So imagine this for a second. You build a service
business, an agency, and it's consistently netting
you, let's say, $35 ,000 a month. That's the
dream, right? For pretty much any founder, that's
high six -figure stability. Right. But here's
the part from the sources that really got me.
Achieving that, but spending zero dollars. Zero.
On marketing, on ads, on any of that endless
cold outreach. Yeah, and this isn't some get
-rich -quick thing. It's a very specific strategy.
It's about working smart by leveraging the success
that other companies are already having. Welcome
to the Deep Dive. Today, our mission is to really
unpack this blueprint for what the sources call
a partner -led AI business. It's a model designed
to flip that old agency script completely on
its head. And we're going to focus on the single
biggest reason most agencies just fail. or at
least stay really small, and that's high cack.
High cack. Okay, let's nail that down right away.
What is high cack in, like, plain English? High
cack just means spending a ton of money to convince
one customer to sign up. A simple but painful
definition. It's like paying for an expensive
first date and then getting ghosted. Yeah, that
sounds about right. Yeah. So, here's the plan.
First, we're gonna look at why that old model
is so broken. Then we'll walk through this smooth
lead flow that gets you to that $0 customer cost.
After that, how to structure your offers. And
finally, the actual playbook for becoming that
number one expert that big software platforms
send all their business to. OK, so let's start
with that broken model. The sources point out
this brutal reality for a traditional agency
owner. You spend something like 70 % of your
day just being a salesman. A desperate salesman.
And only 30 % of your time doing the thing you
actually love, which is building solutions. It's
totally soul -crushing. And it's so expensive
in ways people don't even think about. It's not
just the ad spend. No, it's the hours, right?
Yeah. Writing emails that you know are just going
to a spam folder. Exactly. Or sending those LinkedIn
messages that get ignored. You're constantly
paying Facebook or Google for clicks that, you
know, maybe convert, maybe don't. Every single
hour you spend hunting is an hour you're not
building. And that's what keeps the profit margin
so low. It's a treadmill. This partner model,
though, it flips that ratio. The goal is to spend
90 % of your time building great things and maybe,
what, 10 % on these super low stress calls. So
what's the core idea? How does that actually
work? The premise is actually really elegant.
You find customers who are already sold. They're
committed. But now they're stuck. Stuck how?
They bought a really complex, powerful tool.
Maybe it's an automation platform like Make or
a voice AI like Vapi. They paid for it. They
believe in it. But they have no idea how to connect
it to their CRM, to their actual business. So
the software company that sold it to them is
also in a tough spot. Oh, they're stressed. Because
if that customer fails, they're going to churn.
They'll cancel their subscription. And that software
company, they don't have a giant army of consultants.
to hold every new user's hand. Exactly. And that's
the gap. That's your entry point. You become
the official partner. The software company sends
their stuck customer directly to you. Which means
you get to skip the hardest part. You skip all
of it. You get pre -sold leads, warm intros,
instant trust, because you're borrowing the brand
name of the company they already paid. And that's
how your marketing spend goes to zero. So beyond
just the money you're saving on ads, what's the
biggest emotional burden that this model gets
rid of compared to all that cold outreach. It
just removes the need for that constant exhausting
self -persuasion. Let's talk about the math,
because this is where it gets really compelling.
A traditional agency, you're lucky to see 40,
maybe 50 % profit margins after all your costs.
If you're lucky, yeah. With this partner -led
model, the numbers are consistently hitting 80,
even 85 % profit. That's a massive difference.
At 80%, Pretty much every dollar you bring in
after a few small costs just goes right into
your pocket. It's because you cut out the burn,
the cost of persuasion. Your operating costs
are just minimal. A few AI tool subscriptions,
your electricity, maybe a contractor here and
there. You're not funding a sales team. So let's
trace that customer journey. The sources call
it incredibly smooth. It all starts with what
they call a voluntary commitment. The business
owner, they've already paid for the AI tool.
They've got skin in the game. You never have
to have that conversation about why AI is important.
