Online sales: What strategies to use to start?

Many entrepreneurs started their activities with little knowledge and, after a lot of study and attempts, they became great examples for the digital community. But, for that, it is not enough to create or join a product and

An example:

It is very common for people to give up working with online sales after sharing their sales pages in various groups on Facebook, Whatsapp and not getting fast and convincing results.

Why does this happen?

In addition to being invasive, this type of strategy ignores a basic premise of selling products online: it is necessary to offer value to the customer, before proposing a purchase.

If you want to continue as a digital entrepreneur, you have to carefully observe the market and understand that the completion of a sale is directly related to three main pillars:

• Authority
• trust and
• Sales strategies (which must be used at the right time).

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In today’s post, we are going to talk about each of these pillars and show how you can go from the first sale to many others and make your business scalable, which is basically making more sales without increasing your costs.

Let’s go?

The importance of the entrepreneurial mindset

Although there are numerous sales strategies, the most determining factor for the success or failure of your business is your mentality, also known as mindset.

This is because making the first online sale can take a while and you will need a lot of patience, and even resilience, so as not to give up at the first challenge.

But we are not saying here that you should insist on an idea indefinitely, even if it does not give results.

It is important to establish which are the most important indicators for your business and follow the performance of each implemented action, to know if your product has growth potential in the medium and long term.

If you have studied your market and are offering a product that adds value to people’s lives, eventually, .

financial planning

There are several possibilities to sell online. Some consider working with physical products, with a and there are those who like the idea of ​​working exclusively on the Internet, creating and selling .

Regardless of your choice, having a plan is essential. Mainly if you are leaving your job with a fixed income and job benefits to act only in the digital market.

The lack of money increases the pressure for results, which is a disastrous recipe for the entrepreneur who is just starting out and is still in the structuring phase of his business.

Therefore, if you have decided to work with Internet sales, do not ignore this step!

Talk to your family, if this is the case, and explain to them that some budget adjustments will be necessary for the coming months.

If you don’t have people depending on your income, this planning will be even easier. You just have to add all the expenses you will have in the creation/dissemination of the product, business maintenance costs – such as an extra telephone line, internet package, consultancies, among others – and your personal expenses.

Multiply that value by the period of one year and you will have a considerable amount to keep your business running, until the money obtained from online sales covers your investment.

To obtain that value, you can make a loan at the bank, sell a durable good or save a percentage of your salary each month, the latter being the safest option of the three. But be aware that the sooner you start building your savings, the faster you can leave your conventional job and live exclusively on the money earned by your business.

Recently we have done a that can help you clarify some doubts about this stage. We suggest you take a look at it, after you finish here.

The sales process

Now that you have understood a little more about the mindset and the financial planning you need to do, let’s talk about the sales process.

Basically, this process is divided into three stages:

1. Presale;
2. Sale;
3. Post sale.

1. Presale

Presale is the planning process for the sale you want to make.

It is at this time that you analyze points such as:

• What is the solution you want to offer your client?
• Who is your ideal client?;
• What is your strategy to deliver this solution to your customers?
• What will your costs be?
• How to analyze your market?

In other words, that is the time to make a review that precedes the sale itself to determine important points such as your audience and the value that the product you will sell can deliver.

To make the process clearer, we are going to give an example (which will be used in all stages of the sales process):

Suppose you are a craftsman and you know everything about mandalas. You decide, then, to create an online course that teaches people to create their mandalas with the colors that best combine.

With this information, you are already planning your presale, because you already have:

• Niche: crafts;
• Product: video class on the creation of mandalas;
• Solution for your clients: classes for those who want to learn how to create their own mandalas.

After you determine these 3 main points, the time has come to analyze your audience.

You need to build your buyer persona by answering questions like:

• Who will I sell this course to?
• Who is part of the audience I want to reach?
• What are the pains, the profile, the age, the gender, the hobbies, the tastes of these people?

This step is very important because it will help you determine the type of communication you establish with your audience. In addition, it is from the definition of your buyer person that you will know exactly in which channels to find this audience.

(Take the opportunity to take a look at our post that shows the that is, your ideal client).

2. Sale

This stage is essential to analyze:

• The communication channels that you will use to contact your audience and offer your product;
• How will payment for this product be made;
• How will you deliver the product to buyers, etc.

Still thinking about the example we gave in the presale, it is at that stage that you will determine where you will find people interested in buying a course on creating mandalas.

You need to advertise your product to these people, and there are several ways to do it, you can use , , and there we go. It all depends on where your audience is, as the main focus here is to get in touch with your audience, i.e. find your potential customers and pass on the message that your product is available to them.

After that, you will need to operate your payment methods, that is, define the ways that the user can use to purchase your product and also define the way your product will be delivered.

3. After sales

This is the final step of the sales process.

Post-sale is somehow assumed in sales, since it also refers to the delivery of the product. However, it covers a little more, such as:

• Buyer Support;
• Bonus that you can offer after the sale of the product;
• Customer Support;
• Customer loyalty (a fundamental factor, especially if you want to make another sale to someone who has already bought one of the products you sell).

Going back to the example of online classes on creating mandalas, after-sales will be the time to analyze customer satisfaction with your product, improve the relationship with your audience and, above all, understand your final results.

• What was the profit you made on your shares?
• What was the strategy you used and that attracted the most audience?

A good idea here is to do a satisfaction survey. Send a form to whoever bought your product with questions about what they think of your product, attention, probability of making a purchase, and other information that you consider necessary to perfect your course.

In addition, it is in the after-sales that you will provide support for your customers. Answer questions about your material, help with practical exercises, resubmit a class with a broken link, and even refund the value paid whenever necessary. This helps you captivate the customer.

Don’t forget to evaluate the results of your campaigns once they end to clearly understand what your return on that investment was. After all, it is only possible to optimize something after your first few results.

Finally, do not miss the opportunity to build customer loyalty. This will help in the sales process of other products that you have because a satisfied customer can suggest your products to other people, as well as being a potential consumer of your next product.

You can, for example:

• Offer your clients complementary material to the course they bought, or
• Create discounts for the purchase of other products.

First online sale

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Here at , we believe that the first online sale is the most important achievement for our users. This is because it is a transformative step, capable of taking the entrepreneur out of inertia and putting him on the path to a promising career.

Actually, there are many people who work as a Producer or Affiliate and have conquered something that they never imagined before entering the digital market. But make no mistake! Despite what is possible, building an online business requires the same than in a store, face-to-face course or any other type of physical business.

You do not need a physical store, you do not need a stock or employees to start, but this does not make any type of online business easy. However, there are things that make it possible today.

And as we said: the beginning of this journey is the first sale.

Paving the way for the first online sale

From now on, we are going to help you achieve your first online sale in a simple way. However, it is very important that you understand that:

• You have just started, and the results come with time. Therefore, do not be scared if your first online sale does not generate as much profit as you imagined;
• It is only possible to optimize something after your first results;
• The paths taught here tend to only work for a short period of time;
• The first sale is about understanding the dynamics of your business and not about building the business itself.

Before you start your work, you need to know that when you sell a digital product, you will do it with a link.

Here at , our Producers and Affiliates receive a , which are the links generated by to allow a user to sell the digital products that he created or affiliated with and, consequently, receive their commissions.

There are two types of Hotlinks that users can work with:

1. Direct Payment Hotlink: allows the Producer, that is, the author of the product, to have more flexibility when selling it.
2. Sales Page Hotlink: available for both Affiliates and Producers and will take the visitor to various pages defined by the producer.

All Affiliates receive…