How to Close Alex Hormozi and Get 10 Clients with a New Consulting Offer in 90 Days: Consulting Sales Funnel Case Study

Case Study Highlights

Inside this case study you will learn how Adrian and Michael, cofounders of a YouTube growth agency (Dragonfruit Media) closed Alex Hormozi as a 5-figure monthly retainer client and got 10 new consulting clients worth $97,500 from cold traffic.

Adrian and Michael were clients who joined our Studio’s Accelerator and this case study shares the results they achieved during roughly a 90 day period.

Unlike most case studies, I’m holding nothing back and sharing every single strategy, process and resource that we implemented over this 90 day period in order to achieve these results. No fluff, no filler, no hype, no theory, just proven and tested results.

To make everything as idiot proof as humanly possible and maximize your chances of recreating this success for yourself, I’m including all of these resources inside a simple, step by step checklist complete with copy and paste AI prompts to complete the process for you.

The Clients: Adrian & Michael of Dragonfruit Media 

A few years ago, Mchael Lim (ex-Bain & Co.) and Adrian Lurie (ex-Peace Corps) quit their “safe” 9 to 5 jobs to pursue their dreams of entrepreneurship and live life on their own terms, full time. Hell ya, amigos.

They combined their expertise and passions for education and video to join forces and co-found Dragonfruit Media, an agency specializing in helping educators grow their audiences and brand on YouTube. Thanks to their elite backgrounds, expertise and client list (Mr. Beast, Ali Abdaal, Chris Williamson, YCombinator, Clickup, Gold House, Ali Abdaal, Ryan Deiss, David Perell, Linktree and more), plus referrals from happy clients, demand for their services took off.

This allowed them to quickly grow their agency quickly and build a large, global team. However, despite what you may hear on your social feeds from the gurus and hypebeasts, more money and more hiring did not magically solve all their problems.

In fact, their fast growth created a whole new set of problems and a world of pain (affectionately known as the services rat race) that the first time agency cofounders weren’t prepared for.

The Problem

In order to keep up with the demand of new clients, Dragonfruit Media quickly assembled and built a full stack production team of remote contractors all over the world. While impressive, this quickly increased the complexity of their business and required more of Adrian and Michael’s time, instead of freeing it up.

They were forced to hire before they had systems in place for properly vetting, recruiting, onboarding and training new talent. This led to wasted time, wasted money and more than a few less than stellar hires who eventually had to be let go.

So while their topline revenue was steadily growing, so was churn, payroll and the overall complexity of their business. This meant they had to constantly be on the hunt for new clients to replace the ones that churned.  And since their service was extremely high touch and custom, this meant that their sales cycles were long and revenue was inconsistent. 

According to Michael, this was Dragonfruit’s number one challenge that inspired him to reach out for help:

“Sales have been super slow (we make extremely customized pitches) - we’re currently targeting an extremely narrow segment of potential clients.”  

All of these issues are classic symptoms of the services rat race when you and your team are stuck on the hamster wheel of trading time for money.

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Why Dragonfruit Media Chose Us 

Let’s back up a few years to share some context about how Michael and I originally connected. 

Back in 2020 in peak COVID era when Michael was still working at Bain & Co, he reached out to me after I submitted a request to hire writers through a group Michael was involved with at the time.

He resonated with Different Hunger’s mission and philosophy, joined our community and we quickly became internet amigos.

As we got to know each other, it became clear that Michael and I shared a lot of the same values. Unlike me, he was insanely smart and talented when it came to both storytelling and video production. On more than one occasion, I suggested a few times that he should start his own firm leveraging his skillsets. 

After a couple years, he finally made the jump and I was stoked to see him go all in on starting his business. A year or so later after him and Adrian saw traction quickly, he reached out about getting my help to help Dragonfruit grow in a simpler, more sustainable way.

I had a conversation or two with Michael and Adrian where I answered their questions, walked them through our process and showed them some success stories. 

