By Donna Powell
So the big day has arrived! After months of hard work this is the day you launch your 
ebook/seminar/product into the marketplace. What’s that noise? Why, it’s the sound of thousands of customers flooding through your doors making more money for you in a week than you earned in a month at your previous job.
Here are some practical tips to help make it all as smooth as silk.
Print Lots Of Order Forms
Make sure you’ve got more than you think you’ll need as some customers like to keep a copy for their records. Also pay attention to the information you asking your customers for when they fill in your Order Form? Name, email address, postal address?
Generally the less information you ask people for on an opt in website or free giveaway, the more likely they are to fill it in. However, If you’re at the point where people are parting with their hard earned cash you can ask for a little bit more. First name AND last name are usually good to get – if for nothing else it makes identifying customers in your database much easier that having to rely on email address when you end up with 50 John’s in your system. People also generally expect postal address and billing address when ordering via credit card.
Money, Money, Money – How Are Customers Paying You?
Are you taking cash at an event? If yes, remember to think about what you’re charging and what change you might need. For example, if you’re charging £47 for something, it’s pretty likely people will hand over £50 so make sure you’ve got plenty of £1 and £2 on hand. Might sound like common sense, but gets tricky if that’s the one thing you forgot to pack and it’s a Sunday and the banks are shut.
If you’re taking credit cards, there’s no cash involved but there are other issues. Do you have your own merchant facility? Or are you running everything through PayPal? There are fees involved for each so get plenty of information.
When are you processing payments? If you’re processing them after the event, you may want to refrain from giving out any physical product or bonuses until people’s are processed and cleared. This avoids any difficulties afterwards.
Services like Eventbrite are great for event and product sales if you are just starting out or want an easy and quick option for people to purchase online. They take a commission of the sales and allow for different pricing structure and are a great option to get a sales order page up easily and quickly.
Payment plans – Yes, No, or Never?
The up side, they offer more flexibility for people to purchase your products who might otherwise not and means that overall sales are likely to be higher as a greater number of people can buy.
The down side, there will be people who default on their payments, 
whose cards expire and fail and who have changes in their life circumstances that mean they won’t be able to pay on time. This will take you (or someone in your team) TIME and EFFORT to follow up and manage.
What’s your refund policy and guarantee? Think about it BEFORE you sell the product, know it, clearly state it, then stick to it.
Summary
A little bit of planning upfront will make your product or event launch run smoothly and set up a strong base for your business as you expand and grow. So this week, think about what information you’re collecting from your customers and how you are using it.
