Eurotrip: Drowning in a Sea of Products, Launches and Upsells

This past Sunday I returned from a 11 day European vacation with my gilfriend, where we spent 3 day since in Barcelona, Spain and 7 days on a Royal Carribean cruise through the Mediterranean Sea visting cities like Marsailles (France), Monaco, Florence (Italy), Pisa (Italy), Rome (Italy), Naples (Italy) and the lost city of Pompei (destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius).

And not to mention, partying it up on the cruise ship and getting a nice tan for myself.

Here are a few pics of my myself and my girlfriend in front of Sagrada Familia and the lost city of Pompei, in addition to a pic of some random drunk Asian guy on the cruise and me having my first sampling of the legendary Duff Beer in Naples!

However, even when disconnected, my marketing brain will not shutoff and I of course see things through a different lense.

Now if you know cruises, you know that the cost of the actual ticket to board is pretty inexpensive and includes, lodging, entertainment, access to the gym, an all you can eat buffet and gourmet dinners every night with a team of waiters that pamper you.

It's a great freaking deal.

With that said, it became obvious pretty quickly why tickets for a cruise are so inexpensive -- it's cause the real money on the cruise is made from the UPSELLS!

OMG! How Dare They Sell Me More Stuff?!?

After they hook me by overwhelming me with value through lodging, fun and all the food I can eat for an amazing low price, they get into my wallet by upselling excursions, guided tours, alcoholic drinks, gambling, alternative fancy dinners and fully tricked out floating mall!

Those bastards!

(BTW, is any of this sounding familiar?  Super low-priced, high-value front end offer? upsells? )

The truth is, I'm overjoyed that they offered us all the upsells they did, cause it made our vacation 10 times more fun and memorable!

We spent a couple grand more than we anticipated, but it was worth it because what they were offering on top of what was already a great deal was "added value".

As a marketer, it is your duty and obligation to upsell the crap out of your customers!  

It is your duty and obligation to squeeze as much money out of your customers as you possibly can!

And it is your duty and obligation to use every sales tactic in the book to get the job done...

...as long as (yes, there is a pre-requisite) what you are offering is adding value to what people have already invested in and will improve their lives or experience from their initial purchase.

The Royal Carribean pulled out every stop to try to get us to spend more money, when we really didn't have to.  We could have been scrooges, not drank a single cocktail, not gone to a single excursion or not purchased an extra fancy gourmet dish and still had a great time.

We wouldn't have seen much of Europe, we'd be stone cold sober the whole time, but still would have an amazing tan, tons of fun on the ship and still gained 10 lbs from the endless buffet... but we didn't settle for that.

We opted for a GREAT time, over a GOOD time.

Were there upsells we didn't take? Of course?  We didn't buy everything they shoved in our face, but simply opted for what we belived was a great value!

Drowning in a Sea of Info-Products, Launches & Upsells?

If you are new to this industry and new to marketing, you are probably in learning mode and have purchased many training products.  And in the process of purchasing those training products, you were probably upsold more products and by the time you finish checking out, you've spent two, three or four times what you initially anticipated spending.

And you should feel great about this, as long as you...

1. See value in what you purchased and
2. Intend on taking full advantage of the product

The problem with overspending on info-products is when you start buying up everything that's put in front of you without fully understanding how it is going to help you and if you fail to allocate the time to actually go through it.

And I would normally say that the responsibility of you doing these 2 things is 100% your responsibility, but the truth is that the internet today is now flooded with more info-products, launches and events than ever before, making it extremely difficult to tell products apart and how they fit into your marketing strategy or if you even need them.

Back in 2006 when we got started, there were only a handful of products in the market place and they clearly indentified how they were going to help you - whether it be traffic, conversion or recruiting.

Today, there are literally hundreds of products with many more being produced on a daily basis.  It's resulted in a ton of confusion and many networkers are paralyzed from info-overload.

With that said, we've clearly indentified the problem here, so what's the solution?

Simple.

Getting Back to Basics is the Answer

The fact is, internet marketing has not changed very much over the past 6 years, despite what people may be saying.

• Capture Pages remain the most effective type of site to convert leads
• Email followup is still the most effective leveraged communication medium
• Sales Letters and Videos continue to do the trick for selling
• And calling your leads is still KING!

Next week, Raymond, myself and Magnetic Sponsoring are joining forces to hold a FREE, extremely HIGH VALUE training webinar for beginners on the following:

1. Teaching you the proven internet marketing & sales funnel strategy and how it works
2. Reviewing the most popular info-products in the market today and what part of your internet marketing strategy they help you with (and which products you should AVOID)
3. The fastest way for you to get your sales funnel built and produce results, without having to study a bunch of info products!

Click Here to Register for this Special High Value CLARITY Focused Webinar

Now let me be clear.  We love info-products, we create them, have purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars in info products and will continue to do so for ourselves.

And we believe you should be investing in yourself through info-products, coaching and live events - without a doubt.

However, the difference between those that succeed and those who don't, is CLARITY!

Being clear on how things work, what you should study/invest in first and having no doubt what you should be working on today is paramount.

That's what we are offering to show you on this webinar.

Click Here to Register for this Special High Value CLARITY Focused Webinar

If you lack focus, clarity and feel overwhelmed, this is for you.

See you there!

Best,

Ferny