Shortly after, they decided to pull the trigger. Here’s why Michael said he ultimately chose Different Hunger and joined our Accelerator program:

I agree with your model of structured and standardized processes that can elevate an authentic brand vision (scales seamlessly) … Matt is the HOMIE!

The Solution: The Accelerator

After speaking with Adrian and Michael in more detail about their situation, I knew they would be a perfect fit for the program for the following two reasons:

1. They were world class experts with a proven offer and track record: this makes ‘scaling’ easy.

2. They aligned with our brand’s mission, philosophy & values: this makes ‘collaborating’ easy.

Our Accelerator program was created to help world class founders and teams escape the rat race of trading time for money so they can achieve both predictable growth and time freedom.

Unlike our man Hormozi, who you’ll be hearing about later in this case study, we’re not into 14 hour workdays around here! 

We’re all about time freedom which is why all our products and services, including the Accelerator, have been carefully crafted to deliver on that desired outcome. 

This philosophy is why Dragonfruit joined forces with us. Now let’s get into the nuts and bolts of how we deliver on this promise.

The Process 

Since 2017, we’ve helped hundreds of founders and teams like Dragonfruit through our different programs and services. 

While these solutions have evolved, expanded and gone by many different names over time, our core, high level process has remained the same since day one:

First, we focus on why? This is the foundation. For Adrian and Michael at Dragonfruit, we first needed to define their vision, not just for their business, but for their personal lives. 

Second, we focus on what? This is the blueprint. We needed to design and develop the core components of their infrastructure in order to grow - their targeting, offering and systems like lead generation and sales.

Third, we focus on how? This is when we begin to take action and execute. We needed to assemble the resources (time, money, technology, etc.) to bring the blueprint to life and achieve their vision.

Now let’s get more granular about each step of the process.

Step 0: Client Intake

While our accelerator program is highly productized, this does not mean that it is not customized. Every business is different and it’s essential that we take this into consideration for each new client that we partner with.

This is why the first step of onboarding and working together always starts with the client intake. This step is absolutely invaluable for gathering data that maximizes success for both our clients as well as our own brand.

At Different Hunger Creative, we use a Google Form that allows new clients and partners to share everything that we need in order to get a holistic view of their situation. These are the questions we use: Intake Form Questions

From Dragonfruit’s intake form, we established their current and target metrics (they were generating < 25 leads per month and < 10 appointments per month from cold email and wanted to add an extra $15K per month in sales from their new consulting offer) as well as identify their strengths (proven offer, case studies, client list, etc.) and weaknesses (targeting, financials, etc.).

Once we had this data, we performed a comprehensive assessment in order to prepare for step one - productizing the offer. 

Step 1: Productize the Offer   

The offer is always the first strategic component that we work on because it is the backbone of all marketing, sales and fulfillment. 

Even if all your content, marketing, sales process and everything goes wrong but you have a great offer, you can still win. The same cannot be said for anything else. That’s how important the offer is.

That said, you will never have a great offer without having a great understanding of who you serve. This is why creating the offer is the final step of productizing and deep market research is the first step.

Because Dragonfruit already had data from past clients, we started with analysis and research of their past clients, starting with the client audit.

Do you already have feedback from previous clients? If so, use this process to skip a few steps and create messaging that converts like crazy with AI-assisted targeting personas: How to Optimize Conversion Rates with AI-Assisted Customer Feedback Analysis

Client Audit

Since Dragonfruit already had served dozens of different clients, we had them conduct a client audit.

This exercise is invaluable because it will show you which of your previous clients were the most successful, profitable and enjoyable to work with. 

This data provides clarity so that you can complete the next step - defining your niche.

Here’s a template to perform your own client audit: The Client Audit Exercise

Niche Definition

After we performed a client audit, we had a much clearer idea of several promising niches but there was still work to be done.

Picking a niche is usually the number one sticking point for companies, so to assist Dragonfruit in this process we had one final worksheet to help them select the most promising niche. 

