INTRODUCTION
I wrote
this guide because it seemed there was a definite gap
in
the market for guides on MARKETING and EXPANDING mail
order
businesses. Most mail order manuals
concentrate on the
basics
of starting and running a M.O. business, many of which
DO
concentrate on making your business run properly, but I
feel
there is a lack of information on how successful
companies
have flourished in the past and how the small
trader
just starting up from home can expand more rapidly
than
normal.
An
article from a ten year old mail order magazine I had kept
reminded
me of a certain company very popular at the time (I
don't
know whether they are still in business under a name,
so
cannot mention the company) who had built up a yearly
turnover
of œ100,000 which was a fortune ten years ago,
ENTIRELY
BY USING COMMISSION MAILERS.
O.K.
so they used a huge amount of commission mailers and
recruiting
all the best ones will take a little time.
Success
as we are often told however, does not come
overnight.
Commission
mailers in case you wonder, are relatively easy to
get
by the dozens, although you don't want to waste too much
time
with the lazy ones. Good commission
mailers can make a
startling
effect on your turnover, let alone your profit.
Really
good commission mailers can even make you rich.
I
intend to show you how to sign up the best ones, followed
thereafter
by the more numerous 'good, reliable' ones and we
shall
just forget about all the rest as you want to run an
efficient
commission mailing organisation and not a
subsidised
leaflet giveaway service.
Here
then is a way to get those new manuals to move without
too
much expense to yourself and the minimum of
administration. This type of marketing procedure is
beginning
to make a revival with the estimated 4,000,000
opportunity
seekers on the market today, although it will be
some
time before it is once again as popular as in the peak
times
in the 1970's.
There
were some fabulous stories of fortunes that had been
made
by small mail order operations in the late sixties to
the
end of the seventies. I remember reading
several small
six
to ten page folios sold by a well known M.O. dealer (and
writer)
who proudly boasted he had then sold over one million
manuals
in the thirty years as a mail trader. He
then sold
his
mail order business and the new owners did not seem to
have
the same outlook as he did as I haven't seen them
advertise
for a while. Could be they have changed
the
business
name as many do when they go 'up market'.
Those
of you who can remember mail order in those early days
will
recall the small guide "How I Made A Fortune With A Home
Mail
Order Business" then copyright Emerson Press. In it's
early
edition it was run off on a copier on duplicator paper.
Needless
to say it sold thousands upon thousands of copies
during
it's lifetime and probably made a second fortune for
it's
owner writer.
This
particular person sold through direct classified
advertising
using small effective ads and usually 'packaging'
his
offers. 'Send only œ3.50 for all guides'
was the sort of
thing
he would put at the end of an ad, offering perhaps four
or
five ten to fifteen page manuals. They
were usually
double
sided printed to save money and were really run off
Gestetener
method to keep costs at a bare minimum.
I
don't really know why so many people sent in so many repeat
orders,
but I did it too possibly because you always thought
the
next lot were going to be much better. I
know that to
offer
such poorly printed manuals today would not go down
well
with the new mail order customer. In
these days
however,
selling information by mail was in its infancy and
thousands
of people joined the bandwagon. Needless
to say
most
were just out for a fast buck and thankfully didn't last
very
long.
Going
back to our 'hero' and his efficient operation, we must
not
forget that he sold these manuals in another way -
through
thousands of commission mailers. Yes
thousands,
there
were not many original British writers/publishers
around
at the time, and home publishing as we know it was
unheard
of. I often wish I knew then what I know
now as I
too
would have cleaned up on the then virgin market.
WHY
LOOK BACK AT THE PAST?
If
you don't know, then you haven't been paying attention to
what
I said in the introduction! I feel that
there will soon
be
a complete revival of the commission mailing system we had
back
then, and I can see publishing taking a new turn.
Let's
look at what is happening in the publishing field and
see
why commission mailing can solve the problem.
What
happens
today is people go into publishing with new material
and
within even one month or two the original material is
being
sold by fourth or fifth or even sixth level home
publishers
for as little as ONE TENTH of its original value.
