02.06.10

How do I launch a product and/or create a buzz without annoying people?

Posted in General at 10:14 am EST by Michele PW

This is a great question. And the answer is you can’t. BUT there are steps you can take to minimize annoying people.

First, let me explain why it’s impossible to create a buzz/launch a product without annoying some people. If you want people to buy from you, you need to ask for the sale. And if they don’t want to buy from you, eventually they will get annoyed with you asking for the sale. (Buying is an emotional process, so the only way you’re going to get people interested in buying in the first place is if you push a few emotional buttons.)

But if you don’t ask for the sale (and you need to do it more frequently now because people are hanging on to their money tighter) you won’t get as many sales. So you have to decide what your threshold is in terms of annoying people or making sales.

Now, there ARE steps you can take to keep the annoyance to a minimum. If you provide high quality information during your launch and if you’re honest with people when you contact them (in other words, no more “my server crashed so if you couldn’t get in, that’s why and you should try now” unless your server really DID crash.) Give them good, honest reasons for contacting them and it won’t be nearly as annoying to them.

If you more information on how to create and execute a successful product launch, join me for my free preview call – “3 Simple Secrets To Launching Your Next Product or Program and Hearing Ka-Ching in Your Business” at Noon Pacific on Feb 17. Here’s the link so you can sign up: www.michelepw.com/launch/

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02.03.10

What Marketing Can Do For You

Posted in General at 8:37 am EST by Michele PW

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What Marketing Can Do For You (And No, the Answer Isn’t Everything)

While marketing is as close to a magic button we have (think the Staples Easy Button) to transforming your business, it’s still not an actual magic button.

So I thought I would clear up some misconceptions about marketing in this two-part series: What Marketing Can Do For You and What Marketing Can’t Do For You. We’ll start with the positive.

Over the years, I’ve had dealings with some business owners who have a rather skewed perception of marketing. They think you throw a few ads out there, get a couple of press releases printed and voila! You’re a big success.

Oh, if it only were that easy. (Although if it were, I probably wouldn’t have a job.)

But there’s no getting around that to have a successful business, you need a solid marketing plan.

So what CAN marketing do for you? Increase your business – no question about it. You need to be marketing if you want to grow your business.

However (and this is a really big however) marketing is NOT going to result in overnight success. Marketing is about slow growth, building on last week’s success and forgetting about last month’s failures. (Or what you THINK are failures. It’s not uncommon that a campaign you think is a dismal disappointment may be what caused the next campaign to take off.)

Marketing is about frequency — about your target market seeing your offer over and over again until they’re finally ready to buy. Without that very important frequency, your business will start to stagnate and eventually die.

Now that doesn’t mean you won’t have a major success with a campaign. Even a massive, amazing, unbelievable success. You’ll run one ad or be featured in an article and wham! You end up with more orders than you know what to do with. While that’s a great shot in the arm, it probably won’t last unless you keep building upon it. Eventually the orders will dry up and you’ll be back to where you were before.

Marketing is also about being consistent. This goes back to building on successes. Your customers need to see your message over and over again. This builds trust and credibility. Plus, your current customers will also respond to that frequency. Not only will they not “forget” about you and go to your competitor, but it will help build their trust in you as well.

Lastly, marketing is about working hard. There’s no getting around it. To be successful means putting in the time and energy to continually market yourself. (You can also pay someone to help you with it, but basically it comes down to someone somewhere has to put in the time to continually market you.)

If you remember nothing else, remember this: If you don’t implement your marketing strategies, nothing is going to happen.

That last sentence seems obvious, but again, I’m amazed at how many people I run into who aren’t willing to do the work. They talk about it, but when it actually comes down to doing something, they somehow never seem to get around to it.

One way to overcome that is to plan on doing one task or a little marketing every day. Then it doesn’t seem quite so overwhelming. Me, I make a commitment to do X number of marketing tasks a week, regardless of how much time that takes.

Marketing is a commitment. There’s no getting around it. If you have a business, then you have no choice but to make a commitment to marketing on a consistent basis until the day comes when you decide you don’t want a business anymore.