This worksheet asked the following:

1. What industries have a painful problem, can invest, are easy to target, and are growing?

2. What industries do you have experience in, are interested in, or feel are underserved?

3. What skills/services do you have or are willing to acquire?

4. What is this market segment's biggest challenge?

5. What is this market segment's dream outcome?

6. How can you help [industry] solve [problem] and achieve [outcome] using [capability]?

7. Do you have the skills to solve this problem? If not, who or what can help you solve it?

Here’s the worksheet we used to define Dragonfruit’s niche: Market of One/Blue Ocean Niche Definition Worksheet

After completing the worksheet and answering the questions above we were able to define Dragonfruit’s niche: Experts already selling $1,000+ info products who want to grow their audience.

Once we had selected the niche, it was time to create their targeting blueprint.

Client Targeting Blueprint

Once Dragonfruit selected their niche, we had to develop their targeting blueprint (commonly referred to as customer avatar, client persona, target market, etc.) so that we were able to craft an offer that truly resonated with the target market.

A lot of people overcomplicate this step. When it comes to targeting, there’s only two questions that matter that you must answer in as much detail as possible:

1. What is their biggest problem?

2. What is their dream outcome?

That’s it. Seeing a pattern here? The rest, literally, are just details. 

After you answer the above two questions, the details you want to define are the following as these will help you with the lead generation stage:

1. Metrics: How do they define success and failure?

2. Job Title: What do they call themselves on LinkedIn? Ie. CEO, Founder, Partner, etc.

3. Age: How old are they?

4. Location: Where do they live?

5. Income: How much money do they (or their company) make?

6. Seniority: What is their level of seniority? Executive, Director, Manager, etc.

7. Company Size: How many employees do they have?

Here was Dragonfruit’s targeting blueprint (get the targeting template plus more examples here): 

After we defined their targeting, it was time to create their new productized offer.

Productized Offer Creation 

Now for the fun part. Once you have crystal clarity on who you are targeting, their biggest problems and desires are, then you’re ready for the last part: productizing your offering.

Since Dragonfruit was struggling with operational capacity, they needed a simple offer that could be sold quickly (within 1-2 calls) without proposals and was easy to fulfill on.

Here was the framework we used to craft their offer (get the template plus more examples):

To productize the offer, we asked and answered the following questions:

1. Who is the target market? (Defined in previous steps)

2. What is their problem that you are solving? (Defined in previous steps)

3. What is their dream outcome that you are delivering? (Defined in previous steps)

4. What is the process that must be implemented in order to achieve this transformation?

5. What are the milestones that must be achieved to measure progress towards this transformation and when are these milestones expected to be completed?

6. What format and features are part of this offer?

7. What is the financial investment for this offer?  Ie. $5,000 one-time or $2,000/month for 3 months.

8. What is the effort investment for this offer? Ie. 2 hours per week for 6 weeks

9. What are the guarantees for this offer? Example here.

10. What are the capacity constraints for this offer? Ie. 1 DFY client per month or 1 coaching client per week.

11. Why should prospects sign up TODAY? Ie. price increases every 1-2 months.

12. What is the name of your offer?

In addition to this, you it’s essential that you map out what fulfillment of your offer looks like on the backend, but this is a topic for another case study.

The Early Adopter Presale 

Since Dragonfruit was launching a brand new offer, we implemented one of our signature strategies to help them get sales faster - the Early Adopter Presale.

This is the same strategy I used back in 2017 to launch and sell out my accelerator consulting program (the 6 Figure Agency Accelerator) which generated $36,000 (10 sales at $3K with some payment plans) in presales before the program was finished. 

This launch ended up being one of Thinkific’s most successful launches on their platform of 20,000+ creators and it’s been a signature strategy that we always implement for new offers.

You can watch the interview I did with Thinkific and the article they wrote about the launch here.

So what exactly is an early adopter presale? 

The idea is that when launching a new offer, you offer a limited time promotional terms to a limited number of early adopters. Early adopters are excited because they get to be a part of something new and also get a great deal that won’t exist later on.

This way, you are able to validate your offer before it’s 100% ready which eliminates the risk of spending time and money building a product or service that nobody wants.

