MBA2717 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Pre-Sell To Beta Customers?

Are you curious how entrepreneurs manage to sell products before they’ve even built them? Pre‑selling is the key to validating your idea and getting money in the bank before launch day. In this episode, Omar shares how he pre‑sold his own software to beta customers and the exact steps you can follow too. You’ll learn how to craft a no‑brainer offer, build trust, and use risk reversal strategies to land your first paying beta members. He also breaks down four key moves, including how to anchor your price, treat beta users like VIPs, and validate your product before investing years of effort. Hit play at the top of the page and walk away with a clear framework for pre‑selling to your own beta customers and setting your business up for long‑term growth. To submit your questions, visit 100mba.net/q. Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:45Speaker 00

  Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great, like impressions. But then, we don't see revenue. LinkedIn has a word for that: bullspend. Instead, you can get the highest ROAS of major ad networks with LinkedIn Ads. Cut the bullspend, advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/MBAShow. Terms apply. If you want to pre-sell your product before it's built, and actually get people to pay you real money for something that doesn't exist yet, you need more than just hype. You need to build trust, you need to provide great value, and you need to create a no-brainer offer that makes it really difficult for them to say no.

• 1:28Speaker 00

  Today, I want to show you exactly how we pre-sold our software, Webinar Ninja, back in 2014, and made money, had money in the bank before the product even existed. I want to show you how you could do the same for your business, for your product. So you can get your first 20 to 50 beta members. For us, it was first 250 beta members that started the whole journey for us, how we started our business, how we built it, how we scaled it over 10 years, and eventually sold it to ProProff. So this could be the beginning of something very special for you. So it's really important that you nail it.

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  Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.

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  Before we jump in, can I get 30 seconds of your time? We love guiding you on your business journey, and we want to help even more people build their dream businesses and lives. So if you could hit the follow button on this podcast app, it would be greatly appreciated. It's completely free, and it helps us out more than you know. Thanks. There are four key moves that we did when we pre-sold Webinar Ninja that made it a success. I want to share with you those four moves. The first one is we led with value, not features. Beta customers don't care about your roadmap. They care about how you'll actually make their life easier today, not tomorrow, not a month from now, not a year from now. So say, for example,

• 3:00Speaker 00

  I had a software that helps personal trainers, coaches, PTs, get rid of their admin work, get rid of all the stuff, the tracking they have to do, like how many sets, how many reps this person's doing while they're doing the exercises, what weight they're doing. Let's say that kind of all evaporated with my software because it's using AI and all this great technology. Then if I present that to my client, that's gold, because now they don't have to do that, and they can be present with their client, and they can actually do more clients, they can serve more clients, because they don't have to do the admin work later. So when you're presenting the value to your customer in this example, you want to show them how you are actually, right now, going to save them time, how you're going to save their mental bandwidth, how you're going to make them look more professional, how they'll

• 3:44Speaker 00

  be able to handle more clients, like I mentioned, how they're going to reduce mistakes, how they're going to reduce fatigue, how they're going to reduce forgetfulness. And the whole anchor is if your product saves you money and time, you're already speaking their language. You have to immediately show them as quickly as possible that, hey, when you put your name down, when you pay your deposit, when you buy this product and get it, when it's coming out in two months, then you're going to be able to take advantage of X, Y, Z. These are the advantages that you're going to have and how it's going to improve your life, your business, and get you a return on an investment. Everybody sees a purchase as an investment, even vacations, even a pair of shoes. They are investing in a pair of shoes so that they can get a return on investment

• 4:28Speaker 00

  when people like their posts on Instagram with those shoes on. So that's the point here. Think about what the customer wants. They want a return on investment. Show them what that return is. Second move, anchor the full feature price. A beta offer only is attractive if they know they're getting a deal, if they know they're getting a steal. So the good way to do this is to anchor your beta price with the final price, or the price that your app is going to be, or your product's going to be after you're out of this phase. So say, for example, with a software product, you're going to be $1,200 a year once you're at a beta. And then when we anchor that $1,200 a year to the beta price, which could be $299 a year with two free months as a bonus,

• 5:10Speaker 00

  that looks like a no-brainer deal. That price will never be offered again because you're just coming in early, you're pre-selling the product, so everybody sees that, hey, I better get this in now because otherwise I'm going to pay $900 more, plus I'm not getting those two free months. So as you could see, the value really is being conveyed by the anchoring. They don't know if they're getting a deal, if they don't know what to compare it to. People only take early action when they feel like they're getting ahead of everybody. Like, they know a secret that nobody else knows, and they just want to jump on it before everybody finds out. Move number three, we made them VIPs, not beta users. I've been using the term beta users because it's a common term that people know,

