… does this mean I won’t catch the worm?
This is a post about why I’m not doing early bird pricing for my upcoming website course (more here). This is also a non tech related post, unusual for me. I usually like to tell you about nice, logical things that you can do to make your business run smoothly but today I’m taking a step out of my comfort zone and I’m talking about SELLING.
Since setting up my own business one area I’ve had to work really hard at is sales. I’m a natural persuader, ask anyone who’s been in a boardroom with me, but when I have to ask for money it’s a different matter. I become a bit of a bumbling fool and find it hard to ask for a sale. I’ve improved a lot, I’ve taken courses, I’ve worked hard to understand how sales ‘work’. And I get it. I get what makes people buy things and honestly, a lot of the time I still feel pretty icky about it.
This puts me in a tricky situation. I obviously need to sell things for my business to work but I don’t feel comfortable with the methods that are so often used to sell. I’m pleased to say I’m not the only one who feels this way and an email from the lovely Cathy Ballard earlier this year made me sit up and listen. What if I just decided to do it my way? What if I just did what felt right for me and then found out if it worked. Then Holly Worton joined the voices, talking about finding your own way of marketing and has done some great Webinars on the subject. Even though Cathy and Holly have businesses that are very different from mine (they are quite heavy on the woo woo and I’m pretty squarely in the land of logic) they talk
So I’ve been thinking… what do I not want to do?
I don’t want to add bonuses to make it look like my offer is more than it is. I see this a lot, bonuses worth $100s tacked on to make you feel like you are getting more for your money, so you can justify the purchase. I’ve got two great ‘bonuses’. These are things that will really help you get the most from the course but which I don’t deliver myself. That feels like a real bonus! Hooray.
I also don’t want to set fake deadlines for sign up. I don’t have a problem with an early bird price for an event where there is an upfront cost to the organiser. If you are paying a deposit it’s reasonable to sell some tickets early on to get your deposit covered and so the early bird works there. Also if you were producing a product and wanted to help finance the production by offering reduced prices for pre-orders. It falls down for me for online courses where I don’t see the reason behind it. You are just being persuaded to sign up sooner for no real reason. So I’m not doing that! Phew, sigh of relief.
To be completely clear here, I’m not on some crusade against anyone who does any of the above. Or even people who use really heavy handed sales techniques. I just want to do it my own way. I talk about everyone building a business system that suits them and not the crowd and then ignore my own advice.
And so I will wait and see. Signups close for the course on Friday the 27th October at 6pm. I’ll let you know how it goes!