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I first learned about Dave Navarro, AKA The Launch Coach, while researching how to motivate affiliates, and I was instantly taken aback by his wealth of knowledge, charm and brashness. He’s a perfect example of how to motivate your audience to buy simply by giving them what they want — and plenty of it!

He teaches his readers to give-give-give in order to lucratively receive the results you want and the spirit of giving spills over into his Launch Coach Library where he GIVES AWAY obscene amount of free workbooks that will teach you how to sell more and play a bigger game.

Dave is gearing up for the launch of his very popular “Creating Products That Sell” and “Building A Responsive List” workshops on Thursday, May 27th, so I took this opportunity to asked him to explain some of the marketing mistakes he sees out there. Dave answered these questions and gave tried-and-true advice on how to learn what your audience (really) wants from you.

Get ready to stop selling your products the tacky, over-the-top way and start selling with the classy, Dave Navarro way….

1. What can people expect from the two workshops: Products that Sell and Building a Responsive List?

I basically lay out a step-by-step course for going from “nothing to something” – in the case of product workshops; it’s how to take the shortest path to getting some in-demand stuff out there and setting up your sales systems. I give the basics of audio / video / PDF / teleseminars / webinars and show how to add features to your products to boost sales and reduce refunds.

Basically, I take all the reasons that making products seems hard and scary, and give you options to defuse the pressure and get your stuff out there and selling.

Same with the email workshop – I’ve distilled what I’ve learned over the years to create a shortest-path plan for attracting an audience of buyers who like you and respect you, without having to do any of the cheesy stuff you see most internet marketers do.

2. Most of the people I work with have a problem: creating products that sell; I suggest doing a survey or posing questions to identify pain points their target audience is experiencing via social media—does that seem to work for you as a starting point for identifying an idea for a profitable product?

If you have an audience who responds to you already, surveys are fantastic, but if you don’t, it’s great to look at social media – especially blog comments – as an indicator. I like to look at other people’s posts where the comments are on fire and I say, “That’s something people really want answers to.” My first really successful product, How To Launch The **** Out Of Your Ebook, came about that way, by following the comments on an Ittybiz.com post.

3. What other advice can you give for creating a product?

Don’t over-think it. Focus on giving people solutions that work, not on being impressive. If somebody at a party needs a bottle opened, they don’t care if you have a Swiss Army Knife, they’re happy with the bottle opener. Same with products. Don’t try and make the Swiss Army solution when you can please your customers with a simpler deal. Because the time you free up doing that can be spent making more solutions to other pressing problems.

4. Can you identify the most frequent mistake you see people do when creating products and/or building their lists?

They create the product and then build their list. I did that for 5 years and it’s an uphill battle. But if you build your list by targeting an audience and getting to know their needs, you can find out what they’re hungry for, make that, and start making sales instantly.

5. What advice do you have for some one that has many friends or followers and now wants to create a responsive list from their networking efforts?

Focus on helping people, not chasing numbers. The more you give, the more goodwill you get. And that is what gets people responsive. You don’t need clever headlines to attract attention if people like you and trust you. So if you have a following already, find out what’s their big pain point, make a free resource or two around it and build goodwill and people sharing your stuff (exactly what I do in the Launch Coach Library).

People think I’m a master marketer, but I’m not. I’m a highly skilled helper, and that means people are willing to trust me when it’s time for the sale. You can cover over a multitude of copy-writing and marketing weaknesses just by being respectful to your audience.

6. I assume your workbooks are your pink spoon offer? Will you be going into how this “just a taste” strategy can help build your list and also provide research for products?

Exactly. If I can get people to taste the goods, so to speak, and get results with my free stuff, then they’ll stay on my list and communicate with me. I go into this in detail in the Building a Responsive List workshop.

7. Who is going to benefit the most from your workshop?

Anyone who has an online presence and wants to be able to grow their business by staying classy. There are plenty of products out there for the “yellow highlighter”, pushy-marketing crowd that just wants to get rich quick, but I think these workshops are the best fit for people who want to play at a higher level – especially if their audience demands respect and a more civilized marketing message.

Basically, if you want to finally sell more of your stuff without doing anything tacky or embarrassing, this is for you.

8. LOL, you told me you don’t have a VA! I was a Virtual Assistant and am growing into a Virtual Business Manager role, so that admission from you hurts my ears and intrigues me! Seeing all the great information you pump out with your social updates, blog, regular interviews and products you offer– what steps or processes do you use to keep on track, see your progress and thus motivate you to keep going??

I don’t have a VA because it puts pressure on me to simplify my processes and focus on only doing the 80/20 stuff. I think VAs are great, don’t get me wrong – I just know that in my case, I’m trying to build a business with as few moving parts as possible, and since I have these time constraints I have to always ask “do i need to do it this way”?

