625. Boost Your Product Sales with This Proven Strategy

Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is.

The Product Boss podcast.

I've helped launch and grow thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours. Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what mistakes they could have avoided, how did they turn their ideas into a successful business, and what are the strategies that.

They have used to make more sales.

And be discovered by more customers. And this is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're.

Looking to become a million dollar product.

Boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support, and you too can be the next million dollar product boss.

Let's do this. Hey, hey, product Boss. Welcome back, it's Jacqueline. I am so excited to dive into this exciting episode. Okay, so I can't tell you how often I get asked by people, you know, I have this product, I have this idea, what should I do? How do I sell it, right? They, they always have, I think, you know, we come up with these amazing ideas or we get inspired and we're like, I can make that or I that product. And then a lot of times we're not sure, then we're like, we find the easiest way forward. So I'll say that I'm grateful for, but that a lot of people do go on a site like Etsy, for example, because Etsy is a sales platform, they do the majority of the marketing for people to bring them in, you know, for people to know about Etsy, that they can shop on Etsy, right? Etsy does that marketing. They bring the customers to the platform and then you are responsible for getting people to discover you on that platform. Right? But they handle the transactions, they handle social. So many things on there. And if you know my story with my mom as a maker and as an artist and growing up, that was the game changer for her where she, you know, as I was growing up, she would sell to friends and family, she would go and do like little in person pop up markets, usually at like a church or temple during the holidays. But that was it, right? And she always was so afraid.

She's like, I don't know how, like.

Do I write, get a check from them, how do I pay my taxes? Like, she always had these questions and she had to figure it out on her own. And so a platform like Etsy kind of handles it for you, right? But here's the deal. When you sell on a platform like that, you're selling on borrowed land. Because we know and you know that if you've ever sold on a platform like that or something ever went wrong, a customer can complain. Someone can say, actually, this happened to one of my mom's bestsellers where someone was like, oh, it's a copyright infringement. It was a company from the uk and I looked up the product and it had nothing to do with it. But platforms like that oftentimes don't necessarily protect the seller or the shop as much as they do the other side. So super frustrating, right? Like, you can. I know people who have had stores shut down, had best listings removed, right? It's. It's scary. And I don't want you to have all your eggs in one basket, you know, and then we can think about other ways that people sell. If you have a brick and mortar and you are relying on foot traffic, right? People to discover you and walk through the door, so much of where you are on a street or in a town and word of mouth gets people into your store. Or maybe you're like me when I started my product business and I launched my website, right? I paid all the money, got a website created, launched it and thought, if I build it, they will come. And nobody came. And I did not know how to get people to discover me on the intern. I didn't know to look for my company, you know, so there's all these ways that I think, or. Or maybe in the new way, right? People are up on social media. Like we start social media accounts and we're trying to get people to know about us and know about our brand and, you know, engage with us and all the things. And then it's like, same thing. It's a little bit crickety, a little bit crickety. So it's really frustrating. So I get it. And what I know, like, the biggest changeover for me, the thing that was like, went from like, trickles, like very trickly trickles, just tiny drops of water coming out. If you imagine like a faucet that's like closed, but it's got a little bit of a leak that was like my sales, right? Just a drip, drip, drip, long pause, drip. And I needed it to. I needed that faucet to turn on. I wanted to hear the waterfall, right? That's what I wanted my company to do. I was in it. I had Invested into it. I invested my money, my time, like I had limited resources. This thing's gotta work. Am I right? Hey, hey, product boss.

Okay, so you know that I am on a mission to empower women all.

Over the world to build product based.

Businesses that give them the security and freedom to build their dream business, which will also lead to the life of their dreams. So I know that I can help you do this by teaching you how to nail the core four foundational pillars of a standout business. And it's going to turn your business into something that feels like it's kind of struggling along or limping along to standing out in a crowded market and getting more customers. So I am so excited to invite you to join my free masterclass, your four step playbook to stand out in a crowded market and get more customers so that you can grow your business no matter where you sell. In just 90 minutes, I'm going to teach you the core four foundational pieces your business might be missing. How to stop wasting time and money on things that don't work and what to focus on instead. I mean, these are proven ways to build an audience that buys from you and that tells their friends about you. So what I want to do is I want to unlock what can be blocking you from growing a profitable business and how you can turn it around pretty instantly. All you have to do is come join me inside of this totally free masterclass. Head to the productboss.com standout to get access again.

