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Solo Build It Mastery Lesson 36 - Why PREselling Is So Important To Your Online Success...

If you've read Make Your Content Presell or the Action Guide at all you'll be familiar with the concept of Preselling.

Just to recap, Preselling is where you encourage your visitor to click through to your sales page or your affiliate merchant's link using a combination of techniques such as -

• Providing useful content that shows your visitor what to do but doesn't show her how to do it. The answer lies on the next page

• Offers a benefit that your visitor simply must have with the only way they can get it being to click through to your merchant's site

• Makes your visitor curious about what they are missing out on so they click through to your merchant's page

• Giving them very limited information and then asking them to click through to another page for all the details

• ...any combination of these and many others

While all of these (and many more ideas discussed in Make Your Content Presell) are all valid, the main reason you should Presell is this -

It should be your goal as a marketer, as opposed to simply being a sales person out to make money by promoting a random group of products and services to as many people as possible, to become your client's most trusted adviser - -their "go-to" guy -  on the topic that encompasses your area of expertise.

Your goal should be to advise, not sell. You should have your prospects and clients best interests at heart. You are trying to serve - not sell...

You should make it your mission to offer them only products and services that make their lives better - you should never allow them to buy any more, or any less, of any product or service than what is absolutely in their best interest. 

In essence, you should be seeking a long-term, mutually profitable relationship with every person who visits your website which goes far beyond the first transaction by providing the best, most honest advice you possible can in every communication you have with each prospect or client.

To do this, you have to understand their needs, hopes, dreams and desires so you can emphasize with them and give them the exact help and advice they need.

Unfortunately, this is not always what happens online (or offline for that matter).

Every day I see people promoting stuff with only one aim - to make a buck.

It doesn't matter that the product is crap, there's money to be made and thousands of affiliates get caught up in promoting overpriced junk with no regard for the buyers needs or goals.

This is a recipe for long-term disaster...

It only takes one poor, financially motivated recommendation to turn your list of happy customers stone cold and kill it dead. You have to be so careful when recommending products and services to others that it's obvious that you have their needs in mind.

Something else to consider -

Do you offer your clients information or advice?

What's the difference?

Information can be interpreted in a thousands different ways, depending on who's listening and receiving it.

Advice is definitive - your clients and customers can convert advice into action that will help them move forward.

Want an example?

When you visit your family doctor with a pain in the arm, are you seeking information or advice.

Would you like your doctor to tell you what's wrong with you and then let you walk out the door, or would you like him to give you advice on how to treat your arm.

Similarly, when you go to your accountant with a tax problem, do you want information or advice on how to solve it?

Of course, you want a solution. You want these professionals to say, "Well first, do this, next, do this, and finally, do this, and here's the outcome you should expect."

This is advice. It is definitive and can be used as a basis for action.

This is how you should communicate with your clients and customers. Don't just give them information - as long as you are qualified to do so, give them advice. Now in many instances, your customer's problem isn't as obvious as a pain in the arm or a tax issue that needs resolving, so you have to tell them that they actually have one.

This is where you introduce a common problem that others have had to your customers, emotionalize the problem so that they can feel it themselves, and then give them advice on how to solve it for themselves if they are affected.

This problem/solution model works really well for marketers and you should use it yourself in your market to bring up problems that many people l didn't even know they had until you mention it...

Now giving advice in some areas without knowing your client's specific background and circumstances can be dangerous (and in some cases, illegal) so you need to take this into consideration.

However in most markets other than medical and financial, you should be OK to give specific instructions to people that will help a broad range of them to actually solve their problems.

Of course, part of the solution is to buy your recommended product, service or other resource, and this is where Preselling goes into overdrive.

Give people advice, then recommend the perfect product or service to them to help them accomplish whatever it was that you told them to do. 

And when you give people advice, always ask these questions -

• If I were to receive this proposal, why would I want this?

• Why would I want to take this offer up at this time?

• What's in it for the customer?

• Why is doing this better that what they are currently doing - or doing nothing at all?

• How will this make them feel better about themselves, their families, ther business, their future, and their lives?

These questions will help you to clarify why your client, customer or prospects should take action on your advice. Don't forget, your customers are already asking themselves these sorts of questions, so make sure you ask them first so you can come up with compelling answers before they do.

This will increase your website's conversions, make you more money, and ensure you have happy, satisfied customers who treat your recommendations seriously and buy from you again and again.

Well, if you have a list of customers and prospects they will be able to buy from you again and again anyway. This is why I've stressed so often that your website's Most Wanted Response should be to capture your visitor's name and email address (at least).

By doing this, you are building a valuable asset that will give you long-term profits instead of selling your visitors off to others fro cents in the dollar...

Action Steps

• Become an advisor. Approach every page you write, every email you send, every telephone conversation as a trusted professional who is trying to help your customer find the best solution and avoid mistakes.

• Get good at what you do. Study your market and become an expert in helping people solve their problems. Hang around forums and find out what problems others are having, then create solutions that will help solve them.

• Share the problems, challenges and opportunities others in your market have found and recommend solutions that help your customers solve them for themselves. Discuss what your customer's real options are and give them alternatives to consider.

• Have your best wishes in mind for person you come into contact with, even if that person never does business with you in their life. Your sincerity will shine through and even it they don't do business with you, they could recommend other to you who will.

• Your customers are looking for results, less pain, more comfort, greater profitability, more productivity...give it to them. Listen to them and act on their concerns and fears. Provide real solutions to help them achieve what they are trying to do.

• In markets where it's not illegal to do so, provide specific, concrete plans, checklists and other actionable tools that people can use to solve their problems. Recommending outside resources is merely part of your service - you don't argue with your Doctor when he prescribes medication for you, and you take your accountant's advice to do business through an LLC when he suggests this. Both of these things cost you extra over and above their consulting fees, and you happily pay it because your adviser told you that you needed them. This is the position you want to be in with your clients and customers...

• Create and cultivate your list of prospects and customers. Build a strong relationship with these people and you will be set for life!

Preselling is an ongoing task that you do every day in every communication you create. Make sure you never let an opportunity go by without cultivating your clients and prospects further...

That's it for this lesson,

Until next time,

Cheers,

P.S. Having problems? If you'd like a hand with anything to do with getting your Solo Build It site performing at it's best, make sure you visit my services page to see how I can assist you in getting the most out of SBI.

P.P.S. And if you want to move on with the next lesson, or review any of the other lessons in this coaching course, you can by visiting this page.