Learning how to make your first sale online is probably one of the most important things you can do as an entrepreneur.
The world is moving online whether we like it or not.
Now, I know you probably have goals of making tens of thousands a month, or maybe even millions a year.
If you can’t make 1 sale though, you’re not going to make thousands.
However, if you do things right and build out the foundations of your business the correct way, once you’ve made your first sale, there’s no reason you can’t go on to make thousands of sales.
But it’s important to build up your confidence and aim small initially whilst getting off the ground.
Because as soon as you start getting results you’ll become obsessed, and that’s when big things happen!
Within this article, I’m going to discuss exactly how to build a long-standing business/brand from scratch, with very little money and start making sales online.
We’ll be discussing how to build long-standing relationships, rapport, trust, and an engaged audience.
This is predominately aimed at people who’ve never sold anything online before and don’t have a business, although small business owners will probably find this useful.
So without further ado let’s dive in.
6 Steps To Make Your First Sale Online
- Identify A Problem
- Identify Your Skills
- Personal Or Business Brand
- Add Value To Your Audience
- Collect Email Addresses
- Promote Products Or Services
Identify A Problem
A lot of beginners step into the world of business and entrepreneurship because they believe it’s the best way to make a lot of money.
They see entrepreneurs flashing their lavish lifestyle all over the internet and want to get in on the action.
But what a lot of people don’t see is the hard work, long hours, stress, problems and failures to achieve that success.
To build a business you first need to understand the point of a business.
A business is produced to solve problems.
A business is not produced to create money.
If you aim on solving problems in your market, a by-product will be that you make money, but it’s not the other way around.
So the first step you want to take is you want to start looking around and identifying problems, which is super easy to do.
Listen to people who moan, winge and complain!
A lot of the time they’ll be complaining about 3 different areas of life:
- Wealth (Example: Complaining they don’t have enough money)
- Health (Example: Complaining they can’t lose weight)
- Relationships (Example: Complaining there are no single people left for them to find)
Basically, start to piece together what everyone is complaining about and struggling with and write them down.
It can be anything, the more you write down the better.
Identify Your Skills
Now you’ve found a list of problems that people all around you are having, it’s time to take a look over the list and work out what you’re good at.
What skills have you acquired through work and your personal life over the years?
Again it’s time to make a list, here are some examples:
- Communication
- Finances
- Healthy
- Techy
- Sales
- Marketing
- Problem-solving
Once you’ve identified what you’re good at, compare it to the list of problems and start to identify what problems you could help solve with your skill set.
Now, it’s important to understand that you don’t need to be an expert in order to help someone, you simply need to be a step ahead.
By being a step ahead, you’ll be able to help others get to where you are.
It’s as simple as that.
So for example: Let’s say you were once overweight and you’re now in great shape, well I can guarantee there will be an audience of millions of people that would love to hear how you managed it.
These problems and skills that you have can be anything!
Perhaps a friend of yours is in business and is annoyed that he can’t find good employees, but you have skills in recruiting and interviews.
Well, I can guarantee thousands of other business owners will want to hear what you know.
This is how you need to start thinking.
Personal Or Business Brand
It’s now time to consider whether you need to create a personal or business brand to solve the problem.
Here’s an example of each for the business niche:
- Personal Brand: I’ll be looking to build out the personal brand of James Hancox, by providing value to my audience, readers, listeners etc. On top of that, I’ll offer services and digital products to help my audience. This will be to support and guide brand new entrepreneurs to launch a business from scratch that they’re passionate about. My audience will know me by my name and not by my business.
- Business Brand: I’ll be looking to build a business brand that my audience knows, likes and trusts. The business is the name that all of my audience and customers will see and talk about. An example: Businessforbeginners dot com. I’ll offer value, services, and digital products to help my audience grow.
As you can see, the mission is simple: To help brand new entrepreneurs to launch a business from scratch.
The method and the branding are however different.
You need to identify what you’d rather grow, you as a personal brand or your own business brand.
My personal advice if you’re just starting out is to focus on building “the brand of you”.
Off the back of that, you’ll be able to form relationships and build multiple businesses in the future.
Add Value To Your Audience
Now it’s time to start providing value to your potential audience and understanding where they hang out on the internet.
