The Critical Difference
Between Selling & PREselling
(Excerpt From 5 Pillar Report Issue #022, Dec 1999)

This is a long one. Too long to read on your monitor. Print it out, pour yourself a beverage of choice, bring along a pen to jot down some ideas, and take it all to your favorite sofa. Success never comes easy, but as you'll see in this article, anyone can do it.

It Starts with "The #1 E-commerce Reality"

Some affiliates have Conversion Rates (CR=orders/clicks) of 10% or higher, while others generate traffic and use editorial content, but "waste" a lot of that great traffic due to CRs of 1% or lower (even zero!). Why?

It's a fact -- your strategies and actions directly affect your CR. What do "high CR affiliates" do differently from "low CR affiliates"?

Great question! But you're getting way ahead of me, so let me give you the quick "in-a-nutshell" answer...

"They refer people to their RR URLs
in an 'OPEN-TO-BUY' frame of mind."

This article will show you how to multiply your CR by PREselling your visitors into a positive, "open to buy" frame of mind.

A philosophical beginning...

In life, the vast majority of people just keep doing the "same old thing." It seems easier that way. But it guarantees the "same old results." So in the long run, it's actually much harder.

In the movie, "The Renaissance Man," Danny De Vito's character makes a profound statement. To paraphrase...

"Where you are today is the result of all the choices and actions that you have made in your life."

E-commerce is simpler than life. Due to its digital nature, there are fewer variables... so the outcome is more controllable. Which means that we can boil De Vito's statement down to "The #1 E-commerce Reality."

This Reality is almost self-evident, yet it's so easy to forget. Your success with anything you do in the world of e-commerce flows from it. Internalize it and act upon it. You will succeed. Yes, it's that fundamental.

The #1 E-commerce Reality

"NOTHING happens by accident in the world of
computers, the Net, and customer response.
There is always a reason for what happens,
good or bad, and that reason is YOU."

When it comes to computers, the Net, and consumer response, your results are under your control -- luck has no role to play. Do you know that famous old computer programmer's saying?...

"Garbage in, garbage out."

Well, there's an "e-commerce flip side"...

"Gold in, gold out!"

It Boils Down to "The 5 Pillar Affiliate Reality"

Let's keep the pot boiling and distill "The #1 E-commerce Reality" down further. What does it mean to your 5 Pillar Affiliate business? Well, the message becomes even clearer -- let's call it..

"The 5 Pillar Affiliate Reality"

"Your CR will literally vary from 0% to 20%, purely because of...

1) HOW YOU REACH your visitor, and

2) WHERE THEY ARE in the PREselling Cycle

2) WHAT YOU SAY to her, and

3) HOW YOU REFER her to your RR URL."

Your CR depends upon what you do and how you do it. You do not need Lady Luck, Sir Serendipity or anything else. There is ALWAYS a reason for how well you do, and that reason always relates to WHAT you do and HOW you do it.

Once you realize this, then you know success really is DO-able. Some people DO succeed... big-time. But not necessarily the first time. Just keep trying until you find the right approach. To shorten Calvin Coolidge's famous quote...

"Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

Of course, the goal of this article is to reduce the amount of trial- and-error needed before you find your own successful formula!

Why is "The 5 Pillar Affiliate Reality" true?...

Because HOW you reach your customer, and WHAT you say once you reach her, and HOW you refer your visitor to your RR URL directly affects your visitor's mindset when she arrives at sitesell.com. A positive mindset turns into a purchase with amazing regularity. A negative one is almost impossible to overcome.

And that is what "high CR affiliates" have known all along.

"They refer people to their RR URLs
in an 'OPEN-TO-BUY' frame of mind."

So... write "The 5 Pillar Affiliate Reality" onto a yellow Post-It Note and stick it onto your monitor...

Let's look at examples of how "low CR affiliates" create negative mindsets by making HOW-YOU-REACH, WHERE-THEY-ARE, WHAT-YOU-SAY, or HOW-YOU-REFER boo-boos... compared with the better ways that "high CR affiliates" do it.

1) HOW to Reach Your Visitor...

Wrong
Not all site traffic is equal. There's good traffic and poor traffic. Traffic generating companies like Traffic Swarm, WebBizInsider and the other "traffic exchange" sites are good examples of HOW NOT to reach people. These systems generate traffic that has no interest in SBI! so you're doomed from the start. It is not targeted and unqualified traffic will never convert.