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01.30.10

Do you have a question on product launches?

Posted in General at 10:21 am EST by Michele PW

Are you planning on doing a product launch in 2010? I’d love to get your biggest question about how to create and/or execute a successful product launch. Here’s the link to give me your question:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VT2QGQX

I’m going to be hosting a preview call on Feb. 18 where I’ll be answering all your questions about product launches. Stay tuned for more details!

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01.23.10

Do those long-copy sales letters actually work?

Posted in Copywriting at 10:42 am EST by Michele PW

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This is one of those questions I get ALL the time.

“I never read those long-copy sales letters. They can’t possibly work, can they?”

“MY target market doesn’t read those long-copy sales letters, they want shorter letters.”

“I can’t imagine anyone reading that much.”

And so on.

Okay, before I get around to answering the question, let me quickly explain what a long-copy sales letter is. It’s those sales letters that are dotted across the web where you have to scroll down and down and down before you finally find the price.

Yeah. You know the ones.

So do they work? Yes they do — IF they’re done right.

Here’s the thing. The reason they work is NOT because they’re long. Length doesn’t equal sales. What DOES equal sales is if you properly answer all of your ideal client’s questions and objections and demonstrate your product/service/program will solve your ideal client’s problems.

And all that takes words. How many words depends on how expensive an investment your solution is.

Think of a conversation. Let’s say it takes you 30 minutes to have a sales call with a prospect. Well, if you take that call and transcribe it, it’s going to be around 10 pages long depending on how fast you talk. And that’s just one person.

Now you have a call with another person selling the same program. That person asks different questions, but it’s still 30 minutes. Now you have 20 pages worth of transcripts.

Are you starting to see how the long-copy sales letter gets so long?

Granted you’re probably not going to hear completely different questions time after time. But you can see how the pages will start to add up. (The reality is, a sales letter is actually much shorter than any of your one-on-one sales calls.)

Okay, so now you understand how these letters get so long. But what about the whole “you-don’t-read-them-or-your-ideal-clients-don’t-read-them?” Well, I have 2 reasons why that happens:

1. You’re not the ideal client. I don’t care how great or how poor the sales letter is, if you’re not the ideal client, you’re going to have very little interest in reading the letter. (And here’s the kicker — reading is a hypnotic activity, which means you don’t remember when you ARE reading but you DO remember when you don’t finish something. So you’re going to remember all those half-read sales letters much more clearly than the ones you actually finish.)

2. The sales letter is poorly written. This is probably even more common than the first one. Look, you can’t bore anyone into buying anything. And there are a lot of people who don’t understand the long-copy sales letter, so they simply throw a lot of words on the page and hope for the best. That is NOT how to write a sales letter. You need to connect with your ideal client and do it in such a way that they feel compelled to keep reading. A whole bunch of words ain’t going to make the sale (especially a whole bunch of boring words that don’t inspire anyone to do anything).

Bottom line — studies have shown over and over again that long-copy sales letters sell more then shorter sales letter. (Just as long as they’re well written.) So, even if you don’t completely understand it, don’t worry about it. Give your ideal clients what they want to make a decision to invest with you — a well-written, interesting long-copy sales letter.

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01.16.10

Is it possible to sell without being sales-y?

Posted in General at 8:25 am EST by Michele PW

The short answer? Yes and no.

Now before you click away and say “boy that wasn’t helpful” let me explain what I meant.

Yes you CAN sell without feeling inauthentic or hype-y or like you need to take a shower. I regularly create copy that does this for myself and my clients. The trick is to connect with your ideal clients on a deep level (more on that in a moment).

But why I said no is because you STILL have to ask for the sale. There’s really no way to get around that. And depending on how sensitive you are, asking for the sale might still feel very uncomfortable for you.

Now, back to connecting to your ideal clients on a deep level. I’m going to be going into this topic in much more detail during Leesa Barnes’ Last Ever Social Media Telesummit (check out http://www.michelepw.com/sms2010 for more info) but let me give you a tip here to get you started.

Answer this question — in your ideal client’s words (not YOUR words, that’s the key here) — “what’s keeping your ideal client up at night and why?”

