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Your First Online Sale

I’ll never forget the morning I checked my email and saw that I’d made my first online sale. Yippee! I really HAD made money in my sleep! That was over three years ago and since then my business and life have completely transformed thanks to the power of online technology. (And I still get a thrill when I see a ‘New Order Notice’ in my inbox!)

Whatever you’re selling, it makes sense to take orders online – and your business will grow when you do. That’s because it makes you and what you are offering available 24-7. One of the things you’ll hear me say over and over is ‘make it easy for people to buy from you.’ Taking online orders is one way to do that.

The first sale is also the HARDEST sale to get, because to get to that point you need to establish all the systems and processes to convert visitors to buyers and accept online transactions. When you’re just starting out, it can seem overwhelming.

So this week I want to offer you a word of encouragement. Yes, there is some spade work that needs to be done in the early days, but it’s worth it! In the long run you’ll make more sales and money and running your business will get so much easier.

To help you I’ve listed the main resources you’ll need, and the terminology you’ll need to familiarise yourself with.

Autoresponder you know when you submit your name and email address at a website and you automatically receive something back in your inbox? Well the software that does that is called an autoresponder.

You can also set your autoresponder to send sequential follow-up emails. For examples, the first message might go out immediately, the second might go out 2 days later, message number 3 might go out on day 5, and so on.

That means you can set up your system once, and then it works automatically for you, following up with every single prospect. It really turbo-charges your follow up efforts and you will make more sales.

List manager this is the software that subscribes and unsubscribes people from your list and is basically your database of names and emails. You can also create sub-lists for example, people who have bought a specific product, or joined your list from a specific source. This makes it easier to send relevant messages to the right people and you don’t have to mail your whole list.

Shopping cart this is the software that lets customers select and order items from your website.

The ideal solution is to get your list manager, autoresponder and shopping cart ‘all in one’. I recommend http://www.1shoppingcart.com

Want more? Join me and guest expert on a FREE teleseminar ‘Your First Online Sale’ next Thursday 8th February at 4.30pm UK Time. You can get all the details and register here: http://www.clientmagnets.com/tbc/
© Bernadette Doyle, 2007

Bernadette Doyle publishes her weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then get your free tips now at www.clientmagnets.com

Bernadette is also the author of the amazing resource book 'The Emergency Action Plan for Attracting Clients Fast'! I bought it and am very happy with it.
Go see for yourself, she talks a lot of sense.
Very best regards

Steve Bishop www.myhypnotherapycentre.co.uk
0800 1974 294