Here are some examples:
Business Owner Niche: Usually business owners and entrepreneurs will now hang out on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Beginner Entrepreneurs: Usually people wanting to start a business will be hanging out on Instagram, Twitter or Youtube.
People Wanting Relationships: Besides tinder, people looking for relationships will probably be scrolling through Instagram, looking at couples making themselves feel worse. Or they’ll be on Youtube after dating advice.
Health And Fitness: A lot of people wanting tips to lose weight will be on Instagram, Youtube or Tiktok.
Understanding where an audience mainly hangs out is key.
Sure they may spend time on the other apps as well, but knowing how to get in front of your audience is important and you can only do this if you know where they are.
Something I haven’t mentioned here is Google.
Everyone goes to Google for answers, so having a website and articles is powerful, like the one you’re reading now for example.
Once you’ve identified where your audience hangs out, it’s time to create an account and start providing valuable content in that niche.
All social media platforms work on algorithms that want to know the niche you’re in.
So it’s important to stay consistent, post daily and engage with your audience as much as possible.
Building relationships and followers are crucial for the next part….earning money!
P.S – You may have noticed that so far all we have done is talk about helping and serving an audience with problems, this is how you build a highly lucrative long-term business. Focus on providing value!
Collect Email Addresses
As you’re starting to grow an audience of engaged followers who are loving your content, the next step is to move those followers away from the social media platforms.
Why?
Because you don’t own any of the follower’s information, you’re basically renting it.
Let’s say your social media account got hacked tomorrow or the platform went down, that’s your business out the window.
Having a following isn’t your business, it’s just a way of building up a rapport with an audience and relationships.
Now you’ll want to build up a basic website if you haven’t already, and a landing page to collect email addresses.
You can use email marketing software for this and the important thing to note is that you’ll have the data for your followers (Name and email).
To collect emails, offer something valuable that they would want:
- 3-day video series on how to build a business online
- E-book on how to lose weight in 90 days
- Webinar on how to communicate better with a spouse
- 5 Page checklist on optimizing your businesses marketing
- Ready-made food plan on gaining muscle mass
- Weekly newsletter to help with …….
Simply look at the questions you’re getting underneath the content, videos, and posts you’re putting out on social media and make a free-be for your audience.
In return, they’ll have to enter their name and email to get it.
Now you can add even more value to them via email.
Promote Products Or Services
Finally, we are now onto the money-making stage, but keep in mind your job is to provide a service or solution to your audience’s problems.
Now there are a number of ways you can do this, for those who are limited on time and don’t want to spend weeks creating digital courses, or jumping on 1-1 coaching calls.
I’d recommend looking at affiliate marketing.
Here’s a complete guide on what it is and how it works.
But to keep it short and sweet, you’ll be able to promote other companies’ products to your audience and in return for making a sale, you’ll earn a commission.
Here’s an example: Let’s say you need to set up your email list and you use my link recommending you to use the email marketing company I use. If you sign up, I’ll earn a commission.
It’s as simple as that, simply by recommending something you already use, like, or trust to your audience you can earn money.
You don’t have to deal with complaints, refunds, support requests and so on.
Important Note: Only promote products to your audience that you know is good and they will need.
These people trust you, don’t blow it!
If you’re someone who has more time on your hands, then look at other things to help your audience such as:
- Creating an online course
- Creating a paid online community
- Offering 1-1 coaching sessions
- Offering group coaching sessions
- Selling an E-book
- Seling a software
Focus on making it worth 10 times more than the price you sell it for.
Here’s a guide to structuring your online course and getting started.
Important: A lot of the money brands and businesses make online is through email marketing! My mentor told me years ago that ‘money is in the list’ and it’s so true.
Overview On How To Make Your First Sale Online
To wrap this up, it’s important to understand a few things:
- Building a loyal audience takes time
- Earning money online the right way, which will allow you to scale to a 6-7-8 figure business takes time
- You’re going to make tons of mistakes
- You’re going to have to step out of your comfort zone many times.
But for those of you who are serious, this is one of the best ways to create an income and build a brand from scratch with very little overhead cost (If any!)
Just remember, your goal is to solve problems and provide valuable insights to your audience.
The more you do that, the more they’ll trust you.
And as the saying goes ‘People buy from people they trust’