You may want to take some time and journal about it to really capture what your ideal client is thinking and feeling.

And if you want to learn more about this, make sure you check out Leesa Barnes’ Last Ever Social Media Summit — http://www.michelepw.com/sms2010. It’s starting this coming week. Would love to see you there!

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01.08.10

Business Success — Are You Playing to Win or Playing Not to Lose?

Posted in Business at 1:11 pm EST by Michele PW

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You may have heard the phrase “playing to win or playing not to lose.” And while it sounds good to say “you’re playing to win” in your business, what exactly does that really mean?

Okay, well first off, let’s define these phrases. To me, playing to win means playing all out. Going for broke. Leaving nothing on the table. You’re putting everything out there to win and holding nothing back.

Playing not to lose means holding something back. Being conservative. Taking some of your chips off the table. Making sure if you don’t win, you minimize your losses.

Now is there a time for each of these? Of course. Playing not to lose makes a lot of sense in certain situations. Vegas for instance. Betting your retirement on a spin of the roulette wheel isn’t real bright. (Even if by some miraculous chance it works, it’s still not too bright.)

And if that’s the way you want to approach your business and your life (playing not to lose) then there’s nothing wrong with it. You can still be successful playing not to lose.

But typically, if that’s your approach, you’re not going to play as big as you could be. And you’re probably not going to make the kind of money you’re capable of.

So how do you know if you’re playing to win or playing not to lose? Well, here are a few signs.

Playing to win in your business:

* You take risks (and a lot of those risks other people just don’t “get”). Maybe you invest in a high end coaching program or mentorship. Maybe you decide to launch a product that looks on the outside to be a bad idea. Maybe you decide to expand and hire a team even though you really can’t afford it right now.

* You take advantage of opportunities even if they don’t appear to be a good idea on the surface.

* You turn down opportunities even if on the surface they look perfect. (Ah, didn’t think I’d say that, did you?)

* You make decisions from the place you want to be, not necessarily the place you’re at now. (Even if that’s a really scary place to be.)

Playing not to lose in your business:

* You make decisions based on what you can afford rather than what you need. Okay, a caveat here. I’m NOT saying you should spend your life savings or go into massive debt with no way of paying it off. What I AM saying is sometimes you have to take a risk. For instance, hiring team members. What happens a lot of time is you need the help desperately but you don’t quite have the cash flow. If you never take that first step and hire someone, even on a small basis, you’ll never free yourself up to start making more money.

* You’re ultra careful about the risks you take (or you don’t take risks at all)

* You probably aren’t marketing as much as you should be because deep down inside, you don’t want your business to grow very big (after all, you’d start to lose control of it if it did grow to big). Or you aren’t marketing as much because what if it doesn’t work? What if you make this big public splash with your marketing and it fails? It’s bad enough it doesn’t work but now everyone will know it.

* You don’t try a lot of new things — speaking, marketing, etc.

Now, I want to be clear. There’s nothing wrong with playing not to lose, but chances are you WILL be playing small. You’re going to miss opportunities to get your message and vision out in a big way. You’re not going to take chances where you might fall on your face (especially if you fall on your face in a public way).

But, if you decide to play to win, the rules change. Sure you might fall flat on your face in a public way. But you also could be growing a business that makes a huge difference in the world (not to mention makes you a handsome income to boot).

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01.03.10

Do those sales letters really need to be so long?

Posted in General at 9:46 pm EST by Michele PW

Ah, this is THE number 1 question I get asked. “Do you really need all those words on a long sales letter? I never read those long sales letters, do they actually work?

The short answer is “yes.” (See, direct response copywriters CAN be brief.) And no, it’s not because I can charge all sorts of money the longer they get. It’s because yes, long sales letters actually make more sales than shorter ones.

Why do they work? Well, it’s because people have a lot of questions when they’re deciding whether to buy something or not. And if you don’t answer all those questions to their satisfaction they’re not going to plunk down the money.

