$100M Leads Book Summary

$100M Leads: How to Get Strangers to Want to Buy Your Stuff by Alex Hormozi tells how to get "more, better, cheaper, reliable, engaged leads" via warm outreach, posting content, cold outreach, and paid ads. Hormozi also explains how to get others to market for you via referrals, affiliates, and partnerships. The book is packed with actionable advice, step-by-step instructions, lessons learned in the trenches, and examples.

Hormozi has made tens of millions via lead gen, primarily via paid ads. When he wrote this, his portfolio of companies earned $16 million per month.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Below are my notes from the book.

Note: This page contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please see Affiliate Disclosure.

Part 2: Engage Your Leads

Your product/service is your core offer. Try to advertise it 1st. If you don't get enough leads, advertise a lead magnet instead (complete solution to narrow problem; lower-cost or free offer related to core offer). Lead magnet is often needed for high-cost products/services.

Lead magnet should be valuable enough on its own that people would pay for it. After they get it, they should want more of what you offer.

Create effective lead magnet

Figure out problem to solve and who to solve it for
Figure out how to solve it
Figure out how to deliver it
Test name
Make it easy to consume
Make it very good
Make it easy for them to tell you they want more

Problem to solve should be narrow and meaningful, and lead to core offer.

Types of lead magnets

Make audience aware of problem
Solve recurring problem for short time with sample/trial of core offer
Give 1 step in multi-step process that solves bigger problem

Try to include all 3 of above in each lead magnet.

Ensure lead magnet is valuable so lead comes back for more.

Lead magnet delivery mechanisms

Software/tool (e.g., spreadsheet, calculator, small app, dashboard)
Info (e.g., courses, interviews, lessons, presentations, live events, tips)
Services (do work for free, e.g., audit)
Physical products

Test lead magnet's headline, images, subheadline.

Offer lead magnet in as many formats as possible (image, video, text, audio, etc.).

Call-to-action (CTA) elements

What to do (be clear, simple, direct)
Reasons to do it now (use scarcity, urgency)

Part 3: Warm Outreach

Core Four

1 to 1 to warm audience: warm outreach
1 to many to warm audience: posting content
1 to 1 to cold audience: cold outreach
1 to many to cold audience: paid ads

What to say when lead responds (ACA Framework)

Acknowledge what they said. Restate in your own words.
Complement them on what they said. Try to tie to positive trait.
Ask another question to lead conversation closer to your core offer.

Value elements

Dream outcome (what person wants to happen, the way they want it to happen). State best results person can expect. Bonus if those are from people like person you're talking to.
Perceived likelihood of achievement. Include 3rd-party validation (reviews, results, awards, endorsements, certifications). Guarantees are good.
Time delay (how long to get results). Tell when they should start getting results, how often they get results, how long to get best results.
Effort and sacrifice. Describe good stuff they can keep doing, or get to do, and still get results. Describe bad stuff they can eliminate or avoid and still get results.
Ideal: Show person you have exactly what they want, they're guaranteed to get it fast, without lifting a finger or giving up anything they love.
Say, "I help [ideal customer] get [dream outcome] in [time period] without [effort and sacrifice] and [increase perceived likelihood of achievement]."

Increase perceived likelihood of achievement

Show proof you've done what they want
Show proof of people just like them getting what they want
Volume of happy reviews
Certifications, degrees, accreditations
Stats, research
Expert endorsements
New, unique characteristic
Celebrity endorsements
Guarantee achievement
Accurately, specifically describe them or pain they're experiencing
Demonstrate outcome live, or show report of it happening

Making something free is easiest way to make offer easy to accept.

When you launch new product/service, offer 1st 5 for free to learn, get testimonials, and encourage referrals.

If people don't want your offer for free, it's because they don't want it (dream outcome), don't believe you (perceived likelihood of achievement), or hidden cost (time delay, effort and sacrifice) is too high. When someone says no, ask, "What would I have to do to make it worth it?" Use feedback to improve offer.

Once people who accepted free offer start referring, start charging. Do 80% off for next 5 people, 40% for next 5 people, etc. Keep raising price 20% until you find sweet spot.

