Why Direct Selling Doesn't Sell

Do you know that as an affiliate you are almost sure to fail if you try to sell a product directly?

Want to know the reason why and what to do about it?

To take an example, suppose you are promoting a weight loss product and have made a nice website for it.

How Direct Selling Fails

A housewife looking to shape up has been searching the internet to solve her problem and finds your site. When she clicked your site url, she was naturally expecting to find ways to deal with her weight problem.

Now what would be her reaction if instead of finding helpful information which she could use to reduce a few pounds, she sees a pic of your product, a list of its features and the Buy Now button.

Of course, your page is also showing a nice picture of shapely bathing beauty implying what your visitor could look like if she used your product.

But will it cut much ice with her?

She has already seen so many such ads on TV, internet and in magazines.

No, she doesn't need yet another weight loss ad. She has seen them all. She doesn’t want to get inferiority complex, looking at glamorous pictures. She wants ways to solve her problem. She hits the back button and looks somewhere else.

You have a lost a potential buyer of your product because you tried to sell directly to your visitor who is not likely to return to your website.

How Preselling Wins

Now take the same visitor with a weigh loss problem. She lands on your site which is different.

It tells her ...

• How to find out if she is really overweight from the ideal weight tables on your site
• Which foods cause weight gain
• What simple exercises can help her reduce fat

This is the information she can use immediately. She can check if she is really overweight, if she is eating the wrong foods and how she can start doing simple exercises to fix her problem.

By helping to solve her problems without asking her to spend anything, you have put her in the right frame of mind to click your ads or to look at the weight loss product you are suggesting. You have presold her – put her in the right frame of mind to buy.

This, of course, doesn't guarantee that she will buy your product on the first visit - few visitors do. But by giving her useful information, you have gained her trust. She may come to your site again to check for some more information. She may tell her friends about your site. She or one of her friends may buy your product. Return visits and referrals increase the chances of any site for making sales.

Did you get the point?

In both examples your ultimate aim is to get a visitor to buy your product. But the ways you go about are different.

You are more likely to succeed if you help your visitors instead of coming on with a strong sales pitch. Click here to learn how to write persuasive content that puts your visitors in a positive frame of mind.