How to create your online sales system: the three essentials

According to Tim Erway, online guru and co-founder of a huge and very well-known internet marketing company, there are three fundamental components which are essential for an effective online sales system. In this short article I’ll explain what they are and how each fits into the bigger picture.

The three essential components of a sales system are:

You need several sources of traffic.
Traffic, of course, means people who see your website (or capture page). There are countless ways of securing traffic, but you don’t need to use them all. Tim and Mike’s very well known company uses just three main sources of traffic. Three is the recommended minimum.

You need an automated prospecting system, which includes three elements:
A capture page. This is where you hook your “traffic” and turn the traffic into “leads” who are potential customers. Give away a freebie in return for their name and email address. Get your prospect into a “yes” state of mind.
An autoresponder. The automatic drip of emails serves to nurture a relationship between you and your leads, behind the scenes. Keep your prospects interested not just by reminding them about your services, but by giving them additional free advice and information that is going to be genuinely helpful. The whole point is to build trust.
A self-liquidating offer. That means you sell them something – not your main product or business opportunity – to pay for the advertising that brought them to you. This could be a report, a seminar a CD or something similar. Tim Erway recommends that you create your own information product as well as something for which you are an affiliate.

The third essential component is a conversion system that works. That means you are converting someone from a “lead” into a paying customer. Your automated prospecting system will have warmed the prospect up. You need an irresistible product, persuasive selling (by the way, this is often achieved by pinpointing a problem or difficulty experienced by the reader and outlining the benefits – not features – of your product which will solve that problem), good reasons to act immediately, straightforward ways of receiving payment and prompt delivery.