How to Ensure Your Course Will Sell Before You Create It

A little-used method to grow your business, fast

What if you wanted to create a course for your audience? Maybe you had a general idea, but we’re sure if you’d get any takers. What if there was a way to test your idea before you sunk time and money into a dud?

There is.

It’s called pre-selling. By asking people for money, before you create your product, you get the honest votes you’ll need to move forward, or start-over.

You can survey your customers all you want, but actual buying behavior is different. We buy with our emotions. Maybe it was easy for us to answer your survey, but once you ask us to buy… that’s a different story.

Instead of spending the next six months developing a training program, create the sales copy and a course outline.

Give your readers a deadline to buy — and a big discount.

Do not — I repeat — do not lie to them. Tell your audience the truth. Tell them you’ve got a new idea and it starts on X date. Tell them you won’t build the course unless there’s interest. Tell them if they want to be the first on the bus, they’ll get the whole course for 75% off (or whatever discount you wish).

Send the offer to your list.

Send a follow-up email to those who didn’t open the first offer.

If you got a reasonable closing rate, make the course. Or at least make the first module so you can launch on the date you promised.

Create the subsequent modules as you go.

This beta list will also give you an additional bonus — feedback.

If you get enough sales to make the course worthwhile, these early adopters will help make your course better. Ask them for feedback. Ask them if you need to clarify any sections.

When you create your course ‘live’ you can edit it as you go, instead of spending too much time up-front, only to discover you’ve created a product no one wants.

Your market will vote. It’s the only vote that counts.

By asking for a pre-sell you can launch your work much faster than you could had you waited to create the entire product before offering it.

What if your idea is a dud?

Refund the three orders you did get. Offer those people some free coaching, or an entirely free subscription to your next idea (the one that sticks).

These folks stuck their wallets out and should be rewarded.

Yes, they will be disappointed, so it’s important you’re careful with your “sorry to tell you, but the course isn’t happening” message.

If you’re honest all the way (maybe tell them your idea might not work), your audience will be much more forgiving than they would had you duped them.

I was recently duped by an unfinished product.

The marketer sold (and continues to sell) an unfinished product through Facebook ads. There was nothing in the ad that listed the product as unfinished — only that it was discounted.

The product is a work in progress.

I can’t use the product until the guy completes it at some future, undisclosed date.

This was not the way to pre-sell.

Be up-front with everyone, so they know what game they’re playing. You get a guaranteed hit and your beta-buyers get a great deal. It’s a win all-around.

Get started faster. Pre-sell your next big idea.

To pre-sell well, you’ll need to build an email list. If you’d like your first 1,000 readers without spending a hot nickel on ads, tap the link below and enroll in my free, Tribe 1K email masterclass.

We’re waiting for you.

Enroll in my Free Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers

August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to make work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.