HOT! MARKETING You don't need a website, you need sales

[evlttwin]

 

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[Andy Black]

Maybe a stupid question as your post seems more about the philosophy of stop procrastinating and just do it already but...what if your business or business idea is a website (say through shopify or volusion) selling something in particular that lends itself to that medium? Wouldn't that constitute needing a website?

I’d say the business isn’t a website, and that shopify is just a way *how* you’re selling your product to someone. You could start by selling without building the shopify store first.

 

[RobD88]

I’d say the business isn’t a website, and that shopify is just a way *how* you’re selling your product to someone. You could start by selling without building the shopify store first.

Understood and totally get your point. Without a ton of money to invest into inventory I'm working on a drop ship model where I don't carry or pay for the product until it sells. While the business isn't a website, it is providing something of value to the marketplace that people are willing to pay for, I do need a channel with which to market the value. Do you have any suggestions on an alternate means of reaching customers.

(Of course this is just the start of my empire and first true business venture. I have plans for additional products that I would physically develop and stock.)

 

[Andy Black]

Understood and totally get your point. Without a ton of money to invest into inventory I'm working on a drop ship model where I don't carry or pay for the product until it sells. While the business isn't a website, it is providing something of value to the marketplace that people are willing to pay for, I do need a channel with which to market the value. Do you have any suggestions on an alternate means of reaching customers.

(Of course this is just the start of my empire and first true business venture. I have plans for additional products that I would physically develop and stock.)

I'm not saying don't have a website, just that your goal is to make sales.

How can you sell a product without a website? Put it up on Amazon, eBay, Facebook? Sell it door-to-door? Find out who already has your customers and do a deal with them?

The website is just a tool, just one way how you can make an sale.

 

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[Woodsman81]

Understood and totally get your point. Without a ton of money to invest into inventory I'm working on a drop ship model where I don't carry or pay for the product until it sells.

How do you not pay for product until it sells?

 

[BigRomeDawg]

Our tech support business had no website for years..

"A tech business with no website??? How the heck did that work?"

Just fine

 

[Andy Black]

How do you not pay for product until it sells?

Get paid first?

 

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[Woodsman81]

Get paid first?

Sorry I got confused on the term drop ship. I think of it as my product that sits in a warehouse and some one ships it for me. In this case it was being used as I sell other people's product through my website in the Dropship company sends it to them.

Guess my green is showing

 

[Your Boy George]

A focus on the end result is key. People do tend to get hung up on the wrong shit and over-designing your website is a rookie mistake.

 

[shubham525]

Totally agreed.

 

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[B_Mac]

How can you sell a product without a website? Put it up on Amazon, eBay, Facebook? Sell it door-to-door? Find out who already has your customers and do a deal with them?

I am just getting around to actually reading through this thread. But @Andy Black is correct. You don't need a website, you need sales.

I am selling on Amazon. I had been making excuses for why I wasn't trying to get more sales from a channel other than Amazon, one excuse being my website sucked.

Then I saw the words. Not the thread. Just the words. You don't need a website, you need sales. With my still bad website, I called a store, set a meeting with the purchasing manager, and made a sale.

He saw the website. He didn't care it was bad. I had a good product. He said it was good and my price was even better. The most important part? He wrote me a check on the spot. Now, as long as we are both still open for business, I have them as a channel for sales.

When that store wants to sell one of my products, they won't show customers my website. They will show the customer the item on the shelf. And the customer will buy it.

 

[Dianne Cohen]

I used to be that person. "I need to be the expert before I...." Now I internally laugh when I hear people doing the same type of behavior. And I hear it so often.

 

[John D.]

Great argument. Some people get hung up on the bells and whistles and don't start until they have the perfect website.

I'm doing freelance copywriting and I only have a rudimentary Google Doc to show to prospective clients. It looks like something a 9-year-old could've come up with in half an hour. (Is it me or are kids getting smarter these days?)

And guess what? They don't mind. All they care is samples of my work to see if I'm walking the talk.

All I do is focus on outreach.

 

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[LittleWolfie]

I have been talking to an author regarding their need for websites.

They don't want sales. They do it via Amazon. The purpose fo their website is to provide somewhere to keep in touch with their fans and build a community they control away from Facebook/LinkedIn etc.

They are more interested in traction than $.

