Selling something that doesn’t exist (yet)

Entrepreneurs spend days, weeks, months in order to come up with new products which, very often, might not even sell. But what if you could see its selling power before you create the product?

This would mean you don’t spend the time nor money to create products or services that won’t sell. In a very broad view, it might look like I’m suggesting you to become a scam artist, but just think about it. You are not selling air. You are actually selling a product which you don’t have yet. But if you see the product would actually sell, you make it happen, you create the product.

How can you do just that?
First of all, I want to be very clear on that, you should not! try to scam anyone. You should not try to get money out of people for nothing. Which would possibly be followed by the change of your name, address and everything related.

What I am talking about is testing whether your imaginary product COULD sell. You set up a website for it, you write a sales copy. You mention that the product is almost ready and will be put for sale very soon. And if the user signs up to buy it once it’s ready already now, he will get it for half the price. Plus a free article or two in addition – he would get eg. 1-2 articles a week until the product is ready. Just to keep him updated, just to let him become inactive towards your product, just not to let him forget all about it.

What are the benefits?
When selling something that does not exist, you test the waters. You see if people have any interest towards it. If you get a lot of people to sign up for free, you already have a knowledge that this product actually has the power to sell. And if that’s so, you will start working on it, if needed 24/7 for two weeks in a row. You now know it is going to sell like crazy (if you won’t make any fatal mistakes during the actual selling process that is). You already have a certain number of people who are interested in buying your product. You know it because they have subscribed via your free subscription form. Just to be notified when the product gets ready.

What if there’s no interest?
If it turns out that people don’t really have any interest towards your offered product, if you don’t have any or have just a few sign-ups you just won’t create the product. You haven’t taken any money from anyone, so no-one will really be upset with you. And the few people who actually did express interest towards buying the product, you can just send them an email that you think the ready-made product turned out to be crap. And this product will never get ready. Additionally, you could ask if they have any suggestions on what kind of product they would like to see. And if you get some good answers, you can start the circle all over again with a new product promotion.

The main benefit
It’s time. It will take time to get the sales letters ready, it takes time and just a bit of money to promote the non-existing product. But it takes 100 times less time and money to actually create the product and find out afterwards that it doesn’t sell. Which option is better in your opinion? Well, I stand behind my thoughts.