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Ideas/Section-6
Your Own Distributorship!
When you have developed, or found, mailorder
products over
which you have exclusive ownership or control, you may
want to consider selling through agents, wholesalers or
dealers. If you go this route you should limit the number
of agents and not spread your program across the country
for just anyone to enter. A few good agents distributing
your product without "flooding the market" will keep them
working enthusiastically and generally make more money for
them and you both.
When you advertise for distributors explain
the exclusive
features of your products and programs and how you support
them 100%!
You need to develop good marketing programs for your
associates, using the same general principles for the mail
order business as used in any other kind of business
enterprise.
Before you start recruiting associates
or salespeople,
prepare a realistic packet of instructional and
promotional materials, including marketing plans, camera
ready circulars, photos, sample ads, sales letters and
stationery, order forms and whatever else is needed to
make your program a winner. Make it simple so it will fit
in with other offers your distributors are involved with
and can be handled efficiently with little or no
additional shipping or postage costs for them.
Make your prospect a distributor upon receipt
of the first
order and send out the packet with an exclusive number
assigned to each one to be used on all orders and
correspondence. Keep in contact with all our distributors
by sending out information bulletins or newsletters
announcing new products and promotional data. Build a
drop-ship arrangement into your programs but try to get
the distributors to carry a reasonable inventory. Give
them special discounts, etc., as incentives to stock more
of your products.
How to be the prime source!
Information can well be one of the most profitable items
in mail order. Gathering and writing information can be
one of the easiest ways to enter the field. There can be
many variations by using merchandise and/or circulars of
other dealers, but to actually make the big profit without
including the middle man, one must compile and write his
own.
A lot of thought should be given the subject
before
attempting the writing project. Never try to move to
fast, thinking you will get rich over-night. This is
simply unrealistic. There are a certain few who try to
make it by cheating the public but the law will eventually
catch up with them. If you are honestly sincere about
writing, then set out to get the job done in an orderly
and honest way.
You will have to spend money to pick up
enough information
to begin your writing project. You will have to devote
much time and research in order to get started and must
continue to write, as least a little something most every
day to make reasonable progress.
The best kind of information to write about
is that which
helps others with information and advice on how to do
certain things. Acquire all the information possible
concerning your desired subject and study it well. You
always have the possibility to make a hit with a new idea.
A good report can bring you literally thousands of
dollars, even more than the big time literary and novel
writers in some instances.
The U.S. Government is a good source for
certain kinds of
information. They have a list of over 30,000 different
subjects available for a reasonable price and some are
free. You can write to the Superintendent of Documents,
U.S. Printing Office, Washington, D.C., and request to be
placed on their mailing list. It is not a good idea to
take this information and copy it word for word. Bend it,
shape it, ad your own ideas, change it, simplify the
wording, etc. There is no need for your customers to pay
you for books that have nearly the same detail they can
purchase or get free from the government.
Get started writing right now!
How to make it in the mailorder wholesale
book business!
The real profit in selling books by mail is by having
dealers sell for you. Rather than mailing out thousands
of your own mailing packets at todays high postage cost,
get hundreds of thousands mailed out through your own
dealers. This can generate steady orders and profits and
is one of the great secrets to a successful mail order
book business.
There are a number of Prime Source mail
order firms
offering good mail order distributorships. They offer
high quality books, reports and folios that appeal to the
public; the kind of publications that have generated
consistent high profits in the mailorder business. You
should give wholesale book selling a try. Recognize the
profit potential and determine if this method fits in with
your other programs.
Most of the better Prime Source firms offering
distributorships have a simplified program which includes
instructions, profit tested literature, sales letters,
brochures, order forms and return envelopes that do the
selling job for you. The simple instructions can be
followed even by the inexperienced person. The old timers
in mailorder can use the wholesale book selling programs
to supplement their other projects, in many instances
combining book selling with their other mailing activities
with very little added expense.
Imprinted sales literature, to solicit
dealers and for the
dealers use in selling to the consumer, is furnished at
reasonable prices; or camera ready copy is usually
available so that the printing can be done locally. The
literature for dealers is usually priced a little higher
than cost to pay for processing the order.
The Prime Source will ship your customer's
orders for
literature, brochures, etc., under your shipping label.
They will also drop-ship the books and publications direct
to your dealers, using your name or label.
Your wholesale cost for publications will
vary depending
on whether you have the Prime Source drop-ship direct to
your dealers, or in quantity to your place of business.
The amount you charge your dealers will also vary
depending on drop-ship services or quantity purchases.
You, as the wholesaler, should make every effort to
purchase the publications for a minimum of four times
below retail price.
In other words, You purchase 100 booklets
for $1 ea. =
$100
You sell to your dealers at $2 ea. = $200
Your dealer must realize at least double his cost
when selling to the consumer, or $4 ea. = $400
You must ascertain that the Prime Source
often is the
determining factor in the success of your program. If the
book retails at a price too low, considering the high
postage and mailing costs, no profit can be realized by
your dealer, nor by yourself, unless orders are limited to
a minimum number of titles for each total purchase. Be
certain the program offered by the Prime Source allows
sufficient margin to pay for all your costs and expenses
as well as your dealers costs and expenses, while
generating a fair profit for you both.
to find the right programs for your operation,
write to a
number of firms that offer book selling wholesale
programs. These can be found in any of the hundreds of
mailorder adsheets, magazines and publications available
today. (Some call it "Junk Mail" but if they only knew
the money-making potential of the right program, "Gold
Mail" would be more appropriate).
Get their literature then order a minimum
starting package
of the programs that interest you and fit in with your
mailorder business schedule. Make tests to prove the
value of each program. Drop those that do not prove out
after a reasonable test. When you find one that is
"Hitting", multiply it cautiously until you know it is
a
winner, then go full blast in every direction to make it
pay off BIG!