You can offer guarantee only to people who pay up front. After person agrees to buy, say, "Would you rather pay less today or get all your money back?" Pay less today = payment plan. Get all your money back = pay up front and get money-back guarantee. Most people choose latter.

To get inactive leads to engage, send, "Are you still looking to [4-word desire]?"

Make 100 outreach attempts/day. Follow up 2-3 times.

~20% of warm outreach contacts should engage. Of those, ~20% will accept free offer. Of those, ~20-25% will convert to paid customer.

Part 4: Post Free Content

Content goals

Hook attention (get them to notice it)
Retain attention (get them to consume it)
Reward attention (satisfy reason they consumed it)

Topics (base on personal experience)

Far past. Connect important past lessons to product/service.
Recent past. Tell what you did or what happened. Include testimonials, case studies.
Present. Note ideas as they occur.
Trending. Comment on trending topics, based on your experience or expertise.
Manufactured. Learn about, make, or do something related to a topic people are interested in. Share results.

Headline components that drive interest

Recency
Relevancy
Celebrity
Proximity
Conflict (of opposing ideas, people, nature, etc.)
Unusual
Ongoing (developing story)

To retain attention, build curiosity. This can be done by planting unresolved questions in their minds, via lists, steps, stories (with takeaways).

3.5:1 to 4:1 is minimum give-to-ask ratio for monetizing audience without shrinking it. To grow audience, give far more than you ask. Consider giving until they ask.

Weave promotions into content

Integrated offers. Promote in each piece of content. Keep give-to-ask ratio high. Include CTAs after valuable moments or at end. "P.S." is one of most read sections. Best for long platforms.
Intermittent offers. Publish many give posts before ask post. Best for short platforms.

Hormozi tells more about offers in book $100M Offers.

Create "how I," not "how to," content.

Use posting content in addition to, not instead of, warm outreach.

Spend 100 mins/day creating and posting content.

Part 5: Cold Outreach

Where to get lead lists

Use software to scrape lists (search "outbound lead scraping tool" or "database lead scraping")
Pay brokers to assemble lists
Manually scrape members of groups

Personalize outreach

Find 1-3 pieces of info about prospect.
Compliment them on something in info you found.
If possible, tell how that something benefited you.

Offer product/service, lead magnet, or both.

People's circumstances change, so contact prospects who didn't convert again in 3 to 6 months.

Rule of 100: contact at least 100 prospects/day for at least 100 days.

Free cold outreach scripts

Part 6: Run Paid Ads

Start by placing ads where competitors do.

How to target

Target lookalike audience. Provide list for platform to find similar people. Start with current and past customers. If you need more, add warm outreach contacts, then cold outreach contacts.
Target by factors (age, income, gender, interest, time, location, etc.).

Ad elements

Callout
Value
CTA

Callouts

Labels. Label people in way they'll identify with (traits, titles, locations, etc.). With local ads, use as specific location as possible.
"Yes" questions. Ask questions that they'll answer with, "Yes, that's me!"
If/then statements. If they meet conditions, then you help them make decision.
Ridiculous results. Bizarre, rare, extraordinary things they'd want.
Non-verbals (sounds or visuals). Use contrast, likeness, scene to get attention.
Use verbal and non-verbals callouts together.

Make benefits look as big as possible, costs as small as possible.

What-Who-When Framework

What: how your product/service fulfills each value element and avoid hidden costs
Who: perspectives of people who'd experience them
When: time period in which they'd experience them

What

8 key things (4 value elements & their opposites)
Dream outcome vs. nightmare (show & tell worst hassles, pains, etc. of not buying)
Perceived likelihood of achievement vs. risk (show & tell how they'll repeat failures, problems will get bigger and worse if they don't buy)
Time delay (show & tell how long their current rate will take, or that they'll never achieve if they don't buy) vs. speed (show & tell how much faster they'll get what they want)
Effort and sacrifice (show & tell amount of work and skill needed, and sacrifices they'll make, if they don't buy) vs. ease (show & tell how to achieve without work or skill)

Who

Show how 8 key things of your product/service will improve their status, from their perspective and perspective of those giving them status (family, friends, co-workers, etc.).
Talk about each value element from both perspectives (prospect and people prospect cares about).

