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Reducing Your Support Needs
By Paul Kleinmeulman

If you are selling any product, then no doubt you have had at least one support request. It’s a very important part of business, customer service, but it doesn’t directly grow your business. On the other hand, if you are handling your support poorly very soon word gets around and you are losing business left and right.

This article is NOT about how to hire somebody to do your support, which is something that I have done for the past 3 years, and I strongly recommend you do the same. It is about how to reduce your support needs right at the start, reducing the bottle necks so you don’t have as many support issues.

Here are 3 suggestions…

1) Make Your Sales Process Simple

When I launched My Mind Shift (http://www.MyMindShift.com ), via a new membership type sales system, I quickly discovered that over 50% of customers, were not able to login after they created their membership. This was because they had to click on an email link to be fully registered, a double optin method. For some reason, most of the customers, didn’t receive that email, and I was getting a lot support emails saying "I can’t login" and I had take approximately 5 minutes for each customer, to login to the admin, approve them manually, and write them an email with their username and password to try again.

When you have over 140 sales in one day, it quickly builds up to be a huge task.

Immediately, I hired a coder, to change that bottleneck and remove the need to click the link in the email, before they could login and as soon as this new system was applied it removed all these extra support issues I was getting.

The system still has some issues, such as with the OTO and the download page so I have decided to scrap that membership system entirely, as it is more trouble then it is worth.

In my experience, the simpler the system the better.

Sales Page => Payment Processor => Customer List => Download Page

Works like a charm… reducing support issues tremendously.

2)  Use Video Where You Can

If you have any difficult part for a customer to do for example, downloading an mp3 file, then don’t just tell them how to do it, show them via onscreen video.

Don’t overestimate the technical experience of your customers, especially in some niche markets. Your product might be the first online product that this customer has ever bought, and downloading the product is 100% foreign to them (some don’t even know what downloading means).

Make their first experience easy, by showing them exactly how to download your files or how to install your script. The competent customers will just skip over this, but for first timers, it will save you a lot of support issues.

But don’t just leave it at video, some people prefer to read, so give them an instruction manual with detailed screenshots.

3)  Have A Frequently Asked Questions Section On Your Sales Page & Download Page

Another major part of support, is the questions that people have. Answer them before they ask, via a frequently asked questions section, on your sales page and your download page. I have found that most people’s questions are similar, so by answering one question before it is asked, you could be reducing your support by 20%.

So there you have it, 3 ways to instantly reduce your support issues. Take the effort once, and you could be permanently reducing your support issues in the future.

All the best to your online success,

Sincerely,

Paul Kleinmeulman
Australia

Finish That Project First!
By Paul Kleinmeulman

How many projects have you started but never finished?

At the time, they seem like the best idea world, but after 1 or 2 weeks, or even 1 or 2 days you lose enthusiasm for them, and very soon they become more digital dust for your hard drive.

I cannot count how many half finished products, and even completed products that I have never sold, that are just waiting in my hard drive, becoming less and less of a good idea. If you are just starting an online business, you are probably laughing at me right now, and saying to yourself "I would never do that!" But it does happen and it is one of the most idiotic practices, you can see with most online marketers. Why? Because you don’t make money unless you sell something and it needs to be finished before you sell it.

I don’t believe that every marketer has attention deficit disorder, but I do believe that online marketing changes so fast and there are so many distractions online, it is so hard to focus.

So how do you finish that project?

Here are 3 techniques, to help you to focus and finish that project.

1)  Make The Decision

Every change starts with a decision, and you are in charge of that decision. If you want to finish that project, then you need to decide to first. Decide right now, that nothing is going to stop you, from finishing this project off. No coder, no copywriter, no graphic designer, no content writer, everybody is replaceable. Nothing is going to stop you not even yourself.

As you have new ideas, write them down within a separate document and then start them when you have finished this project first, yes even if they are better then your current idea.