Traffic that is paid to surf, paid to read e-mails, paid to click, paid to become leads ("paid" in whatever form of currency) is NOT interested, warm, motivated traffic. There are many schemes that can indeed generate high volumes of traffic. None of it will be interested in what they are actually visiting. Low-quality visitors deliver low-quality results.

Right
Ideally, you want to reach people that already have an interest in what you are promoting. Creating an interest when there is none is always difficult (just ask MLMers!). Let your prospects raise their hands and say "I'm interested" by attracting them with relevant site content, targeted articles, blog posts, newsletters and e-zines, and PPC campaigns that tell them you have what they need.

In other words, smoothly lead your visitors to Site Build It! by tying SBI!'s benefits to the needs and desires of your unique audience within the context of your content.

2) WHERE THEY ARE NOW in the PREselling Cycle...

Wrong
The Web surfers you reach will be at various stages in the PREselling Cycle. Some will have no interest in SBI! or an online business. If you spend too much time reaching these folks, your conversions will be low.

Right
On the other hand, most folks share a fundamental need to improve their working situation and make extra money. Connecting with these needs may launch someone down the buying cycle. Some prospects may already be researching online opportunities, and some may be ready to buy now. If you can reach folks that are farther along in the buying cycle, the higher your conversion percentage will be.

At whatever stage your visitors are at, your job is to move them forward in this buying cycle by providing the relevant information they need.

3) WHAT to Say to Your Visitor...

Wrong
Don't write a site purely devoted to "hard-selling" SBI!. Imagine a visitor who hits your site and reads an immediate sales pitch. That person will resist because she does not know you. Then, if she clicks to your RR URL, she gets another sales pitch on sitesell.com. Negative x 2!

Right
You must create credibility for yourself and sitesell by supplying relevant and helpful information. Showing that you care about their needs will create trust and a willingness to believe your recommendations. That's what creates that "open to buy" mindset.

4) HOW to Refer Your Visitor to Your RR URL...

Wrong
Pushy copy that sends your visitor to a page that is not relevant to their needs or worse, directly to the order page, will immediately turn them off and destroy your credibility. See ya later!

Flashing banners that scream "sales pitch" also imply that you are just trying to "sell them" and you aren't really interested in their needs.

Multiple promotions from many different merchants within your page will confuse them and detract from your Most Wanted Response (see below).

Right
If you provide in-context text links to relevant landing pages within your helpful content, you can move your visitor forward in the PREselling Cycle. The key phrase is "helpful." If your visitors feel manipulated, they will balk at your recommendation. Be sure they feel your sincere desire to help them find solutions to their "problems." This is critical.

Banners can also work, as one part of your overall PREselling efforts, if the ads connect with your visitors/ needs. Our Snippet Build It! banners are designed to connect with these needs without making your visitor feel as though they are being "pitched" or manipulated.

A Snippet Build It! ad can be particularly effective during the "awareness/interest creating" stages of the PREselling Cycle. Of course, nothing is more effective than quality editorial content!

IMPORTANT TIP: If you write an article whose editorial content strongly recommends SBI!, do NOT also add any images that looks like an ad on the same page. The commercial will merely "taint" the article.

Now for a critical ACTION STEP...

Review your site or whatever other means you are using to REACH, TALK TO, and REFER visitors to your RR URL. Put yourself in your customer's BRAIN. What is that "conversation going on in their heads." What will she think, how will she feel, at each of the 3 major STEPS above?

If you're doing everything perfectly, congratulations! You likely have a CR over 1%, likely over 2%. If you don't have a high CR, or if you see some big mindset mistakes...

Consider how much higher your CR would be if a visitor found you in a bona fide manner (ex., as a result of doing a search on a search engine), then became "your friend" (or your "trusting admirer" if you do a truly awesome job!) because you provided excellent content, and finally was led to a context-appropriate SBI! RECOMMENDATION (more on Recommendation vs. Sales Pitch below).

The bottom line? Always consider how these actions affect your visitor's mindset...

1) HOW YOU REACH your visitor, and

2) WHERE THEY ARE in the PREselling Cycle

2) WHAT YOU SAY to her, and

3) HOW YOU REFER her to your RR URL.

