What is the most valuable asset your company owns?
Do not rush to answer. Think about it a bit.
Are your products?
Are they your employees?
Is it your building or office equipment?
Are you the fearless leader?
What do you think?
Actually, the truth is that each of these can be easily replaced (yes, even YOU can be replaced).
Perplexed?
The most valuable asset any business possesses is its customer list.
Jay Abraham once said that if his office caught fire, the only thing he would take with him was his client list.
Why? Why is your customer list the most valuable asset your company has?
First of all, these are your customers. They are people who have given you money. That is the reason you are in business.
Without them you wouldn’t have a business! So it makes sense that they are valuable.
Second, if you were to have a disaster in your business, the only thing you would need to start over is your customer list. They bought from you once and they will probably buy from you again.
Increase your marketing, create a new product, and sales will start flowing again, all from your existing list.
So your cash flow depends on your customer list. No cash flow, no business!
Third, the cost of contacting them is low.
Companies spend a lot of money to get new customers. In fact, most lose money getting a new customer because marketing and advertising is so expensive. It’s much cheaper to sell something to an existing customer than it is to try to convince a complete stranger to buy from you.
The real profits in most companies are made on the second and third sale to the same customer because the cost is low and they have already proven that they will spend money with you.
Fourth, your customer list can make you money in ways other than selling directly to them.
You can offer them products and services that other people create and get a commission for each sale. This is called a joint venture. In the online world it is also called affiliate marketing.
You can also earn money from the list itself. In the world of direct marketing, list rental is big business.
In fact, some businesses will get thousands of customers by offering low cost items and lose money up front just to build the customer list. So they get all their profits from renting those names!
As buyers, they know their names are valuable.
It’s actually a great deal for the company that rents the list. In many cases, it will cost them much less money to rent an existing list than to build a list from scratch.
Because names, especially buyer names, are so valuable, list owners go to great lengths to protect those names and the offers they receive from those who rent them. In most cases, you’ll need to get your creative approved before you can mail it to the list.
I’ve mostly talked about renting lists, but you can also purchase the list you want to use (as mentioned, the list owner will only allow rentals in most cases).
If you rent a list, it is for one use only. If you try to use the list again, you will find yourself in big trouble and possibly face legal action. At best, you will be banned from renting the list again. How will they know if you use the list twice?
The list is seeded… that means some of the names on the list actually go back to the list owner so they know what you sent and how often you sent it.
But if you’ve tried a rental list and are getting orders or leads, you may have the option to buy the list. That’s usually the most expensive option, but for some deals it makes sense because you’ll be able to mail anytime you want to these buyers.
For example, it might cost $150 per thousand names to rent, but $495 per thousand to buy the list.
The advantage is that you can mail anything you want when you buy the list.
The bottom line is that your customer list is the most valuable asset your company possesses. Are you protecting it by backing up your customer list data on a regular basis and storing it in a secure off-site location?
If my office was burning to the ground, the last thing I want to worry about is grabbing my client list! I want to get my employees and myself out as quickly as possible. So instead I have it stored in a secure off-site facility so I never have to worry about it. What if the secure installation burns down? I have a backup at home and another in my safe deposit box at my bank. Yes, it is that valuable.