That's the productboss.com standout.

Now back to the show.

And so that's when I started thinking about how can I sell my product and where can I sell my product? Where the customers are. That is such a big part of, like, where our customers built in because they were not built into the Internet for me, right? And when I had started my business, there was no social media in the way that it is now, in the way of using it for product discovery and marketing and all the things, right? We were still just following each other and saying like, oh, look at that cute picture of your baby or your dog or your vacation or your food. So, so what I wanted to put together for you here were the seven best places to sell your products right now. Right now, where can we get up and start to sell? And this is what I discovered in my business when I launched it. And I was like, okay, I built the website, it's there. But what do I do? Like, how do I start to make money? How do I start to make my initial $20,000 investment back and then build this business to the dream that I had in my brain, right? I remember doing like a little quasi business plan. And I had calculated that if I sold 7,500 cuffs, I'd make a million dollars. That was my number. I was like, oh, 7,500 doesn't seem that hard. It does when nobody is buying from you. But in my head I was like, oh, that's only 7,000 ish cuffs. I could do that, right? It was that silly naivete. And so, you know, I looked at it and I said that. But then I was like, nobody's buying. Where do I go? How do I sell? And so I really needed to discover, like, what was the best way for my business. So let's jump in and talk about it. So the first sales channel to sell your products right now. And while I say that E comm and having an E commerce site was hard for me, I believe that it's essential. So why do I believe that it's essential? So the first place to sell would be by having your own website. Why? Because you own that website. Imagine it being your own little piece of land on the Internet. Imagine, you know, Main Street USA or Main street wherever you live in this world. And it's the store that that's there, right? This is your little bit of real estate. This is your shop that people can come shop from. It's something that people can't take away from you. God forbid it ever gets hacked. But despite that, you have the URL, right? Like, this is your website, this is your store. So when you meet people, you have a place to send them to shop from you. You get to develop your brand. You really get to stand out amongst the competition, right? You get to create this virtual place for people to buy. You get to charge what you want to charge, get to run promotions. And it's a place of discoverability. So imagine you're out with somebody and you know, you're wearing a bag that you made and someone comes up to you and like, oh my God, that's so cute. Where'd you get it? And you're like, oh, this is mine. I, I, I make bags like this. Or I sell bags like this. Oh, wow, where can I get it? You know, you'd be like, well, you can go to Etsy and find me. And this is my, it's so hard to find shops on. I can't even tell you. Like, I don't know if they've improved that site, but if I was like to type in your name do I find it? You know, or you could be like, well you can go on Amazon or you can, I don't know, find me at the local market on Saturday. Like you have all these things. Or you could say go to my shop. Com. Here it is, right? Oh cool. Thank you for sharing that with me. Oh, amazing. You know, and be like, hey, I can give you a friends and family discount. Like use this code, right? So easy. You can have coupon codes, you can reference people to it, you can drive traffic there and you can build your email list on your own e commerce site, which is another core fundamental thing that I truly believe that you need as a product based business, really any business. Because what are the things you own? You own your email list and you own your website, right? That can't be taken away from you. The Internet, like meta can go down. TikTok can disappear from the States, like all of social can disappear. But if you have an email list and if you have a website, you got something there, right? So I like to think of it as like the foundation, as my like security, as my safety net, right? By having these things there may be right now it's not transacting the way I want it to do, but I plan on building a money making machine, right? I plan on getting multiple sales channels and then long term this like momentum will build and then people will start to buy from me. And that's exactly what happened for me with my brand. Okay? I had the website, but I didn't have the customers so I had to go to where the customers were. Hey, thanks so much for listening.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Now if you want to dig deeper into this topic or hear more, you can listen to the full full episode by clicking the link in the show notes. Remember friend, you've got this and I'll see you in the next episode.