... CONTINUED FROM COVER a Christmas without the nonprofit Fostering Christmas, which I created five years ago in large part thanks to Newsletter Pro. Finally, this business has impacted my own boys who, in the last year alone, would have had their lives permanently changed for the worse had it not been for Newsletter Pro. All that is just the tip of the iceberg. Before I get to the top 10 things I’ve learned over the last 10 years, I want to say thank you to everyone who’s played a part in helping Newsletter Pro over the last decade. I am blessed beyond words and humbled by the trust, love, and support all of you have given me. Thank you. Quick note: These lessons aren’t in any particular order, so don’t read into the number next to them . Lesson 1: Stop solving problems that haven’t happened yet. This one seems simple, but you’d be surprised by how many people I’ve seen who find a solution to one problem and then focus on new hypothetical problems the proposed solution might create. Instead of implementing the solution to the existing problem, they try to solve future problems that don’t exist yet. Lesson 2: Collect as much contact info as possible. We’ve seen this in 2020 especially. You need to have
multiple ways of contacting customers and prospects — plain and simple. If all you’re collecting is their name and email address, you’re taking on massive risk in your business. At a minimum, you need to collect their name, email, mailing address, phone number, and cellphone number. Lesson 3: Existing customers are more important than new customers. Once someone has proven that they will spend money with you, it’s important to focus on giving them an amazing experience and building that relationship. Most entrepreneurs forget about their existing customers, which kills profits and is expensive and dumb. Existing customers are the key to making your business goals a reality — that is, if you treat them right. Lesson 4: Nurture leads and prospective customers. We’ve all heard that salespeople make one or two attempts, on average, to follow up on leads before they give up. This is awful and reflects that most entrepreneurs lack systems to nurture and follow up with leads, save for a handful of emails or self-serving promotional pieces. This bad practice costs entrepreneurs more money than you might imagine. At a minimum, you have to follow up with prospects by educating, entertaining, building relationships, and making
offers. If you’re not willing to do that, you will always struggle. Lesson 5: Get in front of customers and prospects with the right media. You need to have a way to get in front of all your customers and prospects with near 100% deliverability, and the only media that can do that is print and mail. If only 15% of your customers are reading your emails and 1% see your social media and other online posts, you’re leaving a massive amount of money on the table. You have to be in front of both prospects and customers at least once per month, and the only medium that can virtually guarantee you can do that is mail. Near 100% deliverability is one of the reasons that newsletters that are done correctly work so well. Lesson 6: The business has four masters, and they all need to win. Every business has four masters: 1. Employees, 2. Customers, 3. The Business, and 4. Shareholders. When making a decision, you need to ask yourself if it’s good for all four masters. From time to time, the right decision won’t be good for all four, and that’s okay. Like in any relationship, sometimes you will take the short end of the stick. But if one person is always taking the short end of the stick in a relationship, that relationship will soon end. Lesson 7: Don’t spread yourself too thin. Far too many people are trying to do too many things, and they spread themselves and their businesses too thin. Sometimes that easy money will be more expensive in the long run because it distracts you from the goal. Just because someone wants to pay you for it doesn’t mean you should sell it to them. Lesson 8: You have to build your business foundation before you start to build the rest of the house. Make sure that you’ve mastered and are maintaining the basics before you Continued on Page 4 ...
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