We have been conducting a beta launch of preinit for the past 3 weeks. Early evaluations were positive and full of well wishes, and many sent us insights into our product that we had not given thought to, the quest for creation often leaves a set of blinders in place, luckily not too late. With the help of these observations, we were able to make the product flow easier and be just a bit more user friendly. Some of the suggested options thrown out at us will be incorporated at a later date. Our dear beta testers not only approved of our product; they had some very blunt observations and we are very thankful for those, it made a world of difference. We have a list of items that we are going to begin tackling that have been jelling at the back of our list, modules to add to the product that will enhance the experience, but we wanted to get the product out there instead of waiting until we had it just perfect. We know perfection is not real.

Included in the preinit package is the first module: the preinit questionnaire module. This module has proven that we are on the right track so far. Out of the last 40 invitations sent out to viewers 10 responded using the preinit questionnaire questions. We’re excited by that response rate.

Here are the following questions we had in the presentation:

• 1. Would you like to be contacted to discuss including preinit in your marketing strategy?
• 2. How does your company currently market itself?
• 3. Would you be interested in adding a walk on video actor to start your presentation?
• 4. Did you have any problems with viewing this presentation?
• 5. Would you like to see the price list?
• 6. Will you tell others about this product?

We had begun with these questions because we felt they would solicit a mix of answers. Question One, either received a yes or no for the answer, which was predictable. Question Two, usually had a more expanded response, this question should have had a follow up question. Question Three, was a throw away question – not really an option yet, we had wanted to see what the response was, it was lukewarm. So that is a module we’ll throw to the very bottom of our wish list. Question Four, was relevant to our need to know list. We knew that the product does not work on the iPad and a few respondents told us of minor issues with certain keys not being able to be used in the questionnaire. Question Five was answered every time with a yes. We have put the price list together and will go over that in our next post. The final question the request for a referral got mixed results and we know why.

When working with other presentation packages there was a mindset that referrals will be automatically generated just because the viewer was so overcome with the absolute brilliance of the package. This purported referral generator was a failure, because it was asking for trust before trust had been generated. Referrals are only going to come forth from people who know what your product is about, what services you are going to be able to give to their associates, friends or family. They want to know more. You have to make the step across the doorway and let them know you and begin trusting you. We were asking for a referral after they had only viewed our presentation, before the viewer had probably read the information pages included in the product and definitely before the viewer had really gotten to know us.

We are going to change that question. In fact we are going to change questions three, four, five and six. The great advantage of the preinit questionnaire is that you can change the questions anytime you want, on your web presentation, your CD-Rom or USB. You can archive your questions so that you can recover them if you decide you want to go back and use them again. You can change the order of your questions. One of the beta testers asked if he could use the preinit questionnaire to ask for the viewers contact information instead of at the entry page. Of course – you decide the function of the preinit questionnaire and the content of the questionnaire’s questions.