Not
only is this frustrating for whoever had the original
manuscript
but it cheapens the whole market as people become
vary
and just decide to wait until the price drops before
buying. Secondly there are people who will cheat in
another
way
- joint buying. This is like a dealers
ring in antique
buying. You get three or four dealers who join
together and
purchase
one new manual, sharing the price. They
then give
each
other re-print rights and start selling and copying the
manual
just as if they had purchased one each from the
original
source.
People
like that will eventually kill off home publishing as
we
know it. Writers will not feel it
worthwhile coming up
with
new material to be paid a pittance because of these
cheats
'ringing' together. These writers will
eventually
write
only for others on a 'one-off' basis or for themselves
and
now allowing re-print sales. Or - like
many other
dealers,
they will turn to using commission mailers to sell
their
guides retail.
Just
think of the amazing but tried and tested possibility of
having
say, one hundred commission mailers on your books.
You
have each month a brand new publication with sole
copyright. You have the leaflets which you either sell
at
cost
price to the mailers, or give them a camera ready copy
for
them to have printed at their copyshop.
Even if each of
your
mailers sells just TWO manuals (of your own) in that
month
you will have 200 sales - done for you - and at a 50%
commission
basis on a œ10 guide, your income is œ1000 less
expenses
for that month alone.
Now
let's look at what commission mailing is all about ...
THE
BENEFITS OF USING COMMISSION MAILERS
Let's
just look at the normal method new people and indeed
many
old timers use to promote their mail order business.
Usually
when you have the suitable manuals etc., you would
advertise
these in the M.O. magazines, Exchange and Mart and
other
good publications, and you would send out to lists of
known
opportunity seekers including your own customer list
should
you have one.
All
this is expensive and sharply digs into your profit
margin,
especially postage costs from doing your mailshots.
The
idea is to build up a large personal customer list who
then
know and trust you as it is twenty times easier to sell
to
people who have previously brought from you.
All
successful
M.O. dealers concentrate on building up a customer
list
and thereby almost guarantee regular sales without
relying
on sometimes expensive and very often 'dud' mailing
lists.
To
do all of this takes time and initially quite a lot of
money. Perseverance being of utmost importance in
those
early
days but unfortunately most newcomers get disappointed
at
initial failures which are quite inevitably and pack the
lot
in in disgust.
Looking
at commission mailers and their benefits can also
give
one the wrong impression that this is an 'easy way in'
to
the mail order market as the good ones are very particular
what
they offer to their valued customer lists.
The bad ones
can
give you as much heartbreak as for example 'dud' mailing
lists. More about this later.
Commission
mailers however, can help you cut your expenditure
and
increase your sales without you having to do the
'selling'.
This
is the real benefit. They sell to their
own prized
lists,
thus leaving you free to find new manuals to sell each
month
or concentrate on building up your contacts of mailers
to
the point where all or most of your business can be done
through
this method.
Do
remember that commission mailers will be selling other
dealers
material as well as your own, so if you've something
new
or exclusive to yourself they will see the profit
potential
for themselves and give you priority when deciding
what
to promote.
HOW
BUSINESS CAN GROW FAST
Your
mailers will want at least 50% of the retail price of
your
guide. This is not unreasonable as they
have the
postage
costs of their mailing shots to cover.
You can
either
send out the manuals direct to their buyers or to
them. Many mailers will now insist you send to them
and they
in
turn forward the goods to their customers for the obvious
reason
you would then not have the names of their customers
and
be tempted to add onto your own lists and thus do the
commission
mailer out of possible profit.
Your
business can grow fast using commission mailers as we
shall
now see with this example.
Imagine
in your first month you have taken on five mailers
who
are each very competent and can sell amongst others, four
of
your publications. If these sold for œ12
you would
receive
œ6 each from the mailer with their orders.
This
would
give you œ120 income just from five mailers.
However,
if
you could manage to supply each commission mailers with
SEVERAL
good selling guides and persuade the mailer to
include
these leaflets in his/her mail shot you could easily
double
this figure.
