Prompt Playbook: Playbook Service Builder PART 5

Hey Prompt Entrepreneur,

I've launched products and services over 50 times. You'd think it would get easier, but let me tell you—it's never easy…

I wish!

There's no feeling quite like pouring your heart and soul into creating something you know is valuable, something you're genuinely proud of...

Ready for the cash to come pouring in but … huh nothing yet…

Checking Stripe to see if the notifications are on…they are…huh weird…maybe something wrong with the checkout? Hmm no seems OK…so what’s going on….oh.

Oh no…

I've been there more times than I care to admit. You hit publish, send the emails, make the announcement... and nothing happens. No sales. No inquiries. Nothing.

Hell, even someone emailing to tell me to bog off is better!

It's easy to think "maybe this isn't as good as I thought" or "maybe no one actually needs this." But in my experience, that's rarely the case.

The truth is much simpler: most of us just don't have the reach for proper distribution.

Even the most brilliant service in the world will fail if no one sees it!

And that's what today's playbook is all about—making sure the right people see your service.

Let's get started:

The Low-Hanging Fruit Strategy

When you're launching a service, there's one place you should always start: your existing network.

I know it's tempting to dream about AI-automated cold outreach and social media campaigns and that magically bring in hundreds of clients. There are sure enough people selling that dream online!

But the reality is that your fastest path to paying clients is through people who already know, like, and trust you. Sorry!

Your existing network is your low-hanging fruit. These are people who already know you're good at what you do, don't need to be convinced of your expertise, are more likely to give you a chance, and will forgive small mistakes as you refine your process.

Don’t be afraid to start here!

Start by making a list of everyone in your network who might either need your service themselves or know someone who needs your service. This includes past colleagues, industry contacts, friends and family, social media connections, and former clients. A personal message to these connections will be 100x more effective than any cold outreach campaign.

This is literally how I start my students off in the AI Workshop Kit - by giving them a structured 30 Day outreach plan with targets to talk to each day. And the first people to talk with? Friends, family and acquaintances! Don’t make life harder than it has to be!

The First Client Strategy

For your first few clients, I recommend a simple approach: offer your service at a heavily discounted rate in exchange for specific marketing assets.

Note: I didn't say free. Here's why:

Even if you're not charging money, you should always establish a clear "price" and then explicitly discount it. This does two critical things: it establishes the real value of your service and creates a clear exchange (not a favour!).

Here's how to structure it:

"My [Newsletter Setup and Growth Service] normally costs [£2,000], but for my first three clients, I'm offering it for [£X] in exchange for:

• A video testimonial upon completion

• Permission to use your results as a case study

• Two referrals to people who might need this service"

That £X could be zero. Depending on your confidence, your relationship with them and the cost structure of delivering the service.

When sending over an invoice explicitly put the original £2000 and then discount it. They need to know the actual price of what they are getting. “Free” devalues it in their eyes.

Be super selective with these first clients. Choose people who have a genuine need for your service, are likely to get good results, will be reasonable to work with, and have networks relevant to your target market. Working for free rarely works out well. The “discount approach” creates much better alignment.

Beyond Your Network

Once you've exhausted your immediate network, it's time to expand. The next places to look are your second-degree connections. Ask your network for introductions to specific types of clients. The key is to be specific: "Do you know any small e-commerce business owners who are struggling with customer retention?" works better than "Do you know anyone who needs marketing help?" This is the simplest way but we can go a little further.

A more formal version of this is putting together referrals and partnerships.

Look for people who serve the same clients as you but offer complementary services, have established audiences that trust them, and would benefit from offering your service to their audience. For example, if you offer newsletter setup services, partner with copywriters who don't handle the technical setup, business coaches who recommend newsletters to clients, or course creators who need newsletters for their students.

There are several ways to structure partnerships. You could create simple referral partnerships with fees (typically ~30% of the first sale or some % on a recurring basis) when they send clients your way.

Basically instead of you paying for marketing you pay for the referral. It’s not lost revenue for you - it’s reduced cost.

If being smart you can run value-add partnerships. Basically this allows them to offer your service as an add-on to their existing offerings, creating more value for their clients. White-label partnerships mean they sell your service under their brand, and you deliver it behind the scenes. Co-creation partnerships involve jointly creating and marketing a combined offering that leverages both of your strengths. Lots of ways to structure these arrangements!

I’d recommend starting with simple referral partnerships. They're the easiest to set up and require the least commitment from both parties. Very basic contract (or email agreement) and you’re good to go. No need to overcomplicate.

The content-for-distribution game

One of my favourite partnership approaches is the content-for-distribution exchange. It works like this: Identify partners with large, relevant audiences, create valuable content for their audience (guest posts, workshops, webinars), and in exchange, they promote your service to their audience.

This is a win-win-win: Their audience gets valuable content, they get free content without doing the work, and you get access to a new audience.

I was recently asked by Tai Lopez’s team to do something like this - same setup, I produce content, they put in front of their audience, I get reach, backlink and affiliate sales. I’m not taking them up on it at this stage but it’s a strong strategy.

Partnering with me

OK time to fess up. I’ll come clean! Part of this Playbook is to find amazing people to work with.

We've come a long way in this Playbook series. Starting with choosing the right playbook service, implementing it yourself, creating a compelling offer, building your delivery systems—and now launching it to the world. It’s a tonne of work.

For those who've gone through this process and proven their service works, I occasionally partner on distribution. For clarity this isn't for everyone!

And I'm selective about which services I put in front of my audience.

Most importantly you need to be up and running. As in: generating revenue! That’s the biggest stipulation.

I can’t (sorry!) take calls about ideas. The first cash has to be through the door. Could be the first $100. Or $100,000. Doesn’t really matter as long as it’s not $0!

If you do want to chat shoot us an email or reach out on social.

Wrapping Up The Week

Let's recap what we've covered in this Playbook series:

Part 1: We learned the importance of choosing a focused service based on a proven playbook, and how to select the right one for you.

Part 2: We deployed the playbook ourselves, gaining firsthand experience and creating our first case study.

Part 3: We crafted a compelling service offer, focusing on one core service to start.

Part 4: We built systematic delivery processes to ensure consistent results and protect our time.

Part 5: We launched our service, starting with our network and expanding through partnerships.

The beauty of this approach is that it's repeatable. Once you've mastered one Playbook service, you can always add another. And another. But remember—master one before moving to the next! Please!

Your success comes from depth, not breadth. From doing one thing exceptionally well, not ten things adequately.

Take this playbook and put it into action. Choose your service. Implement it. Package it. Systematise it. Launch it.

And come chat to me when you’re up and running!

Keep Prompting,

Kyle

P.S. Remember that distribution is always the hardest part. Don't get discouraged if your first launch doesn't set the world on fire. Launching, like everything, is a skill. The more you do it the better you get.

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