When

Explain what their decisions led to in past and could lead to in future.
Help them see consequences of decision or indecision right now.

Combine What, Who, When to give them Why.

In CTA, tell them exactly what to do next. Make quick and easy.

Get prospect's contact info. Hormozi's favorite way is with landing page.

Landing page layouts

Headline, subheadline, opt-in
Headline, subheadline, image, opt-in
Headline, subheadline, image, opt-in, bullets of more benefits

Remind prospect of CTA and how taking next action (giving contact info) aligns with it.

3 phases of scaling paid ads

Track money. Set up tracking.
Lose money. Invest in experimenting with ads. Start by spending 2x amount you collect from new customer in 1st 30 days. If you get 0 leads, stop after spending 1x.
"Print" money. Once you're making back more than you spend on ads, spend as much as you can, based on how many customers you can handle.

If lifetime gross profits (LTGP) > customer acquisition cost (CAC), ads are profitable. Aim to get LTGP to CAC ratio > 3:1.

If your CAC is < 3x your industry average, focus on improving biz model. If your CAC is > 3x your industry average, focus on improving ads.

If a free content piece makes sales or performs well, it'll likely make a great paid ad. This also applies to customer testimonials and reviews.

Part 7: Core Four on Steroids

More, Better, New (for more leads)

More: advertise more
Better: advertise better
New: use new placements or content styles, new platforms, or new Core Four activity

Test 1 thing per week per platform.

Testing ads

Every Mon, run 1 split test per platform.
On following Mon, pick winner for each platform, record results, create next test to beat current best.
If you can't beat in 4 tries or 1 mo, move on to next constraint.

After warm outreach, if you more time than money, shift to posting content. If you have more money than time, shift to cold outreach or paid ads.

Part 8: Customer Referrals

Get others to market for you

Customers
Employees
Lead gen agencies
Affiliates

Get more people better results

Survey customers to find those who get best results.
Interview them to find out what they did differently.
Find actions they had in common.
Force new customers to repeat actions that got best customers best results.
Measure improvement in avg customer results.
Match conditions of guarantee to actions that get best results.

Ways to ask for referrals

1-sided referral benefit. Pay avg CAC to referrer or referee. Make them aware of incentive.
2-sided referral benefits. Pay half of CAC to referrer as cash & half to referee as credit.
Ask for referrals as soon as customer buys. Show how they'll get better results with others.
Ask prospects for referrals in exchange for discount. If existing customer asks for discount, say they can get one by referring.
Run referral event offering points, credits, dollars, bragging rights for referrals within time period. Show how they'll get better results with others.
Run ongoing referral program. Frequently show how they'll get better results with others.
Unlockable referral bonuses (e.g., courses, tokens, status, training, merch, service levels, premium support, additional hrs of service). Offer for referrals and testimonials. Bonus can be for referrer or referrer and referee.

Don't ask customers if they know someone they could refer to; ask who they know.

Part 9: Employees and Agencies

Get employees in same way as customers

Warm outreach = ask network
Cold outreach = recruiting
Posting content = posting job openings
Paid ads = promoted/paid job postings
Customer referrals = employee referrals
Affiliates = associations, guilds, etc.
Agencies = staffing firms
Employees = employees

Tell agency up front you want them to train you for 6 mos. Say you'll pay extra for them to tell why they make decisions they do and steps to make them. Say once you learn, you'll train your team. Once team is doing well, you want to change agency to lower-cost consulting. If they don't agree, find agency that will.

Hire 1 good enough agency to learn how to use a new platform, then a more elite agency to learn how to maximize it.

Once your team's results beat agency's, switch agency to consulting rather than execution.

