So something totally awesome just happened.

We launched a new product that’s been in development for over 6 months.

It’s been a huge investment of time and a significant monetary investment for my business partner and I.

You have a lot of weird thoughts leading up to something like this..

For example..

“Is this even going to work?”

“Will people like this and resonate with the idea?”

“Will it be a flop?  Will people take action and run with us?”

All sorts of things go through your head, some inspiring and some not so much.. 🙂

So, when launch day finally comes and this type of thing happens…

You tend to get pretty PUMPED and filled with gratitude, just like I am right now.

What I really want to do in this blog post, though, is to share with you some weird lessons I learned through this whole process that have been really helpful and inspiring to me, and so I’m sharing them in hopes they’ll do the same for you.

Big Weird Marketing Lesson #1 – You do NOT have to hard close to have success

In sales, both in everyday experience and in the books you read, you’ll hear and see all kinds of different philosophies on selling.

You’ll hear things like…

• You have to use scarcity so make sure you limit the number of spots,  product, or whatever so people will want to buy…
• You have to make people feel like their going to miss out by pounding on how horrible their life is going to be if they don’t buy…
• You have to tell stories in a certain way to perfectly pre-frame everything so you psychologically condition your prospect to buy from you because you’ve hypnotized them with your story-telling abilities.
• Sometimes, you’ll even see people who are really good at selling – tell lies and say/do whatever they can to get people to pull the trigger.

I could go on and on here but the bottom line is that all of these things people say you have to do, can really paralyze you from “Sharing something worthwhile” with the people you care about.

The GREAT news is that we did none of the above to produce the above sales.

In fact, we told people right off the bat that no one had to buy!

We didn’t even plan the structure of the webinar!  Can you believe that?  We were putting the finishing touches on the product the entire day of launch, and next thing you knew it was time for our scheduled webinar and we just jumped on and…

Told the truth.  🙂

We honestly and sincerely shared with people what we truly believed, was something special.

And it worked.

No sales tricks.

No pre planned psychological strategy.

Just the honest to goodness truth, with sincerity and belief that what we’d put together would make a difference for people.

And it worked!

Ha!

That makes me smile so big because I can relax and remember that maybe Zig Ziglar was right when he said…

“Sales is not a thing in the world, but a transference of feeling.” 

Big Weird Marketing Lesson #2 – You do NOT have sell super high ticket, to have super high commissions…

I haven’t yet calculated exactly, what my personal commissions will be from the above amount, but I think it’s somewhere in the thousands.  Not bad for a days work right?  🙂 (of course remember, there has been a lot of work leading up to this day, so maybe it wasn’t really a days work)  but still…

The product we sold was extremely reasonably priced.  I’ve sold high ticket products before… upwards of $5,000 actually, and at the time, I really believed that to make great money, you had to sell something super expensive that paid high commissions.

I’ve used the line of reasoning that “If you want to make more money, rather than make more sales, just sell something that pays a higher commission so you can earn more money with less sales.”

While I still believe there is some validity to that argument, I think it can be taken to extremes.

Of course, if you can make higher commissions from the sales you make, your commissions will ad up faster, BUT – if you take TOO much from people – without delivering corresponding value, I think there’s a price to pay.  (speaking from personal experience here)

Wallace Wattles said “Strive to deliver more in use value than you take from the market in cash value.”

We really worked hard to follow that philosophy in the development of this product and I can’t tell you how great it feels to know that I can deliver a very reasonably priced product to people, that they can use to get a return of GREATER value than that for which they paid —->  AND – I can earn GREAT Commissions and a full time income for my family in the process.

And hey, what’s wrong with this philosophy…

In order to make more money, serve more people (vs. less)? 🙂

Big Weird Marketing Lesson #3 – Some simple fundamentals can still work wonders

There are a few fundamentals we did follow that I think seemed to help.

• Have something worth sharing – a high value product…

While this may sound like a no-brainer, it’s important to remember that “common sense is not always common practice.”

Marketing legend Dan Kennedy once said that his biggest realization was ‘The limits’ of marketing.  He said you can do all the great advertising in the world, but if you get people in the door and they don’t like what they find, you’re business is sunk and the marketing is worthless.

I think this is so key.  Make sure that what you offer people is high value.  Go the extra mile.  Skip the shortcuts, invest the money, take the time.  Because we did this with our new product, my partner and I had the utmost confidence in what we were presenting and I think that made a HUGE difference.

• Solve a problem
  

In our impromptu presentation, we did follow some traditional sales presentation strategy in that we talked about problems in the market that we wanted to solve, and of course, positioned our new product (and affiliate opportunity) as a way to solve these problems.

I think because most everyone we were speaking to realized that the problems we highlighted, were in fact, big problems – they were fired up when they saw that what we had created really and truly could be a solution for so many people.

• Give them a reason to take action now vs. wait. 

The invention of fake bonuses, lying to build value, etc. for me, make me feel manipulative and ‘icky’ inside.

I’ve made the mistake in the past of allowing this to prevent me from giving people a reason to take action now.

The truth is, if you can come up with some real and honest reasons for people to take action, without feeling like you’re being manipulative, this can work wonders.

In the case of this particular product, we offered a simple fast action bonus… and that was to be a part of a Facebook group where my partner and I are going to be sharing with people exactly what we’re doing to market and promote for the next 30 to 60 days or so.

Simple, honest and real.  It worked.  About 25% of those in attendance took action and joined right on the spot.

The other thing we’re doing with this product is a price increase here in about a week.

We gave everyone there a chance to buy the product for a 50% discount from regular price… Another reason to take action ASAP vs. wait.

Again, it’s real, truthful and sincere, and so not only does it work for helping people to make a decision, it preserves our relationship with them for the future because we’re not lying or manipulating to get a sale.

I think we should avoid that type of marketing (lying and manipulation) at all costs because while it may work in the short term, it severely damages relationships for the long term.

So my friend, there you have my 3 weird marketing lessons learned in our $14,500 day!

Big Weird Marketing Lesson #1 – You do NOT have to hard close to have success

Big Weird Marketing Lesson #2 – You do NOT have sell super high ticket, to have super high commissions…

Big Weird Marketing Lesson #3 – Some simple fundamentals can work wonders

Hope these help and here’s to your better future!

Paul Hutchings

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Did you get value from this post?  Would love to hear your thoughts below.

PPS – Would you like to see the actual video presentation we gave that produced this $14,500 day?  Shoot me a message @ [email protected] or here on Facebook and I’d be happy to share the replay.