Webinar sales copy for a certain well-known Amazon Course...
Part 1: The Ugly Truth about Traditional Private Label Courses
WARNING: This page is a bit controversial. By design. I’m making no friends saying what I say here. But right, wrong, it’s stuff that I feel needs to be said.
Let's look at this sales copy above. It's for a certain well-known Amazon course.
Sadly this is all too common.
Let's have a look at some of the language - and the implicit promises...
"right now" - get rich quick anyone?
"hot product ideas" - ideas are everything of course; execution is just an after-thought; detail & nuance are for wimps...
"pick a winner every time" - because of course, we can eliminate uncertainty completely - even without knowing anything about you or your choices...
"Why you don't need any experience or past skill to do this" - we'll deal with this below.
(Quite effective sales copy, by the way. For the seller. As long, of course, as they don't plan on being around in 6 months to see the results.)
Do you get the flavour of the implicit promises?
Quick. Ideas are all you need. You can eliminate risk with this "Magic" course. And you don't even need to know what you're doing.
Marvellous. Where do I sign? (maybe I'm showing my age with that one...)
Only one problem.
It's 2018. And the rest of the market (aka "reality") didn't get this memo.
The trouble with the "8 Steps to Heaven" Courses
Like many Amazon sellers I know - successful and unsuccessful - I started out by being trained by taking a certain well-known Amazon course that I won’t give the oxygen of publicity.
Sorry to be the one causing trouble, but there were several fundamental issues that only emerged after I’d bought their (very expensive course):
1. One size fits all
They gave a one-size-fits-all course. Understandable. But they didn’t allow for differing levels of risk aversion and experience in incoming students.
2. “Requiring no experience or skill”.
Really? I think this kind of statement needs interrogating.
In reality, there is no substitute for experience or skill.
Now, if you said “no previous experience or pre-existing skill” required, we’re starting to get there.
A good course will make sure you acquire that skill and experience.
Which brings me to another key hole in their approach…
3. From A to Z - in one bound
Here’s the kicker.
Their model was one “simple” set of projects from “research” straight into “spend several $1000 on a product as your first ever physical products purchase before you’ve made a single dollar online…”
(That’s not, of course, how they put it. But it was the reality).
Sound wise to you?
Me neither.
Superman can jump a building in a single bound.
The rest of us have to take the stairs.
One step at time.
Takes longer but it works. It just takes time and effort.
So What's the Solution?
So we have two awkward truths that apparently don’t seem to co-exist:
Truth 1: There is no substitute for experience or skill.
Truth 2: trying to acquire experience and skill by going straight into a large Private Label order is risky.
The solution?
Well, it’s implicit in the two awkward truths, really, isn’t it?
You need a course that builds your experience and skill to the point where it’s safe/advisable to make bigger investments.
A worthy goal, but which, until recently, I found beyond my skill.
That’s why I’ve held off creating a Private Label course.
Until now.
It all came down to that tricksy word, “Simple”. And its close relatives. Let me explain…
4. “Simple”. Is that actually a virtue?
In a complex world, the simple has an understandable attraction. Even seductiveness.
Does it, however, have commercial value?
To simplify the complex is an art. That’s important. I’ve sweated to do that.
Simplistic is, however, not wise in a complex world.
(Definitions are by the Oxford English Dictionary, by the way. I like to get quality info. You can use Wikipedia if you prefer, whatever works for you).
By being so simplistic as to imply that you can go straight from ignorance to fluency with business processes; to tell you to plunge straight into spending $1000s when you’ve not even earned $100s yet - that to me is not responsible training.
Sorry.
That’s I held off doing a Private Label course until I could put it into the public arena and at the same time, could sleep at night. Knowing that my process would follow the right principles.
Not led by the question: “How to sell as many courses as possible to the gullible?”
But by other questions. Better questions (in my humble opinion). Questions like:
“How do I serve budding entrepreneurs with little experience? How do I help them develop into entrepreneurs? How can they build a real business, not a fantasy one?”
Those questions, and others like them, have been shaping our philosophy over at Amazing FBA. And I think we’ve finally cracked it.
Click "CONTINUE" to find out what makes our approach pretty different...
SUMMARY
- One size does not fit all. Good training allows for different starting points - different levels of experience, budget and risk aversion.
- We are hardwired to want ease. The seductive promise that “anyone can do this” is both true and false. False because it’s common sense that you need to gain skill & experience before placing big orders. True because anyone can learn if properly trained.
- I’m not passing moral judgment on the business models out there. But do you really want to buy into a concept that requires you to become Superman to succeed?
- Simplistic is not a virtue. Simplifying IS. The latter requires sweat on behalf of the trainer. The former is easier to market to suckers (and it’s a big market too - one a minute…). But if you’re buying - does that sound attractive to YOU?