Here are the terms that you want to define in order to launch an early adopter presale that converts:

Bonuses: Include extremely valuable bonuses in your offer that nobody except early adopters will get.

Discount: Offer a significant discount (ie. 25 - 75% off).

Capacity: Limit the number of early adopter spots (ie. 3 clients or one cohort of 5-10)

Deadline: Specify a deadline - either after # spots are filled or a specific date - when the presale ends.

Doing an early adopter presale creates exclusivity and dramatically increases conversions because you are genuinely providing an amazing deal. 

For Dragonfruit Media, we offered a significant discount (a few thousand dollars off) to early adopters in exchange for signing up. Next time you are launching a new offer, make sure to run an early adopter presale!

Step 2: Launch Lead Generation 

Once we had productized the offer, it was time to take it to market and launch the next and arguably, most exciting phase of all: lead generation.

For Dragonfruit, we implemented highly personalized outbound lead generation which we call the Dream 100 Outbound Method.

Let’s dive into the strategy, copy and resources we used to close Alex Hormozi himself plus 10 new consulting clients. 

How Dragonfruit Media Closed Alex Hormozi (The Dream 100 Outbound Method) 

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for… how the heck did Adrian and Michael close the goat of business himself, Alex Hormozi? 

Now as a marketer, I’m supposed to take all the credit for this, but the truth is, it wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for Adrian and Michael’s world class skills. 

That said, here’s how it happened:

1. Adrian and Michael brainstormed their dream clients, one of them was Alex Hormozi

2. They analyzed Alex’s videos on his YouTube channel to identify improvement opportunities

3. They compiled their research into a video explaining exactly how to improve his videos

4. They sent the a short email with the video to Alex and a few days later he responded

5. They setup two calls (one with team then one with Alex/Leila) and implemented the sales process we developed (covered in the next section)

6. They created a proposal (since this was for their DFY service not consulting) to manage Alex’s YouTube channel and closed the deal!

That’s how it’s done, folks! They did their homework, added a ton of value upfront and the rest was fairly easy. This approach is what we call the Dream 10 or Dream 100 Campaign (depending on the list size), commonly referred to as account based marketing. 

In addition to Alex, we implemented this process to sell Dragonfruit’s new consulting offer and the results speak for themselves…

• 940 prospects contacted

• 42 appointments booked (4.47% cold lead to appointment) 

• 10 sales closed (23.81% appointment to client conversion)

• 1.06% Contact to Client conversion rate

This means that about 1 in every 100 (1%) cold lead that we reached out to became a client… As you can see, this strategy is a ton of work but wickedly effective when executed properly. 

We like to implement this approach for three types of prospects - prospective clients, partners and influencers.  The question you want to ask is this:

Which client, partner or influencer would be a dream to work with and change the game for my business?

Answer this question with at least 10 people (maximum 100 people), then implement this checklist:

Yes, of course this approach requires a lot more work than usual but the conversions AND rewards are much higher. 

This is because this method leverages a behavioral psychology phenomenon called the reciprocity effect. By providing so much value upfront, prospects are neurologically wired to return the favor.

In simpler terms, while every other marketing bro is sending spammy AI-written copy and you actually go out of your way to provide value, you stand out.

The good news is that once you have a campaign working, it’s fairly simple to operationalize this process with one virtual assistant.

In order to operationalize and scale this process, you need clear guidelines on the following steps:

1. Examples of dream clients/partners/influencers you're targeting (already done above) 

2. How to verify email / phone / social media contact information

3. How to conduct research and ‘audit’ prospects (ie. how to analyze and assess videos like Dragonfruit did to Hormozi)

4. How to customize the copy (someone senior should do this at first)

5. How to setup automated outreach sequences (covered in the next section)

Now let’s look at the copy and tech we used to implement this campaign:

Automated Outbound 

Workflow

Automated outbound is one of the most powerful, cost effective strategies for generating leads. It’s also one of the most competitive because the barrier to entry is so low and spam is rampant.

