Lessons

Lesson Info

Figuring Out What Doesn't Work

These were some of the questions that I would ask if you have a failure. Is there a market for what you're selling? Do people really want it so it's? Not about what they need? Do they want it? If you're thinking about what people need, can you rephrase things to show them that this is what they want? And are they willing to pay for it? Those air, some questions that I would ask, are there similar products being sold? If not, it could be the format I would try. Changing the format is one option, so if you are launching something as an e book and it doesn't work, maybe it would work better as a course or if it doesn't work is, of course, maybe it would work betters and e book there are all different kinds of formats don't just one example, examine your product, your sales. Paige, you're pricing and marketing efforts and be as a objective as possible it's really hard for us to kind of step back from our own stuff, but really try to look at this stuff and be objective about it. What went w...

rong? What could you have done better? How can you improve your product sales page and marking efforts, and did you really market it? Did you really did you spend quality time writing a sales page that that's attractive to your target market or did you write something really fast so you could get something launched and up is your website professional and stilling trust in your customers that's a big one? What parts did you slept together to launch it? I think once we get closer to launch things get really overwhelming some of the pieces we just kind of flap together because we need to get it finished and get it launched what are those parts that you didn't spend not much time on those air the pieces that I would look at revamp thing something else I would do is get feedback from others piers and people in your target market so if something isn't working the way I wanted to the first person I go to his might because she gets that we have the same target market she can look at something and be like this is where it's going wrong or you don't see this probably but this is what's not really working about it and having that feedback from her is invaluable people in your target market you can ask them especially if you have loyal customers people that leave comments on your block over and over and over again they would be more than willing to give you some feedback if you ask them hey I launched this I'm just wondering what you think of that? Could you give me a little bit of feedback? They would probably be more than willing to do so and they can often see what you can't maybe that your sales pages incredibly complicated and maybe you think it's not maybe you think it's not confusing, but it really is or maybe they look at yourselves page and they go I don't even know how to buy this. I've had people ask me before what is going wrong and I'll look at their sales page and I'm like, I don't I don't know where to press by I think that maybe one of the issues maybe you're pricing is really low and it's giving off an impression that your product is sheep and somebody could tell you this is so much more valuable than what you have it price that and it's just not working there they couldn't tell you what you might not necessarily see or you might have priced it well tio make it a no brainer for your clientele, but your target market who you want to buy that or not are not seeing that maybe that's not clear to them comment that we had in here from fuse on the chap who says sure I love how you work together with my and you don't fear the competition they add value to each other and there stronger united both of your businesses I think that's a key point we've had a lot of people in the chat room saying ago I'm afraid of people stealing my ideas and that kind of thing but I guess this is a good example of how you can team up with someone to make both your business is better yes absolutely absolutely I look at my as one of my best business assets because she gives me feedback on everything and I trust which she has to say and there are other people that I feel that way that I know something wasn't working and I wanted to get multiple perspectives I could go to them and say hey, could you give me some feedback on whatever it is and also we help each other I know that my eyes products are amazing I know that they are high quality I know that everything she puts out is going to be something that I love and that my a lot of my target market is going to love so I hope her promote anything that she launches she does the same thing for me if you've looked on twitter you're going to see that she's telling people to come watch this course right now we don't fear that were taking away from each other in any way we know that we have separate strength and that certain people are drawn to us specifically because of those strength and I really believe that there's enough to go around for everybody and when you don't have that mindset, I think it holds you back in so many ways and you miss out on so many opportunities because I can't tell you how many times I've gotten sales because other people who have the same target market have talked about my products and they do it because they know that there's enough to go around and they know that they know me they know the quality that I put out there happy to tell people about what I'm doing without fear of oh no, this is going to take away from me, I think it's just invaluable to have that I could have another failure reason these like perhaps that you think you know your ideal customer, but in fact you're you're doing putting your heart and soul into it but your marketing to that absolutely wrong yes, customer, yes have you do you have any stories about that or experience her life? The first story that pops up into my mind? I was working, I was working with the creative entrepreneur she was emailing me asking me, can I get some feedback on my etsy shop because things just aren't working and she sold these really pretty earrings and different types of jewelry but shed these earrings and there were these big like neon pink neon yellow feathers and in the copy, it talked about how this was the right fit for teens and grandmothers, and I am one of the things