Now
calculate what your income would be if not only you can
manage
this but recruit say ten or twelve mailers in that
first
month with the concentration being on recruiting THE
BEST
people.
Really
good mailers, those whose income would make many
so-called
dealers blush, could teach you a thing or two about
mail
order, but you usually find these people are VERY
CONTENT
at the extra income they make for the time spent in
their
spare-time hobby. Some mailers are so
good at what
they
do they will want to see a copy of what you are selling
to
avoid their precious customers being sold rubbish and not
ordering
from them again.
Of
course one should promote mail order by using both methods
until
the most profitable is found and as I've said it's
finding
those gems of mailers which will take your time
initially. It does take a while to build up a list of
good
reliable
mailers, but once you have found these you have the
makings
of something wonderful on your hands.
When this
happens
you will find searching for new manuals may become
your
biggest problem. Finding new material
every month is
not
easy, and I did point out it may become more difficult as
writers
may become wary of 'shady' dealers.
THE
IMPORTANCE OF HAVING NEW MATERIAL
Commission
mailers get lots of offers from mail order
dealers,
many of which are duplicates of manuals they already
sell. this is the important point to watch when
contacting
new
mailers. Make sure that you have
something new and
exclusive
to offer them and you will be in with a flying
start.
Can
you imagine having a regular list of personal mailing
customers
and not being able to offer something new each
mailing?
It's pretty frustrating is it not, and customers do
get
tired of seeing the same offers in their mailbox every
month. This is a problem lots of commission mailers
have so
if
you've got something new to offer give them your best deal
and
just watch the response escalate.
THE
DANGERS OF RECRUITING 'BAD' MAILERS
There
is one thing I should warn you about right away. there
are
a lot of what I call 'bad' mailers (or so called mailers)
who
just end up wasting your time and money.
These
people never intend to really make an effort with
commission
mailing and are usually newcomers looking for a
dream
rather than the 'professional' type mailer who has
his/her
mailing campaigns planned and is out to make a
profit.
Bad
mailers usually like to get lots of free or cheap
leaflets,
some just because they like HUGE 'big mails' and
have
no or little intention of posting hundreds of letters.
Yet
they are out there in their thousands.
Sorry to frighten
you
into reality but you must avoid these people at all
costs.
You
can do this quite easily. Here's what to
do. Have a
small
questionnaire prepared and copied and send out with
every
enquiry you receive for commission mailing.
The
questions
you should ask are similar to this:
How
many people do you currently mail to each month?
(If
they are new and seriously intend to mail to lists
purchased
they will tell you without asking, so DON'T ASK).
How
many different manuals do you promote from other dealers?
Currently,
what are your average sales of manuals per month?
(You
could put this in as optional, but most honest dealers
would
answer the question).
What
is the average price of the manuals you promote?
(This
will give you an idea of the price range to cater for
with
each particular mailer).
What
commission rate do you currently work on?
The
timewaster or 'bad' mailers will cringe at this
questionnaire. The honest, hard worker 'best' mailer will
have
no problem answering and you will be able to assess each
ones
capability from the answers.
HOW
TO FIND THE BEST COMMISSION MAILERS
From
the previous page you will have seen that by using a
questionnaire
you can more or less eliminate the poor mailers
from
your team. Do use such a form when
recruiting as it
will
save you much time and money. But how do
you get the
best
commission mailers?
The
good commission mailers often advertise for new customers
to
add to their mailing lists, and you can usually find them
in
mail order mags and advertisers like Exchange and Mart.
They
(among others) are most likely to be the people
advertising
BIG MAILS. You know the type of advert;
BUMPER
BIG
MAIL, DOZENS OF OPPORTUNITIES. SEND TWO
FIRST CLASS
STAMPS
TO: J. BLOGGS ETC.
The
big mail is of course made up with 50% commission
circulars
and the adverts top up the mailers regular lists.
Often
the mailer will simply advertise offering things like
"Hundreds
of business opportunities" or "The newest guides,
something
for everyone". These type of
adverts.
