MBA2475 5 Biggest Mistakes When Selling on a Webinar in 2024

0:08Heyo, welcome to the 100RNBA show, powerful business lessons you can count on to build your business. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. And in today's episode, you'll learn the five biggest mistakes when selling on a webinar in 2024. Masterclasses, coaching calls, free consultation, whatever you want to call it. It's a webinar. It's a live video broadcast in front of people demoing and selling your products so that you can grow your business. There's a right way and there is a wrong way, especially in this day and age, because customers have become wise. Customers are a lot more educated about what they want, how they want it, and people really don't want to be sold to.

0:56So what do you do on these webinars if you're not selling? How do you get it right? How do you avoid the biggest mistakes I've seen in the industry? And what should you do instead? Well, I'm going to share with you everything I've learned over the last 10 years of doing over 500 webinars and growing a seven-figure software company using webinars. That's how I sold my software webinar ninja to customers. And one of the things I learned is it's very easy to get this wrong. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Webinars are an incredibly powerful way for you to sell your products and services.

1:30It allows people to learn more about what you're all about and if they're a good fit for your thing. There's nothing like live interaction that allows people to make a buying decision. Remember, this whole online thing is pretty new. If we go back 30 years and you bought anything from a t-shirt to a refrigerator to a car to whatever, it happened in person. You talk to somebody in person. You ask questions. They answered them. They showed you the product. They quote unquote sold you on what you bought. And this is how human beings have bought anything. This is how sales worked for a very long time.

2:11So the closest approximation to that online are webinars, is being able to do this live on video to help people make a buying decision. And I want to start with that. That's your job on every webinar. Your job is not to sell them or to make as many sales as possible or to break the internet with how big your webinar is. Your job is to help your audience make a decision. To make a decision if they want to work with you, buy your product or not. That's your job. You can't make anybody buy anything. And when you try to force somebody to buy something, it backfires. People return the product or service.

2:48They might give you angry reviews online or at the very least, never buy from you again. So we don't want to do that. We want to make sure we educate our customers, okay? And help them make a decision. Be on their side. And sometimes that decision is, it's not the right time to buy. This is not the product for you. This is not going to solve the problems that you have. So I wanted to start with that preface to help kind of set up your mindset when it comes to selling on webinars. So what are the five big mistakes that I have learned and seen in the industry that people need to avoid like the plague to run better webinars?

3:21Well, let's start with number one, and that is not being transparent. Transparency is so important with webinars. Why? Because the whole point of running a webinar is to build trust with the audience, with the people on the webinar. The more trust you build, the more the connection between each other grows, the more likely you're going to sell because we buy from people that we know, like, and trust. And if I don't trust you, it's very hard for me to be convinced to buy from you. So we don't want to break trust. And the easiest way to break trust is not to be transparent. And one of the easiest ways or the most common ways people are not transparent is that they don't talk about the fact that they're going to sell something.

4:03This is why I always recommend it to people that if you're going to run a webinar, let them know beforehand that you will be talking about a product or service and possibly giving them an offer. I like to do this even before the webinar in the email notifications on the landing page where they're registering for the webinar. Hey, and I frame it as a demo. If you want to learn more about this product, if you want to learn more about, in my case, it was Webinar Ninja, the software, you want to learn more about the software, and if it's a good fit for your business, sign up for this webinar. We're going to be talking about this product.

4:33I'm going to tell you how much it costs. I'm going to tell you what it includes. I'm going to tell you its features. I'm going to tell you if it's a good fit. We're going to find out if it's a good investment for you. Framing it like that allows people to know what to expect so that when you start the webinar and you say, hey, here's the agenda. This is what we're going to cover. And by the way, at this part of the webinar, we're going to be talking about a special offer that I'm offering people on the webinar to give you a chance to start and use this product. There's nothing worse than people misleading people.

5:03So many people, they say, hey, join this free workshop, join this free masterclass, and they pitch it like it's going to be all education. And in fact, you know, it becomes maybe 50 % education, 50 % sales. There's nothing wrong with selling or demoing your product, but there's something wrong with you not telling people that's what they're signing up for. You need to be transparent. Number two, not being prepared. Doing a webinar is like doing a public speech, like doing a TED Talk, okay? You gotta be prepared. This is sort of a performance. You wanna show up as your best self, whether it's having beautiful looking slides, whether it's rehearsing your webinar so that you're not saying these things for the first time, they're not coming out of your mouth for the first time, you've actually practiced how you want to deliver your message, you want to make sure it's polished.

5:50You want to make sure that you're presenting and looking professional. So when people on the webinar, they're like, wow, there's some thought that was put into this. There's some work. There's some time that was spent crafting this presentation, this webinar, this workshop, this demo, this whatever. And this person is just not winging it. It's very hard for me to think you're credible. if I feel like you're winging it, if I feel like you're just kind of, oh, let's see. Oh, that's not what I'm supposed to do. Sorry. Let me go into the next tab. Let me show you something else. No, that is not professional.

6:23People's time is valuable. You want to respect people's time. Do not belittle people's time. Make sure that you're prepared, you're professional, and it looks brilliant. Some people will just be sold on you, meaning they'll see you prepared, see that you're professional, that you got it all together. They'll be like, wow, this person's a professional. They take their job seriously. This looks legit. I don't know much about the product, but I'm willing to buy because this person looks like they're committed. A lot of times, you showing up professionally is half the sale right there. Number three, not making the webinar interactive.

