How to sell an online course when nobody is buying!

I made an online sales course, but nobody bought it.

Let me tell you my story.

But first, here is a book I found interesting.

In Chapter 11, of the book, ZERO TO ONE, Peter Thiel, explores a fundamental question, “If you build it, would they come?”

This question underscores the importance of sales and how to sell a product. Thiel describes distribution as everything it takes to sell a product. If you build a product, will it magically get in the hands of your customers? Will customers come just because it is a great product?

The truth is that you must make sales happen. And this is where it gets tough. Because it takes hard work to make sales look easy.

According to Thiel: [1] All salespeople are actors, and their priority is persuasion. [2] Sales work best when hidden, since people hate being sold to. [3] A product will not sell itself; you have to put in the real work.

Thiel concludes that: “If you’ve invented something new but you haven’t invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business- no matter how good the product”.

We are all in sales. Thiel argues that “everybody has a product to sell- no matter whether you are an employee, a founder or an investor”. And “if you don’t see any salespeople around you, you’re the salesperson”.

Now to my story.

Story, Story... Story come!

I priced the course at USD $ 15.53 and positioned it for B2B sellers and small business owners in SME’s and Startup sectors.

But when I offered it for sale, nobody bought.

I got pushback on the cost and timing of the course. People indicated interest, but failed to buy because they either didn’t have money, or the time was not appropriate.

So, what did I do? As prospects pushed back, I did not backoff, instead I leaned in. And got a breakthrough in my thinking.

And decided to buy my own ticket. If nobody was going to buy my course, I would buy it myself. After all, I had invested time and energy in designing and creating the course.

Therefore, I bought my own course and paid for it in full: USD $15.53.

Having bought my ticket, I took the opportunity to deliver the course to myself. I was the creator and the customer.

So, I recorded the training and listened to it more than 10 times that evening and every morning for the next 7 days.

Get a snippet here for my initial delivery of the course to myself. Speaking into the void.

Two weeks later, I decided to offer the course for sale again.

With a few tweaks on marketing, I felt I could attract customers and generate some revenue.

I set up a sales page, created a compelling value proposition, engaged my connections on LinkedIn and reached out to 25 people in my phone contact lists and asked them for help.

Then I went heavy on social media for 2 weeks: Set up events on LinkedIn and Facebook, created a Facebook page and posted daily on Facebook and X.

I was confident people would buy my course.

But nobody bought the course, again.

Therefore, I run an offer on my tickets, a 20% discount for 36 hours for the first 9 tickets.

But I made zero sales.

Disappointed, I almost gave up.

Then, 3 hours to the time I had scheduled for the training, a friend offered to buy a ticket at 75% discount.

Excited. I said, “Why not, let’s do this”.

So, I sold the course to this 1 customer at USD $3.88.

I whispered to myself, “I got one customer. Nothing stops me from getting 2 more”.

Thrilled, I ran through my phone and sent messages to 3 more friends, with a simple ask:

Friend 1: "Can you refer 1 friend and get a free ticket to my course?" My friend agreed. Yet, they did not get any referral within the 3 hours. But I gave them a free ticket to my training.

Now I had 2 attendees. I kept pushing.

Friend 2: "I will give you a free ticket, so that you share your insights and expertise around setting up sales appointments to the attendees to my training".

She said yes!

Now, I had 3 attendees.

Friend 3: "Can you pay 25% of the cost and attend the class." He was interested, but not able to commit to the payment now. I offered to pay the cost on his behalf. He only needed to show up.

Now, I had 4 attendees.

With 4 attendees and myself, I had enough audience to deliver a successful training.

And this was way better than when I first delivered the course only to myself.

Take a listen to the actual training: course introduction and feedback at the end of the training.

Why am I telling you all this?

You’ve got to embrace failure and rejection, especially if you work in sales. Like a goalkeeper who gets good and better at being scored, sales require us to learn from each moment, and quickly move to the next situation with a clear mind. To succeed in sales, you must process failure quickly, get back to your feet, move forward and get ready for the next play.

Your next sales effort, product or offering will be better. With this mindset you move from good to better to great.

Wanna learn sales discovery in 3 minutes and 10X your deal size in 23 weeks?

Quest Writing is a free email newsletter that simplifies sales discovery so that B2B sellers and small business owners can build an effective outreach machinery to engage potential new customers.

We answer 1 fundamental question:

“How can B2B sellers and small business owners engage in sales discovery as an ongoing tool to prospect better, acquire new customers and generate revenue from new business?”

Join us for a deep dive into sales discovery as an ongoing tool.

You will receive an email every Thursday at 9.00 am.

Sign up today to get your FREE PROSPECT DISCOVERY TOOLKIT.

Talk soon,

Gregory Omondi, Quest Writing Newsletter.