SUPER SALES BOOSTERS YOU

CAN START FOR NEXT TO NOTHING

Maximizing profits involves cost-cutting methods of selling

your products. We are assuming for this article that you, like

most marketers are specializing in information and publications

marketing.

The best way to increase sales cheaply and effectively is to

offer more items at any given time, and here's how to do it. By

all means examine every commission circular you see for

possibilities. It might be worth carrying. Camera-ready

circulars are available for most of the publications you see in

your mailbox, and all you need are a group of them on file that

can be reprinted as needed.

In all cases, we repeat, DO NOT rubber-stamp your commission

circulars. Insert your name and address with dry type such as

Pres-Type, Geotype or Letraset. A professional appearance is a

must.

If you've been in business for a while, you already know what

your bestsellers are and how to test new items. If you have

reports collections and other good items that are not such hot

sellers, keep your leftover circulars and include them WITH

PRODUCT when you fill an order from your home. Include as many

as you can up to the postal limit that applies to the product,

and you're basically sending it free of charge.

As you have probably seen by now, we advise all our customers to

shop wisely but to continue learning about the business, and if

you have a slow-moving product which is nevertheless is an

excellent item for a small order dealer to own, this is an ideal

way to move it.

It's an excellent idea to include a freebie when doing a direct

mail. This works especially well if you're handling a lot of

popular items. Chances are a good many of your packets will go

to people who try to get on a number of lists to keep abreast of

the latest offers, and since so many of them are so vague,

they'll be much more responsive to someone who can give them an

idea of what they'll be receiving.

If you currently handle chain letters and report collections of

dubious value, it might be cheaper to drop them altogether than

to continue to include them, even if they do make you a small

profit. First time buyers are truly shocked when they see some

of the terrible scams going around in mail order, and you'll

lose them forever if you turn them off, which is never your

intent.

You can make this absolutely painless. You might like to try

putting your best reports on the backs of your best circulars,

maximizing the value of each sheet of paper. If you're not

doing it now, you had better try doubling up your circulars at

the very least.

One of the best follow-up offers you can give your non-dealer

customers, and you can tell which if your customers is a dealer

and which is not by the kinds of items they order, is a quality

book catalog. Melvin Powers, DAX and others offer excellent

dealerships in unusual books, and they pull extremely well on

follow-ups.

The catalogs themselves are usually fairly heavy and not

cost-effective without a quality mailing list (a rare bird

indeed) or unless you can get cash up-front for printing and

mailing. You'll probably wind up buying some of these books

yourself! If you're marketing fairly common items. you've got

to have an advantage, something that makes your offer look

better than comparable offers for the same items.

Unquestionably, the best advantage is a lower price. Free

bonuses and rebates won't cut quite as well. The reason is

simple enough. The customer might be sold on an item to begin

with, but he may be waiting for a better deal to come along. If

you're the lowest bidder, you'll get that sale. These sales

will not come right away in most cases. They will be trickle-in

orders, made by the customer after filing your circular and

waiting to see who can match the price.

We feel much of the information offered by mail is ridiculously

overpriced when introduced, and we have on file dozens of

examples of some people offering item X at five, then, even

nineteen times the best price offered by others with the same

product.

If you've been enclosing your own envelopes with return

addresses when you send out advertising, you might try a

half-and-half mailing to see if they're really pulling more

orders.

Traditional schools of thought say the return envelopes,

especially the business-reply type which allows you to pay the

postage for the customer, do pull orders.

However, most people use plain printed #8 envelopes without

business-reply marking, and especially for the small operator

specializing in a few selected items, it may be a poor

investment. If so, it's cutting into your profits and taking up

valuable weight in the envelopes better served by a circular.

Adsheets can be good investments, but in most cases you'll only

really profit from them if you're offering something you've

developed yourself which can be sold through other dealers.

Adsheets are generally advertising's version of the pyramid

plan. They circulate only among small time dealers, each trying

to get the other to sell what he's selling. Still, if you can

put a new twist in the advertising, and run a short ad in

selected adsheets (most dealers receive a large number, and

subscribing to several dozen is wasteful) asking for full

purchase price when they order, and NOT requesting information,

you could still do a profitable business, although the cost

involved adds up to much more than the usual $1 for a one-column

ad. You have to figure your costs in preparing the ad and

getting it to each publisher.