6:58I hate the idea of sales being a pitch, like a sales pitch, because really good salespeople don't pitch. They ask questions. My father was a car salesman, actually, right? He was an engineer by trade, but moved into sales when he lost his job. And one of the things that he used to do is ask a lot of questions. He used to ask questions like, what do you not like about your current car? Why are you looking to trade in your car for something new? And the customer would say something like, oh, I don't really love the stereo. It's kind of weak. The seats are kind of uncomfortable. And there's not a lot of room in the trunk.

7:31Not a lot of room for me to put suitcases or, you know, some of the things I work on on the weekend. This information is gold. Why? Because when he's selling them or showing them the car that potentially would be a good fit for them, he's not going to highlight the features that don't matter to them, right? A lot of us, we're so proud of our products and services. We're just talking about all the great things we think is great about our thing. But in fact, you want to cater your message to the audience. And what my father would do, he would show them the stereo. Look how awesome the stereo is.

8:03It's got 12 speakers. Check out these seats. They're super comfortable. They have lumbar support. Let's open the trunk. Let's take a look at how big it is. You can actually fold down the seats as well so you can get even more room. He didn't show them the wishbone suspension or highlight how much horsepower the car has. They didn't really mention that they care about that. Why am I throwing information that's going to go over their head? Really focus on the things that matter and solve their problems. This is why on a webinar, you really should be asking a lot of questions so you can gather information.

8:33I like to ask questions like, what are you really struggling with when it comes to whatever my product solves? Why haven't you started on a solution yet? Why are you still in this situation? What has stopped you from this point? So I'm asking a bunch of questions on the webinar so that I can learn what they're struggling with and how my product can solve those particular problems. So when I'm demoing my product, when I'm showing them my thing and why it's so great, I'm highlighting the areas of, oh, you haven't started yet because you don't know how to start? Well, we have a quick start guide with every membership.

9:08Let me show you that. And it quells those fears and those objections. And then they're like, okay, I have no reason not to buy. This solves all my problems. So keep it interactive. Ask as many questions as you can so that you can highlight how your product solves those problems. Number four, selling instead of demoing. You want to demo your product. You want to give people the opportunity to go on sort of a test drive, so to speak. There's a big difference between selling and demoing. Why? Demoing is saying, hey, I have this incredible thing. I got to show it to you. Here it is, right? It's going to be amazing.

9:43It's going to benefit so many people with or without you. You better get on the train right now because it's such a great thing. Demoing is really just like, let me show you this amazing idea. Let me show you this amazing solution. Selling is me trying to convince you that this thing is great. Selling is me trying to tell you, you should buy this because I said so, right? It's a subtle but important, important, important difference. I always say show, don't sell. Just show them. Just like you would show a friend your favorite thing that you just bought. Hey, check out this new car I got. Let's go for a ride.

10:18Let me show you all the features. This is what I love about it. You should get one. Show, don't sell. All right, guys, let's recap real quick before we go to number five. number one, not being transparent. Number two, not being prepared, not being professional, not being ready. Number three, not making it interactive. And number four, selling instead of demoing. Let's get into number five, the fifth biggest mistake when it comes to selling on webinars in 2024, not following up. So many people run webinars and they say, great, I made a few sales, wonderful. And they just think it's over. No, there's plenty of people that signed up for that webinar that didn't show up live.

10:56There's plenty of people that showed up live that didn't buy, right? The conversation's not over. They may need time to think. They may need time to watch the replay if they weren't there live. And this is why I always recommend to have at least five emails over the next week or two to follow up with those people that registered for the webinar, giving them more information about the product, helping them make a decision. Again, giving them the opportunity to email you if they have questions. Remind them of the offer, the special offer that you gave or the bonuses that they get. Show them how they can get started.

11:2830 % of all our webinar sales came from follow-up. People that were not on the live webinar or were on the live webinar and didn't buy. So following up and simply just having some email notifications and email sequences, giving them more information, highlighting some of the areas that were inside of the webinar that were pretty interesting, mic drop moments, highlighting some of the great questions people ask and your answers. And again, reminding them of how to get started and your deal. This is very, very simple. It's something that a lot of people forget, but makes such a big impact. It's a difference between making$10 ,000 and$13 ,000 on a webinar.

12:09There you have it, guys. Those are the five biggest mistakes that you can avoid, right? When it comes to selling on webinars, in 2024. I still believe that webinars are one of the most powerful ways to bring in new customers, make more sales for your products and services. It's a great way to build a relationship with your audience and get to know them. I have experienced something very interesting that I'll share with you. I've run over 500 webinars. I've had people on my webinars four, five, six, seven times. And then on the eighth webinar, they buy, right? Sometimes it takes a few times for people to be ready and be convinced.

12:44Thanks so much for listening. If you love the show and you want to support us, hit subscribe. Subscribe to the podcast. We want to make sure that all our listeners are subscribed so they get the next episode automatically. But it also allows us to grow the show. The more subscribers we have, the bigger the show becomes. And the more we can invest in making it better and better every single episode. Thanks so much in advance for doing that. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. One of the best things I got out of doing 500 webinars over my career was becoming a better communicator. Communicating live with an audience allows you to really hone in on that skill and connecting with people on becoming more eloquent on being more concise, being more precise and being helpful in thinking on your feet.

13:28It's one of the best skill sets I have gathered in my career, all because I ran so many webinars. Yes, the money's good and the growth is great, but who you become through that process is really the biggest reward. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll check you in the next episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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