I said to her was that teenagers not gonna wanna wear grandmother is wearing, and a grandmother is not gonna wanna wear what a teenager's wearing this is, you know, by saying it's for everyone, you're basically saying it's for no one, and so that was a mistake that was happening within her copy? Yes, and then there are are definitely times where it's often because the person hasn't done the work yet to get to know their ideal customer. They've come up with this image in their head, but they haven't actually looked at an ideal customers blawg read it. I looked at the people who are commenting on her blah going in, reading their blog's to see what they're talking about, what they're interested in and talking to real people. Yeah, they haven't on the workout, so figure out what didn't work and fix it try again, give it one hundred percent and see what happens. So before you completely scrap something that you've worked really hard on, look at all of these factors get feedback from somebody that you trust. Just tweak some things and try again and then if you put one hundred percent into it, you've tried it again. You've gotten feedback, you know what wasn't working the first time and it doesn't work then move onto something else, but before you scrap it, do that because you put a ton of work into it april a quick question here about how far in advance you're preparing for launch and you say try again when you fail, do you liketo have a certain amount of time you would wait to kind of re gather yourself think about her and you just jump right into another long? Sure well, because I don't wantto continually sell to my customers I space it out, I have a yearly calendar and I have inside of that calendar. Whenever I decide I'm going to launch a new product, I have it in there and nothing else should be really close. The only exception to that is if I'm an affiliate of something and I'm only an affiliate of one program but depending on where that programme lies, sometimes I launch my thing and then I also tell my audience about that one particular program otherwise I space it out and plus I think it I think your customers will be like what if you launch let's say of course doesn't work in two weeks later you launch it again they're they're going to think it's the same exact thing they're not going to go and check it out again because they've already said no to it so I would wait I would wait six months maybe work on something else in the meantime I would wait at least three months maybe three to six months and try again get support if you fail everybody else is experienced it so tell people instead of just sitting at home in crying by yourself let people know tell somebody that you trust who is not going to berate you or be mean to you tell somebody in maybe a facebook group that you're a part of that you really get along with the other members tell somebody because you know what's gonna happen is they're going to say to you that happened to me too and this is what happened when I failed and it really feels horrible and let's take a shot of tequila together you know? I mean like they are going to understand that's why having an accountability partner works so well or a mastermind group or group coaching or individual consulting all of those things can really help you when you're struggling those were the times when I would reach out to those groups especially or you know, hire a business consultant that offers one on one consulting and get feedback from that person there are lots of things that you can d'oh so let's talk about dealing with refunds for a little bit this isn't so much fun but it happened first of all I would say don't get defensive because that's the first thing that happens like you don't love my product what is wrong with you something must be wrong with you you don't love my product it's amazing so don't get defensive be objective it might just be the wrong person for the product they might not have read your sales page very well and they didn't know what they were signing up for what they were getting and don't respond angry take take a deep breath step away from your computer take a little bit of time to cool down before you replied to the email and do what you can to make your customers happy because only a small percentage of them are going to be the ones that say this isn't for me I would like a refund don't punish the ninety eight percent of your customers who are amazing who would never take advantage of you who were completely loyal to your business who love what yu dio don't punish them for the two percent two would take advantage of you and who ask for refunds and say mean things it's not worth losing sleep there some people you're never going to please and I have lost sleep over I had one customer situation in particular that was so horrendous it was the worst ever and I can tell you I was crying for days I was so upset we were I was skyping with my mom I was like this is not worth it like stop getting upset about this this is not worth it don't don't let this person affect you in that way for so long but it does affect you when people say mean things and our aren't the nicest people ever but don't let it don't let it affect you in that way learn for me her for me take a happy bill yes um signed a customer had problem downloading the product and then they wanted to refund would you like try to help them like figure out what was wrong and then figure out that you should give a refund or so did she say I want a refund I wouldn't doubt it I want it I want a refund because she couldn't download it for some reason like she couldn't figure how to download it okay, so I have had customers email me saying I'm having whatever technical issue but most of the time they just say can you help me with that technical issue and in that point in time I would say here is how we fix this issue maybe that person is at that point really frustrated or you don't know what's going on in her day that she's already upset about things or whatever is happening I would respond with I can absolutely give you a refund, but if you would rather have the product, I can help you fix this issue just let me know what you would like to dio and we'll go from there so that's how I would respond to that give them option teo get