How to Increase Your Sales BEFORE You Launch Your Product or Service

Want to increase your sales BEFORE you launch your product or service? The following are some of the most effective ways to do just that:

1. Use Social Proof

What is "social proof"? Simply put, we are all conditioned to watch what others are doing and follow along (think teenagers). Using social proof in your marketing helps you to influence your customers to purchase your products/services, get new prospects to sign-up for your list, and get people talking about you and your offering – and that’s just the start.

So, how do you use this psychological trigger in your marketing?

One way is to use results-based testimonials. Ask your current customers or clients to give you results-based testimonials. They literally say, "I used this product and these are the results I got."

Having celebrities give these to you is great, but make sure you have testimonials from REAL people. Those are the ones that are really going to cement the idea in your potential buyer’s mind that they can do it, too.

2. Answer your prospects #1 objection

To take "social proof" to a deeper lever, anyone who is buying anything almost always has this #1 objection: "Sure, you can do it, but can I do it?"

In addition to using yourself as an example (if appropriate) as evidence that what you are offering does what you say it will, it’s also important to make sure you get "social proof" from people in your client/customer’s peer group. Then your potential buyer sees people like themself and understands that "Hey, it worked for them, it can work for me, too."

3. Use a time limit

Creating a sense of urgency around your product or service will make it that much more enticing to potential buyers. For example, Jeff Walker just released his "Product Launch Formula" and has promised to sell it for $997 for one week only. After that he will raise his price. He doesn’t even have to tell us by how much. Just knowing that you have one week to buy at a lower price creates that sense of urgency.

4. Use a limited quantity

If you are selling a physical product and you are only having 100 produced, then use that information to create the same sense of urgency you would with a time limit. Use a countdown on your website to further create the feeling that if your potential buyers don’t buy now, they may miss out.

5. Use a time or quantity limit on bonuses

Additionally, you could offer bonuses for a certain length of time (first week only) or for a certain number of products sold. For example, the first 30 buyers would get an additional special report (valued at $XX).

The last three strategies also help your buyers feel like they are part of your "club" when they join by purchasing your product or service.

Obviously, you can use these tactics unscrupulously, and I’m sure you’ve seen it or experienced it yourself. But if you want your business to truly be successful, in all the ways that are important and meaningful to you, then you must only use these strategies with integrity and honesty.

If you really are only going to print 100 copies of a physical product, then only print 100 copies. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do another print run. It just means that you tell your market that you’re only going to print 100 now, and if you do decide to do another run, then they will have to wait another two or three weeks before they can get their copy.

If you really are going to raise your price after a certain date, or after a certain number of items are sold, then you must follow through. You can give your current base a chance to buy at the "original" price before you raise it, but you still must raise your price if you say you will.

Your integrity using these strategies will create more sales for you than ever before. But use them to manipulate your prospects and it will come back to haunt you…guaranteed.

© 2005 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com

WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE? You may, as long as it remains intact and you include this complete blurb with it: Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com , and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™, teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs and solo professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com

3 Ways to Increase Your List Numbers from In-Person Events

Do you often attend in-person events, such as workshops, networking breakfasts, and seminars, and as you speak with people you collect a handful of business cards, but then you don’t know what to do with them?

Of course if someone’s expressed an interest in your services, you want to follow up with them, but most people you talk with at these events may not need your services RIGHT NOW, yet they very well may in the future.

So how do you make sure you’re at their fingertips when they do need you?

Get them on your list! That way you’ll have the opportunity to continue to get in front of them in a subtle way. Remember, though, never to put anyone on your list who hasn’t give you permission to do so.

Here are three ways to encourage people to get on your list when you meet them in person, without being pushy:

1. Put your Pink Spoon offering (your freebie product that draws people into your marketing funnel) information on the back of your business card, or on whatever other materials you hand out.

Business cards are the standard pass-around marketing tool at these kind of events, but if the back of your card is blank, you’re losing valuable real estate. There are several things you could add to the back of your card, and one of them is the information for your Pink Spoon.

Write a snappy sentence describing the benefit that the reader will get if they sign up, along with the website address of where they can subscribe.

For example, on the back of one of my cards, one of the questions I ask is,

"Are you struggling with consistently and successfully marketing your business? If YES, visit www.ClientAbundance.com to find out how to attract and keep all the clients you want."

2. Email each person whose business card you collected within a week.

Send a brief email to each person you met, reminding them that they can sign up for your freebie offering at your website. Make sure you include a live link to make it super-easy for them to click and sign up.

I sent this note to someone I met at a party recently:

"Dear Christine,

It was so great to meet you at Cathy’s party last weekend. I enjoyed swapping the joys and trials of juggling a business and a family, and I’m really impressed with all you do having three children under the age of 6!

I wanted to send you the link to my free ecourse and ezine that I think would really help you in your marketing of your business. It’s http://www.clientabundance.com.

Keep in touch and let me know if there are other ways I can help you!

cheers,
Alicia"

3. If you’re a speaker at the event, or if it’s your own event, have a sign-up sheet for the attendees.

At the beginning and end of your talk, make sure you tell your audience that they can receive FREE valuable information from you if they will simply sign-up on the form. Ask them for their first name and email address, and make note on the form what it is they will receive. You can give each person a separate sign-up form or have one that you pass around for everyone to sign.

You can also pass around a basket or bowl for people to drop their cards into to win a prize, AND to be put on your list to receive your Pink Spoon. (Most email list services require anyone signing up to double opt-in now, so you will be giving them another opportunity to confim that they do in fact want to be on your list after you’ve added them.)

You’ve probably heard "the fortune is in the follow-up" and that’s exactly what this will do for you. If you collect their names and email addresses at the event, add them to your list with their permission, or send them a reminder email to do it themselves, your Pink Spoon will do the follow up for you. It will keep you on your prospects’ radar screens so you’ll come to mind immediately when they do need your services. And that’s exactly what you want!

© 2005 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com

WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE? You may, as long as it remains intact and you include this complete blurb with it: Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com , and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™, teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs and solo professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com