Think of it this way. You’re on the phone with a prospective client. Let’s say it takes 30 minutes to explain what you’re selling so they feel comfortable enough to buy. Now imagine you’ve transcribed that 30 minute call. That’s at least 20 pages of text. 20 pages. And it’s only for one person. What about the next person? Sure some of the questions will be the same but there will also be different questions.

And, the more expensive product/service you’re selling, the more questions your prospective clients will have. And the longer on the phone you’ll be with them (hence longer copy). That’s why you see more copy for more expensive programs.

So when you look at it that way, sales letters are actually much shorter than you’d expect. You need to answer as many questions and overcome as many objections as possible for as many different prospects as possible. And using a sales letter you can probably do it more efficiently than being on the phone with them.

If you want to learn more about this along with other tips on how to write online copy that sells your brilliance so you make more money with less effort, then you need to join me on January 6. I’m going to be hosting a special Q&A call with my business partner Lisa Cherney, the Juicy Marketing Expert, answering all your questions.  (Just in time to start making money in 2010!) Here’s the link to learn more and reserve your space: http://bigmoneyonlinesecrets.com

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12.26.09

How do you write sales letters so they don’t sound so hype-y?

Posted in General at 8:52 am EST by Michele PW

As a direct response copywriter this is a question I get asked a lot. And I completely get it. After all, so many sales letters and emails sound so inauthentic and hype-y, (not to mention just plain badly written) why WOULD you want to sound like them?

So how do you write a sales letter that doesn’t sound hype-y and yet still makes you money? The answer is actually very simple – you need to make a connection with your ideal clients.

You see, the more you connect with what’s keeping your ideal clients’ up at night, the more you provide a solution to that, the more you speak to your ideal clients in their language and talk to them about issues that concern them, the more persuasive your sales letters and emails will be. Best yet, they also won’t sound hype-y because you’ll be connecting to them on a deeper level then just screaming things like “make more money” or “lose 100 pounds in a month.”

If you want to learn more about this along with other tips on how to write online copy that sells your brilliance so you make more money with less effort, then you need to join me on January 6. I’m going to be hosting a special Q&A call with my business partner Lisa Cherney, the Juicy Marketing Expert, answering all your questions.  (Just in time to start making money in 2010!) Here’s the link to learn more and reserve your space: http://bigmoneyonlinesecrets.com

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12.24.09

What Ohio State Football can Teach You About Your Business

Posted in Business at 1:49 pm EST by Michele PW

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If you follow college football, you’ve probably run across Ohio State a time or two. Their football program is very old and very prestigious.

But I’m still cringing at the thought of watching them get beaten by Oregon at the Rose Bowl. (Yes I’m fairly certain they’ll lose although I do hope I’m wrong.) As a Big Ten fan, I’m really tired of watching Ohio State get hammered in these big, national games.

(Of course, if MY team, the Wisconsin Badgers, would ever actually beat them in conference, maybe all of this would be different but I digress.)

For the life of me I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Why did Ohio State win so darn many games only to consistently embarrass the Big Ten in big out-of-conference games? Jim Tressel is an excellent coach. Isn’t he?

Well, this year I finally got my answer. Yes Jim Tressel is an excellent coach. But he plays not to lose. He doesn’t play to win.

And that, my friends, is why he loses the big games. Because those teams come to win. And Tressel is coming not to lose. (And that’s why he’s probably gong to lose to Oregon at the Rose Bowl because Oregon has been playing to win all season.)

So what exactly does it mean to play not to lose? Well it means playing very conservatively. You punt the ball rather than going for it on 4th and short. You go for the field goal rather than the touchdown. You build very strong defenses. You commit very few penalties. You have a very well coached team.

It also means you don’t take chances. You don’t have quarterbacks that heave the ball down the field in broken plays that can result in an interception or an 80-yard touchdown. You also don’t win a lot of shootouts. And if your game plan isn’t working, you don’t have a lot of options because winging it isn’t something you do.

And you’re also pretty uninteresting to watch. (Sorry Buckeye fans but it’s true.)

Now, can you win games playing not to lose? Absolutely. Tressel has a very respectable record. (Much better than my Badgers.) He’s won the Big Ten Title nearly every year.

