Learning From Hard Knocks

“How The School of Hard Knocks Taught Me The Importance of ‘The List’ – And How This Factor Will Change All Your Marketing From This Day Forward”

Article by Marlon Sanders

Where have you been going wrong? Where’s your money. Why hasn’t your money been coming to you? How do you loose your money so it flows to you in abundance?

How do you finally get a product or service that people buy? How do you finally have a product or service that people send you money for.

Marlon, how do I make this happen for me? I’ve tried. I’ve read the E-books. I’ve done the stuff. I’ve tried this or that. My money has not come to me. People have not clicked on my order form. People have not bought my product. It hasn’t been working for me. Marlon, how do I make things go right?

I remember back when I was a beginner. The same exact questions haunted me. The key is to understand the big picture. Then you can work down to specifics from there. But without understanding the big picture, you’re punching at a shadow and wasting a lot of energy.

There are four basic reasons your money is not coming to you. In this article, I’m focusing on reason number one – your list.

I can best illustrate what the list means by giving you a personal illustration.

When I first graduated from college, the only job I could get was selling insurance. Well, they told me I was selling “retirement plans.” But actually, it was whole life insurance.

Anyway, here I am sittin’ across the table from a guy tryin’ my best to get him to buy a retirement plan from me. Now, somewhere in our conversation he tells me that for Christmas that year, his church brought him a turkey.

Now, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that if his church brought him a turkey for Christmas the dude didn’t have any money. But I didn’t understand that believe it or not!

The guy I was trying to sell to was my list. In this case, my list universe size was one. I had one dude I was giving my well-rehearsed sales talk to. I could recite every word by memory. The gestures were perfectly synchronized with the pages in my pitch book.

But the dude had no money. My list was broke. I don’t care how great or spectacular my sales presentation was, the guy couldn’t buy a turkey for his family for Christmas. I doubt he’s got money under the mattress so he can eat in his old age. He can’t eat now!

In contrast, at another time I called on a lady who pulled out her address book and referred me to all her friends. That week I was twelfth in the nation in sales because all her friends bought.

The difference?

I had a different list. In this case, the list was basically the address book of personal friends the lady referred me to.

On another occasion a lady referred me to her friends but none of them even kept appointments with me. Why? The quality of the list. In this case, apparently the lady’s friends didn’t think much of the quality of her opinion. Probably because she was broke. And they figured taking financial advice from her wasn’t a good idea.

Are you beginning to see the importance of the list?

Your list is the people you sell to. The people who call or walk in the door of your business. The people who come to your web site. The people who join your opt-in list. The people who click on your ppc words. The people who call you up on the phone. The people you give your sales presentation to.

If you’re not selling as much as you want, or you’re selling almost nothing at all, maybe you’re delivering your message to the wrong audience. If you have a cure for cancer but you’re trying to sell it to people dying of heart disease, you’re speaking to the wrong crowd.

One more example.

I once was a copywriter for a company that had a great method of list-building. The CEO of the company had networked with a number of seminar companies. These companies were always on the road conducting seminars.

The attendees of these seminars paid a lot of money to be there. So they were not broke. And they obviously had a need or interest or they wouldn’t have paid to attend a seminar on the topic.

Through his networking expertise, the CEO got these seminar companies to refer attendees to his company for the service he provided. These referrals cost him nothing. And get this: He got about 60 phone calls a day from these referrals!

At zero cost.

And remember, these referrals had money and a demonstrated interest in his product or service. That’s what you call a high quality list.

The point is, the people you’re selling your product or service to have more to do with your sales ratio or conversion rate than any other factor.

From this day forward, all your marketing efforts should change. Why? Because you’ll start focusing on the number one thing that matters – and that is getting your message to the exact people who have interest and the ability to buy.

And that little change right there can make all the difference in the world.

- Marlon Sanders

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Marlon Sanders is the author of The Amazing Formula That Sells Like Crazy, The Push Button Letters Software, How to Create Your Own Products in a Flash, Gimme My Money Now, The Marlon Sanders’ Marketing Dashboard, The Cash Like Clockwork System, The Action Grid System, The New Wave Direct Mail Success System and many other marketing systems, tools, courses and software programs.

Visit Marlon’s blog at:
http://www.getyoursales.com?p=ms132929&w=blog

For an in-depth look at the new “point ‘n click” Marlon Sanders’ Marketing Dashboard just click here to visit the web site:

http://www.getyoursales.com?p=ms132929&w=marketingdash

Learning From Hard Knocks