How to shatter the glass ceiling and get more people to buy your stuff

Is it frustrating that although you have followed the recommended steps to develop a product to sell, your sales still look disappointing? You have built a large enough list to survey about your upcoming product, you have developed a minimum viable version of that and released it to the public, your sales are trickling in but that is all it ever does… trickle in. How do you break that glass ceiling and get a flood of sales and not just a trickle.

Start a Fire

or better yet, get a firestarter to start the fire for you. Have you noticed how the big blogs tend to do reviews of products just before they are launched? I have read a lot of gadget reviews, book reviews on blogs like Engadget, TechCrunch and the New York Times. These generate a hell of a lot of sales for the gadget or book in concern. These reviews are what I refer to as Firestarters, a term I first heard of through Mike Stelzner of Social Media Examiner.

Now you may be thinking, “Yeah right, How do I get the NY Times to pitch my product?”. It doesn’t have to be the NY Times, all you need is the attention of about 5 bloggers or publishers that cater to the audience your product targets.

I will get to how you can connect with firestarters in a minute but first let me explain the importance of starting fires and how this can help you break the glass ceiling and get more a flood of customers for your product.

2 Reasons Why You Need the Fire

The main reason why you need to connect with major bloggers is that they can get your message to many more people than you possibly could. I always use this analogy of the microphone. If you need to get a message across to many people, you could do it by shouting at the top of your voice but I am sure you will get many more people to listen by using a leveraging
a microphone to get your message across.

Another important advantage is you get the trust of that audience quicker and the defensive walls they have put in place are not going to keep you out. Why? this is because you are coming in through the gate and the person letting you in is someone they already trust.

I’ll give you a quick personal example, I came across a plugin that I wanted to buy for this blog called Popup Domination, but for some reason, I did not make the purchase at that point in time. Later on that week, I read a blog post from a popular blogger I follow, David Risley promoting the plugin. I made the purchase on the spot, and this happened because David Risley practically let Micheal Dunlop into my realm of awareness. Now I am subscribed to Micheal’s updates and
if he delivers on his relationship with me, I will probably end up buying more of his products that I need. Can you see how you can use this simple tactic to get customers for life?

5 Steps to Connect with Firestarters

Now it’s all well and good, you know why it is important to connect with people of influence. Now I am sure you want to know the specifics of how to go about making these connections.

1. First, you need to make a list of the firestarters you want to connect with. The good thing about the social web today is that you can easily start a conversation with almost anybody that is active on social networks.
2. Get on their radar by commenting on their blog posts, retweeting their posts, answering questions that they ask on Twitter or Facebook. There is a fine line between coming across as a suck-up or coming across as a helpful member of their community. Be careful not to come across as a suck-up.
3. Givers get. The key here is to add value. People (the nice ones at least) will naturally remember someone that has helped them in the past. If your help makes sure they open an email when they see it is from you, you are doing a good job.
4. Simply ask. It is really that simple, all you need to do is ask if they would be interested in promoting your product. People do this the wrong way round and take this step first. Well if you don’t get a reply, do not be surprised. Your email could have gone past their stream just like the 100’s of other pitches the get daily.
5. What is in it for them? While taking all these steps, you always have to make them aware of what is in it for them. An affiliate kick-back, free content for their readers, a special discount for their audience. Whatever it is, make it easy for them to lift that finger and hit the send button on that promotional email. You can even go as far as writing the email for them.

I am going to direct you to a FREE resource that helped me a lot and you can read it too. Here is a link to Dave Navarro’s library where one of the workbooks you get is titled, 7 Steps to Networking Your Way to A-listers fast. An amazing value you get for FREE. (Dave, You know you could charge for that content right?)’

As always, let me know your thoughts. What do you think are better ways to get a fire started for your product.