How to close 12-months contracts as a sales creator: Step 1: Accept most brand deals When you start working with brands as a sales creator, you don’t really have the luxury to be picky. You don’t have a track record, influencer managers don’t know what to expect from you, and you are mostly experimenting to see what works. That’s why you need to accept most brand deals that come your way. You need data to understand: - what format works best - what your audience is interested in - what type of results you can deliver for the brands Step 2: Overdeliver through affiliate links Most brands that work with sales creators have affiliate programs that reward you with cash or a percentage of a deal they closed with a customer that signed up through your link. In 80% of cases, they won’t even require you to use this affiliate link, but you can ask them to sign you up on their affiliate program. When you have your link, systematically include it in your sponsored posts for the brand, and in any piece of content where it can be relevant. This will do two things: 1. You will make more money if someone converts thanks to your link 2. Your will create undebatable performance data you can use to negotiate further Step 3: Document your results Most brands have no clue how to structure an influence campaign, and they don’t even ask you to share data after you’ve posted for them. Systematically document the following elements: - Impressions - Engagement - Saves & sends on LinkedIn - Signups, DMs, conversions, etc. If you do this, you’ll stand out and do more for the brands than 99% of creators they work with. Influencer managers absolutely LOVE working with creators who are well-organized. Step 4: Focus on lead gen content I’ve been having conversations with many CMOs and Brand Marketing Managers and they all tell me the same thing: There’s too much brand awareness sponsored content (the one that make people think about the brand) and not enough lead generation content (the one that generates leads). The best way to turn your audience into qualified traffic and conversions for your sponsors is to create a long-form piece of content and distribute it to your audience. For example, you could do the following: - 5-min video explaining how to create a prospecting sequence that gets replies - This video is then transcribed to create a long-form blog post - The video is also cut into smaller vertical videos - Turn the long-form blog post into a lead magnet (ideal for viral drop LinkedIn posts) - Use LinkedIn and newsletter to promote these various elements - All these assets (videos, blog posts, lead magnets, etc.) can be used for ads - Put your affiliate link everywhere in these assets This requires more work than creating a LinkedIn post, but you can get paid a lot more for doing it. And if you need help with these 4 steps, drop me a DM.