Is it in the list? Some say “asbolutely!”

Others say “are you kidding? It’s not in the list!”

So who’s right, and who’s wrong?

Well, I reckon both sides may have a point….

What I actually believe is simple – the money IS in the list…. IF IT IS THE RIGHT LIST!!!

What does it mean to have the right list?

Well, the right list will have a high conversion rate – for every visitor, a higher proportion of them will convert to a sale.

The right list will also have higher efficiency – some say that before the average sale, the customer must be exposed to your sales message as much as 7 times. The right list could do this in 1 or at most 2 ‘exposures’ (sounds a little rude lol).

The right list can be much smaller than many other lists and still give you superior sales performance.

How is this all possible?

It’s possible because the people on this list are very clear about what they need, what you offer, and basically they also LIKE YOU!!! It’s a relationship thing.

There are 2 ways to build a list..

1. Entice any old punter in, use all manner of freebie giveaways – if there is little risk to the freebie, people will grab it “in case it comes in handy later…” – I know I do this sometimes – it’s part of my market research…
2. Be so clear about what you offer that those people who are in the market for what you have or something very like it, will come to you readily, and everybody else will stay away.

Some of you might be thinking there’s a third way, where you are being very natural, honest & sincere, and that attracts people to you as well. I agree, AND I would want people attracted to me BECAUSE they like me AND want/need/are very interested in what I am offering, so for me that puts this personal liking & connection element firmly back in to the second way to build a list. But that’s just me…!

Let’s start with a useful question. I like this one, and I think you will too..

Why do you even need a list? Why does anybody?

Well, if you want to upsell, cross sell or do any other selling in the future, it’s far better to pitch to people who’ve already put their hands up (thanks to Bernadette Doyle of www.clientmagnets.com for this turn of phrase!). To do this you need to know who these people are – and in my book that will be a list… capiche?!

But as I alluded to before, it’s not size that matters so much as quality – the quality of your list.

So why not turn your energies to building quality connections, to really understand the needs of your market and individual customers? Look at concepts such as Critical To Customer or CTC trees and the Kano map, both from the field of quality & performance improvement, in particular, Six Sigma (find more on both at www.isixsigma.com free, with no signup needed…)

I had a much better experience & growth on twitter when I stopped trying to get as many people to follow me and started focusing on conversations with individuals.

The ‘downside’ is it all takes time – 30 mins a day is unlikely to be anywhere near enough…. The ‘upside’ – some wonderful relationships with great people, fun, and actually, some cracking good referrals and recommendations…

Try it – it doesn’t cost anything!

Cheers

Martin

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