Offers
How I Grew Trustify To $500,000 Per Month
Trustify ran on a no brainer offer: you do not pay a cent until a bad review is removed. That made marketing and sales calls easy. Clients then referred 10 friends a week, and an affiliate network tripled revenue on top.
I started Trustify in college and grew it to $500,000 per month. There was no clever growth hack in it. There was one offer and one decision about where the next customer comes from.
What was the offer?
You do not pay a cent until a bad review is removed.
That is the whole thing. No retainer, no setup fee, no invoice until the customer has the outcome in hand. Point that at a large total addressable market, which online review removal has, and you have something that sells itself into a lot of rooms.
Why does the offer matter more than the marketing?
When your offer is that good, your marketing becomes easier and so do your sales calls. Every objection a rep normally spends the call fighting is already answered before the call starts.
- Risk
- There is none on their side. They pay after the result.
- Proof
- The offer is the proof. Nobody guarantees an outcome they cannot deliver twice.
- Price objection
- Hard to argue about price when nothing is owed until it works.
Most companies try to fix a weak offer with better copy. It does not work. Fix the offer and the copy stops mattering as much.
Where did the growth actually come from?
Referrals first. Clients were sending us around 10 friends a week, because a result they did not pay for until it landed is an easy thing to tell someone about.
Then we built an affiliate network on top of that, and it tripled revenue. Bringing on people to sell for you will always be more valuable than focusing on bringing in your next lead.
Why do partnerships beat one to one selling?
Because the maths is not close.
| One client | One partner | |
|---|---|---|
| Buys from you | Once | Sends deals repeatedly |
| Typical outcome | One deal | Around 20 deals |
| Work to close | A sales cycle | A sales cycle |
| Pays out after the call | No | Yes |
One partner could bring you 20 deals while one client can only work with you once. The effort to close each of them is roughly the same. Almost every company spends its whole week on the left column.
What would I tell someone starting now?
Spend the time on the offer before you spend a dollar on traffic, and then spend your selling time on people who can sell for you rather than people who can buy from you once. Those two decisions did more for Trustify than everything else combined.
Questions about Trustify and the offer behind it
What was the Trustify offer?
You do not pay a cent until a bad review is removed. There is no risk on the buyer's side, which removes the objection that kills most sales calls before they start. The offer only works against a large total addressable market, which review removal has.
What grew Trustify fastest?
Partnerships. Clients were referring roughly 10 friends a week off the back of the offer, and building an affiliate network on top of that tripled revenue. Bringing on people who sell for you beats chasing your next individual lead.
Why do partnerships beat selling one to one?
One client can only buy from you once. One partner can bring 20 deals. The work of closing a partner and the work of closing a client are similar, and only one of them keeps paying out after the call ends.