Tips for Selling Products and Services Online
With the internet, you have access to a global market with potential customers right in your living room. You don't need to compete with people you'll never meet and markets you'll never see. With a little bit of effort, education, and persistence, you can build an international business that will allow you to ditch your day job.
However, you can't just start and expect things to fall right into place. You'll have to work a little bit to build your credibility and credibility takes time. So what's the best way? How do you build a consistent client base with a constant flow of customers?
The answer: Offer something of value.
The book I have in my hand right now is called "How We Work". It's written by Scott Belsky. He's one of the people behind Behance, the widely popular portfolio site.
Scott's book is a guide to the work habits of the world's top designers, developers, and entrepreneurs by looking at their creative process. He talks about shows like "The Apprentice", "Top Chef", and "Start-Up". He talks about people making a living off their art. He talks about what makes them successful as artists and how that translates to success as businesses.
There are two basic ways to earn money from your skills: selling them or giving them away for free.
The first way is by selling your work or products. Sell a design, sell a plugin, sell an eBook, sell a logo. The second is by offering it for free. This blog is all about that.
A lot of people don't really like the idea of selling things online because they don't want to be treated like some sort of commercial machine where everyone just tries to take their money. I understand that frustration, but you can't stop the internet business world from evolving because you may not be ok with how it's evolving.
You have to give if you want to receive and if you want people to pay attention and listen then you need something valuable enough for them to pay attention and listen .
How do you build a successful online business?
1. Gather intel
The first thing you need to do is to find out exactly what it is that your target audience wants. This may take some time and effort on your part, but the more you know about who you are selling to, the easier it'll be for you to cater to those needs and wants.
Watch what they like, look at their comments, find out what their problems are. Learn about them so that you can cater to their specific needs better. The more specific and targeted your solutions are, the better a chance of success you have because people will see themselves within the solutions that you provide. They'll feel like it was made for them.
2. Make connections
Here's the thing: you're an artist, a writer, a programmer, a designer, an entrepreneur. You have skills and those skills are what makes you valuable to the market. But how do you find that market?
Network people. Connect with other people in your field through social media sites like Twitter or Facebook. Those sites will help you connect with other people in your same field of expertise who can then help you spread the word about what you're selling and make connections with potential clients who may be interested in your goods or services.
3. Provide value
Now you have the connections, now you have the intel that you need to make a sale, now you just need to make those sales. How do you do this?
Provide value for free.
If there's something that your potential clients don't know or understand, then it's important that they know it. You need to be able to look at what they're saying and identify their interests and problems well enough to let them know how they are going to benefit by consuming your products or services. Let them know how good they will feel once they get what they want.
4. Build relationships
Don't make all your sales in one go. Build relationships with your clients by giving them value consistently. If you give them value they'll start to trust you more and will be more willing to buy from you because of that trust that they're building with your business.
You have to give if you want to receive and if you want people to pay attention and listen then you need something valuable enough for them to pay attention and listen .
Think about it this way: You're a designer who sells WordPress themes for $50 a pop, but the market is telling you that what they really want is a website template for $10. There's no way you can offer both things at once. You're going to have to give your customers what they want. In this case, it's a $10 option with all the goodies included. Since your customers know that they're getting a reliable and professional product, they'll make more sales in the long run because they know they can go back to you with their problems and you'll be able to give them the right answers.
5. Keep building
Just like how you need to give your clients value so that they keep coming back for more, the same goes for you. You need to keep giving value in order to build a loyal client base. Continuing to provide quality solutions for your customers will make them interested in sticking with you and will also make them repeat buyers. That's what this is all about, after all: making money from repeat business.
I've heard it said that the internet is a community, not a company. That's a great concept and it's something I've started to get used to as I've become more of an active blogger. The internet really feels like this place where we're all united, but there are still differences between us. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, the internet is a community that brings us all together.
And yet, some of us are better at it than others.
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss is a book about life and business efficiency. The subtitle says it best : "Escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich". It's a guide to making more money in less time while working less.
Ferriss provides tips on how to live a more efficient life by reading books and researching online instead of going through traditional schools. This saves time because you can read as much as possible in less time than if you were in school for longer hours and days.
Conclusion
By now you should have a pretty good idea of what it takes to build a successful online business. You need to find out what your customers want, provide that and offer it for free in exchange for their time and attention. That's how you'll make the connections and get the sales through relationships. You need to keep doing this each month in order for yourself, others and your business to be successful.
This all sounds way too simple, but that's how it works. It's not rocket science, but it is hard work. I hope this blog was helpful because now you know how exactly to do it .
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