Hello, Life of Scoop. Per usual, it’s been a while. I’m back again today to share my top advertising sales tactic. It’s based on an idea that’s pretty popular in entrepreneurial circles of the Internet:

The best way to make money is to make a lot for someone else then take a little bit of that.

That, my friends, is Advertising Sales 101. Now let’s see how it’s done.

P.S. I have a favor to ask you at the end of today’s lesson. It won’t cost you anything but time and it’d mean the world to me if you came through.

It’s Renewal Season at Naptown Scoop

Before we open 2025 and 2026 inventory to new clients, we offer everything to our current partners. This is good for 2 reasons:

1. Current partners feel special

2. Current partners are easier to sell

We’re increasing prices a lot this year. Double-digit percentages. No clients have canceled. But that’s not just luck. It’s math. This formula drives everything we do.

Average CLV * Customers from Naptown Scoop > How much Naptown Scoop charges

Let’s break that down.

CLV = Customer Lifetime Value. AKA how much money each customer earns a business from the day they become a customer to the day they stop being one.

Customers from Naptown Scoop = how many customers we create for that client every year.

How much Naptown Scoop charges = our ad prices

Put into English, the formula says the Average Customer Lifetime Value times the number of customers we create is greater than the cost of our ads.

Put into even simpler English. . .

Naptown Scoop makes our clients more than they pay us.

That’s it. Now let me explain how I use it for renewals and new sales.

How I use this for Renewals

Let’s go back to Shiny Scissors Salon. Shiny Scissors doesn’t exist but it represents one of my clients. These numbers are real. I can’t share what type of business it is, though.

In 2024, Shiny Scissors Salon is contracted to spend $9,500 with Naptown Scoop. In 2025, I want Shiny Scissors to spend $14,000 – a 47% increase. Impossible, right?

Nope. Watch this.

I ask Shiny Scissors what her average Customer Lifetime Value is. She’s a savvy salon owner, so she knows it off the top of her head. Her average customer spends $1,500 per year and patronizes Shiny Scissors for 10 years giving her a CLV of $15,000.

Next, I ask Shiny Scissors how many new customers she got from Scoop in 2024. Again, she’s a savvy salon owner so she tracks her marketing and answers right away: 45. This moment is when I do the Magical Multiplication.

45 * $15,000 = $675,000

So Shiny Scissors gave Naptown Scoop $9,500 and got $675,000 in return. Put another way, for every dollar they gave us, we gave them $71 back.

If I offered you $71 for every $1 you gave me, would you take the deal?

Of course you would. Then you’d scrounge up every dollar you could find and shove it in my hand.

If I offered you the same deal, but instead of $71, I’d only give you $48?

That’s what I thought. You say yes because you’re still making LOTS of money. So when I proposed Shiny Scissors spend $14,000 with me in 2025, they said yes too.

Alex Hormozi wrote an entire book about making offers so good that people feel silly saying no. This is one of those offers.

Now what about new business?

How I use the Formula for New Business

Now I hear your question. . .

Ok great. What if I don’t have any clients yet. I don’t know how many customers I got them last year. Don’t worry. It still works – just a little differently.

When I sell a new client using this formula, I take them through the same math. But instead of showing them how much money I made for them last year, I ask them to make a bet on Naptown Scoop.

Let’s say I’m selling ads to a real estate agent. He wants to be Naptown Scoop’s only real estate agent advertiser. He’s going to have to pay dearly for that. Lots of realtors want to advertise with us.

Unlike before, all of these numbers are fake and for illustration only.

I ask Mr. Real Estate Agent how much he makes on his average sale. His average listing is $1 million. Maryland’s average real estate commission is 5%. But Mr. Real Estate Agent works for a brokerage and has to split commission 50/50 with his boss. So let’s see the math.

Average listing = $1,000,000

Commission = $50,000

Mr. Real Estate Agent’s take = $25,000

Every time Mr. Real Estate Agent sells a house, he makes $25,000. It just so happens that the exclusive advertising package Mr. Real Estate Agent wants to do with Naptown Scoop costs $25,000 a year.

So I ask Mr. Real Estate Agent, “Do you think if you are the only real estate agent advertising with Naptown Scoop and we’re running 1 ad per week for you, we can get you 1 new listing?”

He says, “Of course! That sounds easy!”

To which I respond, “So to make your money back all you have to do is sell 1 house. Anything more than that and you’re in the green. If you sell 5 houses you’ll net $100,000.”

And now that he’s seen the math, Mr. Real Estate Agent signs the contract. Every single time.

This ain’t Anchorman where it only works 60% of the time. As long as the equation is true, it works 100% of the time.

And now, a quick favor. . .

Will you fill out this quick survey? I want to help more people start local newsletters so I’m asking everyone I know who’s interested what their biggest questions are. It takes 3 minutes. Here’s a link.

Life of Scoop’s referral program

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• Get 2 folks to join and I’ll send you a PDF of all the tools I use to run my local newsletter.

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• Get 100 and I’ll give you a free hour of local newsletter consulting ($350 value).

• And if you somehow get 1,000 I will fly you out to my newsletter’s annual party, put you up in a hotel, and make you the guest of honor.

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