What? Teaching Sells sold out in 12 hours? (Or was it six hours?) Either way, they sold out three quarters of a million dollars in products in less than a day?
Makes you wonder… How do “they” do that?
Earlier this year in my article, “7 Necessaries for Filling a Course” [make this a live link], under the subhead “Allowing More Time Than You Think,” I wrote:
“Often it takes more time than one imagines to make a significant decision. For instance, Holly and I have been thinking about signing up for a baby sign-language class since before the boys were born. We finally signed up a week ago, because they were old enough, and because we mused about it for months, years even, while trying to learn from books.
“If this is the first time you are launching your course, in many ways it’s actually marketing for next year’s or next season’s course.
“We’ve failed to sell out our Path to Profitability, although we’ve had some very healthy numbers (18+ people the last two years), because of this factor. It just takes a good long while for people to make space in their schedule to come to a five-day retreat.
“And, please note, it’s mid-May, and I’m beginning to mention the retreat right now, and it happens in November. And I still think I’m late on the lead time. We’ll see what happens.”
Am I totally wrong about how long it takes people to decide? Our retreat doesn’t sell out previously with two months notice, but Teaching Sells totally blows it out of the water in six hours? These folks just open the doors, the crowds come rushing in, where was the decision-making time about this one?
Christmas in Season
The week before Christmas at my parents’ former retail store (they sold it recently, I’ll write about that on the blog) they would see lines that reached to the back of the building. It was a mob scene all day long for days, and sales were often double or triple the usual amount.
And all of that came from just a few emails the week before. There wasn’t a big buildup in their marketing campaign. The people read the emails, and they came in, in hordes.
Yeah right. You and I both know that it’s foolish to believe that the few emails my father sent out could have created that buying frenzy. It was the Christmas season, and folks here in the United States have been conditioned for decades to go out and buy lots of stuff the week before Christmas for presents and for parties.
The emails just reminded them where to go, but they were going anyway. All those people had already decided that they were going to be buying something that week.
Christmas in September
The Teaching Sells $750,000 one-day launch was years in the making. Brian Clark, Teaching Sells co-founder, runs one of the most popular blogs in the world, with tens of thousands of readers. He’s been around for years. People have gotten to know him over those years.
What’s more, this is not the first launch for Teaching Sells. It first launched on October 29, 2007, with an initial “try it for a week and see” price of $1. Yup, just a buck.
In two years, the price went from an initial “check things out” price to $1500.
Read that sentence again. In two years. During that time, the crew at Teaching Sells delivered top notch content, built up relationships, and in general did a great job of spreading the word.
The Issue Is Self-Care
Many heart-centered business folks are givers. We want to help people. And so, because we focus so much on wanting to help people wanting to show up in that space with a client in need, it’s easy for us to not give as much attention to ourself or our business.
When you launch something, whether it’s a program, a class, or a product, it’s a birth. It requires a lot to prepare, to be ready for it, and it requires a lot of care once it arrives.
And that’s okay. Because your launch is a vehicle for love and caring, it deserves that time and attention. It really does.
Take a moment right now to breathe. If you’re contemplating or already working on something to be launched, ask the heart of your business: Is it okay to give it the attention it needs to succeed?
The Other Issue Is Build-Up
Whether you are running an eight week promotional campaign for a course, with the early-bird deadline at the six week mark; or you are building up anticipation over eight weeks and then opening the door for sales at the end of the promotion, the game is basically the same.
In the first scenario, people hear about the course over time, and then decide before a deadline. In the second scenario, people hear about the course over time, and then decide on a deadline.
Of course, it must be really fun to build up that kind of anticipation and see a whole bunch of excited clients rush through the doors in a few hours. That’s generally what happens when we hit the early-bird deadlines in our promotions. About half the people trickle in, and then the other bum rush the doors at the deadline.
3 a.m. Feedings
I know, I know, it’s a lot. Especially when you just want to work with clients. Our twin boys are ten months old, and I need more naps than I can get to.
One fun thing about launches and children is, although they take a lot of up-front work, eventually they grow up, go out into the world, and you get to enjoy the good stuff, without having to change poopy diapers any more.
Here’s the difference between children and launches: children take eighteen years to grow up, launches don’t take nearly that long.
Although there’s plenty to do in a launch, let me give you some of what you need to do to make it successful. It’s true that we’ve never had a quarter of million dollar launch, but we’ve had our share of $30K launches, so perhaps it might work for you.
Keys to the Launch
- Build Up Relationships
If you have the Three Journeys of Marketing working in your business, then you are already growing a list of people who trust you and will buy easily when you offer.
However, a launch can be even more effective if you have others who are willing to promote to their own community. A big part of why our Heart of Money course launch was so successful is because we had several dozen people who trusted us, and were willing to tell their people about it.
How many people? All told, probably about 100,000. Makes it a little easier to sell 80 of something when you have a crowd that big.
And the effectiveness is a million times better than advertising. You could advertise and get in front of 100,000 to 1,000,000 people that won’t listen to you. But get two dozen folks who have the earned trust and ears of those 100,000 people, and suddenly those numbers mean something.
- You Need a Left Brain
There are a lot of different pieces to it. My buddy and fellow Portlander Chris Guillebeau mentions at least 61 different logistical details to launching a product.
Take a deep breath. Here’s a question to answer truthfully: are you truly a detail person? Are you good at organizing lists of things and make sure they get done? If you are, then you’re all good!
Many creative and visionary people think details and logistics are the furthest thing from love and the Divine. However, there is love in every detail. If you’ve ever taken a biology class and seen the intricacy of life, then you know it takes a lot of love to create with details.
Understanding that there are a lot of details doesn’t mean you need to be overwhelmed. It means that you have to give it the time and attention it deserves. Yes, it does take days to get a sales page written and working effectively. Yes, the process of hooking up emails and blogs and affiliate links and all of that stuff is intricate.
So if push comes to shove, it might be worthwhile to hire a virtual assistant or a coach to help you manage the project.
- Put Time and Content Into the Build-Up
“Teaching Sells” released a great deal of information prior to the launch. A professionally-produced video, several well-designed pdf documents. A lot of stuff. It got people juiced up, interested, and gave them a taste.
What can you release ahead of time that will give folks a substantial taste of what your course is about?
But wait, let’s think beyond just the eight-week promotion. The fact is, “Teaching Sells” has been around since November, 2007. All kinds of people have been experiencing it, talking about, spreading the word. It’s had a lot of time for the buzz to build. Similarly, our Heart of Money course ran for several years, over 20 times, before our super-fast sell-out.
As you can see, it helps if you can repeat an offer over time. Some folks, led by a fear of boredom, keep changing what they do every year, and so it’s hard to gain momentum in your offers.
Launching a program and selling it out can happen. To start to get a handle on it, remember, first you want to take a breath and notice that your launch needs and deserves the TLC of space, time and attention. I know it’s a bit simplistic to just say, “create a mix of influential relationships, great content give-aways, and add a dose of project management,” but that’s what it takes.
