Thousands of people start up their own mail order business every year, and only a tiny percentage experience any reasonable level of success. There are a few good reasons for that. The top reason is that those new to the mail order business try to swap a method that has been proven to work for others and instead decide to use their own methods (which are totally un-proven).



Success Or Failure?

There are many reasons for failure: the product, the way it is sold, the back up service, the costing, the list is almost endless. One reason prevails above all others - a failure to understand the two secrets of mail order success. Every successful mail order company uses these, whether they are aware of it or not. By applying these two secrets you will be practically assuring your success.

Secret Number 1. - Promotional Expansion

In mail order everything can be tested and responses can be measured. Unlike most other businesses, you can see where your orders are coming from, and what activity has brought them in. This makes life fairly easy. If something isn't working you can simply drop it. The test need cost very little. If something is working - and here's the first secret - you should promote it as widely, hard and long as you can, right to the point where you break even.

Expanding With Success

Many mail order operators find an advertisement that works and make no attempt to expand into other media. Others get bored with a promotion and cut it once responses start to drop off. Wrong! It should be continued for as long as it continues to make money and only replaced with something proven to be better.

Secret Number 2. - Multiple Sales

If you are considering starting a mail order business, read this very carefully. This secret alone will make you (or save you) tens of thousands of pounds.

Very few mail order businesses can survive on a single product. Most of the advertisements you see in newspapers and magazines will lose money! That's right, that nice colour advertisement for the scale reproduction of an E-type Jaguar will, in all likelihood, cost the company more in advertising than it will generate in sales. So why place the advertisements?

Lifetime Value

Because the companies know from experience that once they have a customer, he will normally buy something else. That buyer of the scaled down E-type will probably buy a scaled down Ferrari Testarossa later on. Companies talk in terms of the lifetime value of a customer. This can be many times the value of the original sale.

More people have gone bust in the mail order business trying to make money from a single product than any other way.

Getting Ahead

Take both these secrets into account if you decide to go into a mail based business and you will already be ahead of 75% of companies already in the market.

Reverse The Risk

Whether your business is product or service based, you're not going to make any money until people start spending money with you. It is amazing how many people get everything in place - premises, staff, paperwork, accountants, solicitors, suppliers and stock - before they've given a thought to how they're going to pull in the punters.

Here's a sales method which can be adapted to just about any business. It's a system which has proved itself time and time again. Multi-million pound businesses have been built on it and it rarely, if ever, fails. What's more, you probably know all about it.

So what is it? To illustrate how the system works, here's a potted version of a story which marketing guru Jay Abraham uses in his seminars.

The Risk Reversal Method

A man is considering buying a horse for his daughter's birthday. He's narrowed the choice down to two, both of which seem equally attractive in terms of price and suitability. The man decided to go back and look at both animals again before reaching a decision. The first owner welcomed him back, went over the attributes of the animal again, and restated how it was reasonably priced and just the right size. The second owner had a slightly different approach. He said the following, "Look, I want you and your daughter to be completely happy with the horse. I don't want you to buy it under any other circumstances, so here's what I suggest. I'll deliver the horse round to your premises this afternoon, together with enough food to last a couple of weeks."

The seller continued, "Let your daughter ride the horse, get used to it and decide whether they're going to get along together. Come back and see me in two weeks. If the horse isn't right for you just let me know and I'll call round and pick it up. No fuss, no hard feelings. If she likes it, as I think she will, bring your cheque book, and you can pay for the horse then."

Which horse do you think the man bought? It's not difficult to guess, is it?

A Technique Adaptable To Any Business

This technique, most commonly called risk reversal, is applicable and adaptable to just about any business. The psychology of it is both simple and strong. The main inhibiting factor in any business transaction is fear of making a mistake.