James F. Coyle - The TRUTH ABOUT MAIL-ORDER & INTERNET SALES (The MENTAL-MAGIC series)

Using lateral techniques to make it work!

The MENTAL MAGIC series of booklets.

To see the rest of these books go to KINDLE on Amazon

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mental magic james coyle

Copyright James F. Coyle 2011

James F. Coyle was the founder and CEO of the AUSTRALIAN MINDPOWER RESEARCH FOUNDATION and is the author of a brand new book-

BEYOND BELIEF;The Ultimate Mindpower instructional Manual - available from Amazon worldwide.

He was also the founder and editor of the AUSTRALASIAN LATERAL THINKING NEWSLETTER which ran for about 12 years.

MAIL AND INTERNET SALES

Mail order is a recognised business method of selling to people over huge geographical distances and ranges from a home-based kitchen table operation to a vast network such as Readers Digest.

Internet sales are another form of mail order but happen in a different format much more rapidly.

A number of the worlds largest and most respected mail and internet operators started out as a one or two person business based from their home. They evolved a successful marketing strategy which enabled them to make more money than they were spending and simply snowballed on from

there.

These days however, its all become a little more sophisticated. The concept of being able to place a $500 advertisement in a magazine or website and receive $10,000 worth of orders is generally long gone!

These days you will be lucky to cover the cost of the ad!

But having said this, Im happy to tell you that there ARE ways to build a mail order-internet business and show a profit in this current economic environment!

From here on Ill combine mail and internet sales under the general title of mail order .

It all comes down to what you want to sell by mail. If it is a common item which is available at any supermarket then there is obviously no reason for people to order it through the mail . unless ..the customer is living in an isolated area several hundred kilometres from town .or .the price is so low that it appeals to your customers greed factor!

It is much easier to pick an item that would be of major benefit or appeal, but is not available through the normal retail outlets. And there is such a wide range of new products coming onto the market constantly, that it is pointless for me to try and isolate which of these might be of interest, so

Ill assume that since youre reading this report you already have some product in mind and are looking for a way to successfully market it by mail.

For a start, there are two aspects of dealing with people by mail or internet.

The first is your initial promotion to contact prospective customers. You dont know them and they dont know you so youve got to devise a method of finding each other.

The second is your follow-up promotions to people who now know who you are - they have already done business with you once!

And this is the secret of profitable mail-order in the current competitive economy!

You may have to be prepared to lose money in your initial search to find customers but you will aim at making money on subsequent sales. This is generally known as residual value.

Most (if not all) new mail order players enter the game with the aim of making a killing from their initial advertising promotions. The reality is that they usually lose money and become discouraged. And very few of them seem to understand that the profit will come from down the line - from repeat sales!

Mail order is just like any other small business start-up. It costs money to setup and get going before a regular customer base is established. If you start a small business from scratch most wise people would allow for the likelihood of losing money for the first 3 months while you are establishing

yourself.

And it is the same for mail order-internet sales!

It is going to cost you money to establish your customer base! And thi s is the most important aspect of any mail order business... the CUSTOMER BASE!

Lets suppose that you have latched on to a really interesting widget which costs you $10 each in bulk quantities. It is small, light and easy to post and you feel it will sell OK through the mail or internet at $40 each. It does not appear to be available in local shops so it seems that the public will be generally unaware of it. Theoretically you should be able to make a profit of $30 on each one sold and thereby become filthy rich virtually overnight! Theoretically!!!!!!

But practically, here is how it will work out...

You decide wisely to test the market for your widget first instead of lashing out with $10,000 or more on a fully fledged campaign. So you enthusiastically place a $500 advert in your local paper or website

telling people about your new widget... what it does... how great it is, etc. You offer a money-back guarantee and put your full address and phone number in the media advert or reasonable contact details on your webpage.

And you ask them to send you $40!

You wait with baited breath for the orders to pour in! You receive 3 phone calls or several emails from curious people. One of them wants to know if it comes with a 1000 year strawberry-flavoured warranty the other two will think about ordering.

Three orders come in through the mail or the internet over the next few days and the horrible truth begins to dawn. The whole exercise looks like a total flop! Over a total of 10 days or so, you have sold a total of 5 widgets. One of the callers bought two after hed seen them for himself.

And one of the mail order customers re-ordered another one for his boss!

And the bottom line is this youve made a net profit of (5x$30) $150 but the advert cost you $500. Plus there was a small amount for post and packing for the direct sales.

Now you consider all this very deeply and decide that you probably advertised in the wrong media. So you take a $500 ad in a different paper or internet site. And... same result!

Youve ended up with a grand total of 10 customers, of which two have reordered off you because they like your widget and one of the early clients bought two off you.

So you have a total of 13 sales at a profit of $30 each. This means youve made a net profit of $390 (less packaging and postage costs) and the whole thing has cost you $1000 in ads!

So much for getting rich overnight!

You sit down and think about it all for a week and as a last resort decide to place a small leader type ad in the same two newspapers or a small box ad on an internet site. These cost only $100 each and invite customers to write, phone or email for more details. You tell them this information is obligation-free and will cost them nothing!

And over the next week you receive 30 responses! You post or email these people 2-3 pages of literature about your widget and ask them to send $40 for one of these marvellous items.

And 6 people send in an order. So youve got 6 sales at $30 profit per item which gives you $180 profit, less your postage and packaging costs for the direct mail side.

The two adverts have cost you $200, so you are a little out of pocket.. but not much!

So with this leader style of advertising youve nearly broken even but dont quite know what to do next.

Ideally youre looking to build a business that generates sales of $5-10,000 per week but youve got to find a successful promotional formula first. So far nobody has asked for their money back and a couple of people have even re-ordered.

So the product is obviously a good one! You decide to send a letter and an email out to all those who bought a widget telling them that as it was so popular youve decided to make a special offer of 3 more widgets for the price of two! That is, if they send you $80 you will post them 3 widgets so in effect, they get one for free. You tell them its a great gift idea, etc..... and amazingly enough you receive three orders back.