The problem happens when he gets to the big games. Now I’m not a coach nor did I ever play football but I do watch a lot of it and here’s what I think happens. If you’re not able to prevent Ohio from executing their game plan, you’re toast. If Ohio can execute their game plan, they’re going to do it very well and probably beat you.

But, if you throw a wrench in that game plan, if you throw them off, well then Ohio has a problem. They’re not good at improvising nor do they take chances. And if you don’t take a chance, especially when the chips are down, you’re probably not going to win those games.

So what about you? Are you playing not to lose or are you playing to win? Sure you can do well playing not to lose, but you’re never going to play as big of a game as you could be. Play to win, sure you might fall on your face from time to time but you’ll probably end up playing bigger than you ever thought possible.

So what does it mean to play to win or play not to lose? I’ll talk about that more in next week’s article.

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12.15.09

What’s your biggest question about how to write online copy that sells your brilliance so you make more money with less effort?

Posted in General at 9:02 am EST by Michele PW

Well it’s that time of year again where we spend time putting together our goals for the new year. One of my goals is to help as many entrepreneurs as possible reach THEIR financial goals. So, in order to help you better, I’d love to get your response to this question:

What’s your biggest question about how to write online copy that sells your brilliance so you make more money with less effort?

Click here to let me know your question: http://budurl.com/JOMEB

And, on January 6, I’m going to be hosting a special Q&A call with my business partner Lisa Cherney, the Juicy Marketing Expert, answering all your questions.  (Just in time to start making money in 2010!)

It will only take a few minutes of your time, I’d love to get your feedback. Here’s that link again:

Click here to let me know your question: http://budurl.com/JOMEB

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12.07.09

When Bad Things Happen to Good Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

Posted in General, PodCast at 9:58 am EST by Michele PW

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It’s an unfortunate fact of life (and business). Out of the blue you get a nasty email from someone. Sometimes it’s about an article you’ve written. Sometimes it’s accompanied by a refund request. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like it’s tied to anything at all.

Or maybe you discover someone writing malicious things about you on a blog or a forum. Or maybe some other negative things suddenly start getting tweeted or posted to Facebook about you, your products or your business.

Stuff happens. As a business owner and entrepreneur, the more successful you become, the more you open yourself up to criticism, negative feedback or just plain being attacked.

As someone who is both a writer AND a business owner, I know all about what happens when you’re dealing with unwelcome criticism. (I write fiction so yes, I’ve dealt with my share of negative feedback.) But if this is something new for you, or even if it’s not new but you’re feeling like you’ve just been sucker-punched by something out of the blue, I thought I’d share a few insights to help you get through it.

1. Know you’re not alone. We’ve ALL been there. And I mean exactly that. It doesn’t matter how small or big your business is, stuff like this is going to happen. So know that no matter what just happened to you, there are a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners out there who will both sympathize and emphasize.

2. See it for what it is. All criticism is not created equally. Sometimes what someone is saying has absolutely nothing to do with you and everything to do with their own issues. Sometimes they have a legitimate complaint but the person is so unhappy with their own life they blow it completely out of portion because they just want to strike out at someone and you’re the one they picked.

And sometimes they have a legitimate beef AND they handled it fine, but you just didn’t want to hear it. An example of this is some of the criticism I’ve gotten from some of my stories. The people were thoughtful and absolutely right. And I hated them. (Until I got over myself and slunk back to the keyboard to make the edits.)

Now the third option doesn’t happen too often (unless you’re a fiction writer) but the first two do. You just have to see it for what it is. If there’s something buried in the anger and name-calling you can use to improve your products, services or business, by all means use it. But know the rest of it has absolutely nothing to do with you and everything to do with them.

(And you’ll know when the criticism is right. Trust me. Your gut will tell you.)

3. Be kind to yourself. When these things happen, it can hurt. And that’s okay. Call a friend. Or better yet, your mother (if you can). Write about it in your journal. Take a walk. Don’t bury your feelings, let yourself feel bad and then let it go. Don’t tell yourself it doesn’t matter and let it fester inside you, deal with it. Get it out of you. And then let it go.

