Build your list or die.

Sadly many of the online marketers are promoting this idea and business owners and salespeople are falling for it.

Get as many names and email addresses as you can as fast as you can and sell them something. That works if you are selling a product for $29.99 (or whatever price point they use) but it becomes a lot of work every month. Unsubscribes shrink the list, new products must be developed or old products repackaged, content must be revised in the website and in every email, value must be proven every time and everything needs to compete with gazillions of free offers on the internet.

I am sad to say when I first started out years ago I bought into this idea in a big way. I was always looking for cheap, dirty tricks to build my email list. I offered white papers, I offered a newsletter, I gave away free advice but it didn’t work for me because I wasn’t earning any money.

I changed tactics and went back to what I enjoy and learn from, before I tell you my secret tactic please ask yourself these important questions…

• How many new customers do you need each month to make a living?
• How many existing customers re-order every month?
• How many referrals do you generate from your relationships every month?

Once I understood these questions and the numbers involved I realized that for me and my business that building a super large list was the wrong way for me to achieve success. I studied many successful who were making more money than I was to see what they were doing. I shrunk my list. I went back to my favourite tactic and my success increased and so did my income.

I will repeat that… I shrunk my list. I went from lists of thousands to a list of less than two hundred. I made it harder for people to get on my list. I went back to my favourite business building tactic and it is working for me.

My favourite business building tactic is easy, affordable, fun and helps me meet new people all the time.

What is it?

Building relationships by talking to people. My mother told me to never talk to strangers but I have learned more and made more money from talking to strangers than anything else I have ever done to increase my sales. I have made more sales because I built relationships. I have given and received more referrals because I have built relationships. (I am planning another post about how I meet new people every day and 99% of the business people I know won’t do it.)

So to sum it all up –

• I shortened my list dramatically,
• I made it hard to get on my list,
• I build relationships by helping others and
• I am happier and my business is growing.

In my experience the guru’s are wrong don’t build your list, shorten it and build relationships instead.

Here is what Marcus Lemonius  (www.marcuslemonis.com/pages/about-us) said about relationships;

“People are the core of every business. Businesses are based on relationships, and relationships are based on people. I would go to an average restaurant run by amazing people over an outstanding restaurant run by awful people.”