• 5:52Speaker 00

  but we call them founding members because that sounds a lot better because it makes them feel like they're special. And they are special because their feedback is going to be implemented first as these early founding members. We told our customers, "You're going to shape how this product evolves. You'll help us build a tool that the entire industry ends up using." So they felt like investors in the company. They felt like they're part of something bigger than themselves. This creates emotional buy-in, especially

• 6:22Speaker 00

  In industries like fitness, personal training, coaching, health and wellness, knowledge, information, business, investing, all that kind of stuff. They love being early adopters. They want to be a part of something that is new. It's exciting. So when we launched Webinar Ninja, we told our founding members, hey, we are gonna take your feedback. We're gonna implement it first. You're gonna shape this product with us. You know, you know it best because you're gonna be using it the most. And that really resonated with people. And that was reason enough for people to say, hey, take my money. I want to be a part of this journey. The holidays are the season business owners get pulled in six directions. More calls, more requests, more chances for things to slip through the cracks. Hoping you catch it all isn't a plan. That's why today's episode is brought to you by QUO, spelled Q U O.

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• 7:52Speaker 00

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• 9:04Speaker 00

  Move number four that we implemented was extreme risk reversal. If you're asking people to pay for something early, you need to remove all risk. Use a guarantee that feels absurd, that feels crazy. And that's why we did a 90-day money-back guarantee. So what we did is that we said, hey, you get 90 days from the day you receive the product. So they buy before they receive the product, because it's a pre-sale. And then, once they receive the product, the 90 days starts going, starts counting. And we told them, hey, if you don't love the product, for any reason, we'll refund you the money that you put in at the start. So for you, it might be like they paid for an annual subscription at a really good price. And for any reason they don't like it, you can refund them that annual subscription.

• 9:47Speaker 00

  The reason why 90 days worked so well, because in our experience, when we were launching Woburn or Ninja and we released the product, and some people came to us and said, hey, you know, this is not for me, I don't have time to do this, or whatever it might be. We spoke to them and said, hey, listen, you still have 65 days left to use this product and get the most out of it. How about we help you implement it, get you onboarded, and see if it works? If it doesn't work, we'll still give you your money back, don't worry about it. So it gave us 90 days, really, to sell the product to them, to re-engage them. Now, of course, if they just say it flat-out, no, I don't want to do that, we give their money back, you know? We don't want to put them in a bad situation, or make them feel uncomfortable, or really put a bad taste in their mouth. We want to make sure that they're happy, but we want to make sure they actually get

• 10:31Speaker 00

  a win out of this experience. And sometimes that win is actually keeping the product and getting their ROI. And the 90 days really allows them to emotionally invest in the product and not feel rushed. A lot of people, they just asked for a refund because they didn't open the box. Like, they didn't actually check it out yet. They just didn't get around to it, right? They could have had, you know, a holiday, or a busy time at work, or maybe a life crisis, and they just had no time to kind of evaluate their product. And sometimes when you pre-sell and then you deliver the actual product, a lot happens in their life, a lot changes between that time. You might sell the product and then they get the product like, you know, three or four months later, and then all of a sudden, their life is a little bit different, a little bit busier, and they just forget to kind of take action.

• 11:15Speaker 00

  And then they just get this notification on their, maybe in their email, or maybe on their calendar, and they're like, "Oh, I should refund this because I haven't used this yet." So, giving them more time allows them to actually implement, get an ROI, and a chance for you to engage with them and be active in that situation. You want to be actively reaching out to these founding members from day one, week one, month one, and say, "Hey, let's get you on board, let's get you started." And you should see inside the dashboard of your software, or in your program, or whatever tool you're using to sell your products or services, if they're engaged, if they're actually watching the videos, or whatever it might be. And if they're not, you've got to go after them and make sure they do, so that they don't ask for a refund. You be proactive with activating them, instead of them being the first person to reach you

• 12:00Speaker 00

  and say, "Hey, I want a refund." So, bottom line, the longer the guarantee, the more likely they are to stay. So, the way we pre-sold Webinarin Show was very simple. We literally just had a landing page and a promise. Mockups of what the software's going to look like, how it's going to implement the solution to the problem of overwhelming webinars. At the time, it was very hard to run a webinar as a solopreneur, as an author, as a speaker, as even just a small business owner that has a couple teammates. A lot of the enterprise software was not built for those types of teams. So, we showed them on the page exactly what the value is. We gave them early access, we gave them that VIP status of being a founding member. We gave them a really great discount that was lifetime, and a mission that they believed in. This is very important, probably the most important thing.