If you have an article you've developed yourself and you want to

put a big push on, a great number of dealers will print and mail

your circulars with theirs. The cheapest deal is to have their

ad printed on the back. Many of these firms will take your

money and run, however, so it would be smart to call and write

first, get references from happy customers, and talk to them.

If he won't reveal his customer list and still claims to do a

good job, well, need we say more?

Don't be afraid to compete with other dealers in a print and

mail deal if you've got a good product, but you do your

homework. It is probably the most cost-effective way to reach a

large number o dealers, but take care that you choose a

reputable dealer.

Multilevel enthusiasts know that many of the better multilevel

programs requires substantial amounts of literature to fully

explain. If you're not prepared or equipped to expend the time

and money required to let every mail prospect know about the

programs you're using, why not make up a small half page

circular which briefly outlines each program, and offer to

refund postage for anyone interested in learning more? That

cuts your expenses, gives you inquiries of real value and should

take no considerable dent in your eventual downline.

This takes five minutes, costs pennies, and give your commission

circulars a personal touch that also looks professional.

Please stop writing hand-written notes and changes of copy on

your commission circulars! Save those hand-written notes for

leaders. A close matching letraset message will print

beautifully and get the message across much more effectively

than a freehand note. When using letraset, take care to make

the heading on a separate set of paper, clip the heading and

tape it with Scotch brand magic tape (we recommend Scotch

because it has a lower peel strength than competitive

translucent tapes and is easier removed).

Don't do your first heads directly onto the circular or you'll

end up with minor mistakes that detract from the impact. Notice

how sloppy the "K" looks, and how small a mistake it took to

make it that way? (Believe us, your clients will notice

mistakes like that!).

One cost-cutting method we do not advise is folding your

circulars so an outside surface is empty, taping it and mailing

it like a newsletter, without an envelope. It looks just plain

shoddy. One thing that does look good, however, is the white

9x6 envelope instead of the usual wheat-yellow manila envelope.

Anything different makes an impact.

Speaking of different, try a few of your circulars in two

colors, perhaps red and black, especially those which many other

dealers are using. It does pull more orders on a competitive

item. And don't forget about using colored stock for a few

sheets (NEVER for your personal notes), but not too many.

If you want to keep your customers for repeat business, don't

become a commission agent for mailing list firms unless you have

thoroughly researched and used their lists yourself. We

personally know of one firm which advertises premium lists, and

offers a very attractive dealership, but they have no trouble at

all selling our name to no fewer than 25 people in a four-month

span who all offer the same product! Those poor people wasted

not only the cost of the list, but the cost of the mailing as

well, and that is an absolute travesty.

By all means, use your personal letters to inform the paying

customer of services you've had success with. This tells the

customer you're serious about his satisfaction and if he

experiences the same success, he'll trust you enough to order

from you again.

And if you know of any popular plans that are no good, and you

have seen that the customer might be considering such a plan

from a letter or group of purchases which indicate he's

heading in that direction, tell him to steer clear.

Finally, and this is absolutely vital to getting reorders, know

exactly what you are offering. If you're selling books, own a

few of them and read them. If you're selling plans and reports,

check them out to make sure they really do what they claim. You

are doing your customers a horrible disservice by advertising

Plan A as one of your biggest sellers (which may be true) when

it's an outdated piece of junk and maybe something you have

never even seen.

If you're selling gifts from catalogs or other related

merchandise, there are really only two things we can advise that

will cheaply help sales.

First, if you're selling catalogs and having your orders

dropshipped from the supplier, write the home office and tell

them you'd like to establish contact with other distributors to

help each other increase efficiency.

It is highly unlikely this request will be turned down. The

supplier is every bit as interested in increasing sales as you

are, and will probably be happy to send you the names and

addresses of some of the company's top producers.

Establish regular correspondence with these people and exchange

information on what campaigns and techniques are working for you.

If you're selling products for which you are the prime source,

don't hesitate to send advertising for your other products when

you fill orders from newspaper or magazine advertising. If you

don't have other products, work an exchange program with other

sources and sell their products on commission, and drop-ship the

orders from the source of supply.