The Money is in the List

Any experienced, successful salesperson will tell you that sales is about relationships.  People buy from those who they know, like and trust.  So how do you get people to know, like and trust you in the online world?  First and foremost, you must develop a relationship with your prospect.  So how do you do that?  Well, first of all, you have to have a person's contact information.  In the online world, you do that with a Lead Capture Page (LCP).  Once you have the person's contact information, you must offer that person something of value that the person can use in their own business.  Show your prospect that they will benefit in some way by having a relationship with you.  Simply pushing your product or service is not the way to build a relationship with someone.  Relationships are forged between those who have something in common and where both parties perceive that their is mutual benefit in maintaining the relationship.

As mentioned above, in the online world, you secure a prospect's contact information by way of a LCP.  At a very minimum, you want to secure a prospect's email address with your LCP and, hopefully, the prospect's name as well.  Having the propsect's name enables you to personalize your email follow-up messages with your prospect.  Once you have a prospect's name and email address, you can send your prospect a follow-up email series that is designed to develop the relationship between yourself and your prospect.  Accordingly, you must have a good autoresponder in your online tool kit.  Follow-up with prospects, if done correctly, will help you to build relationships with your prospects.   Tips and strategies that have helped you succeed or other kinds of advice can be helpful.  Cheap e-books that offer little, if any, real value do not serve anyone's best interests.  

Ultimately, you want your prospects to see you as an expert in your field, someone they can rely upon for good advice, products and services.  It takes some time to build a reputation but, at the end of the day, this is what paves the way to your online success.

Grant Edward Rayner B.Comm., LL.B.