4. Let someone else deal with these things. Whenever possible, have someone else in your business be a filter for stuff like this. Let other people take care of refund requests or just read the nasty emails and they can decide if there’s a legitimate complaint buried in there or not. Protect yourself, there’s no need for you to see everything or deal with everything. Yes you’ll have to step in if something big happens, but let other people take care of the small stuff. The small stuff is what wears you down anyway. Save yourself for the big things and don’t worry about the rest.

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11.20.09

3 Ways Gratitude Can Grow Your Business

Posted in General at 8:01 am EST by Michele PW

I love Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday. Family, food, friends and football thrown in for good measure. But I digress.

What I REALLY like about Thanksgiving is it’s about giving thanks. And I think gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions out there. Why is it so powerful? Because it has the capacity to change your life.

My business and life are going great right now, better than I had planned, but it hasn’t always been that way. There were plenty of times where things were looking pretty bleak. During one particularly bleak time, a friend told me to just start listing everything I had in my life to be grateful for. Now, when things are looking pretty bad, in can be easy to say “everything sucks, I have nothing to be grateful for.” But, if we’re honest, we know that isn’t true. There’s always something, no matter how small, that is in your life you can be grateful for, and sometimes you just need to take a step back to see it.

What’s so amazing about gratitude is it’s so simple yet it has so much power – in fact, it’s so powerful it can start turning things around for you. Now, granted, being grateful all by itself will probably not turn a sinking business into a profitable one. But, it CAN be the catalyst to a transformation.

Why does this work? Well, if you’re a fan of the Secret and law of attraction, you’ve heard the phrase “what you focus on expands.” So if you focus on all the things you’re grateful for instead of all the things that aren’t working, the universe will bring you more things to be grateful for and less of the things that aren’t working.

Now, while I do think this is true, I also know a lot of people do not believe this or don’t think it’s true for them. So, might I suggest another, more practical reason, for why gratitude works — because it makes you feel better.

Yes, if you start to think about all the wonderful things that are in your life and that you have to be grateful for, things don’t look quite so bleak. You’re able to break, even for just a few moments, the funk you might have sunk into. And, with that improved mindset, you most likely can see your situation a bit more clearer and start coming up with some solutions (and maybe even take some actions) to get yourself out of it.

But gratitude isn’t just about when things are going wrong, it’s also powerful when things are going right. When you’re on top of the world, it’s still an amazing practice to give thanks. If nothing else, it gives you a moment to fully appreciate how wonderful things are right now. (And isn’t that a nice feeling to enjoy?)

So, how do you start adding a practice of gratitude to your life? Here are 3 tips to get you started:

1. Feelings are important. It’s not enough to just think about being grateful, you have to feel grateful as well. When you think about all the things you’re grateful for, really feel that gratitude throughout your body. Focus on it, and feel it radiate everywhere, from your fingers to your toes. Another tip is to imagine you have a dial in front of you, and when you turn up that dial you’re amplifying that emotion. It only takes a few moments to do, but the results are amazing. Try it and see if you don’t feel so much better afterwards.

2. Write it down. My coach, Melanie Benson Strick, Success Connections, has a great daily journal which includes a space to write 5 things you’re grateful for each day. Writing is a physical activity, so again you’re anchoring that gratitude feeling in your body. If you’re really struggling right now, I would suggest taking a few minutes and writing down everything you’re grateful for each day.

3. Put out a reminder. My grandfather gave me a stuffed bear. But not just any stuffed bear, this bear has a little button on it and a story. The story is a bit longer than what I want to get into now, but the gist of it is this — the bear comes from a magical land and represents an emotion. When you push the button and give it a hug, the emotion is released. My particular bear is about love. I’ve put the bear out so I can see it every day, and when I see it, it reminds me to be grateful. (And yes, sometimes I push the button and give it a hug as well.)

I agree, it’s a little silly. But it works. And if there’s something you can put out that reminds you to be grateful, then it’s an easy way to make being grateful a daily part of your routine.