Now before we proceed, I want to define exactly what I mean by automated outbound. 

I do not mean that you’re going to mass-spam thousands of people with AI-written content. What I do mean is creating highly targeted campaigns that after initial customization can run on autopilot until leads reply. That’s when a human needs to step in.

Here was the high level workflow we used with Dragonfruit to automate their outbound lead generation:

1. We developed their dream client prospect list

2. We wrote highly targeted, customized outreach sequence copy for split-testing

3. A virtual assistant verified the prospects contact information and customized the copy

4. A virtual assistant requested approval of the new prospect sequence

5. We provided approval and the VA loaded the sequence into the sequence software

6. The sequence ran on autopilot and generated replies from leads

7. The VA responded to all the replies that they could handle.  If the response was more complex, the VA asked for guidance, we documented it, the VA replied and saved it for future reference improving the system over time.

Copy

Here was the exact copy structure we used to help Dragonfruit get 11 new clients from cold email in 90 days:

We included multiple follow up emails after this one every few days that included a free live workshop as well as restating our initial email and social proof. 

Do not sleep on follow up! Most of the replies were generated for Dragonfruit after the initial email. 

Also, do not write 'just bumping this' in your follow up. Instead, send emails with specific, helpful suggestions (ie. the ones mentioned in the first email) and cite or link authority-building resources like case studies, trainings.

One effective follow up email template that we implemented was this:

Hey , 

For some immediate insight into how we , here's a live workshop we ran with our client for his community. 

We explain how to with our .

Software

Guess how many tools we used to close Hormozi plus 10 other clients in 90 days? 

Three.  

Lemlist for outreach. Calendly for scheduling sales calls. Google Sheets for tracking.

No AI agents, CRMs, data platforms or any other nonsense.

Why? Because you really don’t need any of that BS.

I’ve been running automated outbound lead generation campaigns for years and tried nearly every tool on the market. Lemlist is the best outreach tool on the market, hands down, not even close.

The UI and UX is extremely simple and most importantly, the performance is exceptional. After sending 25,691 emails our deliverability rate is 94%. See proof below:

Other tools don’t even come close to this. This is one of the many reasons why I’m a proud affiliate partner and support Lemlist 100%.

To be clear, there is some technical setup required to achieve this - here’s a complete guide on how to properly set up your domains for the highest deliverability possible.

Talent

As mentioned above, there’s three key roles required to effectively manage automated outbound:

1. Copywriter to customize the copy 

2. Virtual assistant with SOP’s to do the rest

3. Executive (ie. founder) to approve everything

[Insert CTA to sales challenge]

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Step 3: Develop Sales Process   

When we first started working together, Dragonfruit was pretty much winging it when it came to sales, like most.

Adrian sold one way, Michael sold another way and their process was pretty much nonexistent… yet they still managed to grow to half a million per year in sales! This is even more proof of the power of a great offer.

However, by the end of our time working together, Adrian had achieved his first one call close and that made me a bit teary eyed and proud AF!

In this section I”ll breakdown exactly how Dragonfruit made this transformation.

Since we were implementing outbound lead generation, we developed a two-step sales process that involved lead conversion then sales conversion. Let’s define exactly what each means:

Lead Conversion  

The purpose of lead conversion (commonly referred to as appointment setting) is to convert leads into qualified sales appointments. 

All conversations should be conducted accordingly and swiftly move the prospect from lead to qualified lead to qualified sales appointment.

Since we were implementing the Dream 100 campaign, it was a given that all prospects were qualified. This made things simpler and allowed the team to focus solely on scheduling discovery calls.

Initially, founders should do this for the first 10 to 30 appointments, then systemize and delegate this process.

To properly systemize and delegate lead conversion you need the following things: 

1. A list of qualifying questions (for non-dream 100 campaigns)

2. A spreadsheet of typical responses and the type of response (ie. positive, neutral, negative)

3. Predefined templates for each type of response (ie. if lead needs more information say this…)

4. A response trees (ie. what to say if prospect says x, y or z) that includes the above

5. A video walkthrough implementing the process in real time

6. A video walking through successful conversations

7. A job listing explaining the role, responsibilities, resources above and a motivating compensation plan

Here’s an example of a response decision tree for lead conversion:

The last and MOST important step of converting leads is follow up.

