|| Return to On The Road... ||
October 4, 1996
Costa Mesa, California
Dear Budding Web Entrepreneurs:
The workshop in Costa Mesa opened my eyes to something that is so obvious, but so many businesses fail to understand.
Failing to understand isn't the problem; it's the failure to put this into action that dooms many companies. The principle is very simple; depend on one revenue stream and you live and die by its results. Develop more sources of revenue and you have a better opportunity to survive. What is this mysterious something that I've discovered?
That something is back end products, assorted products and services you offer along with your introductory package. I've been working with a company that is completely ignoring the back end of their business, which could easily add up to a full third of their multi-million dollar business. In watching their mistakes (yes, watching, even though myself and many others keep telling them about the opportunity) I realized that the closer you get involved in the day to day operations of a business, the easier it is to lose sight of the bigger picture.
Selling one product or service is tough; there is only one choice. Adding extra products and services provides an incentive for people to work with you again and again. Think of the trust involved in investing money in your product or service; a customer trusts you, believes in your credibility, and pulls out their hard earned money to work with you.
If you only give them a one shot deal, that's the only time they can work with you. What I've learned in my own experience (and making the same mistake this much bigger company is, by the way) is that this will destroy your business. You have to keep looking for new customers, people who haven't bought that one thing you are selling. There are only so many people and you involve yourself in the most difficult transaction of all; the initial sale.
The initial sale is the hardest thing any business has to do. Convincing a customer who doesn't know you, or is referred for the first time, to buy is the toughest challenge every business faces. What's amazing is how few recognize that after getting this initial customer relationship developed, by providing good information for their purchase decision, you have just developed a customer that will likely want to buy from you again and again.
My friend Jonathan Mizel puts it so well; who's more likely to buy from you, someone who's never bought the product or service you're selling, or someone who has? Obviously, it's someone who has, not a stranger! The customer has shown trust, now it's your responsibility to develop that trust with back end products.
You can sell books, audiotapes, videotapes, find other books and resell them, discover related products and services to endorse to your list of customers. The customer base you develop is a rich resource that you should return to again and again. They want you to return, so why aren't you going back to sell them more and more products?
The objective of every business is making money. You need to build your back end, to give them more than one product or service to buy. I know, you think this is impossible immediately? Online, it's just a click away; visit www.amazon.com and join their bookstore's Associates program. They allow virtually anyone to sell books from their site, all you do is provide a link to the books at Amazon.com. Know what's best of all? You get 5-8% of the book's sale (not enough to be a money maker, but combined with the credibility of having a bookstore and the back end development, a free investment) and you get weekly reports of how many people visited Amazon.com and what books they read.
Use this to develop market research into what your customers are interested in. And develop your back end products and services now. You need to think of more products and services to sell your customer. If you don't, your competition will.
Peace Declan
P.S. I have one great place to go for online marketing products to help you build your business online. Visit CyberWave Media (http://www.cyberwave.com) and learn how you can use newsgroups, other Web sites, and search engines as integral tools in the development of your online business. Check it out!