There are few products or services you can't sell direct as long as you give it a little thought. If you are already in business with a range of products and services, then you will probably have isolated a number of possibilities for yourself by now. However, here is some advice based largely upon my experience in the mail order business. Clearly, not all the points I am going to make will be right for you, but I would be surprised if some were not.

Firstly, the right product does not necessarily have to be the cheapest, or the sexiest, or one with some special gimmick. Moreover, it can be something that is also available through other channels. Some people think it has to be uniquely available direct. This is clearly not the case.

For instance IBM have in some cases offered a range of different prices to the customer for certain products depending on how they buy them: from a salesman, from a retail outlet, or direct.

Generally, the thing to consider is whether the product represents good value, or is one on which you can make a

good offer. Perhaps a little tale will show you what I mean.

Some years ago, I was called in by Kevin Jones, the chief executive of Mailcraft, an extremely successful chain of hardware.

He had heard from another of our clients that we were hot stuff at direct marketing, and he summoned us to his rather grand office in north Nowra.

Before talking to us, he said: Let me show you round my warehouse. It was a most educational tour. I have never seen so much beautiful china in my life. Nor so much expensive china. There were cups and saucers there selling for nearly 300 dollars each. I was stunned.

Then, he said: Let me show you all my cheap lines . He took us to see the crockery he sells to the big supermarket chains and catalogue houses. This was impressive in a different way. He had everything there: plates, saucers, service dishes, glasses, cutlery. I'd seen a lot of it before in various outlets.

After he had shown us around, he took us back to his office, and said: For many years I've wanted to get into mail order. I don t actually know why, but I ve got this itch. I ve tried a few times. Sometimes I've made a little money, sometimes I ve lost a little money. But I've never succeeded as I would like to. He asked us whether we thought we could help and eager to get the business. We said we could.

He asked what we thought he should sell. With the wisdom of more experience since then, I think we should have kept our mouths closed. The selling of products is tough enough without getting into choosing them. However, we made four suggestions, all of which he tested in the press. Only one did well.

It was the least original. At that time, another company was running an offer of complete sets of plates, glasses, serving dishes and cutlery. The owner knew how well they were doing; moreover, he knew exactly what they were paying because he supplied the goods. As a matter of fact he even thought they would go broke. He was right about that, too.

Our suggestion was to make the same offer, but improve on it. So he did: he offered an additional piece of crockery, and a free gift of a tea towel to go with the set. He ran that offer for 17 years; for all I know he still is doing so. He was able to outlive the competition because he had more profit, and he made a better offer.