
The Single Biggest List Building Fallacy Keeping You Broke
19-Nov-2015
Wayne Sharer
You, like me, have heard this dozens if not hundreds of times from the many people flooding your inbox with offer after offer based on this one strategy. The sad part is, it’s just total hype and a lie.
It grabs your attention because there is no doubt it is a motivating thing to say. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most damaging things you latch onto as your motivation. The end game is, the offer – based on this lie – ends up lining the pockets of the “guru.”
This article will serve as an open letter to you exposing this misguided claim, and also show you the truth. This hyped claim I will expose certainly sounds good; even logical, but when you experience the reality below you’ll realize what works 10X’s better and makes you much, much more profit!
In addition to exposing the fallacy of the “gurus,” you’ll also get three things you can do right now to stop chasing the lie and transform to making more money with fewer clients, patients and/or customers.
Let’s get started.
The Single Biggest Fallacy: “You’ll get your freedom building a list making one dollar per month per subscriber.”
I’m certainly guilty of telling you this previously, though I usually qualify this that you should actually be making much more if you have a highly targeted list and a solid business strategy. Nonetheless, the standard “guru” theory is that $1 per subscriber is your goal because all you have to do is find 10,000 subscribers.
Doing so will get you $10K per month which is $120K per year. This definitely sounds great; don’t you agree? Here’s the big problems with this…
Quick story: In my early days on line, I believed the $1 per subscriber quite literally – without any other goal in mind or strategy. It took me a long time to realize this is just a starting goal needing a strategy to expand. As a result of my early small thinking, I built several lists over 10K. I even paid an “expert list building guru” several thousand dollars to build me a list of thousands.
He did, indeed, build the list. Like my own list, his became rapidly unresponsive. The end game two of my first lists became useless. They wouldn’t buy anything of value, and barely opened an email. I long ago deleted those lists. Now, let’s move on with the big problems…
First Problem: Do you really believe attracting 10,000 opt ins of your perfect client, patients, or customers is easy? I can assure you it isn’t. It is true you can collect 10,000 emails pretty quick by giving away something pretty good. I can also assure you they won’t be your perfect customer, client or patient.
Overwhelmingly, they will be commoditized consumers. That means they are bargain hunters and freebie seekers. For you this means, within days of them opting in to your list, they are useless as potential clients and your ad money you just spent was mostly wasted. You actually lose money because there is no back end sale made. You feel even more terrible than you did when you began.
The fact of the matter is, getting 10,000 IDEAL opt ins/prospects who you could actually make a sale to requires a real strategy with a follow up plan that takes some time to put into action. This being the case, most people fail when chasing the fallacy and quickly ditch the dream they sought as quickly as they began.
Why? Because they find out it is much more difficult than the “guru” selling you the list building dream told you.
Second Problem: The next part these “list building strategy gurus” fail to tell you is how much they actually had to spend to make $10,000 in sales per month. The fact is, they don’t get to keep all 10K or however much they told you they make. It actually costs money to retain your customers.
Even information marketers with successful sales machines are paying hundreds, if not thousands a month for the software and services they need to keep the machine running. There is no free ticket!
Even with a good retention rate, new leads must constantly be found.
It’s definitely true this is way way less than what your classic retail store pays. So if you have an office or brick and mortar store, $10,000 is nice, but it likely won’t keep you in business.
Third Problem: If you get to the point where you bring in $1 per subscriber per month, you really are just barely scraping the money from the table. You should be making much more. Folks like Dan Kennedy exceed $16 per person on their list! They would never seek what the “list building strategy gurus” tell you.
Kennedy’s GKIC uses what they call a transformation which is not about the product, service or information. We’ll get to that in a moment.
If you’re thinking how $16 per subscriber per month is too big of a goal for you to start with, I’ll show you how you definitely need to change this attitude. With the strategies I’ll reveal below, you will see how you can consistently double the $1 per month dream month after month. You will go from $1 per month to $2 to $4, to $8, to the goal of $16 per month per subscriber.