Sales Conversion  

The most critical part of the puzzle to help Dragonfruit achieve predictable growth was dialing in their sales process.  

They went from winging it on sales calls to one call closes thanks to a dead simple, repeatable checklist-style sales process.  

We achieved this by breaking down the sales process into stages, then defining essential questions for each stage. The purpose of the questions were to provide crystal clarity on three things: 

1. Their problem

2. Their vision

3. The gap 

4. Why Dragonfruit was the best solution to help them close the gap

Here’s a cheatsheet using the exact same process we used with Dragonfruit:

At first, the process was a bit awkward, so before implementing the process live for the first time, we did some live role playing to smooth things out. But at the end of the day, nothing beats live reps. 

After taking a few live reps, it was time for the final piece of the puzzle: performance optimization.

Step 4: Performance Optimization 

Tracking

The first step of transformation is self awareness and the easiest way to create self awareness is to measure whatever you want to change.

For Dragonfruit, we tracked three things:

1. Emails Sent

2. Appointments Booked

3. Sales Closed

See the tracker we used in Google Sheets here:

Every week, we reviewed the analytics and I suggested specific ways to optimize performance of both lead generation and sales.

Outbound Performance & CRO

When it comes to measuring and improving outbound lead generation performance on email, here are the key performance indicators to track:

1. Open Rate

2. Reply Rate

3. Reply to Appointment (Qualified Lead) Rate

Whenever any of these metrics are below standard, pick and implement one solution, then evaluate again after you have enough data (typically 100 to 500 sends is enough data).

Here’s the exact optimization process we use to optimize outbound lead generation campaigns:

Sales Coaching & CRO  

In addition to this, I required Adrian and Michael to record their sales calls. This allowed us to “track” their adherence to the new process we had just developed. 

Then every other week, I would host live sales calls breakdowns where I would listen to a live call with Adrian and Michael, go through the sales process checklist, “score” each stage of the call  and give them feedback in real time. 

Without a doubt, this was the single most awkward AND effective exercise we implemented during the 90 days. Truth is only the savages are willing to put themselves out there like this. 

Here’s a preview of the call analysis template I used to refine their process and improve their conversion rate:

So big up to Adrian and Michael on this. Within a few call breakdowns, Adrian had become a sales beast and was closing deals in a single call. Then a few weeks later, he managed to close Hormozi himself!

After 90 days, Adrian managed to close 10 out of 42 appointments with ‘cold’ leads, achieving a solid

23.81% close rate.

Again, I was super proud of these guys. They put in the work and reaped the rewards - adding Hormozi to the client list plus adding 6-figures in new business - not too shabby!

The Results 

Quantifiable Results:

1. One retainer with Alex Hormozi and Acquisition.com

2. ~$97,500 in gross revenue generated from 10 clients

3.  1% conversion rate from cold outreach to closed deals

4. Sales cycle reduced to 60 minutes - 14 days (multiple one call closes)

Qualitative Benefits:

• Increased efficiency without increasing headcount.

• More predictable revenue streams due to standardized service packages.

• Higher close rates thanks to a structured, value-driven sales approach.

Unexpected Wins:

• Faster decision-making from prospects due to clear service offerings.

• More referrals from satisfied clients who appreciated the clarity of the packages.

• Alex Hormozi poached Michael !!!

So this is a crazy story. Long story short, Michael and his team crushed it for Hormozi. Hormozi was so stoked, he ended up stealing Michael away from Adrian to join Acquisition.com and today he’s their head of content!

Conclusion & Next Steps

Dragonfruit Media's journey is proof that scaling a service business doesn’t require endless hours, excessive hiring, or sacrificing quality. With the right systems, you can achieve predictable growth and consistent revenue.

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