Opportunity’s knocking, should I answer the door?

Opportunity's Knocking

My in box is full…again. Affiliate offers, joint venture deals, ‘greatest ever’ product reseller programs, credit card affiliate programs and of course everybody, including me, has products to sell. Do you ever feel overwhelmed?

I find myself deleting, turning down, opting out of lots of these offers every day. Many are from people I’ve never heard of and can’t find on the internet or Google. If I can’t find you, research you and determine what people are saying about you, you probably have a little chance of making it through my well-tuned hype detector.

The other critical reason to turn down these offers is that they are not complimentary to your core business. Don’t confuse your clients with offers that don’t make sense. If they come to you for real estate investment advice, don’t try offering them a great deal on the latest fitness product…they don’t go together and you’ll begin to quickly look like a huckster and an opportunist rather than an expert in your field. It will destroy your reputation, your credibility, their trust in you which and it will eventually impact your fees. It’s simply not worth it.

As a business owner, the more successful you are the more of these offers you’ll get and sorting through them can lead to the discovery of hidden diamonds, great joint ventures and if you’re not wary and diligent, disasters.

As a marketing & business growth consultant I live and die on my writing, speaking, results and the reputation I’ve cultivated with my clients. That is a significant asset that needs to be protected. So does yours!

I’ve spoken with lots of business owners who’ve been lured into deals without doing their homework only to find that their new ‘partner’ is unethical, delivers product slowly, overcharges, doesn’t honor return policies and more.

Their actions reflect directly back on you. You are guilty by association and you’ve potentially violated the trust that your clients placed in you. I make it a very firm, non-negotiable policy, that we do not, rent, share, sell or otherwise give up our email list. If I find something that, after investigation, I feel my clients should know about, I will review the product and I will send a pre-screened message to them introducing the person, product or service that I’ve discovered.

Many times I’ve already followed the links, instructions and buying sequence that I’m advocating so I know, BEFOREHAND, what they’ll be receiving from my potential new partner. You should take these very important steps with your client list as well, they’re your clients, protect them.

There are several really good reasons for taking this stance, first and foremost is reputation protection, second is list control and client protection, third is that I can see the open rate of the emails and have a sense of people’s reaction to the offer and last, but certainly not least, is that if this is an offer that results in affiliate commissions, I can get a sense of conversion rates so that I can estimate the fees that are due.

If you’re successful in life or business, opportunities will knock daily or weekly. Sometimes opening the door and welcoming the offer is good business, more often it’s a great time to simply ignore the knocking and get back to work.