NOTICE: I am not, nor will I ever be involved with Network or Multilevel Marketing. It's just not my thing. If that's the type of business you're into, then God Bless you and keep on trucking. I'm not going to voice my opinion on it one way or the other. It's just not for me, and I'm not into it. I have seen some people make a wad on this type of business and I've seen people lose their shirts on it. In my opinion and experience, you have to be an excellent salesperson with a very thick hide to work it. But that's all I have to say about it. So, there.
Years ago, I worked for an Internet and information marketer; it was a very interesting experience. He called me from a number on a bulletin board, where I had placed a flyer advertising my Web Design services. Turns out he had hundreds of websites and couldn't keep track of them all, so he hired me to help him out.
To this day, I still scratch my
head at how disorganized his operation was, yet he was pulling in well over a
million dollars. One day, I went in to
his place of business to work on some things he asked me to take care of while
he was out of town.
As a matter of fact, he was always
out of town, because he was constantly doing seminars of one sort or
another. So, I got to this building he
had rented, and the thing was left wide open.
I didn’t have a key, I just walked in looked around and nobody was
there. He had left family members in
charge while he was gone and apparently they had left it open.
I called him to let him know that
his building was left unsecured all night and that the lights and everything
else were running full blast. Since I
had no way of knowing how much equipment he had in there, I didn't know if he
had some of his stuff ripped off or not.
He had loads of computers, packing machines, machines for silk screening
DVD’s, a lot of high-end video equipment, etc.
When I got him on the phone,
finally, he sheepishly said, “Oh, Dad must have left the building unlocked
again.” Turns out this happened all of
the time.
Since I was left alone in his
building, I decided to check out the material he was making money on. His operation was all handled at his shop, and
it looked like he didn’t outsource anything. Every part of his business was
right inside the building, and he printed on demand. In other words he wasn’t publishing his books
and pamphlets the traditional way. He
was the publisher. Whenever an order
came in, he’d print it up himself, box it up and send it out.
So, being an information marketer –
wannabe, I decided to peruse some of his material to see what an actual
full-sledged info-marketer was selling.
I was shocked at what I saw.
Most of the stuff was... how I can
put this delicately….Rubbish!
A lot of what I saw were flimsy
pamphlets he had printed by copying stuff he had thrown together from his
websites and websites from friends who had given him permission. He would basically print up the actual
webpages, put them into a spiral bound machine and send them out. And the websites themselves were
rubbish. There really wasn’t any rhyme
or reason to the material he was peddling.
But, his phones were ringing off
the hook. People were only too eager to
buy what he was selling. (Just imagine if he actually sold a world-class
product what kind of business he’d do!) Turns
out that he was an EXCELLENT salesman.
He had gotten into the multilevel marketing business and done very well
with it. Now, he not only was running
that operation, but he was selling courses on how to make it big in the world
of MLM and networking.
I didn’t stay working for this man
very long, even though he and his family were very nice to me. He was on the road so much, he was never
home. I could never get ahold of him to
find out what he wanted me to do with his websites, and he also had other
gatekeepers that were running some of those sites, so I just faded out of the
picture.
However, I did get one important
lesson from this man. I asked him what
he considered to be the most important aspect of an Internet business or an
information marketing business was.
THE LIST.
That’s what he emphatically told
me. “The list is absolute gold.”
He was an expert at this, because
his list was so massive he couldn’t keep track of it all. However,
he had a faster way in than many Internet marketing newbies would have. Because he had made a major landing in a diet
product related MLM business, he would go on the road for this business to
their seminars. He was an excellent
salesman, so he’d not only promote his business, but he’d also promote his
course.
So, he was in an enviable position
to promote his wares to large, hungry
This concept never left my
mind. When I was still building websites
for people, I started noticing that people that were doing lousy in their
businesses had no concept of list building or keeping in contact with their
past clients.
If you have people that liked your business
and liked you, these are the easiest prospects you could ever get? Why wouldn’t you keep them in your
business loop?
So, if you want to build an online
business, or an offline bricks and mortar business then keep a good database of
your clients and prospects. Always stay in touch with them, and strive to build
it, because this is the fuel that’ll drive your business.
To Your Success!
Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"
(859) 797-9560
elmo033057@gmail.com
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