How to Build Relationships to Build Your Business

“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” – Theodore Roosevelt

One of my biggest business assets has been the “big-name” relationships I’ve created and nurtured over the years. In fact, I consider this to be so important that I’ve created a business-building strategy around it.

Here’s how I did it…

About four years ago, I decided I wanted to do a joint venture with Jack Canfield. So I started building a foundation for that relationship. One of the first things I did was buy a domain name – AskJackCanfield.com – to give me a way to approach Jack to do teleseminars. (I’ll explain this in more detail in a few minutes.)

Fast-forward four years. In that time, I had done a few teleseminars with Jack. Meanwhile, the movie The Secret, which includes extensive interviews with Jack, had just come out. And that gave me an idea.

I went to Jack’s estate in Santa Barbara and said, “You know, because of The Secret , people want access to you. Let’s give them access for free – via teleseminars.” Then I explained how we would make money by doing it.

Let’s say you’re one of those people who would like access to Jack Canfield. You just go to AskJackCanfield.com. This is a one-page website with a space for people to submit questions. Jack Canfield answers those questions during a free teleseminar the first Wednesday of every month. (I pose the questions to Jack myself.)

Even though the teleseminars aren’t directly making money for Jack and me, they are still good for us. They’re great for me, because I’m interviewing Jack and getting exposure. They’re good for Jack, because the questions people submit are generating more fodder, more information for his future books. Plus, each call can be repurposed into products we can sell.

For instance, we record each teleseminar and have someone transcribe it. Jack uses the transcripts to put together little “simple truths” books. These little books are about 50 pages each and have a CD inside – and there are 12 of them throughout the year. You get to hear Jack, who is fun to listen to, and you get to read him, as well.

Let’s go back to what happens when you go to AskJackCanfield.com. You ask your question. Then you are immediately redirected to a new page on the website – the Intermediary Paid Page (IPP). The IPP is between the page where you ask your question and the “Thank You” page, which has the call-in number for the teleseminar.

On the IPP page, you see me pointing down to a big, juicy $10 button that says something like this: “Look, we have four times as many people who have registered for the call as we can handle, and that is the absolute truth. But if you can’t get in, that’s okay… because you can listen to this call for life for $10.”

But there’s more. If you decide not to pay $10 to get unlimited access to a recording of the teleseminar (a downloadable version), you have to click on a little tiny button that says “No thanks.” You see, people don’t like to say “no.” But we’re forcing them to say “no” if they want to get the call-in information without paying. So we get people who pay $10 for unlimited access to the teleseminar… just because it’s psychologically easier for them to say “yes.”

Let’s say we get 4,000 people to attend the teleseminar, and 1,000 people to pay the $10. Not bad. $10,000 for a 70-minute session.

How much of that $10,000 do I get? Zero.

Why? Because this is my opportunity to pay Jack Canfield for promoting my products to the people on his customer list. Remember, my goal was to get Jack Canfield to be one of my joint-venture partners. So, four years ago, I started to plant the seeds of such a relationship – with the domain name, the free teleseminars, the $10 charge for unlimited access to the teleseminars. And now I can give him a big reason – the $10,000 – to be my partner.

If you were Jack Canfield, wouldn’t you be thinking, “Hey, this is a relationship I can’t afford to miss out on?”

But that $10,000 isn’t the only thing I do to make sure Jack wants to have a relationship with me. He can keep track of all the money he’s making from customers who come to him via his partnership with me.

For one thing, Jack can start selling back-end products he’s created based on ideas he’s gotten from the questions people ask. And he can repurpose the teleseminars into other products (like I mentioned above). He sells those products through a special link that he gives out during the teleseminars. And when teleseminar attendees use that link to buy Jack’s products, he knows where the orders came from. He can say, “Hey, I just made $5,000 in back-end sales. And $4,500 of those sales came from customers who attended the Alex Mandossian teleseminar.”

Plus, the morning after each teleseminar we send a “Wow” e-mail to the people who did not buy the $10 unlimited access offer, and we give them another chance. (“Wow, what a call. If you decided you didn’t want unlimited access to it for $10 then, now is your chance.”) Then, six days later, we send out a “Last Chance” e-mail. (“This is your last chance to get unlimited lifetime access to the teleseminar for $10.”)

You can use a similar step-by-step strategy to show a “celebrity” that you want a joint-venture relationship with just how valuable you can be to him. Then, once you’ve proven you can make him money, you can ask your celebrity to market your products to his list. It’s likely that his list is much bigger than yours – which means it has the potential to make you a boatload of clams. For instance, Jack has become one of my super-affiliates for my Teleseminar Secrets and has sold many of my training programs to his list.

This is a “free-to-fee” strategy. And it takes guts, because you won’t be making money right away. You need to be able to hold out for the big payoff down the road.

Think of yourself as a stalk of bamboo. When bamboo is first planted, you don’t see anything above the ground for three years. After three years underground, a bamboo shoot germinates. Then, from the moment it sees sunlight, it’s full-grown in 60 days.

That’s what happens with this strategy. You’re planting little seeds along the way, building the relationship, building your value. And then, bam! You’ve created a strong bond with someone who can help you earn money for life.

[Alex Mandossian, CEO of Heritage House Publishing Inc., has generated over $233 million in sales and profits for his clients and partners since 1991. To learn more about Alex’s teleseminar marketing strategies please click here.]