This is important to me too, because a lot of my audience has a day job they’re working their way out of and I need to be able to teach people how to make progress when they’re on a shoestring time/money budget. (I just quit *my* day job last month, so it’s an issue that matters to me).

My biggest process is tracking the time I spend in a time log. If I have to write down what I’m doing every 15-30 minutes, it forces me to stay on track.

Want to learn how Dave manages to rocks my (and many others) day? Stop by his Launch Coach Library and get your learn on!

P.S. Although Dave doesn’t have a virtual professional assisting him ( gasp ), I am truly thankful to him for sharing some of his expert advice with me! Get your daily dose of Dave via twitter @RockYourDay

Starting an affiliate program is an awesome way to build a sales team that you don’t pay until they sell for you. However, it’s not that easy! Setting up an effective affiliate program takes time and hard work.

1. Don’t Skimp on the affiliate center setup. Have all the rules, promotional materials, creative ads ready to go. This makes it easy for your affiliates to get in and get out. This is probably the most overlooked steps by business owners because quite simply they don’t understand how to actually set it up.  I suggest business owner’s sign up for relatable affiliate programs and do a bit-o-homework to get some ideas on how other business owners motivate their affiliates. Having a great affiliate center DOES require you to do more than just have an affiliate link. It involves:

- Creating affiliate links directly to each of your products
- Hosting your products on individual pages
- Offering a great training guide—when creating an affiliate how-to  guide assume all of your affiliates are new to this rodeo!
- Having great promotional content ready to go, such as: pre-written emails, blog posts, tweets, Facebook updates. (This may require the use of a creative designer for ads)
- Establishing easy to understand rules and have them easily accessible. *Don’t forget to mention spamming and false endorsements are no-nos per you and the FTC
- Customizing your initial welcome letter to your affiliates. The welcome letter is your affiliate first impression of your time and effort into making them feel valued

2. Personally contact people who you would like to see promote your product. Write down your Dream Team of Affiliates and begin doing your research on them.  Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and subscribe to their newsletter. Comment on their blog and then once you see your opening—a related blog post, their own upcoming product launch, an interview, etc., send them an email and say that you are impressed with their product or service. Point out exactly how your product fits in with their audience. Let them know what you find interesting about them and give details on commissions. You could even ask them to review your product. If they are doing a launch, offer to include your product and promotion on their thank you page for their orders.

 

3. Offer interviews and freebies bonuses to key affiliates. In additions to letting everyone know you are “interviewable” by setting up a media page so that you can easily be contacted; be sure key partners know your areas of expertise and they will welcome you to speak on your topic-of-choice to their list.  Offer reductions of your products for key affiliates, as well. There are many people out there that make a living reviewing other’s people products, be sure to reach out to them and sweeten the offer by giving them your product in exchange for an honest review and some exposure on their blog/email campaign.

 

4. Be respectful of your affiliates own promotional calendar and be sure to give them a quick heads up (insider’s scoop) on what is on the horizon for your business, well before the official launch date.  This  allows your affiliate to mark their calendar and ensures they have ample time to set up their affiliate promotional activities. Your affiliates will be grateful for the content with benefits you eagerly share with them. Also, your affiliates are given the opportunity to become your eyes and ears with their own audience and will let you know if they have someone they think you can connect with, in order to help you have greater success. Be sure your “heads up”  includes:

- How excited you are to be offering this product
- What issue your product/service solves
- Official launch date
- Any special pricing

5. Keep in Touch and be responsive! You must take the “following up” with your affiliates as serious as you do with your own list of potential buyers. Send reminders, extra promotional material, encouraging words, thank you messages, success stories and offer to help in any and every way you can to ensure your affiliates have success with promoting your product. When you receive a question from an affiliate place on your customer service hat and resolve the issue quickly and thoroughly.

 

6. Consider additional incentives to have extra fun with your affiliates.  How about offering seasonal promotions, such as an iPad for your highest earner during the holiday season? Also you can create a newsletter and openly dote on your best earners with case studies and links to their own products. Your affiliates will be eager to learn how others are doing so well and truly appreciate the extra gifts of gratitude!

 

7. Hire an affiliate manager to ensure your affiliate center offers much more than just a cookie capturing link. In my opinion, the only affiliate work that a business owner needs to be directly doing is making personal connections with key affiliates. The rest of the work is best left to someone that understands affiliate set-up and can save the business owners time by managing their affiliate system for them. Your affiliate manager, ensures all the pieces are in place so that you achieve your goal for having affiliates: raising your exposure and profit line by creating a group of people who are compensated for selling your products/services to their audience.

So there you have it–7 Secrets to Jumpstarting Your Affiliates Desire to Sell for You. Remember setting up an affiliate system take stime and effort, but the more planning you do know, the better chances you have of putting together a winning affiliate program that will serve you long into the future.

If you have any comments, I invite you to share them here or email me directly!