How to Use OPC to Make Money Fast

By Craig Ballantyne
Here’s the situation. You want to be an entrepreneur and to start a new business because you know that this is the fastest way to building wealth. You even have a good idea, but how on earth do you get customers when starting from scratch?
Well, the correct answers are rarely the ones you want to hear. Other guru’s like to tell you that you can make millions overnight with no effort, but that’s not what you’ll get here. Instead, we’ll give you the unadulterated truth. But it’s the truth that shall make you wealthy.
Today you’re going to discover the power of OPC. It’s a little acronym that describes the fastest way for building a business, whether it’s Internet-based or one that resides on Main Street in your hometown. The rule of OPC holds true for all new opportunities, as do the strategies for getting OPC.
To give you an example of the power of OPC, let’s take a look at my bookshelf. It’s packed with many investing books and newsletters from many different companies. I haven’t just bought from one specific author or organization. Does that give you a hint about what OPC is and how it applies to your business?
And as I mentioned, the OPC strategy works just as well in ‘real-world’ businesses as it does online. After all, why do you think the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker were such good friends?
You see, you need to be ‘partners’ with other businesses who serve the same marketplace as you, and yes, this might even mean teaming up with your competition, because nothing can boost your business faster than OPC – Other People’s Customers.
Earlier I mentioned my friend Joel. He’s the guy who made both his 1st sale and his 1000th sale on the same day. How did he accomplish that? With other people’s customers, of course. Joel did something called an online product launch. By leveraging his contacts and goodwill, Joel was able to persuade other business owners to recommend his products to their customers. He did this by incentivizing these business owners with a large commission on each sale and bonuses for hitting certain sales levels.
That’s the basic premise of online affiliate marketing. If you send me your customers, I’ll pay you and make it worth your while. (In fact, that’s what Joel and I did in our recent 247FatLoss.com product launch, and you’ll get a full review of the launch on December 1st when the new issue of Financial Independence Monthly is delivered to subscribers.)
That’s the most important strategy in using the OPC system. No matter if you have a real-world business or an online business, you must make it worthwhile for your business partners to share their customer list with you.
In Joel’s situation, he ran a product launch and gave his affiliates 75% commission on each sale that his business partners sent his way. That allowed him to buy customers while still making money. When you set-up your online business, you should do the same. (Full disclosure: We do this for affiliates of our Financial Independence Monthly program, too.)
Give as much money in affiliate commissions as you can afford to give. I even give away 100% commission to affiliates on front-end offers during my annual membership drive in my Turbulence Training business. This makes affiliates stand up and take notice and participate in your promotions. When you can pay someone a lot of money for their customers, they’re much happier to share them with you.
But again, this works off the Internet as well. Let’s say for example that you have a store that sells flooring. Your best ‘advertisers’ could be stores that sell appliances, blinds, and all other products related to renovations. You should also be working out deals with contractors so that they send their customers to you.
It doesn’t matter what type of business you have (or want to start). The fastest way to grow your customer list is to get other people’s customers to become your customers too. Here are the simple steps you need to take to get the ball rolling.
1.     Identify your partners. Build up goodwill with these partners by helping them first. Leverage your goodwill when you request their help.
2.     Incentivize your partners through extra commissions and contests. For example, if a business partner sends you X number of sales each month, give them a cash bonus.
3.     Continually remind your partners to promote your business and resell them on participating. Create done-for-them marketing materials and referral scripts that automates this process for them.
Selling partners on promoting your business is extremely important. I can’t emphasize it enough. You need to focus on selling them and delivering customer service to your business partners almost as much as you do to your end-user customers.
But make sure you have a proven sales system in place before you start selling business partners on referring their customers to you. If you ask for referrals prematurely, before you are ready to serve those customers properly, you’ll end up hurting their business and yours.
There is little else that can damage a relationship more than over-promising and under-delivering. You’ve got one shot with a product launch and you can’t be caught firing blanks. As my business partner, Matt Smith, likes to remind me, “You’ve spent a lot of time building up this goodwill, you don’t want to waste it on a trivial matter.”
Take the OPC lessons seriously, and start applying them to your business today. I wish I could tell you that just ‘being the best darn little shop on main street’ (or best little website on the Internet) was enough to keep a business alive and profitable, but that’s just not the politically correct truth. You need become a master salesperson to acquire both customers on your own and OPC, too.