As a start up or early stage business it can take some time to work out the best strategy for selling your product or service. Even many established businesses struggle with this basic concept.
Those businesses that go on to great success typically have worked out what is known as the ‘Optimal Selling Strategy’. They have usually done this with one lead product or service selling it as a front end product.
So what is an Optimal Selling Strategy?
An Optimal Selling Strategy is simply figuring out the most cost effective strategy for selling your lead product to a new customer. Its all about customer acquisition. You need to develop such a strategy in your business to acquire as many qualified customers as you can and do it fast.
To develop your Optimal Selling Strategy you need to firstly identify what will be your front end product. This is a product that will have maximum appeal to your target market and sell at a low entry price in order to attract the maximum number of new clients.
NOTE: The intention of this Front End product is not necessarily to make money from it. Instead its used as a magnet to attract the maximum number of new customers and clients into your business. Many businesses will happily lose money on this front end product just to establish the customer relationship.
When I looked at my target market of small business owners I quickly discovered that while most of them recognise the need to have a Marketing Plan less than 5% actually do. So I asked them why don’t you have a marketing plan. The response was that the usual approach was too long and complex. That is why I developed the One Page Marketing Plan and have used it as a front end product to great effect. It ATTRACTS lots of new customers.
So you need to look at your target market and ask yourself (and them) what is their one single greatest problem or challenge that they all have that you can provide a solution for?
When you have the answer to this question you then want to develop a product that helps your target market get a solution to their problem. This is going to be your front end product. You want to then develop your Optimal Selling Strategy to sell as much of this front end product as you can.
NOTE: The idea behind selling your front end product is to acquire more customers. Chances are good you will only break even on the front end. This means that the real money you will make in your business is in your back end products and services.
So how do you take your front end product and now develop an Optimal Selling Strategy around it?
There are a number of keys to consider including:
1/ Media – What is the best media to be able to reach your ideal customer or client? There is a range of media that you could market through including print media, radio, TV, direct mail, internet, social media, direct sales. What you need to decide is which of these media your target market are most likely to respond to. For instance if you are selling a hearing aid product to those in the 70 plus age group then chances are good social media is not your first choice of media. In this case you would be better off advertising in a magazine that targets this age group. So do some research to identify which form of media is most likely to reach your target market.
2/ Message – Next you need to decide what form of and style of message will be best received by your target market. What are they likely to respond to? What will get their interest? Are you going to deliver your sales message through the printed word, video or audio? Discovering the best format for delivering your message, and identifying what message will connect best with your target market is the next step for you.
3/ Process – Marketing and selling your front end product should be treated as a multi step process. You need to know what steps you want to lead them through from the moment they receive your message to the point where they say YES to your front end product. Design out the steps in the process.
4/ Numbers – Next you need to know the numbers involved in selling your front end product. So you will want to track the average cost to acquire a lead, and the cost to acquire each new customer. The key in developing your Optimal Selling Strategy is to be able to acquire a new customer and fulfill the product at a price point that enables you to break even. If you can do this then you continue to market your front end product. So you want to keep score of the numbers in marketing your front end product.
5/ Test & Measure – As you develop your Optimal Selling Strategy for your front end product you will want to test and measure every step of the process. You need to continue to refine your approach. This means you will need to keep tweaking different aspects of your Optimal Selling Strategy in order to optimise its overall performance.
Once you have developed your Optimal Selling Strategy you will want to focus all of your efforts and resources to making as many sales of your front end product as you possibly can. By doing so you will be acquiring a large database of customer and clients who will be more willing to invest in your highed dollar value products and services.
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