While on the Gold Coast in Australia, just after delivering a live talk, in 2005 I was approached by a guy that had been trying to sell his products online for the past 2 years.

Over the two years and $30,000 later ... his company had still not had one single sale online from his website.

After 12 hours with me he had made his first sale online!

Why?

Okay let me explain the bigger picture for you.

Here is what usually happens when a company wants to sell online.

A business person will go to a web design company. The company will tell the web guys that they would like to create a 'web presence'.

The web design guys come up with several cutting-edge ideas, including a price.

The web design guys and the company that want the web presence agree everything and finally after usually a few months at the least, the web design guys come back with a cool looking design and a whopping bill to match.

Then the question is 'how does the company maintain it's new website?'. Oh this is easy, the web design guys charge monster fee every month for changes as simple as swapping over some text!

Sales? What about them? How on earth can a designer create anything that actually sells.

Let me explain that a little more for you.

Okay, let me make this clear. Design actually increase sales but ... a pure web designer usually has no idea how to sell as a rule.

For example: a webdesigner will know everything there is to know about php, java or flash. Will they understand the secret of S.D.C online? (S.D.C stands for search driven copy, even most copywriters do not get this!)

- Selling is about getting inside the mind of the prospect.

- Selling is about understanding certain words and phrases that CAN make a prospect react and respond.

- Selling is about researching like a scientist every aspect of psychology involved with the prospects mind before any kind of sale is done.

- Selling is about copywriting, and cutting edge tricks like my famous "Trash Copy" writing technique

In other words ... what on earth would any average design company know about selling.

Most of these guys are technical geniuses not sales persons.

They'll add flash, they'll top up your graphics, they'll insert a killer cart and more but I have seen time and time again literally thousands ($30,000 in this case) WASTED in the search for sales online.

So how on earth did I guide the Melbourne based Jewelery wholesaler to his first sale in less than one day?

I said there were two ways to do this. Here is the second way.

I did this.

Told him to forget his $30,000 website for now. He was astonished to say the least. Why should he forget it? It would have cost way too much in time and cash to rebuild it from scratch.

This was about creating new business, not patching up a dead horse of a website.

He had a great looking website that failed miserably as a sales tool.

Next I taught him and revealed to him the power of ... eBay.

Yes I did say, eBay!

At first like most business people I deal with, he was a little resistant.

He wanted the products to sell through his $30,000 web pages not on a public, cheap selling website.

But when you think about this.

eBay attracts millions of hungry buyers everyday. The buyers are looking to BUY (of course). All the sales tools you could need are already built onto eBay, so no hassle, no messing, no time wasted.

It was this simple.

I showed my client how to set up an eBay account.
I showed him how to load up his jewelery products to the page.
I showed him how to say the right stuff so he attracted buyers instantly using the right words.
And ... I revealed to him a few other tricks that he could use in his new eBay business.

Side note: I am NOT an eBay expert but then again you don't have to be to make cash on eBay! How do you learn eBay? Read their 'how-to' instructions.

Let me take you ahead a few hours now and imagine this.

My client had just dropped me off at the Airport in Melbourne. I walk into the first class lounge, take off my shoes and grab a coffee.

I had time to kill so I set up my laptop on one of the tiny oak tables near the wine bar.

I had my laptop ready, my glass of wine, my peanuts in a bowl at the side of me.

Then, my cellphone rang. It was John just a few hours after I had left him.

Guess what?

"Alan, just to let you know mate, we had just sold our very first product online!"

Want to read the testimonial John sent me?

Alan,

I wanted to send you this personal note below to let the folks know you truly are an amazing business coach! I want to say to anyone reading this ...

"After listening to Alan talking at the World Internet Summit Australia I thought this is a real down to earth guy I can deal with.

Problem was he lives in England and I live in Melbourne Australia! So … After the World Internet Summit I actually paid Alan $5,000 for just 6 hours of his time. Not only that I flew him a 1,000 miles to Melbourne, put him up in a 5 star hotel overlooking the city and covered any of his expenses.

Was it worth it? Yes and let me tell you why.

Look here the deal for me. I have had my main business in an office since I started it. The web scared me to death.

I listened to Alan telling everyone how he had taken years to master marketing on the internet.

I don’t want to take years, I want it all right now.

We brought him to my office. All four of us in the office grilled him endlessly until we had a web strategy that we are aiming to pull in at least $250,000 in the first year.
Gold Client

John Kapa (in the middle),

Melbourne Australia


Within 2 weeks of Alan spending time and sharing his insider information we made our first sale online.

Frankly, I was amazed and still am. Since his return to the UK his support has been fantastic. Distance is NOT an object at all for Alan. My advice to anyone reading this that might be thinking is it worth hiring Alan.

If you hear about him speaking live, GO. If you get a chance to sit and talk with him face to face, do it. If you can afford to pull him into your office and pay his consultancy fee’s, just do it.

The guy is a goldmine of information that could potentially help anyone build a substantial business online."

John Kapa from the World Famous Record Breaking KapaBros.com.au

Did You Get The Point Here?

It's this, there is only one way to increase your sales did you see how?

Hire a SALES SPECIALIST ... not a designer who may be amazing at design, but hasn't got a clue about selling!

A sales specialist is like a scientist. They dedicate themselves to the process of selling. They study the prospect from every angle so SALES are made.

Sounds obvious I know yet most businesses I meet ignore that simple advice.

If you are going to spend months doing this yourself remember this, the guy above had already invested $30,000 in real cash to a design company. Result, ZERO sales.

Actually it was more than $30,000 they also had a guy in the office working flat out for two years after the design had been done to try and make a sales from the website. In real terms the cash lost was probably well over $100,000 for something that looked nice.

Now here the funny thing, you go back to a web design company and let them know you have had zero sales from your website, shall I tell you what they will probably say?

They will probably tell you this...

"you need to get a better search engine position or possibly have a redesign or some other kind of fluff"

In other words, no sales online after you have invested massive amounts, they will tell you politely, It's your fault!

Interesting!

I hope this article has helped you.

If it has, let me know.

Alan


Breakthrough Group Consulting
Alan Forrest Smith's Non Conformist Marketer LIVE!

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Email: alan@orangebeetle.com
Cell: + 44 78059550340
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