Sell Ideas Before Stuff.

What makes people want to buy your stuff anyway?

We're often so focused on the sales process, and classic elements like features, benefits and telling them to "BUY NOW"... that we often neglect something more fundamental to making a sale.

Before people buy "stuff" (i.e. products, services, coaching, courses), they often need to "buy into" an IDEA or CONCEPT first.

• Before they'll think about buying that super-special air fryer through you, they first need to buy into the concept of an air fryer.
   
• Before they'll consider buying your Zero-Pitch Selling e-course, it first helps if they buy into the idea of being able to make sales without a sales pitch.
   
• Before they'll book that next trip abroad, they're likely to have the idea that they deserve or need a vacation.

One of the purposes of Presell Content is to sell people on the ideas and concepts that will make them more likely to buy.

Of course, you don't always need to do this. If you dominate the search engines for the phrase best air fryer to buy, which indicates buying intent... just present these people with a great air fryer!

However, not everyone who comes to your website for the first time will be ready to buy. I'd suggest that most aren't anywhere close.

If you hope to make sales from some of these people, you'll need to draw them into your world... and part of this means selling them on ideas and concepts, especially ideas that are unique or distinctive to YOU and what you have to offer.

The Preselling Flow

Let's use my own stuff as an example.

I could pitch you right now on my super-awesome Presell System, with its 10 powerful components and blah blah blah.

But there's a distinct possibility that, since you're reading this article, you haven't heard of my product before, and right now, you give ZERO hoots about it.

Fair enough.

To arrive at the stage where you could give even ONE hoot about it, first of all you'd have to buy into the overall concept of pre-selling... which isn't an intuitive idea.

The simple truth is, a lot of people who sell stuff online don't really know what pre-selling is.

(Here's my definition: pre-selling, which I prefer to write as preselling to save on digital commas, is about moving potential customers gradually and in stages to the point where they're "ready to buy" from you.)

Now, once you've bought into the general concept of preselling (and I'm not assuming you have, which is why I have other articles on this site), it would help if you were to buy into the more specific and distinctive concept of "Presell Content."

This is a term I invented, to describe... drum roll please... content that presells. By content, I mean articles, reports, videos and emails, although there are many differences between Presell Content and regular content on the Internet.

Presell Content does most or even all of the same things a sales pitch tries to do... but in a natural, organic way, throughout multiple pieces of content, so people can feel at ease and are less guarded, since they're not being pitched.

Incidentally, this is why I created this site: to teach, educate and inform people about why Presell Content is so great... and to near-monopolize the term.

Now, let's say you were to buy into the Presell Content concept. What then?

The next logical step would be to download and read the special report I wrote for you (yes, you personally) called The Presell Content Secret... which shows you how to structure Presell Content to make sales naturally.

(Not to brag in any way, but I'll also spill the beans on how a single 31-page report generated over 23,700 leads for one of my clients.)

Assuming you read my short 20-page report, you'll see how you can structure content using a Presell Content Framework, and what makes "presell articles" different from other articles on the Internet.

In the report, I also reserve the right to tactfully point out all the ways my Presell System could help you create Presell Content.

Can you see how all of this could gently move you closer to the "ready to buy" stage, without feeling like you have a salesperson breathing down your neck?

There is a flow and a structure to the overall content... in contrast to a lot of sites that are a mass of articles and semi-random stream-of-consciousness blog posts followed by, "By the way... do you wanna buy our stuff?"

Of course, this is easier to do when you have something to offer that is unique or distinctive. In the Presell System I help you identify what makes you stand out, and also what you can do for more generic products and services.

The bottom line here is:

For people who haven't expressed buying intent, sell people on ideas and concepts first, especially ones that make you distinctive in your field. Help them "buy into" those ideas first, before you think about selling them your stuff.