It only takes a few minutes, but the results can be amazing. I challenge all of you to try it for 30 days and see if your business and your life start to improve.

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11.13.09

Is Your Timing Keeping You From Being Successful In Your Business? Part 3

Posted in Business, PodCast at 12:58 pm EST by Michele PW

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Is Your Timing Keeping You From Being Successful In Your Business? Part 3

Last couple of issues I talked about how either moving too fast or too slow can sabotage your success. (You can read part 1 and 2 here: http://www.michelepw.com/blog ) Today I’m going to talk about a place where entrepreneurs typically move too fast — launching their product.

I know. You just finished your product or program and you can’t wait to start selling it. In fact, if you could, you’d start selling it yesterday!

And it’s agonizing waiting to launch your product. You want to be making money NOW, not waiting for weeks or months before you actually see any income. Plus you want to get it into the hands of your ideal clients, they NEED what you’re selling. So who has time to sit around waiting to promote? Just get a sales letter up and start selling it, right?

Okay here’s the thing. There’s a reason why product launches work and there’s a reason why you reach more people (and make more money) if you control yourself and do it right.

What’s that reason? Urgency.

You see, probably the biggest reason why your ideal clients decide not to buy is lack of urgency. They may like the product, they may know they need it, they may like YOU. And I bet they even INTEND to buy — just not right now. Right now they have a million other things going on and a bunch of other things they’re spending money on but in a few months or a year they will have the time or money to “finally” invest.

Well, we all know how that works out.

The more time and energy you spend building up buzz for your product, the more you’ll start creating that urgency. And the more you’ve built that urgency into your ideal clients’ minds, the more likely they’ll buy (and USE) your product, thus getting the results they want.

So it’s a win-win. You win because you get your product into the world while being paid handsomely for it, and your ideal clients win because they get the help they need to solve their problem.

So how much time should you allow for a product launch? Well it depends on the launch. There are a variety of launch systems out there, and depending on what you want to accomplish (and who your ideal clients are) dictates your launch. But here are some guidelines to get you started:

If you’re doing a straight teleclass launch (i.e. a preview call that sells the product or program) I would allow a minimum of a 2 weeks before the preview call. (Note, if you want to get affiliates involved you’ll need to allow a lot more time to plan. The more time you give your affiliates to put in their promotional calendars, the more likely you’ll get them to actually promote.)

If you’re doing more of a “release a special report and/or video” which teases the product by providing information, then you’ll need 4-6 weeks. Those take a little longer to get the viral aspect going. Because a preview call has a “date” when the call is, there’s built-in urgency, but a special report or video doesn’t necessarily have that.

If you want to use surveys or a contest, you might be able to do it in a couple of weeks but it would help if you had a little longer (2 weeks to do the survey then 2 weeks to do something with the results of the survey).

Remember these are minimum times AND these are how much time to actually PROMOTE. No, you don’t have 2 weeks to write a squeeze page, once the squeeze page if up, you need at least 2 weeks to promote. If you wanted to add a couple of weeks to do some other promotions, that’s never a bad idea. (Remember, the more you promote the more urgency you build and the more your ideal clients will want to buy.)

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10.28.09

Is Your Timing Keeping You From Being Successful In Your Business? Part 2

Posted in Business, PodCast at 4:51 am EDT by Michele PW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Last week I talked about how either moving too fast or too slow can sabotage your success. (You can read part 1 here: http://www.michelepw.com/blog ) Today I’m going to talk about a place where entrepreneurs typically move too slow — creating products or programs.

Does this sound familiar? You’ve been working on your book or your program or product for several months or maybe even years. You’re close to finishing — you just have one or two more things to do. Of course, every time you finish those one or two things, one or two more things crop up. It’s never ending.

If this does sound familiar, you’re not alone. I know many, many entrepreneurs (including myself) who have taken longer than necessary to complete their products. The reasons vary but many fall into the “perfectionist” camp. You take pride in your work. You want your product to be perfect. You want your customers to love your product and get a lot out of it. There’s nothing wrong with that, right?