They're already a believer. They're excited,
but then they hit the friction point. Yeah. After
a day or two, they realize connecting this thing
to their real business, to their CRM or their
database, is way harder than the promo video
made it look. They have a Ferrari, but they don't
know how to drive it. And that's when their need
for an expert is at its absolute peak. Great.
And even for experts, complex integrations are
tough. I still wrestle with concepts like prompt
drift myself when I'm trying to get different
systems to communicate properly. It is not easy,
even when you know what you're doing. That's
a good point. So the user is frustrated. That's
what leads to the referral. They go to the software
support team and say, help, I'm stuck. And the
support staff just sends them a link to your
profile. Instantly, you're a verified expert.
You're not some random guy from a cold email.
And because that trust is baked in, That next
step, the 15 minute close, is a whole different
ballgame. It's not a sales pitch at all. It's
a solution meeting. You just listen to their
problem and you tell them the fixed price to
solve it. Which leads to the final step, conversion.
The closing rates are apparently huge, over 60%.
Compared to what, 1 % for a cold email? And they
pay fast because they just want the pain to stop.
They want their investment to start working.
So if that trust is already there from the software
company, how does that really change the energy
of that first client meeting? It just transforms
selling into listening and solving specific,
urgent problems. Okay, so the leads are great,
the margins are high, but that doesn't sell for
scale. If every single project is this custom,
one -off, special snowflake, you're never going
to be able to grow. You'll just burn out. Oh,
that's the fastest way to burn out for sure.
Which is why productization is, uh... It's not
optional. It's mandatory. So what does that mean
to productize a service? It just means you sell
a fixed package for a fixed price. Think of it
like a restaurant menu. You don't create a custom
dish for everyone. You offer a few amazing, defined
entrees. It makes it super easy for the client
to say yes. And it makes it repeatable for you,
which is the key to actually scaling. Sources
give some really good examples. Yeah, the first
one was the voice AI agent package. So this is
where you'd set up a tool like VOPI or retail
AI. You do the hard part. connecting it to their
Google calendar, making sure it talks to their
CRM, like go high level. Exactly. And the price
for that is something like a $3 ,000 setup fee
plus $500 a month for maintenance. That monthly
retainer is everything. Then there was the lead
gen chat bot. Right. Building on a platform like
Voiceflow, you train it on their website data,
you hook it into their Slack. So the sales team
gets alerts. And that's priced a bit lower, maybe
$2 ,500 for setup and $300 a month. Yeah, a lower
entry point. And then there's the simplest one,
the glue integration. This is for when a company
has two big pieces of software that just don't
talk to each other. So you use a tool like Make
or an 8N to build that bridge. And you charge
anywhere from $1 ,500 to $4 ,000 just for that
one time setup. It's pure value. So what does
productizing your services really do? for your
perceived value in the client's eyes. It positions
you as an efficient, focused specialist, not
just a time -for -hire freelancer. All right,
now for the most important choice, picking the
platform to partner with. This feels like the
whole foundation of the business. It is. It's
like choosing the land you're going to build
your house on. It has to be growing fast, but
it can't be overcrowded with 1 ,000 other builders.
The sources gave three green flags to look for.
The first one is fast user growth. Look for companies
that just raised a big round of funding, like
a Series A or B. Yep. That money means they're
about to scale like crazy. If they're adding
hundreds of new users every day, their small
support team is gonna get swamped. They have
no choice but to rely on outside partners. Green
flag number two. High technical complexity. So
we need to avoid tools that are... Uh, too easy.
Yeah. If someone can figure it out over their
lunch break with a YouTube video, they are not
going to pay you $3 ,000. You need something
that requires real API work, custom logic, stuff
like Stack AI. The difficulty is what creates
the value. Exactly. And the third flag is what
they call the service gap. You want pure SaaS
companies. Meaning they only sell the software
subscription. They don't have their own giant
team of in -house consultants. Right. They are
financially motivated to send all that setup
work to an expert like you. It's a perfect alignment
of incentives. Whoa. OK, just think about that.