2)  Write A List

To take a product to market, there are a lot of little steps that need to be done. Some of them are good marketing practices, but are not essential, such as a One Time Offer, or a bonus to add to your sales page. Don’t let these things stop you. Take the time to write a list of everything that you need to sell your product.

Such as…
Product
Sales Page
Payment Processor
Download Page

That is basically it. Everything else is not essential, though I would strongly suggest you take 5 minutes to create the customer sign up list ;-). So what do you need to finish off to start selling your product? Write the list, and break down even further if it seems too big to you. For example, a lot of people get stuck on the sales page. So break it down. Headline, Introduction, Features, Guarantee, Closing etc.

3) Set A Launch Date

I believe there is a saying that goes something like this… "A goal without a date is a dream that will never be accomplished." If you want to push yourself, and get the project finished quicker then ever before, then set a launch date and take your list, and give each of them completion times.

Immediately you will know what you need to do during the coming weeks so that you will be ready for your launch date.

So there you have it, 3 strong techniques to help you to avoid distractions and focus to finish off that project.

All the best for your online success.

Sincerely,

Paul Kleinmeulman
Australia

Defeating Distractionosaur - Failures Monster…
By Paul Kleinmeulman

It’s 8:30 at night and you have a couple of precious hours before you have to go to bed. You want to grow your online business because you are sick of having to go to work in the morning. Day in day out.

But before you get started you decide to check your email. You start reading a few, one recommends this amazing ‘new’ way to make money online. You spend 30 minutes reading the sales page and decide to buy it. You get to the download page, download the PDF, and start reading a few chapters. As you are reading, you see that this amazing new way to make money online will definitely work BUT it looks like a lot of work.

Before you know it it’s midnight, you haven’t gotten any work done, and you have just blown another $50 bucks because this direction is entirely different from the one you are currently heading in.

Failure’s monster, Distractionosaur strikes again. Tearing you up and spitting you out.

Has that happened to you? It used to happen to me all the time.

So how do you beat this extremely powerful monster? How do you put him in his place and FOCUS on doing the things you need to do to grow your own online business.

Well, let me share with you 4 things, to help you defeat Distractionosaur.

1)  Write A List & Prioritize…

One of the best things that I have done, to beat Distractionosaur, is to take 5 minutes before I switch on the computer and write a list of what I want to achieve, today, this week, this month and then prioritize that list.

Once I have identified what is the most important things that need to be done, I do them first… and then reward myself, with email or a few videos on YouTube.

2)  Eat That Frog First!

Brian Tracy, has written an excellent book, called ‘Eat That Frog’ (or something like that) and the basic principle is that if you eat a big ol’ dirty bullfrog before you do anything else, everything else you do that day will be a breeze.

So on your list, you have frog, something that you are not looking forward to. Perhaps it is writing a set of autoresponder messages, or reviewing a product and writing a compelling review about it. Whatever is… don’t put it off. Do it first and everything else will be easy, and enjoyable in comparison.

This works amazingly well.

3)  Unsubscribe From All But The Best Lists

As an internet marketer, no doubt you are on a lot of lists and no doubt you get a lot of email. Email takes time to read, to delete, and it is a huge distractor. The less email you get the better.

So unsubscribe from every list, that doesn’t provide quality information or recommendations.

I have done that over 2 years ago now, and I have never regretted. I only really read two marketers. They always provide quality emails and recommendations and I respect that about them. Find the marketers that work for you.

4)  Only Buy When You Need It.

If you need a product to grow your business or to do something specific, then by all means buy it. But most people don’t do that. They buy, when they don’t really need it, and never even look at the product. $10 is $10… don’t waste it.

Focus on growing business first and foremost. You won’t regret it.

Well that was 4 simple ways to ensure that you don’t get eaten by Distractionosaur.

Focus is key, you can do it.

All the best for your online success.

Sincerely,

Paul Kleinmeulman
Australia