Well, there is when it prevents you from actually bringing your product to market. Think about it — if the conclusion isn’t quite right or there are a few missed typos, is that going to REALLY take away from the experience of your product? Or the results your customers will get?

Of course not. But we’re so fixated on it being perfect we can’t get past that.

Now the advice many successful business owners share when you’re in this situation is something along the lines of “good enough is good enough” (meaning your product doesn’t have to be perfect, just get it to a good product and then get it to market) or “taking imperfect action” (which also basically means get the darn thing out the door even if it is imperfect). I agree with both of these statements, but the problem is what happens when you know this and you STILL need to get that “one more thing done?”

I think there are a couple of deeper issues around perfectionism. (And depending on how deep the issues are depends on how quickly you can push through them.) Let me explain.

When we create a product it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking the product is an extension of ourselves. So any flaws or mistakes or criticism of the product suddenly takes on way more importance than it ought to be. Because any problems with the product, anything that is lacking in the product, is actually a problem or a lack with us personally.

In addition to that (if that wasn’t hard enough to get past) there’s also a little question of value. If you don’t value yourself, your gifts, your brilliance, what you bring to the world, then how are you going to value a product you created? And if you don’t value your product, when will it ever be “good enough” to sell?

So what happens if you find yourself relating to one or both of these issues? Well, you need to take a step back and do some deeper work on yourself. Hiring a coach or taking a program that gets at the core of what you’re struggling with — whether it’s valuing yourself, valuing your brilliance or accepting yourself (warts and all) is crucial to helping you push through your blocks and getting your products finished and selling. Here are a few recommendations for business coaches to get you started:

Melanie Benson Strick http://www.successconnections.com

Deborah M. Dubree http://www.yourclearedge.com

Carolyn Ellis http://www.brilliancemastery.com

Therese Skelly http://www.acceleratingyoursuccess.com

Kendall SummerHawk http://www.kendallsummerhawk.com

If you want to do something right now, try journaling about it. See what comes up for you and what your next steps should be.

Next week we’re going to look at the next step — racing through your product launch now that you’ve finally gotten your product done.

See you next week!

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10.17.09

Is Your Timing Keeping You From Being Successful In Your Business?

Posted in Business, PodCast at 9:55 pm EDT by Michele PW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

After being in business for as long as I have, there’s one thing that never fails to amaze me — the capacity entrepreneurs have to sabotage their own success. (Not to mention how creative those ways can be.) While there’s about a million ways this manifests itself, here’s one way I see popping up over and over again.

And that’s timing.

What do I mean by timing? I mean either entrepreneurs are moving too slow, and thus miss opportunities to make money, or they move too fast and are reckless and miss out on opportunities that way.

What’s interesting about timing is it’s not as clear cut as “one person moves too slow and one person moves too fast.” What I actually see is entrepreneurs move BOTH too fast AND too slow. They just do it at the wrong times.

And where do I see this happen the most? When they’re planning to launch a new product or program.

Here’s what typically happens — people will move WAY too slowly creating the product or program and will move WAY too fast to launch it. With the end result being they miss out on opportunities on both sides — it takes them forever to actually get thing done (so they’ve missed out on money selling the product or program) and then they rush through the launch like they have a bunch of hungry vampires chasing them and they don’t make nearly the sales they could have.

What REALLY should be happening is they should move quickly creating the product then slow down while launching it. That way, they get the best of both worlds — they get the product or program to market faster and can start profiting from it sooner, and they take their time to work through ALL the launch steps so they wring as many sales as possible during the launch.

Now, there are variations of this. I have met people who are slow during the product creation AND launch, just like I’ve met people who whip through both as well. (And then there’s another group of people who either never get their product done or they finish products and never actually get around to launching them.) All of these are sabotaging techniques, which is part of the reason why this is far more complex problem then would initially appear on the surface.

So if you suspect you might struggle with one or several of the above, what can you do? How can you stop it? And how much time do you REALLY need to launch? Well, I’m going to answer all those questions over the next 2 newsletters. Next week we’ll look at why it takes some entrepreneurs so darn long to finish their product and how they can speed up the process, and the week after we’ll cover racing through the launch process.

See you next week!

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