You're connecting your one little service directly
into a pipeline of, what, hundreds of new funded
users a day? Yeah. Users who are basically designed
to get stuck without an expert. That's the leverage.
It's the ultimate customer acquisition shortcut.
But you also have to watch out for the red flags.
Right. We already said avoid tools that are too
simple. No margin. The second one is cold communities.
If you join their Discord or Slack and it's a
ghost town, that platform is dying. You'd be
building on sinking sand. And the third, which
seems like the most dangerous one, is partnering
with low reputation companies. Yeah. If the tool
is super buggy and users are always complaining,
they're just going to cancel their subscription.
And when they cancel, your monthly retainer goes
right out the window with it. So between those
three red flags, which one poses the biggest
risk to your long -term monthly retainer income?
Partnering with low -reputation companies whose
structural bugs cause customers to quit their
essential subscriptions. So let's say you found
the perfect platform. Getting that official partner
spot. It's not as simple as just emailing the
CEO. There's a specific four -step playbook.
Yeah, you can't just ask. Step one is you have
to become a power user. I mean, you have to master
the tool, read all the docs, build some cool
personal projects. Genuine expertise comes first.
Okay, so you know the tool inside and out. Step
two. Help for free in the community. Go into
their Slack or Discord and just be the most helpful
person there. Answer questions. The staff will
notice you. The partner manager will definitely
notice you. Because you're making their job easier.
Exactly. Then step three is you have to create
case studies. Find two or three small businesses,
offer them a huge discount, and get video testimonials
in return. You need that social proof. And once
you have all that, then you do the outreach.
The win -win outreach. Yes. And your message
isn't about you. It's about them. You say, hey,
I've already helped five of your users succeed.
They're now 100 % more likely to keep paying
their subscription. You're a retention tool for
them, not a vendor asking for a handout. OK,
so the leads start coming in. Now you have to
scale. This is where you move from being a freelancer
to an actual business owner. And that means systems,
specifically SOPs. Standard operating procedures.
You need to document how you build your product
I service in something like Notion. So you can
hand it off to someone else. Right. And you train
them using screen recordings like Loom. A five
-minute video is so much better than a long email.
You show. You don't just tell. And for hiring,
the advice is to use project -based contractors,
not full -time employees. Yeah. Find people who
are amazing builders but are terrible at sales.
You handle the lead flow, they handle the build.
It's a perfect match that protects your high
margins. And that all leads to the end game,
which is moving from being a service agency to
a sauce model. This is the real wealth building
part. Once you realize you've built the same
chat bot for five different dentists, you stop
selling it as a custom service. You turn it into
a reusable template. A template or a lightweight
app. Instead of a $5 ,000 one -time fee, you
charge $200 a month for access to your plug and
play solution. That's a fundamental shift. So
if the goal is long -term wealth, how important
is that move from service to software compared
to just maximizing the agency's profit month
to month? The ultimate financial security and
the potential for a multi -million dollar exit
comes from building sellable equity, not just
maximizing today's operational cash flow. So
as we wrap up this deep dive, the core insight
seems to be that this partner -led model works
because it shifts the enormous cost and effort
of building trust. It takes it off your shoulders
and puts it onto the big established software
platform that customers already know and respect.
You're selling your brain, your efficiency, your
cost of goods is almost zero. It lets you build
a business by being the most helpful expert in
the room, not by being the loudest salesman.
It's real money, but it requires that real focused
work in the first, say, 90 days. It's the definition
of working smarter. So the action plan is pretty
clear. Pick one tool, join its community. build
a demo, get a testimonial, and then send that
win -win message to the partner manager. And
here's the final thought we want to leave you
with. Maybe the ultimate leverage in the AI world
right now isn't trying to build the next brand
new complex product from scratch. What is it
then? It's mastering a single specific growing
tool so incredibly well that the multi -million
dollar company that created it actually starts
to depend on you for their own customer retention.
That partnership, that dependency. That's what
the real power is. Until next time, keep diving
deep.