Lesson 3 - Pre-selling
Genuine Friendship & Old Fashioned Service

The internet provides unlimited opportunity to go into business for yourself. Forget get rich quick. Or being the next Google or Facebook, though somebody will! Think in terms of achieving success online through dedication and hard work.

So you’ve written great content that honestly and faithfully delivers valued information that relates to the keywords being searched out by the search engine, satisfies the visitor to your site then Pre-selling turns them into a life-long trusting follower with the potential to become a customer in the longer term.

Your building traffic. With sufficient numbers of visitors visiting your online business you have achieved a major milestone in the development of your online business.

Imagine the excitement of having new and regular visitors possibly from all over the world coming to your online business.

For some people it’s enough to have joined like-minded people together for a common cause or to share ideas, thoughts etc., about your favorite talking point. That’s buzz enough.

But if for most people they want to turn these visitors in the regular and loyal customers or contributors to your favorite charity or cause. The way to that is Pre-selling.

You may well have given the type of online business plenty of thought already, but now is the time to turn all those loyal followers into loyal customers and get some reward for all the hard work you have put in.

This should be a very gradual process for most online businesses. I say most, because it is entirely possible that you simply are the best source of a particular product at the best price and service in the market, you may simply have built a website to promote your existing ‘bricks and mortar’ business – factory or shop, say.

Even so, remember you brought them to your online business (ultimate shop front) by providing them with valuable free information. Pre-selling will slowly convert them to spend money on your products and services.

How not to do Pre-selling

Oh! Do come round to my house for dinner this evening … by the way the main course is $30 but the pudding is free. You just wouldn’t do it … would you!?

Your visitors are your honored guests, your friends, they share your interests.... they trust you implicitly.

Push too hard and you could lose all of the trust you have built up over the months and years and all of that effort you have put in.

You may never see them - but be genuine about your frienship.

Taking the analogy of having friends around for dinner, treat your visitors as honored guests give them the best food (content)you can offer.

Offer them 10 times more than they are expecting.

Give them what they like to eat, not what you like to cook!

Entertain the common interests or concerns of your valued guests properly during their time with you and they may well open up to you revealing to you that they are looking for a new car and given your shared interests … a car just like yours! Perhaps …..

So how will you sell? You won't! You'll do some Pre-selling. Just as you might recommend the dealer you bought your car off that is conveniently close by and provided you with great service… and where a word from you might mean a lot.

You can do the same thing with Pre-selling your recommended products and services at your online business.

Quietly recommending products and services that you know your guests are looking for and would really appreciate the referral.

Here is the first opportunity to receive a little return for all of the effort you have put in and any friend should be happy if you receive a little thank-you from the dealer considering you have given them so much...

To earn a small commission on the sale you simply have to become an affiliate for the company whose product you recommend. There are thousands of companies that are willing to offer you a small commission for your referral, and its all done automatically!

Of course you wouldn't want any friend of yours to by a 'lemon' would you? So you will need to be selective and genuinely knowledgeable about the service or product, and truly enthusiastic about it.

Personally, I only recommend products I have bought or know intimately to be the best in the class.

If this sounds like a huge effort to win a small commission you are right, but wait there’s more…

Think about it. When someone walks into a shop the poor sales assistant doesn’t know whether they have come in out of the rain or whether they are truly interested in what they have to sell.

Of course they will try and be nice to the visitor (Pre-selling) but may have their ‘can I help you Madam’ rejected with the words ‘just browsing thank-you’ or worse ‘I’ll tell you if I need help’! Of course some sales persons - jump straight in with the hard sell... do you like it, not usually. Neither do you like pre-selling approaches that are simply not genuine!

Last week they were in pots and pans and now they need to convince there customer that the Armani suit they’re trying on is a real winner!

So there is little wonder if some sales persons come across as dour, tentative, tired or plainly disinterested. You know the ones … standing there with their arms folded across their chest, no need for a body language expert there! After all it may not be their business and after a few hundred of those type of customers who can blame them even denying your existence!

Contrast this with the online store, you can do better - you get the chance to be really nice to your qualified customer, sure they may be browsing but they were actually searching for some specific piece of information and our friendly search engines have been standing at the door 24x7, 364 days of the year, never getting tired, wet or grumpy politely showing them through the door of your business where they can find as much or as little information they need to buy confidently.

They have been pre-qualified.

The chances are better than even that whatever you say to them as part of your well thought through Pre-selling effort will grab their attention, though you’ll have to be quick about it, they don’t linger long. If only we had the technology to create virtual rain!

If you know something about sales and marketing ... that's good, you will understand me when I say tone down the Unique Selling Points USP of a product or service (typically a list of key features) in favor of creating a Unique Value Proposition UVP for your potential customer.

In other words don't offer to build them a brick factory, offer to deliver them a factory making bricks!! Think about it.

Now as your online business salesperson with a vested interest in the business, and the time to work up your best speech and give it your best shot, you won’t be too put off by a rejection.

You can always adopt the sales person's attitude that if a sale is worth $100 and you get 100 rejections and 1 sale ... every rejection is worth $1.00 to you!!

Of course you would have preferred to convert them into a sale, but you know that you will have pre-qualified customers arriving all day and all night every day of the week.

So a lot of effort it might be to get it right, but you only ever have to do it once and it works for you every time all the time.

Even if your business only serves the local community, chances are you’ll get to see more of them than your local store.

Once they trust you they will trust your product recommendations … there is no need to give them the hard sell, they just get good ‘old fashioned’ friendly and knowledgeable advice.

In other words good old fashioned service is a big part of Pre-selling.

Even if you knew only 2 or 3 people in every 100 (typical conversion rates) would buy something - the numbers of customers arriving in a steady stream, even when you are sleeping in your bed or out at the beach or doing your day job can make the effort you put in up-front well worthwhile.

Even if you knew that on average a visitor might come in to your online business over 20 times (typical return rates before purchase), picking up freebies and heading out before one day purchasing something would you mind. No!

If they keep coming back they are more than likely going to buy something in the end … if for no other reason than they feel obligated to. If not you have made a friend happy - can't be all bad, can it?

Yes! Online customers will raid your store of every freebie you have, but most still have a conscience!

The maxim should be good old fashioned service is about talking, forget the flash images and adverts, add a few for color if you wish but then your visitors will know your intention is to sell, and their 'sales-immune system' will cut in.Yes! we have one!

Instead blend in a few timely and useful text links and they may well hop over to your affiliate company taking your referrer details with them. If they buy the company automatically knows who to give the commission to .. k’ching!

Just like in an ordinary shop .. Interesting content and good service has a habit of getting around.

This is especially so with professional and social networks like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. Do a good job and the word will spread virally.

Your embryonic online Internet business is suddenly becoming big business.

Repeat this endlessly and you could soon be giving up that tedious 9-5 day job or on that plane to Paris or Rome.

The good thing is you don’t need to appoint a manager while you are away you can take your online business with you making sure your Pre-selling remains top notch.

Carrying your business house on your back and moving slowly and methodically remembering that the pre-selling is more effective selling than the hard sell - you can see why the tortoise beats the hare every time!!

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Remember the process CTPM – Content (Interest), Traffic (Volume). Pre-selling (Convert) and Monetize (Holiday)

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