They
are usually included in the two or three line ads in E&M
and
in the mail order mags, although very often commission
mailers
will take small display advertising in the regular
M.O.
mags.
It
is worth remembering that many mail order dealers who
could
also be into publishing will also sell guides on a 50%
commission
basis if the guide is only available that way.
The
main thing to remember is that if you have a new manual
which
is not available with reprint rights to anyone else,
then
you have a suitable item to sell on a 50% commission
basis
to practically all people involved in mail order -
although
do watch out for some crooks who might try to copy
your
guides illegally.
GETTING
MAILERS THROUGH YOUR OWN ADVERTISING
"COMMISSION
MAILERS WANTED. I HAVE THE NEWEST AND
BEST
GUIDES
AND SALES LEAFLETS. TOP DISCOUNTS. SAE DETAILS"
An
ad like this in a few of the MO monthlies will bring in a
steady
flow of enquiries each month. You will
be able to
pick
the best by using the questionnaire as shown previously.
When
writing back you will have to include some leaflets from
your
stock to impress on your mailer your originality of both
sales
leaflet and publications.
HOW
TO RECRUIT THE BEST MAILERS
Once
you have established where to find commission mailers
from
the mail order mags etc., you will want to approach
these
people in the correct and businesslike manner the good
ones
will know and respect.
Most
of the mailers who have their own customer lists are
also
very good mail order dealers and certainly will expect
you
to offer very good terms. A 50%
commission rate is the
norm,
although good mailers may expect more if they bring you
a
steady flow of orders.
When
writing, you should mention:
A. You will either post the manuals direct to
their clients
on receipt of order with payment or;
B. Post the manuals direct to the mailer if
preferred.
You
should also include:
Bonus
terms:
A. If the mailer sends more than 6/8/10 (you
decide) orders
per week, he/she will receive additional
discount. This
could also be in the form of 1 manual sent
free with
every 5 or so orders.
B. The mailer has the opportunity to buy small
quantities of
manuals (say 6 or more) of any one title
for a trade
price which you have to decide.
PICK
THE BEST OF THE CROPS OF LEAFLETS
When
writing to commission mailers you will have to send
sample
leaflets to let the mailer see the type of manuals you
sell
and to make him/her decide whether these are suitable.
Send
your best leaflets and make sure they are not guides
which
have been advertised for ages and the mailer will
probably
already be selling. If the mailer gets
repeats of
what
he/she already has, the offer will go straight into the
bin.
Decide
whether you wish to provide ready made leaflet packs
or
send camera ready copies and if sending leaflet packs you
must
keep the cost to a bare minimum. The
mailer buys from
the
best sources.
SAMPLE
LETTER TO ENQUIRY FROM COMMISSION MAILER
MAILING PEOPLE,
77
POSTAL STREET,
MAILTOWN
Mr
Trusty Mailer
5
Letter Avenue
Parcel
Villa
Dear
Trusty,
Many
thanks for your enquiry as to becoming one of our
regular
commission mailers. Please find enclosed samples of
our
current range of leaflets covering possibly the best
manuals
available in the opportunity market. You
will note
there
is a blank space at the bottom of each for you to place
your
own name and address.
Our
commission terms are as follows:
Up
to six orders per week - 50% commission
Over
six orders per week - 60% commission
(We
pay all postage either sending to your customer direct,
or
to you).
As
you will appreciate, we like to keep our relations with
our
respected mailers on good trustworthy terms at all times,
and
therefore ask all our new prospective associates to
complete
a simple questionnaire (enclosed) and forward this
with
your first order for leaflets or camera ready copy.
This
enables us to find out how we can help each other to
mutual
benefit.
You
will find a leaflet enclosed explaining special bonus
terms,
which makes joining us even more attractive, and
prices
of leaflets and camera ready copies of sales
literature.
So
there you have it Trusty, one of the best mailing
opportunities
available today. Please read through the
literature
and note the good quality of our manuals and the
appeal
these will have to your customers.
