Enhanced Transcribed:
Hi folk’s Dr Ro here. Today’s subject is about free products or services.
Selling your business, selling yourself ,selling your product and service. A subject that does come up and people ask me should I give something away for free?
What’s your view on that word? Let’s tackle the subject head.
First of all, I do have products that we do give away for free, and that choice of whether to give it away for free is one that’s very measured. It’s not that I don’t want them to have it, it’s more a question of what is the appropriate thing, product or service to offer somebody that has enough value for them, but isn’t so valuable that they don’t necessarily want to find out more about what you’re offering.
That is a very important thing.
I think it’s a very important part of the process of you selling you, selling your product, selling your services. However, it needs to be done in such a way that you don’t devalue yourself and at the same time you give something to your customer, your client so that they can use it as opposed to it just being information for the sake of it being information.
First question is should you give something away for free or not?
That comes down to what you are intending to do. What’s the destination? What’s the outcome? Without that there is no point in working in discussing any of these into your plan. Free or not is really down to first of all, what’s your value chain, what’s your product funnel? Then the answer is actually yes if you want to build trust.
Yes, you can have a cold database and yes, you go market to them but the conversion rates will always be lower unless they trust you. So the main thing here is going back to the top of the funnel. The free product or service that you offer is really about you introducing who you are, introducing your product or service, getting the customer, the client, audience to watch, listen, read your material and say actually I quite like this person.
That’s the first thing to think of as a chance to show people what you do, without showing people everything you do.
Number two is what’s the purpose?
Meaning if they do come through on a free product, where is that going to steer them? Is it taking them to another free product, your website, a webinar, taking them to a direct sale? What are you doing along the way to persuade them to make certain decisions, so the free product if you read between the lines, it has to be something that has value. I believe that 100%. If any of you have had the free material I’ve got it’s like there is content here, and it’s not just content but showing certain steps. If you came to, for example, take the test on communicating with impact. It gives you value. Take the test, you get results.
At that stage it’s free they can go and watch if they want to, for example, a webinar and that has a whole bunch of content. Now I’m doing it because I want people to understand first of all, what CWI is, give them some tools and also make you realise if I get this right, it’s going to change my life.
If I don’t get this right my life is not going to be in a great place and I already know that because my business is suffering, relationships suffering sales are suffering. I need a solution.
So part of you giving value is to let people know what you offer and how your offer can provide a solution to them.
Number three it must have value.
What I mean by that is, it has to have something of meaning to the end user; it’s not information for the sake of information. I get people saying to me I’ve produced this 65 page e-book and it’s free.
So your average punter, client like me for example, if I was going to buy your product I don’t have a lot of time to process 65 pages right now. If I do finally get through it how much more is going to be in that?
In other words, when I come through and read your product halfway through it needs to at least make me feel like I can apply this straightaway. Ideally sooner than that. Someone who doesn’t do this communication for example, the consequences are dire. We see it across all walks of life, relationships in your personal life, your business it gets massively affected by poor communication.
Same thing here your customers if they don’t get what you’re saying, they’re not going to buy from you. It has to have value to the customer, and because it’s got value and it’s free, then this is your first filter because if you look at number four, I’ve got people I know that I offered in two, three, four weeks, access to my test on CWI because I’m working with some of these people you’ve got access to a £197 product for free. I’ve worked with you for a long time
I think it will be useful and only a small percentage of people take that offer up even though it’s free. This is a lesson for everybody, not everybody wants to get something for free, but even if they do sometimes, they’re too busy.
Your challenge is if you make it too readily available people won’t value it. That’s a massive message. People don’t value something when it’s given to them for free unless you give it value. This goes back to the first level filter and number four it must have value.
I recently went out to another group of people who I don’t know as well, to do with a network marketing business and we made 10 available to them and they all took it up.
This is amazing if you think about it, so these are people that run a very focused business, the leaders in their business ahead of their business and they appreciate the importance of communication. But also, they appreciate when someone is offering some like this it has value, I’m going to take this and use it.
This is your challenge.
If you give something away for free do not be offended if people don’t watch, read or listen to it or don’t take it up.
It’s a filter the ones that don’t take it up at this stage obviously are not serious enough about making a change in that area of their life. That’s not to say that six months down the line when they’re going through a marital divorce or the business is crashing as they’re not selling the product correctly or property investors that can’t raise money for their projects and they realise that stuff Dr Ro was teaching on communication is bloody vital. I should have done that before.
Some people will have a higher degree of urgency after a period of time, and that’s why you’ve got to stay in touch with people when you’re communicating your business out and eventually the ones that are serious in the future will buy your product or your service or get a free product.
The ones that are serious earlier on are fine because they’re going to get it free and they will start to listen to it.
The point is, don’t be too precious. Don’t give too much away too quickly for free. Find a happy balance and always look to give people a chance to get value from you, so don’t be too scarce about this. If you give enough value out then they realise your content is great and will then start to pay for it, and that’s another level of the funnel.
When you first create your free product think carefully about the last thing is how much time it’s going to take to digest it, because if it’s too long months and months they’re not going to listen to it. It’s got to be quick and easy to process and at the same time have value and that’s the trick right.
Dr Ro signing out.
Disclaimer: This video or written publication does not offer investment or financial advice and nothing in them should be construed as investment or financial advice. Our publications provide information and education only. The information contained in our publications is not, and should not be seen as a recommendation to use any particular investment strategy. Always seek financial advice from an independent financial adviser around your own personal financial situation.