I’ve seen a lot of success doing sales in technology companies (I made $300k last year, and expect to conservatively make $200k a year moving forward. I expected to make ~$250k last year fwiw). That was towards the end of my 4th year in sales. TBH, I don’t think sales is that hard and I think a lot of poker players would be a great fit. My first student is actually a poker player looking to get out of the game.

So - I created a course that helps people get interviews for entry level sales positions. A lot of poker players probably have gaps in their resumes and this course was specifically designed for those who don’t have any experience in sales.

There’s a lot of parallels with sales and poker IMHO:
• Not being results oriented - being okay losing when you make the right strategic move.
• A lot of potential upside due to other people being uncomfortable with taking risk
• You must be strategic and develop plans beforehand, but it’s also important to be able to react to unexpected moves.
• Poker players generally work hard towards improving. I don’t see that much of this in sales which is why I think I’ve seen success quickly. Those who continuously work on their game will see outsized results.

Anyway, that should be more than enough context for you guys, haha. I’m looking for ideas on how to advertise to SSNL and MSNL players. I’m already planning to take out classified and commercial ads on 2p2. However, reach seems to be limited and I can only seem to hit ~1,000 people a month.

I’ve been out of the game for pretty long so I’m unfamiliar with the poker world nowadays. Are there any streamers, podcasters, or even sites that cater to the professional poker demo? Do you even think they’ll let me advertise with them (since getting a sales job may result in taking some viewership away from them)?

Is using ads even a good idea? I'm kinda worried about using just like a picture and a few words - I don't have a sales funnel to speak of or a "free" product to get people interested. I think a webinar type activity might be better for me, but I guess I would have to run ads for those? lol.

Seems kind of strange to post a thread asking how to sell the product when the product you're trying to sell is a course to teach people how to sell.

What are you offering? What's the pricing and incentive structure like? How you'd promote it depends a lot on what you're promoting. When you say a course to help people get entry level jobs, is it a youtube video or some kind of mentorship program?

re: selling - That's a valid concern. I'm used to selling to billion dollar corporations at the VP level - we normally just directly email them with our offering and then guide them through an enterprise buying process. Marketing directly to consumers is totally different -
I can't just email all of my potential buyers without their consent unfortunately. Buying and demand generation processes are worlds apart.

It's a video course -- it's $500 and it's made to help people land interviews. There's about 30 hours of work because I'm teaching basic sales skills in the course (stuff that you'd learn in a sales job). I provide email and fb support the entire way. I also give people refunds if they do the work and don't get interviews.

So a guy who makes 300k/yr in sales is spamming BFI (by asking for advice on how to sell no less) in order to sell $500 video sales courses?

Makes perfect sense.

My advice try a different tactic.

Forgot to add the count down.

Indignant reply in 3...2......


ETA:

Did this thread not get the response you were hoping? Or was the response good enough you thought you should start a new thread?

ETA 2:

Abba,
You were off by $101!

I mean I can't do much if you don't believe me. It's not that ridiculous to make $300k/yr - $200k is definitely achievable too in the Bay Area.

That thread also validated a need for me - I got quite a few PMs. So I built the course at the time.

It's not that crazy - it's something that can be scaled up if it can be marketed cost effectively without creating any more work for him.

The problem is that selling a $500 youtube video is a pretty big stretch when your target market is unemployed people who're trying to get entry level jobs. It seems like for this to work you have to offer some components for free, and if people recognize the value of the product that they'll pay some small amount to get additional content.

Is there promo material we can see?

How big is the market? How many small stakes poker players are there? How many of those poker players want to get a job in sales but have been unable to do so?

How many poker players who want to get a job in sales, but have been unable to do so, are going to buy this course? Of that subset how many are going to land a job after watching the course and become successful?

I don't think making 300k/yr in sales is ridiculous at all. I think if you are making that much $ there are far better ways to be spending your time than this.

I doubt that his product can be marketed cost effectively but the market for something like this isn't that narrow... poker players are just probably have a larger subset willing to pay a stupidly high sticker price of 500$ for something that's completely unproven.

First off, you seem like an intelligent dude (read some of your prev posts) so thx for breaking it down for me like that.

I don't think there's an _insane_ amount of players out there in the situation you describe and I don't think they're going to be my target market forever. However, I think there's a lot of positives - they are generally alright with paying for coaching, CR subs, etc. This means that they're more comfortable investing in their education than say a fresh college graduate.

I think the transition into another lucrative career path is super valuable. A lot of people I know (not just poker players) end up doing jobs with really low upward mobility and it kinda sucks. I think it's also not too crazy to think that a lot of people have made less successful transitions out of poker and would find this course valuable as well.

Yeah sure - the course just launched so I'm sure you'll find 1000 things wrong with it. breakintotechsales.com

I'm not looking to educate busto people. I want to educate people who have some savings and think sales could be one of their best options career-wise. And that it's worth $500 to learn skills that will help them get a job much faster. $500 is not _that_ much if it helps you get a job even 2 weeks earlier.

If you make $40k post tax, getting a job 1 week faster is worth about $760 in post tax earnings. If it's 2 weeks earlier, then you're +++EV.

Well that's what I started this thread for. To drag it back on topic - can you let me know what mediums can I use to advertise to professional poker players?

Especially after taxes and cost of living are taken into account. People who think 200-300k is crazy... LOL.

I do still agree with other guys saying that your time is probably spent better elsewhere. Unless you wanna learn the online game.

You might just have proven that online and live selling require completely different skillsets to work. Like in 180 degree different. And you should take that as a compliment for your live skills, you can learn online fast if you wish to.

Finding the right channel where you can pay for (infinite) leads while maintaining a profit is 90% of the work - unless you're a celebrity. So that's the magic question you're looking an answer for. The only people who can really help you, won't because it's at least a 5figure answer in your case.

Abbaddabba pretty spot on.

======

My advice, I remember our previous convo, is still the same. But if you don't go down that route, I'd make this a 10k+ item with personal support and some type of guarantee.

Or you should sell it to your employer and other companies.

Validation is when somebody pays you money. Everything else is talk, especially on a poker forum!

Dtan,

Fwiw, I'm someone that fits your exact target market and I think the website looks excellent. It's clean. Simple. Informative. It looks credible and you come off trustworthy.

Grant it, I'm just a poker player and not a know-it-all on an internet forum. But just thought I'd give you some positive feedback.

Being in my late 20's, it's actually something I would consider. The biggest thing holding me back is knowing that I might change my mind 6 weeks into the job and realize I miss the lifestyle of being my own boss.

But 300k and a normal life does sound appealing...

Hmmm, this is interesting insight. Thanks.

I am taking your guarantee advice much more seriously than last time. I'm stubborn, heh :P It's damn hard to attract customers, giving them a guarantee but a higher fee when they land the job may be the best route. It's much less "risk" for people and people are psychologically risk averse.

$500 is a lot to give to an internets stranger. I think I'll try to market this for a month. If no bites, I'll have to adjust.


Thank you for your positive feedback!

At the risk of shooting myself in my own foot, I definitely wouldn't feel comfortable with you expecting $300k/yr in sales. Any more than I could tell a random friend that they could expect to make it to HSNL. There's a lot of hours grinded, effort put towards learning, and even luck that goes into it.

I think making $135k after 3 years is much more reasonable and attainable goal for most people.

If you ever reconsider, you know where to find me. Just shoot me a PM.