Let's
hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
MAIL
ORDER DEALER
HOW
YOU CAN MAKE YOUR MAILERS GROW FAST
There
is a way in which you can very rapidly increase the
amount
of commission mailers on your books.
This method is
tried
and tested and in the past has helped many mail order
dealers
to succeed very quickly indeed.
There
is however a drawback with this system, as there is
with
most good ideas, but handled with care you should
overcome
this.
RECRUITING
BY DOUBLE SIDED CIRCULARS
Double
sided (D/S) circulars are simply leaflets printed on
both
sides. Although not always advisable
when selling
manuals
or other information packages, you can use one such
leaflet
to recruit more mailers.
What
you do is take a leaflet advertising one of your top
selling
manuals and print on the other side an advert
recruiting
new commission mailers, e.g. "Would you like to
earn
extra money selling these guides?"
You would mention
that
free details would be sent by request when marking any
manual
form "CM" and sending with any order to the mailer
shown
with the purchase of one of your manuals.
Before
you ask whether the commission mailer would accept
such
circulars, remember the mailer still receives an order
with
this request so he/she does not lose out, and the mailer
knows
that such a small percentage of people will actually do
so
that there is really no danger of him/her losing business
because
everyone has their own lists.
If
you have only ten mailers each sending out just two or
three
hundred letters you could expect between ten to fifteen
enquiries
from each of these mailshots at no cost to
yourself. The advantage is that you have an opportunity
of
doubling
your mailers every mailshot they do and can control
this
when you have enough by simply stopping the
advertisement.
THE
DISADVANTAGE
This
is the fact that you will get a fair number of
'dreamers'
and will have to deal with more inexperienced or
novice
mailers than by recruiting with other methods.
Just
use
the questionnaire!
The
questionaire is there to ensure you get the right type of
mailers. When using this method you will find it
invaluable
because
as mentioned the proportion of people 'just curious'
will
be higher.
A
SUCCESS STORY
I
love to include true stories from the past to emphasise how
each
of these methods can bring the success you are looking
for. This success story has a sad ending, but I
include it
to
show what can be done and how to avoid getting 'over
ambitious'.
Once
again back in the seventies there was a gentleman who
started
small in mail order, writing and selling his own
manuals. Some of his manuals were actually written for
him I
recall,
but the point is no other dealer has the copyright to
these. this was again before todays 'home
publishing' ideas
became
popular.
This
gentleman (it wasn't me by the way) produced photocopied
A5
guides of poor quality compared to those available today.
The
information included in these guides was not very
impressive,
much of it being lists of names and addresses,
but
they did sell. Boy how they sold!
He
built up his business using the method of recruiting
commission
mailers as mentioned here, and because of the fact
that
at that time people were buying literally ANYTHING
containing
money-making information he had an open market.
He
differed from other dealers using this principle however
by
selling his manuals in packs of ten, cellaphane wrapped,
to
his mailers. The mailers were recruited
by the D/S
circular
method and he had them joining up by their hundreds.
Of
course most of them at that time would have been just
curious
or dropped out at an early stage but the fact is that
did
not matter - he was recruiting in droves.
It just didn't
matter
if a fair percentage were not working, he got lots who
did!
Our
entrepreneur got to busy he soon moved into small
premises
in an industrial estate and things seemed to boom -
until? He decided to publish a glossy colour
magazine and
stated
a minimum circulation of 10,000 copies right from the
start. This meant to satisfy legal requirements to
advertisers
he had to mail free most of the 10,000 copies to
justify
his claim and get the magazine noticed.
You can
imagine
the expense of not only having all these copies
printed
(in colour), but the postage for this must have been
immense
as he did this for months while trying to get people
to
subscribe and get advertisers to take space which he
needed
to keep printing costs down.
While
he was doing this I noticed his small mail order guides
being
sold by another dealer. Whether he sold
out his
lucrative
mail order business to finance the magazine I have
no
idea, but the poor chap seemed to fade out of existence.
I
never heard of him again after that and do not know the
outcome,
but can take a fair guess.