 

[Andy Black]

Bump.

 

[Ernman]

I couldn't agree more. For the last two years I've been making sales DESPITE my website, NOT because of it.

Now I must admit that I had fun learning how to use WORDPRESS and WOO Commerce and have recently done a major overhaul of my website. BUT, I never believed for one minute that I NEEDED that website to get started. It is a tool in my tool box along with many others.

 

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[DavidePaco00]

Are you referring to... having landing pages only (and driving quality traffic to those landing pages) , and not necessarily having (or needing) a home site (to obtain sales)?

Yes I was wondering the same thing.
I think It depends mostly on having a single product or multi product store.

What do You think?

 

[Isaac Odongo]

We've sold a dozen landing pages in the past year - without a landing page to sell them from.

Just found that amusing...

Firstly, I love this thread.

A couple guys fake action designing business cards and websites, actually hiring people to do it for them.

And they say they need them.

Making custom t-shirt,

Designing flyers,

Making banners.

Filling the radio with ads.

 

[Michael Ankrah]

Firstly, I love this thread.

A couple guys fake action designing business cards and websites, actually hiring people to do it for them.

And they say they need them.

Making custom t-shirt,

Designing flyers,

Making banners.

Filling the radio with ads.

Ok sir @Andy Black what are some threads on here that one can actually read to get better at sales especially for a beginner doing web design

 

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[Andy Black]

Ok sir @Andy Black what are some threads on here that one can actually read to get better at sales especially for a beginner doing web design

GOLD! - HOT! - MARKETING - Andy's Inbound/Sales Braindump

I was asked this a while ago: If you were to start your business from scratch, how would you approach prospecting? Given that you don't cold call. And you don't know many people in the business world to "spend your money on diesel and coffee" with. And you've already reached out to your friends...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Andy Black]

Ok sir @Andy Black what are some threads on here that one can actually read to get better at sales especially for a beginner doing web design

Oh, and you might get some ideas from this thread too:

INTRO - Intro, Tough time choosing the right vehicle need some guidance

Had my FTE event months ago and decided to share A little bit of backstory: i am 29y old and live in a small European country Croatia (strong tourism) For the past 7 years i have been working in the military professionally and have decided recently that i am going to quit in a few months (i...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Consolation]

In 2018, I managed to sell books without writing one. My goal: Help one local author to publish her books.

In 2021, I landed few clients for web design, without creating a personal landing page. My goal: Help a friend to open his toy store. He was a stranger, selling contraband cigarettes (LOL!).

In 2023, my video business reached 3-figures in sales, without creating content on TikTok, or whatever social media existing now. My goal: Help whatever I can to improve the local martial arts community.

No business card.
No LLC (yet).
No equipment I can call mine.
Made tons of repairable mistakes, that's for sure.

PS: I never trained in any martial arts discipline, though. I like football (soccer) more. #YNWA

 

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[Eurojanek]

I'm a Subaru WRC enthusiast. In my bachelor times I was driving a Subaru like mad
So one day I joined a Subaru forum, realized, they use a symbol on a outside mirror as their sign.
I took the pictogram, made some improvements and some alternative versions and started thread selling them. Later on with help of my customers feedback I've created more versions, I don't know must be about 100 at the moment.
To date I must have sold to probably 10K customers. Never had a website, zero advertising.
My top 3 business rules as follows:
1. Always top design and product quality, no matter what, even if it means losing money on a deal. Happened only a few times.
2. Customer satisfaction or death. Any problem with my product, no matter whos fault it is (package lost, my fault, customer ordered wrong item, customer torn sticker when applying..) always means replacing order at no extra cost + freebies and pronto.
3. Speed is the king. See order in, same day done and sent. I never wait for payment to be processed. Never been cheated on that issue - Im a bit surprised about it.
How my business grew? Word of mouth, reputation, car events, customers sharing info in their social media etc.
I sell to end customers, Subaru dealers, lawyers, doctors, businessmen.. in Poland and rest of Europe. Did plenty of other gadgets, plenty of custom work for decent rates.
Have zero stock. Just raw materials, my vector files on computer and machines to do the job. Produced will be the same moment as order comes in. So I do my own dropshipping Pretty much everything under my control. That's how my side gig looks like. No website or somebody else's website you may say.