• 12:45Speaker 00

  It's like, "Hey, you've got to sell them on what you're trying to build and what you're trying to change in the world." The mission we had- With Webinar News, we want to make it easier for people to monetize their knowledge and become financially free. We believe that webinars are a great way for you to convey your value and help other people and change other people's lives through your products and services. And there's nothing like that online. It beat email, it beat text, it beat videos, like a static video. Because webinars are interactive. You can go back and forth with people, answer questions, answer rebuttals. And so it was a great sales conversion tool as well. And when you share that with people, people love being part of something new, something that has meaning, and it builds trust with your audience.

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  Many founders think credibility comes from the product itself. Wrong. Credibility comes from you. And your angle is why you built this, the story behind the product, why the industry needs it, why you should care, why you'll keep improving it over the years. You know, a lot of people buy Patagonia purely on the fact that they are a sustainable company. Company that believes in sustainability and the environment, and they'll fix any garment of clothing that you buy from them instead of you buying a new one. It sounds crazy, but Patagonia absolutely believes this. And yes, their products are a little bit more expensive than their competitors, but because they have a mission, people can get behind that mission.

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  It has really very little to do with how the clothing is styled, or the cut of their vests or their sweaters. No, it really has to do with what Patagonia stands for. The bottom line is that people aren't buying a product, right? They're buying your commitment to solving their problem through the product. The moment people believe that the product will make their life easier, that's the moment that they are sold. And that's where you, the founder, will deliver on that promise. So you need to make sure that if they're going to put their money up front, and you're going to pre-sell it, that you actually deliver on that promise when you deliver the product. So remember in the beginning of this episode, I said, "You're going to need more than hype."

• 14:53Speaker 00

  Actually, hype hurts you. You want to undersell it and over-deliver, right? So make sure that you're not over-hyping the product. When you're pre-selling it so that you set up expectations way too high. In fact, you should actually be upfront that it won't be perfect and they're going to help you make it better and better every day. And that's okay because early adopters, they don't want perfection. All they want is progress. So now it's time for you to take action. This is what I want you to do. I want you to answer these questions. You want to deliver this exact pitch when you're pre-selling on your landing page. Number one, who is this for? Who's this product for? Is it for busy trainers and coaches? Is it for doctors? Is it for lawyers? Is it for young people, old people? The more specific, the better.

• 15:36Speaker 00

  Number two, the painful problem. What's the problem really that you're solving? In the example I was giving with the fitness app, admin stealing your focus as a coach and costing you clients. Number three, what's the transformation they're going to go through? This app, this product will let them track everything automatically so they can stay fully present with their clients and serve more clients. Number four, what's the anchor price? What's the future price? The final price is going to be XYZ, you know, 3X what it is right now. Number five, what's the founding members price, the founding customer price, right? The beta price, so to speak. It's got to be a whole lot less. And you can make it whatever you want and then just anchor it to a higher price.

• 16:20Speaker 00

  So your price might be $50 instead of $300. Number six, VIP advantage. As a founding user, as a founding member, your feedback is going to shape our next vision. You're going to get improvements. You're going to get free updates. You know, one of the reasons why Tesla are so popular is because people feel like they're getting a new car every few months. You know, there's like over the air updates to improve the car like every two months. Number seven, risk reversal. Extend that time as much as possible. Try it for 90 days. Try it for 120 days. If you don't love it, we'll refund everything. The longer the better, in my opinion, because it gives them more time to see the value and get a return on investment. If you can cover these seven in your pitch on your landing page, you're golden.

• 17:03Speaker 00

  So you're not begging people to take a risk. You're offering them a chance to be first, to be on the cutting edge, to be before everyone else, before this thing goes crazy and is super popular. If this episode gave you clarity, share it. Share it with another founder, another business builder that you know, who's building something new and wants to be able to launch with a big bang and really be able to make some money before they even deliver the product. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. One of the best things I got out of pre-selling Webinar Ninja as a product was clear product validation. We opened up our first founding members and we capped it to 150 spots and we sold that out in 48 hours.

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  We were like, wow, this is incredible. I had a very small email list at the time, less than 3,000 people. And I thought to myself, wow, this is incredible. There's so many people that are sharing and talking about this. I really struck a nerve here. This is a product people actually want and they're willing to spend money on it before they even receive it. So then we opened up to another 100 beta members and we sold those spots out in another 24 hours. So we had 250 beta members in 72 hours. That was clear product validation that, hey, this product market fit here. People want this product. This is worth investing. This is worth me spending my next 10 years building and growing this product. So that's actually the best thing I got out of that experiment or that experience of pre-selling the product is clear product validation.

• 18:32Speaker 00

  And I'm not wondering if this is something that I should invest my time, money and energy into for a good portion of my life. So if this gives you anything, that is the one thing I would say is the best thing. Yes, the money upfront is great and yes, having customers and being able to build a great product is fun, but that validation to know that you're working on the right thing is everything in business.

• 18:57Speaker 00

  If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.

• 19:34Speaker 01

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