There are only three skills you really have to master to achieve the essence of all good marketing.Skill #1 is the ability to generate large numbers of the very best prospects for whatever you're selling. That takes considerable skill, though there are plenty of ways you can learn to do that and hone your skills, earning while you learn. Do your best to get them to pre-qualify themselves. Every decent marketplace has a vast audience who could potentially be giving you their money, so get them to identify themselves and come to you.Skill #2 is your ability to convert those prospects into first-time buyers and customers, earning as much money as you can as quickly as you can. You usually have to do that through a series of follow-ups; this process doesn't just happen overnight.Skill #3 is your ability to extract the most profit possible from each customer over the longest possible period of time. That may sound a little ruthless to you, since, as I'm pointing out, you're extracting profits from customers. Sounds like pulling teeth, doesn't it? But you're doing it with their permission, offering tremendous value in exchange for their money. You're not taking advantage of anybody without also having them take advantage of you. It's an even trade.When you get right down to it, It's all about creating value. That's the only thing that gets people to come back repeatedly. They have so many choices these days, and they can go anywhere for what they want. They don't need you, they don't need your company, they don't need your product or services. Therefore, you do have to go overboard and bend over backwards to attract them, which is what this skill set is all about.If I had to break marketing down into just three important skills, these would be the ones. Just like the primary colors -- red, yellow, and blue -- you can use these skills in various combinations to create an endless number of "hues." You can spend your entire life learning everything there is to learn about different aspects of marketing, but it really does boil down to these three things, and It's easy to see the importance of each individual part of this three-step process.But let me clarify one point. Some marketers think that just because someone has bought once or even twice, that makes them a customer. I don't agree. Before you can consider them a customer, they have to do business with you on a regular or semi-regular basis. Your ultimate goal is turn as many buyers as you can into loyal customers. Then you can get into the mathematics of what a customer is worth.
Let's say you own a restaurant and someone eats there once a week, every week. If that customer has been with you for five years, that means they've visited your restaurant at least 250 times. In 10 years it would be 500 times, possibly more. Multiply that by their average purchase, and you'll get some idea of the value of that customer. Depending on what they buy and how often, the value can be much higher than you ever thought possible -- which should make you realize that your ultimate goal must be to turn your leads into long-time, highly appreciated, and very active buyers.These three skills really are the foundation of a successful business, and you have to learn how to master them all. The big payoff is the third skill. Skill #2 helps you recover your initial marketing costs, but the real profits come from reselling to your existing customers. Your business will grow based on your ability to do more business with people who already have a relationship with you -- people who know and like you.Not to dehumanize anyone, but think of your existing customer base as a big bucket. There's a funnel coming into it that all your new prospects are pouring into. Unfortunately, the funnel lets only a few people through -- and your bucket has a hole in it, caused by customers leaving the market, moving, passing away, or just having less money to spend. Whatever the case, your bucket is leaking, so you want to continuously use your front-end marketing methods to attract new customers to fill the funnel, which dribbles in new customers -- all the while continuing to do more business with the customers already in the bucket. You need to be sure that the bucket is constantly full.If you don't keep doing new customer acquisition, you'll stop having new people drop into your bucket. If that happens, the bucket will eventually run dry just from attrition. If you don't continue doing business with your existing customers, you'll lose them because they'll leave. So it's important to do all three of those things effectively. Learn them and practice them often, because they'll be the lifeblood of your business.Does that sound simple? Good, because it is. But that doesn't mean it's easy. No, it takes some serious work. Burn this process into your memory. Start practicing the principles I've shared with you in this article, and you'll never lack for money.
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