the help to download or get the refund and I've had people that that technical issues in the technical issues have been just crazy and really difficult to fix and I've provided a refund to them and said here's the product still but because of all of these issues here is your money back because I know that time is valuable, so I've done not as well keep a wind file with all of the amazing things you're happy customers say about you in your business and read through it when you need a pick me up so when you do have somebody who asked for a refund or you have somebody who says something negative about you that you have this file that you can go teo that's going tio have the same effect of xanax it's going to make you feel wonderful and calm again and happy and excited about your work because you know but ninety eight percent of the time this is the way that your customers feel about you and that really helps I cannot cannot say enough about having something like that because it can make a big difference. You're nodding sage, do you have you have something like that? I call it appraise folder. So any time I get a really happy customer email I printed out and I stick it in there. I actually flip through my folder every monday morning just to start my week off, right? I like that. So ha ve been kate at some fire paper dot com and I think kind of both with positive and negative reviews I saw on at sea. And, you know, at first I was like getting good reviews and south and I remember when I got my first negative one, it was like, what the heck? And the customer hadn't contacted me. I mean, the first time I thought it was with that star review and with their comments and I mean, it is very personal, and so I did, just like you said, I took some time, like I started my response and then I waited reach out to the customer via email, not in the review and then she never responded. And so, you know, I took responsibility in their response, and I think that that goes a long way for other customers that read it, but I always offer a refund, and it's only happened literally with this customer who would never respond but then I have I actually ship products teo and so the post office which is completely out of my control in one of the reasons I'm so interested in digital products, but I just offer the refund and I've had the customers return after that because if it doesn't make their deadline or something like that to me you know it's a small price to pay for somebody who's happy and who's probably going to come back or at least leave your shot feeling positive so it's super hard and super personal I think sometimes but in the end it's definitely focus on the positive customers and that's why with repeat customers I try to put a little gift in that goes with whatever their current order is and say I love repeat customers or my favorite smiley face so any time you can encourage that I think it's gratifying as a business on her too yeah, absolutely I love that it always stings when you get some kind of negative feedback but focusing on the positive really really does make a difference in my opinion people always ask me this should I give a refund if I know somebody's taking advantage of me my opinion is give the refund and just be done in the beginning of my business I had a group coaching course and I had a specific client who took the course sent me an email saying that it was the best thing that she basically the best thing she's ever done this was amazing, thank you so much, and then I also offered them a bonus individual consulting session I did then individual consulting session with this client, and she was like, this is the best ever. She sent me a handwritten note saying that thank you so much for everything that you've done for me. And then after the refund period was over, she emailed me saying I would like a refund, and I thought, what? Wait a second and I emailed her back, saying the refund period is over, and but I would like to know what's going on because you were really happy with everything and she was like, well, you know, my bank account's a little bit lower right now, and so I just want the money back and I thought, no, no, no, you are not getting your money back after this, I'm so irritated at this point and she was like, I'm in a right nasty things about you online. I am going, teo she, like, kept threatening me, and so thankfully I have a lawyer husband I said, I can't deal with this anymore, this is the customer that I was crying over and he stepped in and we kind of got things resolved but what I wish I would have done because I lost so much sleep over this I was crying I was really up that I felt this person is taking so much advantage of me she went through my course she got my bonus and then she's asking for a refund even though she was really happy with the course this is not okay I wish I would have given her the refund because I would have just been done with it and somebody like that I would give a refund to and that would be it would block them from being able to purchase for me again I would block them with everywhere that I possibly could I would take them off of my email newsletter list and that particular person has contacted me multiple times asking to work with me after that I'm like she sent me an email saying can we be friends? I thought wait no no we cannot be friends with all of that said the best way to six seed is to create the best product possible writing enticing sales page and launch and market it you have to do the work and you have to keep improving and when you do that you're going to get more successful every entrepreneur that I interviewed for the bonus case study e book said that things got better with each launch so keep that in mind and the number one thing you can do is to start collecting emails today and connects with your list regularly. I promise you, no matter what business you have, this is the best thing you can do. So if you don't have an email list and you don't have an opt in, make that the number one priority and get that going, because those are the people who are saying, yes, I want what you have to offer. I want updates from you. I want to hear from me regularly. Those were the people that love your business and that's the way to keep in touch with them.