How to pre-sell your course without feeling icky
Welcome to another episode of the Simplify Your Sales podcast. Today we are talking about one of the smartest things you can do when it comes to creating a profitable online course in your business -- we are going to talk about pre-selling your course idea BEFORE you create any of the content.
This is something I recommend ALL of my paid students do because it is--literally-- the failure-proof way of making sure you DON’T waste your (extremely limited) time + energy creating a course that no one buys. Because that’s just a poor use of your time. And I don’t want you to go through the emotional rollercoaster of feeling like a failure
BUT! One thing I hear A LOT is: “Isn’t that kind of unethical and maybe even a bit dodgy to sell a product that HASN’T been created yet?”
And if you’re thinking that same thing, I get it-- when you’re used to selling physical products, it is an entirely foreign concept -- but here’s the deal: Pre-selling happens ALL THE TIME in real life.
For example, when a student enrolls in a college course-- or even community night classes-- they have to pay for the course BEFORE it kicks off and usually before you even have a syllabus. You have the name of the class and a brief description and that’s usually it.
A more common example: plays,, music festivals, events, summitsConcerts - you pay for your Taylor Swift concert ticket MONTHS before you go to the concert and sometimes even BEFORE she's finalized her playlist + routine if you’re one of the first stops on tour!
Crowdsourcing- ever heard of Kickstarter? It’s basically an entire online platform dedicated to pre-selling ideas so that they can have the funding to create them. Things like the Pebble Watch, Veronica Mars movie, and popular games like Exploding Kittens and Throw Throw Burrito are all things that got their start with an idea being pre-sold on Kickstarter. In fact, we invested in one earlier this year actually and we won't see ANYTHING from it for nearly 9 months.
And perhaps a bit more commonly in business-- people will often pay service providers in advance of the work actually being completed.
All to say that pre-selling is something that is 100% normal + happening ALL THE TIME.
So why does it potentially feel “icky” to pre-sell your online course?
Honestly, I think it’s because there’s just a lot of preconceived ideas about what a pre-sale IS (and likewise what it ISN’T) that simply aren’t true.
So let’s talk about it!
When I teach my students to pre-sell their online course idea, they are NOT:
Pretending to sell a fully-created course
Promising unrealistic things in order to make more sales
Being vague about the timeline/ finished product
If you’re doing any of those things, or think that pre-selling involves any of those things, no wonder the concept feels gross-- because those totally are shady strategies and I strongly DISCOURAGE you from trying any of those tactics in your pre-sale because that’s NOT good business.
When I talk about pre-selling your online course before you create it, here’s what I *actually* mean:
Selling a complete idea in advance to ensure it is profitable-- meaning you’re clear on what your course accomplishes, you have an outline of the planned lessons + resources, and are clear on what (if any) additional support you will include.
Offering a “pre-sale” beta student discount-- letting them know that because they’re going to be your first students, they can enroll for less than your course will normally cost.
Pre-selling is also about creating a realistic timeline (or "drip schedule") to deliver your course to your students so they know EXACTLY when to expect new content to release
And then finally, being 100% open about the fact that it is a pre-sale. Transparency is KEY for pre-sales to work.
Now, this is obviously just the very basics of pre-selling-- Inside MY simplified online course creator program, Simplify to Scale, I’ll walk you through more details + guidelines in each of these areas + how to transform your idea into an irresistible offer that delights prospective students in less than 30 days so we can create passive income in your biz ASAP .
And on the rare off-chance that your idea doesn’t sell during your pre-sale, I’ll show you how to take the feedback you get + refine your idea so that it becomes EXACTLY what people are looking for.
And just know that if people aren’t okay with the concept that you’re *just* selling an idea and not an actual finished product yet, they won’t buy! It’s seriously that simple! And that’s okay-- you can help them later after you’ve got your course created.
But I think you’ll be surprised at just how many people are 100% on board + actually EXCITED about joining during a pre-sale at the exclusive discount and are eager to see your incredible online course be built alongside them. With my last presale, I sold 110 spots and had an AMAZING experience.
As long as you are transparent about your course’s pre-sale and set clear expectations + timelines on the delivery of it, you are good to go!
So as you get started with your online course creation journey, save yourself the worry of creating an online course you aren’t sure IS going to be profitable-- and get to work PRE-SELLING your idea so you can go into creating it knowing that it already IS.