Call me old, but remember back when the Tempur-Pedic™ bed had just come out?

You know -- the super comfy bed that was NASA certified, ultra super steched, Swedish mattress so you can sleep like a baby...

Yep, years ago this was all the rage.

Being the nerd that I was (*ahem* AM), I wanted to learn how it worked. I browsed over to their website and discovered that they gave away free information packets, a DVD, and a sample of the space certified material.

Hmmm.... Free cheese... interesting.

Yep, this is exactly what a mouse is thinking right before something goes "snap!"

I was stoked. I mean, how silly of them to be giving away this 31st century material away for free? They were just blowing money & I was getting free stuff and a sample.

All they asked for in exchange was my name, phone number, email, and address to get the free stuff to me.

It was kinda irresistible...

Something for nothing...

I signed up without a moment's hesitation.

Now, I wasn't really in the market for a new bed. Mine, left over from my college years was still functioning. Granted it's starting to squeak a bit and sloped a little to the left but it still had about another year in it.

Little did I know that I had gotten caught in their giant human "mouse-trap" in exchange for "my piece of cheese"...

Now listen closely, cause this is where the light bulbs start going off...

Over the next year and a half, Tempur-Pedic™ sent me information on the material ("the cheese"), the bed, and the company.

They would send testimonials, special offers, stories of people freed of back pain, the importance of having a comfy bed... I mean the works!

I kept saying, "Why do they keep wasting their money?"

You see, the makers of Tempur-Pedic™ knew that while I may not be looking for a bed right at this moment, there comes a time in all our lives when we will need a bed. They wanted to make sure that their bed was front and center in my mind when that time did come.

They even tried to seduced my senses with pictures of beautiful women comfortably sleeping on the bed. Very clever...

** This is where it matters for you: **

They could have either counted on my memory and just prayed and hoped that I'd remember their brand a year and a half after receiving their samples.

-or-

Or they could make sure their company name will always be synonymous with "comfortable sleep" and always have an "exclusive special offer" in front of me when the day does came when my bed caves in to old age.

That's why they kept sending me all that "stuff". They wanted to be sure that their brand was embedded into my memory that it would only seem natural that I end up purchasing their product when the timing was right.

I was stuck in their mouse trap and I didn't even know it.

And their investment in me? Pennies on the dollar when compared to profit they would make if I ultimately bought a Tempur Pedic™ bed.

And yes, a year and a half later, as my bed and I got a little older two things happened:

a) my bed finally did cave in to old age

b) my body started getting a little older and I started dealing with shoulder and back pain

... So I did end up purchasing their Queen sized NASA approved bed with all the fixin's.

Now let's think about this for a moment.

Imagine if they had done their promotion without bothering to collect and retain my information.

Imagine if they had given me a DVD, book & sample at the mall without ever bothering to collect my information. I would have lost the sample, thrown away the DVD & booklet and my curiosity to learn more about it would have gone in the trash with it.

You think a year and a half later, when I was looking to buy a bed, I would've remembered Tempur-Pedic™?

Maybe.

Do you think I would've gone online to be educated on Tempur-Pedic™ and convinced myself to pay a premium for quality?

Highly Unlikely.

Or do you think I would've just gone down to the closest mattress store and bought what was available?

More Likely!

And most buyers today would've also done the same thing.

What Tempur-Pedic's™ marketing department did was exercise the fundamentals of direct response marketing (albeit they took it off-line but the principles remain the same).

They created a list, built the value of the list over time through education, comfortable sleep driven benefits and of course, beautiful women!

They took every single person that demonstrated even a remote interest in what they had to offer, and put them inside that list.

Bear in mind that each person in that list volunteered their information.

This is the marketing business. The money is in the list.

The single most important concept you're taught first in network marketing is on making a list, however that's really not what this is.

What you and most other business owners should be doing is building a list of INTERESTED people!

Your business, no matter what product or industry, is leaving millions of dollars on the table by not building a proper list.

Allow me to put this in perspective...

Let's take some of the big time network marketing greats who have a strong presence online - like Eric Worre, Mike Dillard, Ray Higdon, Sonia Stringer, Sarah Robbins, etc.

(They each have hundreds of thousands of subscribers on their email list and on social media.)

Take away their homes, cars, offices & millions of dollars, but leave them with only their list of subscribers, (a list they already have a relationship with).

They would each be perfectly fine and be able to build a multi-million dollar empire in no-time.

Your List and the Relationship with Them is Your Business

This enables you to create a relationship with your prospective customers or prospects. Tempur-Pedic™ was smart enough to recognize that their business was their list, not their beds.

Many knock-offs have come and gone. Some even better than Tempur-Pedic™, but they lacked the list, the branding through education and therefore the marketshare.

For your network marketing business, imagine if you had the ability to attract people online who are actively searching for a business opportunity or even just learn how to make some extra money from home.

Do you think, they'd be slightly more qualified than your broke Uncle Bob who only wants to watch football and guzzle beer?

Of course! And you don't have to imagine, cause it's real!

In fact, on the internet there are not only people who are actively looking for an opportunity like yours, but may even be looking to purchase products you sell through your networking business.

And there are even a community of people, numbering in the millions, who have a history of joining network marketing businesses, are positive about the industry and are looking for just the right business to join.

If you do things right, it could be your business!