Do some simple math. You have now gone from needing 10,000 subscribers per month to needing just 1/16th of that. You only need 625 ideal subscribers!
So here is how Dan Kennedy defines the strategies to make this happen for anyone willing to be patient and do the work…
First Strategy: Start Selling Transformation
My personal mentor, Eben Pagan, also insisted on the same thing. Both he and Kennedy agree (as do I) that people want results or transformation. They don’t want your product or service. Sound a little whacky?
If you sell in a market where there are real people with real money who really buy stuff, then, when it comes to getting the sale, it doesn’t matter how good your product, service or information because people don’t want the product – they want the transformation.
For example: Many people love to go to health spas of various kinds. Most don’t care what it costs because they know when they enter they will have an experience that transforms them. You enter the spa usually feeling tired, tight and stressed. You will leave feeling relaxed, rejuvenated and stress-free. Regardless of the service they provide, you will be transformed.
Spas often have smells, crowds and lots of people you don’t know. So no one actually looks forward to paying for that. They want the transformation. The same is true of fitness centers. Seriously, would you go to a fitness center if you didn’t think some transformation would occur?
Selling the transformation will nearly instantly boost sales and double the value of your list each month.
Second Strategy: Establish Continuity
In the big picture, I know of no truly successful online business or marketer who fails to do this. Kennedy emphasizes this, my mentors do also, as does my consulting and coaching.
When you start each month with a cadre of people that are part of an ongoing program where they happily send you $97, $127, $199, or more each month without you doing anything more than fulfilling the sale, this makes your list highly valuable, and life for you so much easier. Imagine getting just 200 people purchasing a continuity program that only pay $27 per month. That’s $5,400 per month.
Now imagine that same 200 people paying $199 per month. That comes to $39,800 per month. Would this make a difference in your business and lifestyle? My free hour seminar shows you exactly how to do this.
Third Strategy: Sell Big Ticket Items
I covered this in some detail in the previous article, The Ultimate 3-Pillar Game Plan to Stop Sales Saboteurs Dead. You may want to read that next.
The bottom line here is you must embrace the real fact of selling: the process for selling low ticket items is exactly the same as for high-ticket items.
A little simpler math also proves why selling high-ticket items is a far better strategy. If you sell a $5,000 product or service, how many sales do you need to be making $120,000 in sales (the amount a 10,000-person list supposedly makes you at $1 per month per subscriber)?
I won’t make you do the math. The answer is you need 24.
Make that a 10K product or service, and you now only need 12.
Having a big ticket item that appeals your ideal customers, clients, or patients will increase the value per subscriber per month by amounts you likely don’t imagine possible for you (but it is). You only have to have a small number of people take advantage of it for your business and your lifestyle to cherish the transformation.
Throughout the year, I make available to you my free “5-Steps to Doubling Your Profits” web seminar. I will take you behind the scenes on how any business reaching or passing through the million-dollar mark can escalate rapidly to the multimillion dollar level, free up your time, and put you on the path to personal freedom in your life.
- You will see exactly the tools we provide our biggest clients
- Real action steps you can use immediately to double (or more) your revenue in any business, including yours.
- A step-by-step plan proven by the biggest sellers in the world
- The quickest and easiest method for dominating your market
- Everything is here, nothing is held back!
This is information that you can’t get anywhere else, we will be only doing this limited, very specific audiences, so get in while you can…
If you are just getting started, this web seminar applies to you, too.
For those wishing to start and online business in MLM or affiliate marketing, I guide you through this strategy (and much more) in my course 30-15-90 Millionaire Coaching. Here’s a special coupon just for reading here today.
Update: the free classes liste here are no longer available.
International speaker, author, and entrepreneur. Retired navy officer, former commanding officer. Over 35 years of leading, coaching, mentoring, and speaking.
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