Here's
something to whet your appetite. He was
reputed to
have
built up a customer list (note a CUSTOMER list) of over
100,000
people.
Ask
yourself what you could do with a customer list of that
amount
of cash buyers.
If
there's a moral to this story it must be - don't change
course
when you're doing well. Why take on
something with an
extremely
high set up cost and a new market to find when you
have
built up a business which is successful and you could
still
expand on.
TARGETING
WITH SPECIAL OFFERS
Here
is a simple way to 'target' your recruitment drive to
make
sales and get the commission mailers you want.
If you
find
that any of the methods explained within this guide
could
perhaps be used in combination with some of your own
then
go ahead and make your own plan - but do something. Too
many
people in mail order find they cannot get down to doing
the
job properly and fail, mainly through lack of merely
trying
SOMETHING!
In
the next few pages you will have the basis of a small
'package'
you can send to all who answer your advertisement
for
mailers and how they can get started.
Copy
and sell the next pages for about œ2 including sample
leaflets,
and you will find you can get good trustworthy
people
who because they have paid for information are really
interested
in doing the job.
You
should advertise as follows:
"Complete
commission mailers start-up pack. Shows
you how to
get
into the mail order business the easy way.
Send only œ2
for
super info-pack. Your name and
address".
You
could actually send camera ready copies with blank spaces
for
names and addresses with the following fact sheets and
you
would enable people to begin without delay.
Send the
questionnaire
with it to avoid problems with any 'losers'.
HOW
TO RUN A COMMISSION MAILING BUSINESS FROM HOME
Welcome
to the world of mail order. By answering
our
advertisement
for this fact-pack, you have gained the
opportunity
of starting out in the lucrative mail order
business
without requiring capital.
WHAT
IS COMMISSION MAILING?
Commission
mailing is the exciting method of acquiring all
the
best manuals on the market to sell to opportunity seekers
just
like yourself, but without having to hold stock.
Just
think of it - you can sell top guides to the approx.
4,000,000
opportunity seekers waiting for money making and
self
help information without having to carry stock or even
pay
postage.
HOW
DOES IT WORK?
Quite
simply you mail out leaflets which we provide the
masters
for, and on receiving orders from these leaflets, you
send
these to us BUT YOU KEEP HALF THE MONEY.
Yes, for
example
a œ10 worth of orders, you keep œ5. AND
WE THEN SEND
THE
ORDER DIRECT TO YOUR CLIENT. You have no
postage or
packing
to pay! We pay that too!
WHAT
WILL I BE SELLING?
You
will be selling the best of our range of money making or
self-help
guides which are all professionally produced and
have
a high appeal to those looking for extra income
opportunities. You will receive details of new guides as
they
come out, and therefore you can offer these to your
personal
customer list as you build it up, as well as to
names
from bought lists.
BUILD
UP YOUR OWN LIBRARY
You
can also buy these manuals for yourself at half price and
build
up your own library of extra income and money making
guides
cheaply and directly from the main source.
You are of
course
under no obligation to purchase anything, but the
offer
is there for you and your friends.
HOW
MUCH COULD I EXPECT TO EARN?
This
is simply the case of how much time and effort you put
into
your little mailing business. Obviously
the more
leaflets
you mail out, the more orders you could expect.
With
œ6 to keep for yourself for every œ12.00 manual you
sell,
you can see how even four or five sales a week would
make
it worthwhile indeed.
But
think of what you could earn with a little more effort?
I
would even be happy to give you extra bonuses for your
sales
if you sell more than 5 manuals each week.
How's that
for
an incentive to get you started.
WHO
DO I SELL TO?
You
can purchase lists of opportunity seekers to send the
leaflets
to if you do not already have your own.
You will
find
these advertised in the mail order magazines, or can
make
arrangements to purchase from us should you wish.
Don't
forget that many of your friends will be interested in
buying
these guides, as everyone wants to make extra money.
Show
the leaflets to your workmates too, and you will soon
get
orders pouring in.
HOW
MUCH WILL I NEED TO BEGIN?
