Anyone Ever Sold a Product That's Not Done Yet?

I think it's possible though I've not tried it. I also think it all boils down to the seller's reputation. A seller that has built a solid reputation by delivering or over-delivering on his promises can sell anything, even a child in the womb whose sex is not known yet. (Just kidding).

But it is very possible.

Yes. I have.

I recommend it. Why take extra time to make your product perfect before you get feedback.

The faster you can get feedback and tweak, the more successful your product and business will be.

Just make sure to tell them that its in beta and offer a discount.

If you can get around this bit then yes...

That there though needs some careful thought about how your going to explain the delay. Solve that one with a reason that makes sense to people and the answer would be yes

Yes I did once online, and it was a complete disaster.

Not from a financial standpoint, but more from the problems it created.

The amount of stress generated is unreal, when you've made a lot of sales but the product is not ready.

I don't recommend it, unless you are dry testing.

If you are going to do dry testing, you better be prepared to refund EVERY single order that comes in.

Even in this situation you have to be careful, your merchant account/PayPal etc might wonder what is going on with 100% refunds.

Don't make the fatal mistake of thinking you can play catch up, creating the product while people are waiting for their orders.

It can potentially destroy everything if done incorrectly, your reputation, the loss of your merchant account and could even land you in jail if people start complaining to the authorities that they haven't received something they paid for, and your product doesn't even exist yet.

If dry testing I would do it on a VERY small number of orders, and I would refund them via alternative means, if you take payments by credit card then refund all of them by cheque (check in US spelling) so no flags are raised anywhere.

I do believe dry testing still has its place as it did offline in the past, but it has to be done extremely carefully.

There is a Warrior called *** that sells a lot of products that are not complete when launched

You don't have to take orders, just take email at the end of the process when they'd pay (the checkout). You can still expect a little less real orders but it should give you a rough estimate.

Actually this method is used by many internet marketers to test an idea.

A sales letter is used to sell a product. If the buy button is clicked, the customers would receive a notice that the product is being upgraded and that they can join the waiting list.

The reaction on the sales letter will determine if the product is worth creating.

I don't think I would buy a product that wasn't finished yet. It would have to be a really dynamite product, seller that I really trusted, and limited quantities.

I haven't tried it but there are some business owners that are able to do this. This will not only require a good company reputation but also a good selling strategy to sell something non-existent. Aside from strategy, it seems they should have a "vision" about the possible problems about the product to prevent them and assure quality productions in the process.

I never have done this, but a lot of the big dogs do this all the time. It usually takes the form of seminars/conferences and coaching.

I know warriors that do this all the time and nobody knows it. They create the first months content in a membership and immediately start making sales. When week 2 approaches, they build out month 2 content.

It's stressful and you need to be organized... But there are advantages.
You can tweak month 2 based on month 1's feedback thus delivering a better month 2 than if you'd already built it.

Also, you can immediately find out if there is a market. If you only make 3 sales, just refund and cancel the project. You've only lost 1 lesson's worth of work. Not 12. If it sells like gangbusters, you're going to make the remaining lessons that much better.

In mail order, the term for advertising a product you haven't created yet in order to determine if there's a demand for it is called "dry testing". The FTC has rules regarding it, the two main ones being:

1) You can't break the "30-day rule" (you must deliver the product within 30 days of the customer purchasing it) unless you state very clearly how long it will take for them to receive the product.

2) You can't mislead potential buyers by claiming that other people are already happy with the product if no one has it yet. (Pretty obvious)

I've done a pre-launch promotion of a product by offering a discounted price if customers were willing to wait about 6 weeks for it, and pre-sold $20,000 of the product. I used the money to pay for the actual product costs to have the product made.

It worked out very well, but I already had a firm production time line in place, so there wasn't much room for error or delays.

I think you would have done really well with just what you had, if you had it in your Signature.

It looks like the exact product I have been looking for everywhere. Thanks


If I trust you (which i do as far as you are concerned Gary) and the price was low enough to negate the risk I would jump on it, if there are guarantees.

