The Secrets of a Successful Seller

Here at OpenSesame, we have a wide variety of sellers specializing in everything from healthcare to information technology to construction. We’re extremely proud of the success they’ve had providing training and education to professionals throughout the globe. As with any recipe for success, increasing sales involves perseverance, responsibility, positivity, and a little bit of our secret sauce! What is the secret sauce at OpenSesame? Simply put, course quantity combined with course quality is the “secret sauce” to be a successful seller at OpenSesame.

Quantity

There are several key characteristics you should know about OpenSesame's corporate buyers. First, buyers typically are searching for multiple courses, as they frequently require several to comprehensively meet their elearning needs.

Second, corporate buyers often prefer to purchase from a single seller. Buyers don’t always have the time to evaluate multiple courses from multiple providers. Furthermore, buyers want to deliver a consistent and coordinated series of courses from a single seller, so end users can have an engaging and rewarding learning experience. As a result, sellers can benefit by anticipating buyers’ needs and creating comprehensive course collections based on these predictions.

For example, as an OpenSesame seller you also have the option of bundling your courses together. This eliminates the hassle of purchasing multiple individual courses for the buyer and also allows you as the seller to highlight more courses. If you have any questions about bundling, be sure to contact one of our helpful content specialists.

Course catalog size can also impact a customer’s decision. By creating multiple courses, you not only demonstrate your expertise across several subject areas, you highlight your experience producing and building multiple quality courses as well. However, don’t be discouraged if you don’t possess a large course catalog. Specializing in a niche area and having high quality courses has also proven to be a successful strategy for attracting buyers.

Quality

As we’ve just mentioned, quality is the other half of the formula. There are many different elements that constitute a high quality course. Here are a few tips concerning the important components.

Provide a high-quality cover image. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. If your cover image is relevant and high quality, the words your buyer thinks of will probably all be positive. On the other hand, if your picture is irrelevant or sloppy, buyers may be confused or unimpressed.

Craft detailed course objectives. To determine if a course is suitable, a buyer will often check the course objectives. If the course objectives are well aligned with the buyer’s learning goals, then the buyer can be confident the course is a strong match for his or her elearning needs. To give an even more in-depth look at your course to buyers, include a video preview and showcase each element of your course!

Write descriptive and engaging course descriptions. The more information you give a buyer, the better. In your course description, you should include information about the course topic and format as well as key features and learning objectives. By creating a comprehensive course description, you demonstrate your expertise and authority in the subject area.

Take advantage of SEO. For those not familiar with SEO, search engine optimization is the science of increasing a web page’s visibility by search engines. In order to achieve visibility, you should research and include keywords relevant to your courses. OpenSesame offers an excellent free course on SEO, created by our very own SEO consultant, Maximus Kang.

Proofread everything! Don’t think buyers won’t notice common and easily fixable grammatical errors. Misspelled words and other errors can negatively affect both the readability and SEO of your courses and content. These mistakes can also tarnish the professionalism and reputation of your company and discourage buyers from purchasing your courses.

One last tip: As a seller you should always favor course quality over price. When buyers compare two providers with similar backgrounds (number of courses offered, the degree of content coverage, etc.), they almost always choose the quality training courses over other lower priced courses. In conclusion, low-quality courses, even with extremely low prices, don’t always attract buyers.

For additional resources to put your best foot forward as a seller on OpenSesame, check out our post "Sprucing Up Your Seller Profile."

Image Credit: Alice Carrier via Flickr