Get inside your visitor's head -- realize how s/he will feel each step of the way. Whatever you do, consider the impact on your visitor -- if it does not make her more "open to buy," don't do it.

That's what PREselling is all about. You reach the right customers in a proper fashion, you deliver valuable, appropriate editorial content, and you recommend visitors to your RR URL after they have come to respect and like you.

Your CR will soar.

Why does PREselling work so well? Because a sale via any Affiliate Program is really a two-step process...

Two MWRs... YOURS, Then SiteSell's

The "Most Wanted Response" ("MWR") is what you most want your visitor to do, right?

As an affiliate, what is YOUR MWR? No, it's not to get the sale -- that's sitesell.com's MWR. It's to... Get the click (the click-through to your RR URL) with the visitor in an open-to-buy mindset.

Let the sitesell.com site do its job and get the sale. I remember when I used to tell my star baseball pitcher, Joel Leonoff...

"Joel... you don't have to strike 'em all
out. You've got a great team behind you.
Let them do their job."

The Top 100 5P Affiliates all provide useful content -- they PREsell. Then they let the rest of their team (i.e., sitesell.com) get the sale.

It's a two-step process that builds to the sale...

STEP 1) YOU PREsell to get an OPEN-TO-BUY CLICK to your RR URL.

STEP 2) Sitesell.com gets the sale.

So, whatever you do, however you do it, it should always pull your visitor one step closer to delivering your MWR...

... Get an OPEN-TO-BUY click.

Which Would You Respond To?...
A Stranger With a Sales Pitch or
A Knowledgeable Friend Making a Recommendation?

Hmmmm... right about now, if I were you, I still might be thinking...

"Ken, if I leave it up to sitesell.com to get
the sale, I still don't see how I have any
influence on the Conversion Rate. I'd much
rather SELL the visitor on my own site."

First, let's make sure we have our terms straight. If you have a large, high-traffic site that is all about your juggling theme, and if you write a terrific review about SBI!, you are not selling, you're PREselling. After all, your high quality, content-filled site, has already done a great deal of PREselling and creating credibility for you. And your review itself should be a fair reflection of your feelings about SBI!. If it reads like a "hard-sell sales pitch," you'll quickly lose that credibility with your audience.

But let's say that you don't have the ultra-high traffic site and widely read e-zine of a top Internet Marketing Guru like Allan Gardyne or Ralph Wilson or Michael Wong...

But you do really love SBI! -- that's why you're so proud to represent it. You'd never just want to "push stuff" on people, products that you don't believe represent true value for the dollar.

So you create a site that really raves about SBI!. You mean every word of it, of course. And you are really proud of your site and you know that you are doing visitors a favor by telling them all about SBI!.

Whoa! Let's shift the focus from you for a second. Let's focus on your visitor's mindset.

Remember the great Dale Carnegie quote... "You can make more friends in two months by being interested in other people than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in you." When you show people you care about their needs it creates trust. Trust is the basis of that "open to buy" mindset. Until you create that trust your visitor won't believe your recommendations.

Up above, I said...

Get inside your visitor's head -- realize how s/he will feel each step of the way. Whatever you do, consider the impact on your visitor -- if it does not build trust and make her "open to buy," don't do it.

Now let's repeat the ACTION STEP that we did above. If you have not yet done this, please do it...

Review your site with the above advice in mind. You might see an honest site that tries to share the benefits of SBI! with your visitor. But your visitor does not know you or your motivations. She might very well see a straight sales effort -- with no other true content, it would be hard "for an outsider" to see it any other way.

If your site is basically a straight sales effort for SBI!!, you're selling, not PREselling. That means that the two-step process becomes SELL-SELL...

Redundancy = Turned off customer = LOW CR.

But if you develop great content that provides value before it leads to the click, you become a trusted friend making a recommendation rather than a stranger making a sales pitch. And if you create a truly great site, you'll actually become a trusted expert making an endorsement.

Recommendation = Turned ON customer = HIGH CR.

Take-home lesson?

Don't push your visitor to the click, make her want to click. It makes all the difference if your visitor feels that it's her idea to click on that link. Now that's "open to buy."

Check out the discussion about open-to-buy mindsets at this forum post. The entire thread has many good concepts.