I actually did this the other day with a newer warrior Raja Kamil he had a WSO at $3 if you bought before it was completed so as Caliban said it is allowable.

I think the answer is yes.
I sold a product on WSO which actually partially finish. I opened a WSO, and tell about the idea behind my product. Just to let know, whether people love my idea or not.
After 10 orders, I completed the product and deliver to the customer.

Update :
Owh, there you are Cathy. As she mentioned, I pull the price at a low price.

PS : By the way Cathy, I hope you like the new version of the product.

Have it so when the prospect clicks your order button, they are taken to an opt in page. You can say you are currently out of stock (true), not finished with the product, etc. If they opt into your list they will get a discount. When you finish, send them all an email to the order page.

Matt

I know Willie Crawford once said he had done it...

I heard of a guy who did it in the 1970's with Star Wars toys... He was the one who made the first light saber toy... He made a prototype, took it to a dept store buyer, sold 100,000 units, took the purchase order to the bank, got the loan to set up manufacturing, and the rest is history...

It is not an uncommon practice... Maybe we just don't hear about everyone who does it...

I just took pre-orders on an Article Marketing eBook ... then had to work like crazy to ensure it was ready in time.

Enjoyed doing it though and now its done I can relax and just keep selling it

John

It's a common tactic. Many times, though, it's packaged as "getting in early and reserving a seat". You have to be very careful with this tactic, though. It can come and bite you in the a....

TomG.

It can definitely be done, even as a WSO. It could be a membership site with drip-fed content, a series of webinars, or even a live case study where you give day by day updates on your progress with a project.

Whether you'll be able to pull of something like that is going to depend on how confident you are in your abilities, and also the extent of your reputation in this forum.

Moving on to your general question about whether one can sell digital or even physical products before they are completed, I'd say absolutely! You had better have some fairly significant product creation experience under your belt though - this isn't for the uninitiated or inexperienced.

This is done in the gaming industry all the time. It's called a 'pre-order'.

Basically it's done like this: Prior to the company releasing the game to the public, for a small fee (which is deducted off the full purchase) you get 'head of the line' privledge when the game is finally released.

Customers like it, because they don't have to wait in line when it comes out, and the company gets a small bit of funding to help push development.

When done right, it's a win for everyone. When done wrong, you can get in deep doodoo. So before doing this, I would consult with a lawyer so you don't end up on the business end of a class action lawsuit.

The great mail order guru Paul Michael (originator of the line "Frankly, I'm puzzled" and the "lift letter" concept) pre-sells ALL of his products this way.

He runs an advert, if it sells, he places an ad for a writer to produce the book on an absolute 30 day schedule (FTC rule compliance?) for $2,500, with half up front, half on delivery.

He's a multi-millionaire living in a 26 room apartment overlooking Central Park in NY.

So, to answer the OP, yes, it's done. But, remember the FTC rule.

jeff walker recommends this in plf 2.0 on the theory that you tailor the product to the market by opening a pre-sale dialogue with the target audience.

way too risky for me to be developing the product while it's launching. better to use the pre-sale material for bonuses.

FYI... Dry testing is against the law... Unless you fully disclose, etc...

Advertising FAQ's: A Guide for Small Business | BCP Business Center

Interesting perspectives folks - primarily what I suspected.

I know for a fact it does happen.

Not saying I would/will do it, but like many of you, I do see it ongoing daily.

It DOES make sense if you can truly deliver.

Perhaps another way to look at this is the pre-launch buzz factor generation... Putting a lite version of something out there, teaser videos, etc. to build excitement for the final product.

I realize it's different if you are actually taking money for the final product in conjunction with those pre-launch efforts.

To those that have responded that they got a half-baked product when it was done, I hear ya. It certainly IMHO needs to be nearly complete prior to blowing out a pre-sale offering because getting backed into a time-line corner and not delivering is staring death in the face for sure.