Brief Overview

Catherine Watkin shares a simple tweak to her promotional plan that resulted in a 62% increase in sales… and it all came from one simple conversation.

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Q&A with Catherine Watkin

Q: We recently talked about the product launch strategy that helped you increase sales by 62% since the previous year’s launch. What specifically contributed to such a big jump in sales? [01:00]

A: Most of my sales come as a result of joint venture partnerships, which has been my main marketing strategy since the beginning of my business. But this year I did it very differently. For the past 5+ years, my JV strategy has been as follows…

The JV partner invites the audience to a co-hosted webinar that we run together. We run the webinar, I make an offer, and I sell spots for my program. There’s no pre-launch, it just goes straight into a webinar and we make sales.

This year however, thanks to a suggestion by you, we decided to do things differently. A month out from the launch, I ran an interview series called “Keeping it Real – Honest Conversations in Business” and I lined up conversations with my JV partners, about some of the things that go on behind the scenes. From there, the JV partners promoted their conversations (only theirs) to their list. And when people signed up, that’s when they got onto my list, which was fully managed on the backend by my team.

Q: So it was a situation where your JV partners audiences were getting more familiar with you, way in advance of the actual promotion itself? [02:51]

A: Yes, so for some it was a month out. For others it was only one week out, which I would have thought was too close to the actual launch. To my surprise, that one was actually our biggest JV partner of all.

What was nice about these conversations is that they were all very real. They didn’t sound salesey or pushy. It was simply an invitation to come along, be a fly on the wall, and listen to our conversation. There were no offers made at that point in time. We explained where people could find out more, but that was it. From my website, they went into my nurture sequence for the launch. I had somewhere between 1 and 4 weeks to warm people up before I went into the actual webinars.

Q: What advice would you give people who want to implement a similar launch strategy? What did you say when you approached your joint venture partners with this strategy? [05:43]

A: Well, I’m very lucky because most of my relationships with my JV partners have been going on for many years now. When I went to them, I explained that I thought this approach felt a bit more risky than what I was used to doing and what I knew would work. But I still wanted to test it out. While it seemed risky at the time, it also felt less promotion-y and I thought it would resonate with my JV partners audiences.

It also gave my partners more exposure, because not only did each partner promote their conversation to their list, but I promoted the entire series to my list too. So my list got to know about all of the partners I had conversations with.

Big Idea

There’s 2 concepts discussed here. #1 – there’s a longer runway before launch. #2 – You’re creating that familiarity with a promotional partners audience in advance.

Q: Any final thoughts or advice that you would give to someone looking to execute on this launch strategy? [08:07]

A: One thing is that it was a lot of work. Much more than we had anticipated. Much more than what we normally would have done in the past. But it was all worth it in the end. My advice is to be prepared and organized in advance.

Q: What would you do differently for your next big launch? [08:48]

A: I would treat it very similarly, but with more awareness. I think we were taken by surprise by the amount of work involved. I think next time, we’ll be ready for that.

Q: Where can we point people who want to learn more about you and the work you’re doing? [10:52]

A: SellingFromTheHeart.com is where people can find me. And I’ve got 2 things for people who visit. First, I have a quiz that will help you discover your authentic sales style. This helps people recognize why they may be struggling with sales and what their natural strengths are.

Second, I have my 7 Steps to YES training which will teach people how to have much more comfortable sales conversations.

Memorable Quotes

“None of my JV partners promote me because they’re going to get a commission. They do it because they believe it’s going to bring value to their community.” – Catherine Watkin

Resources

SellingFromtTheHeart.com
7 Steps to YES
TribeWorkshop.com

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