fixes it. If it's positioning, your €900 sprint might.
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