Having your own product, even if only a simple one, is going to set you apart from everyone else and help you have instant authority with your prospects. And you don’t have to wait until you become “successful”…
Rather, as I’m going to argue in this post, creating your own product very early on – BEFORE you have major results – can actually help speed up the process to you becoming successful!
You can’t really charge money for anything until you’ve established a bit of a reputation… that’s true. If you’re going to be charging for your product, then you’ve got to have some sort of results… You need to show “proof” that what you’re teaching is actually working for other people. But even if you’re brand new, you can certainly have your own product in the form of a freebie that you’re giving away.
So how, then, do you create a free eBook, a report, a video series or some other product, and how will this help others believe in you as a leader?
I’m glad you asked, because I’m going to answer those questions and several others in this article… 🙂
Tip #1: Believe In Yourself And Others Will, Too.
The first thing is to realize that others see you as you see yourself. Never forget that. If you present yourself as a professional and an authority, someone worthy of respect, this is also how your prospects will see you.
Remember, your prospects are all looking for a leader…and they WANT you to be that leader so that their search will come to an end and they can stop looking. (This is obviously all at a subconscious level.)
Bottom line: Own your greatness, and take on the role of a leader. If you look like a leader, talk like a leader and act like a leader, your prospects will also SEE you as a leader.
Tip #2: Keep Raising The Bar On Yourself.
Second, you have to be extremely committed to self-education, to raising the bar on yourself as a person, marketer and leader.
You have to continuously study and hone your skill sets. You obviously can’t present yourself as a knowledgeable leader and then risk having that image shattered the moment your prospect gets you on the phone because you don’t actually know your stuff.
That being said, you don’t have to know a lot starting out…you just have to know more than your prospects.
And I bet you know more than you think you do! You are after all part of MLSP, and you’re reading this post, which is a pretty good indication that you’re committed to self-education.:)
Even if you’re brand new to MLSP, you already have knowledge that you can be passing on to your peers – be it in the form of your status updates on Facebook, your YouTube videos, blog posts, Instagram posts, nuggets in your emails, or – which is what we’re discussing right now – in the form of a product.
Tip #3: Creating a “Bribe” For Your Business
Remember that a product can be practically anything. You already know about eBooks and pdf reports and audio downloads (mp3s).
But, have you ever considered having a series of YouTube videos as your product? It’s free and super easy to do. Also, keep in mind that these videos can be tutorials where you share your screen (for this you can use a great software called Camtasia) – you don’t necessarily have to put yourself on camera.
Now, it’s important you realize that your first product is not going to be the most amazing eBook, report or video series known to mankind. It is, after all, your first product. But just by having a bribe in the first place you’ll be miles ahead of everyone else at the outset. Most network marketers don’t have a free give-away, or if they do, it’s not unique to them: It doesn’t have their name on it as the author… It’s something they’ve gotten from their upline and which everyone else in the team (or in the company) is also using. Not very original and therefore also not very effective…
Again, your product doesn’t have to be “perfect” and it also doesn’t have to be “huge”. What I’m saying is, don’t set out to create THE product; just to create A product.
If it is a report or an eBook, 10 to 20 pages is sufficient. If it’s a video or an audio series, each audio or video doesn’t need to be more than 5 minutes.
Whatever your product is, focus on giving value. That’s what’s important – that you’re actually teaching something. Give your prospects something helpful, something practical that they can take action with right away and get results with.
And “get results”, by the way, doesn’t have to mean “how to make 10K in 90 days”. It could be “how to get 20 new followers a day on Instagram”, or maybe “how to double your productivity in three simple steps”. You get the idea.
Who Should Your Product Be For?
With your product, as with the rest of your marketing, you should seek to address a specific and very targeted group of people, namely people who are looking for tools and training like that which MLSP offers.
These are prospects whose challenges you can most likely relate to: You know what it’s like to struggle to get leads and signups, and to not have access to proper training and support. The difference between them and you is that you have found MLSP, so you have the SOLUTION…
And this solution (MLSP) is also what you’re going to sell them… The call to action at the end of your video, audio or ebook should always be to take a test drive of MLSP. That’s the whole point with your product: To pre-sell them on joining you in MLSP.
A Word of Comfort to the Overwhelmed
A quick word of caution before I continue: Always remember that as a new marketer your focus should be on primarily two things:
- Generating leads
- Converting leads.
That being said, you should also always, from day one, be looking for ways to share value with others – even if it’s just through your Facebook status updates or Tweets for starters.
Before long you’ll also get to a point where it makes sense to take some of what you’ve learned and put it into a product. And again, I personally think it is a great idea to create a product to give away to prospects as early on as possible because it will really help establish you as a leader in their eyes.
But don’t get stressed out about it. If you’re brand new to marketing and the thought of creating a product is making you feel overwhelmed, let it be for now. Just focus on the basics for a while – namely generating and converting leads – and think about creating a product a bit more down the line.
How to Outsource the Making of Your Product
The cool thing is that having a product created is something that you can outsource quite inexpensively.
Rather than trying to set out to learn some complicated eBook software as a brand new marketer, look for an inexpensive a freelancer online, in the Warrior Forum or on Odesk.com, that can put together your content for you.
On the other hand, if your product is, say an audio download or a video series, this is very easy to do yourself and probably not something you would need to outsource. Do a simple Google search on it online and you should be able to quickly find the information you need to create your product.
Any time you decide to outsource a job, make sure to do some comparison shopping first. Ask to see some work the freelancers have done for others. (Don’t be shy to ask the question – it’s your marketing budget!) But keep in mind that you’re going to get what you pay for: The more skilled people are also going to charge more.
Ultimately you need to make a decision that fits your marketing budget but which at the same time will make you look like a professional. Remember, it’s going to be your name on the eBook/report/newsletter… just as if you wrote it yourself…so make sure it’s a product you’d actually want to have your name on!
So there it is in a nutshell… How having a simple product of your own can help you be seen as a leader more quickly and therefore generate more leads as a result, as well as some ideas for how to actually go about creating that product. Hope this was helpful to you… Best of luck and happy product creating!
-Lena Bjorna
Did you get value from this post? If so, please comment below and like & share on Facebook. Research shows that good things happen to people who share this post. 🙂
Hello Lena,
Great post!! Thanks for sharing. I definitely agree with you. You need to have a USP or unique selling proposition. I might finally have my own product (video series) in the coming weeks to giveaway for FREE 🙂 My expertise is in blogging and Facebook so that’s where I will focus on. Cheers!
~ Sonny
Very good teaching
Francis
Lena I really appreciate this post! It really got my imagination flowing, really like the freelancers tip! Look forward to meeting you at LTD6!