We’ve had members express interest in getting pre-sales for their course. This is covered in-depth at Validation Swamp, which we are going to bypass for the time being. So for those of you who are indeed ready for this step in your journey, we are going to spark up a discussion here and let you all know what we did to pre-sell The Great eCourse Adventure!

Here’s essentially what we did:

1. We decided first what our pre-sale offer was. We called it our “beta” and decided to only promote it to our existing network and referrals (no advertising). The goal was to fill 150 spots for this first launch to help work out bugs and refine the content for a public launch (which we have yet to do). We offered an insanely low rate for the first week or two ($150 USD) to get a bit of momentum. We also offered a huge bonus of 6 months of weekly group coaching for free (which will be a monthly fee later). We made it an absolute no-brainer for those who resonate with our work to sign up.
2. Created a sales page using the Thrive Content Builder (this is a WordPress plugin for creating landing pages via drag & drop)
3. On the sales page we explained the beta offer and the purchase button linked to a pre-sale checkout we set up using Celery (an awesome pre-sales platform)
4. After that first couple weeks, we upped the price to $300, where it stayed until the gates closed. The initial pre-pre-sale period of $150 was the first two weeks in November. Then we had the $300 price from mid-November through to early January. So this was a total of about a two month launch.
5. Only our existing list was offered the $150 price point. Once we moved to the $300 price, we started reaching out to our extended network and doing interviews, guest blog posts, etc. @bradleytmorris can explain this in more detail as he did all the outreach.
6. In total, he personally reached out to about 120-140 people to become affiliates and/or interview him. Many connections were made.
7. During the $150 period, there was just the sales page – no sample content. When we moved to the $300 price, we opened up the first 3 checkpoints as a sample, so people could get a taste test.
8. We closed the gates early January with 75 pre-sales (50% of our goal) – still a big win!
9. The majority of our sales came through 2-3 key affiliate partners – relationships are key to this game.

The main things to take note of for your own pre-sales are:

• Create a win-win offer that is an easy yes for your tribe – low price + bonuses is a great idea. Though don’t be overwhelming by offering too much.
• Set a deadline for when your launch offer will end
• Set expectations – with this course, we have made it clear that this is a beta and that we are still building this and working out the kinks. Tech glitches are to be expected for this first group going up the mountain.
• Set deadlines – we created a schedule for when each checkpoint would be released to the beta group. This had given us extra motivation to get it all done and not get caught up in perfection. For the most part, we’ve been able to meet our deadlines. We’ve been creating the content just a couple checkpoints ahead of everyone. This has been both highly stressful and highly rewarding. I recommend it AND I don’t recommend it 😉
• If no-one is purchasing, then it either means
  • you havent put it in front of enough of the right people
  • or, your offer isn’t resonating and needs re-working
  • If someone you think WOULD want it doesn’t buy, ask them why. Get feedback. Refine.
• The vast majority of our sales came in during the final 2-4 days of our launch period.

Alright so thats the quick and dirty version of how we did our pre-sales.

If you have any questions about anything, this is the place to ask and discuss.

Fire away!