You
will need a supply of leaflets, which you can get printed
at
a local photocopy shop. Then apart from
the names, you
need
envelopes and postage stamps. You do not
need to send
out
many letters to begin with. Even 100
will do to start
you
off, and you can build from there. Your
main expense is
postage
stamps, but many mailers just send what they can
safely
afford, even in dribs and drabs. The
main think is to
post
the letters, as the saying goes - "If you send nothing
out
- you can expect nothing in!" The
more letters you send
out,
the more orders you should get. It's as
easy as that.
SOUNDS
INTERESTING!
In
a nutshell, commission mailing is all about getting into
mail
order without the expense occurred carrying stocks of
books
and paying hefty postage charges on parcels.
You
can get started on a shoestring and build up a little
home
business which can grow as fast or as slow as you wish.
What
other way is there of being able to offer lots of best
selling
manuals without the usual costs involved?
You can
use
your time and resources simply to GET THE SALES and by
doing
so quickly acquire a valuable list of customers who
will
buy from you AGAIN AND AGAIN.
WHAT
TO DO NOW
To
get started in this exciting business just fill in the
order
form enclosed and send together with the questionaire
(which
is used to help us decide what is best for you) to the
address
shown.
THE
PROBLEMS WITH MATERIAL
As
you build up your team of commission mailers you will
inevitably
have the problem of finding new manuals and
courses
to supply them with. The really best of
your mailers
will
get hungry for new items to sell, and you have the
danger
of them straying to other sources which could mean
they
momentarily drop your publications or even worse, stop
using
you altogether. This could happen if
they find a
source
who can supply new material regularly whereas you may
not
be able to do so.
What
you must do therefore, is find at least one new
publication
exclusive to yourself to launch through your
mailer
network each month. You must try at all
costs to
avoid
a month passing where you are stuck for something new
to
offer. This does not apply so much
during the off peak
months
of mail order, but during the season it is vital to be
prepared.
WRITING
YOURSELF AND MAKING UP PACKAGES
You
could in such circumstances write a manual yourself, if
you
feel capable and have enough ideas not to starve the
typewriter!
The alternative is to make up a package from
other
items you already have.
You
can do this either by taking extracts or pages from a
range
of manuals you currently have (providing you have
copyright)
and 'creating' something new. A sales
leaflet
would
also be needed in such cases but this shouldn't cause
too
much of a problem as you will know well the content of
your
'new' guide, thus being able to write promotional
material
quite easily.
LOOK
AFTER THE 'OLDIES'
A
bit cheeky perhaps calling your longest serving mailers
'oldies'
but you know what I mean. Even though
you will be
recruiting
new mailers into your team every month (or week
even)
you should not forget to put as much effort into
keeping
those early ones happy as you do when courting the
new. Never forget that commission mailers are free
agents
and
can go from you to another source at any time without
notice.
Look
after your people and your business will look after you.
A
FINAL WORD
Although
I wish you much success in building up your own team
of
commission mailers, I hope you will remember a few things.
Any
form of mail order has never been the easy ride it is
made
out to be. You do have to work at
it. The carefree
days
of the late sixties and boom time seventies are well
over. People want better goods than the rubbish
sometimes
sold
during those earlier times, even though that rubbish did
find
buyers it's just not on nowadays.
The
big fright now is whether someone will pinch your
copyright. Unfortunately one of the things that home
publishing
brought with it was an increase in the number of
people
just copying and selling guides without having paid
for
the right to do this or worse - without the guide in
question
being available with copyright rights to reprint.
Everyone
has to be more careful especially with guides which
are
not being sold with repro-rights. In the
seventies it
was
mainly the poor quality of materials that was criticised,
but
today it's worse in my opinion because of the sheer
amount
of fraudulent goings on. Home publishing
I'm afraid
has
made this worse as people get used to running off manuals
on
a photocopier, and something "Why should I bother to pay
for
this when I can copy it", and this attitude is worsening.
Take
care then with your copyrights and watch out for the
baddies. Some of them may even be writing to you
enquiring
about
commission mailing! Be careful!
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