Having A Great Product Is Not Enough entrepreneur how earn by blogging blog

I've Messed Up A Lot

I've started probably a dozen "businesses" in the past 4-5 years, and not one of them met my expectations.

The reason for that is simple. My expectations were built based on how great I thought the product was, and I always thought it was pretty great.

Your first assumption may be that I was wrong about my product - that I overestimated the value I had to offer - but looking back at these failures it's pretty clear what went wrong: having a great product is not enough, you have to know how to sell it as well.

Quick Note Before Jumping In

Believe it or not, this behemoth is the condensed version of the write-up. If you'd like a version that's twice the length with pretty pictures and such, you can find it on the medium post below.

https://medium.com/@bradleyszoke/having-a-great-product-is-not-enough-10b2de656ad2

Selling A Product Without Losing All Of Your Friends

Many entrepreneurs are guilty of this, including myself.

You create something you're proud of and you come out of the gates hot. Your Facebook friends, your grandmother, the guy in the bathroom stall next to you - they all get pitched to.

The problem with this is, getting pitched to sucks. What's in it for them? The honor of using your product? No, that's lame.

You can't just go straight for the kill. In the wise words of Chuck Rhoades from Billions, "A good matador doesn't kill a fresh bull. You wait until he's been stuck a few times."

This imagery is probably a bit too aggressive when being used in regards to selling, but it's a cool quote and a great show so I'm keeping it.

The problem with selling so aggressively is that you haven't taken time to do the legwork necessary to actually earn this person's trust - and I don't say that from a manipulative point of view. Sales is not manipulative. You're not trying to trick them into trusting you. The only way you'll succeed in selling is if you truly gain an understanding of your customer's problems and how to solve them.

There has to be a system in place. Closing the sale is in that system, but it's not until later.

The 4 Steps To Selling Your Product

1. Capture Attention
2. Convert To Lead
3. Close The Sale
4. Create A Friend

Capture Your Customer's Attention

Let's go back to why just pitching to a potential customer right out of the gates is lame. It's lame because there's nothing in it for them. So to make it less lame, we balance the scales a bit.

Offer them something of value.

Check out any of your favorite businesses and you'll find some example of this. Whether it's the free samples at Sams, a free audio book at Audible, or HubSpot Academy at, well, HubSpot. Companies don't give away this stuff because they're generous. The opposite of that really. They give it away because it accomplishes the first step of making a sale: capturing your attention.

Convert Visitors To Leads

Just because you've got their attention doesn't mean you're going to get a sale. You have to be sure you've captured the attention of someone who is actually interested in your product.

That's the difference between a visitor and a lead. A visitor is just someone who is checking out what you've got, a lead is someone who has expressed interest in your product.

Converting a visitor to a lead is often combined into one step. It's why Audible offers a free audiobook instead of a free $50 Visa Card. The latter would probably attract just as much attention, but it couldn't confirm that the visitor is actually interested in their product.

Make sure your initial value offering (lead-gen) is something that not only grabs attention, but confirms interest in your product. Oh, and also be sure to get their contact info. No point in getting them to stop by if you'll never speak again.

Close The Sale

Now it's finally time to sell.

You're not just pitching to grandma anymore, you've got someone who fits your target demographic and has expressed interest in your product. That helps a lot.

Still, don't go straight for the close. Take a note from SPIN Selling - make a genuine effort to get to know your customer, so that you can give a genuine explanation as to who you'll solve their problems.

Create A Friend

Congrats on making the sale! Now what?

Customers will turn into one of the three F's:

• Friends
• Fans
• Foes

If you disappoint your customer, you'll get a foe. If you meet expectations, you'll get a fan. If you exceed expectations, you've got a friend.

Fans are a neutral party here, they just quietly enjoy your offering.

Friends and foes are the loud minorities. They're the reasons every product with a 5 star review system has the bulk of its reviews as 5 stars or 1 stars.

People on speak about a product if their passionate about it. Make sure they're passionate for the right reasons.

Wrapping Things Up (TLDR)

• First, you've got to get attention. Do this by offering something of value.
• Be sure that this offering is relevant to your service, this will confirm your visitor's interest in your product so you can get contact info and turn them into leads.
• Leads are much more likely to buy your product than the general public, so now is the time to sell. Sell to them by getting to know them and their problems.
• Then, go above and beyond expectations to ensure good word of mouth and increased organic sales.

---

This isn't a final or complete guide to selling by any means. If it was I'd be signing a book deal, not posting on reddit. I do think it's a great overview for newcomers of the general concepts of marketing and selling though, and I hope you enjoyed and got something out of it!

submitted by /u/bradleyszoke
[link] [comments]

from Entrepreneur https://ift.tt/2sj5smw
via IFTTT
$$$http://howmakemoneywithblogging.blogspot.com/$$$

how to make money out of blogging & become a successful blogger