Yesterday I wrote about 10 reasons why auctions can legitimately beat product launches.
I got a bunch of responses to that from people, including some big name course creators, who were planning on doing a launch soon but are now considering doing an auction, thanks to the magical power of written words, the ones I sent out yesterday via this newsletter.
I also got a number of questions from people who don’t understand how an online auction in course/info product/coaching space works, or what its purpose truly is.
No shame there.
I was equally as confused when I first heard of auctions. It made no sense to me why or how they work, or what their ultimate purpose is.
In the interest of effective email copy, let me take on one specific question I got. A reader writes in:
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You have certainly got me thinking how I could do an auction like you did last week.
Was a lot of fun watching you do your thing.
What I am wondering about is whether an action can have more than one winner.
Like you say I want to launch a new course.
I don’t want to sell that course to one person even if its for 31000 dollars. And who in their right mind would buy a self paced video course for that?
Yours wasn’t that. You sold something very special and unique. I could try and do the same, but I am still wondering how this applies to launching a course.
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In the words of Oprah, “YOU get a car… YOU get a car… YOU get a car…. EVE-RY-BO-DY GETS A CAR!!!”
This new auction way of selling is ultimately two things:
1. A price discovery mechanism
2. A handraiser campaign
The price discovery part is pretty obvious — people bid, and you find out what the market will pay.
The handraiser campaign might be less obvious.
Thing is, people who are raising their hands by bidding in an auction aren’t really raising their hands for your course, coaching, or even for the “something very special and unique” that’s being auctioned.
Nobody ultimately wants a course or a coaching program or even a DFY service. Instead, people want some OUTCOME.
If you take the time to discover what outcome people in your audience ultimately want, then you can auction off “something very special and unique” which promises to deliver the outcome with ease, speed, and style.
(Oprah: “YOU get a car! And it’s an ultra-rare and luxurious Rolls-Royce Boat Tail!!!”)
Of course, you can also make less unique or special offers to people who bid but didn’t win — offers that promise the same outcome, though maybe with more time, effort, or uncertainty.
(OPRAH: “YOU get a car! And it’s a very functional and efficient Renault Clio…”)
Does that make things clearer?
I hope so.
If not, and if running an auction is something that interests you, then I can tell you how I myself grokked how an auction works and how to run one with success:
I went through several trainings by Internet marketer Travis Sago, who invented this new form of selling courses and coaching and services and software.
Travis’s auction-related trainings cost about ~$4k in total and take several days of watching to get through.
Even so, they can be well worth it if you actually do run an auction or two or three.
But maybe paying $4k up front… only to have to go through hours upon hours of Travis talking… just to be faced with the prospect of all the work of finally putting this information into practice and running an auction yourself… is not really the OUTCOME you want?
Maybe the OUTCOME you want is simply to make a bunch of sales of your new course or coaching… to have your audience thrilled with the experience of buying from you and from the spectacle you organized for them… and to still have your eyes clear and your limbs full of energy, because you basically had nothing to do while this auction was going on?
Like I said, I’m talking to several course creators about running an auction for them in place of the launch they were planning.
But I am still interested in talking to more people.
If you have an audience, and if you have solid offers to put in front of them, then my offer is to run an auction for you, including:
– Creating excitement and buzz up front with your audience…
– Defining your offers (from the Renault to the Rolls-Royce)…
– Managing the actual auction process…
– Making sales to all those people who raised their hands by bidding.
And of course, I ask for nothing up front, Only a share of sales made, once the money is sitting in your Stripe or PayPal.
If you’re interested, hit reply and let’s talk.