How to choose agency

Someone you know got good results with them.
Prominent companies got good results with them.
They have waiting list.
They have clear sales process that sets realistic expectations.
They don't use short-term hacks. They focus on long-term strategy. They give clear timeline for setup, scaling, results.
They tell exactly what they need from you, when, and how they'll use it.
They suggest regularly scheduled meetings and several options for progress updates.
Progress updates are in simple terms. There's clear tracking of costs and results.
They make good offer. What is promise you want? How many other people like you have they gotten there? How long will it take? What will they require from you? What will you have to give up? Can you stick with it for long time?
They're expensive.

1st time, it took Hormozi 1 yr to get team better than agency. Next time 10 mos, then 8. Now 6 or less.

Part 10: Affiliates and Partners

Questions to ask about your best customers to find affiliates

What do they buy?
Who provides that?
Where do they go?
What businesses are in those surrounding areas?
What do they like to do?
Who provides those services?
What types of businesses do they work for? (if you're DTC, employees of consumers could be good affiliates)
What kinds of jobs do they have? (if you're DTC)

Callout

Label of affiliate type (e.g., "Attention spa owners")
Affiliate's customers (e.g., "Do you work with busy professionals who spend all day in meetings?")
Results affiliate promises (e.g., "To the heroes who heal the stress of others")
Products/services affiliate sells (e.g., "If you sell lotions, this is for you")

Show value by saying something like, "Make more money from your current customers and get more leads than your current offer (dream outcome) with a high chance of working since your customers already want the product (perceived likelihood achievement) without needing to build, deliver, or provide customer support for the product (effort & sacrifice), so you can start selling tomorrow (time delay)."

2 ways to get affiliates invested

Make them customer. Make them buy and preferably use your product. Consider requiring bulk purchase.
Make them expert. Make them pay for onboarding and training to get certified, or offer credit for it with purchase of products. Charge 10-20% of what avg affiliate makes in 1st yr.

Hormozi pays affiliates for new customers and repeat customers. If you track well, you could pay for pre-sale steps (e.g., lead magnets downloaded, appointments set).

Pay affiliates based on max allowable CAC (based on LTGP to CAC ratio).

Sample payment tiers (based on $40 max allowable CAC)

25% of CAC = $10 payout for anyone who agrees to terms
50% of CAC = $20 payout once they activate as affiliate
100% of CAC = $40 payout once they sustain level of performance

Reward affiliates with your products for free because they cost you less than retail. 

Launches (for affiliates or anything)

Whisper (callout). Start months or years before launch. Build curiosity. Keep product mysterious. Hint at how big a deal it is. Give behind-the-scenes views of making it.
Tease (value). Start 1 mo before launch. Reveal product and launch date. Show elements of value. Use What-Who-When Framework.
Shout (CTA). Start 3 days before launch. Tell audience what to do. Use bonuses, scarcity, urgency, guarantees for being among 1st buyers.

Give affiliates everything they need to promote launches.

Keep affiliates marketing

They give away your lead magnet with each of their products. Consider white-labeling lead magnet. You sell your core offer and every offer after.
They sell their core offer, then upsell your lead magnet, then you upsell your core offer and every offer after.
They sell their core offer, which is same as your core offer. You upsell and split money with affiliate (up front payment, payments for certain period, or ongoing; Hormozi recommends latter).
They sell your core offer.

Turn companies into affiliates by offering product/service to their employees. This is especially useful if you're DTC.

Compare cost of getting affiliate to gross profit of all customers they send to you.

Part 11: Advertising in Real Life and The Roadmap

1-page advertising checklist

Pick type of engaged leads to get (customers, affiliates, employees, agencies).
Pick daily advertising approach (Rule of 100 or work until you hit goal).
Fill out advertising checklist for that approach.
Do this until you have enough to pay someone else to do.
Return to step 1, with employees as lead type. Repeat until you have all employees you need.

You can buy $100M Leads: How to Get Strangers to Want to Buy Your Stuff by Alex Hormozi as an ebook, book, or audiobook on Amazon.

Need Help Getting Leads?

This book includes a lot of info about getting leads via content, ads, and other methods. If you don't have the time, experience, or desire to get as many leads as you want, contact us to talk about how we can use content, SEO, AI search optimization, and/or paid ads to get you leads.