Making Others Sell For You
by Leonard Nash
Everyone dreams of owning a super money-making business where other people do all the work, and their only duties involve the approval of sales and bank deposit slips. It's the only way to go as a business owner.
The problem is however, not too many people seem to know how to " put together" such a business. What you're really talking about is an operation where you supply the product and other people do the selling-A prime source with a dealer or distributor network.
Assuming that you have the product, you'll also need a sales kit and plenty of impressive, eye-catching promotional materials. If you don't supply or offer to supply materials with which your sales force can sell the product, you'll have a hard time enlisting people to sell for you, and you probably won't set any sales records relative to your product either.
Let's assume that you've just written a book-HOW TO MAKE $100,000 PER YEAR AT HOME, WITH YOUR TYPEWRITER.. Okay, in order to sell this book, you've got to get the word out to the people that you have such a book available. Advertising on your own is going to cost you money, and unless you've got a good understanding of the advertising business, you may never reach your full sales potential-besides, the time and effort expended in finding the "right" place to advertise, the placing of your ads, monitoring your returns, and the frustrations of dealing with the curiosity seekers, will quickly wear you out. Such is not the way you envisioned your life when you got the idea to write the book, get rich and enjoy a life of leisure.
So, just as soon as you've got your book written-the book is your product-get some "bids" out to the advertising agencies in your area, the freelancers, and the advertising department at your local colleges. What you want these people to do is make up an advertising circular promoting and selling your book. Now then, in a different-maybe smaller-type, and kind of like an afterthought-at the bottom of this circular, you include the phrase: Dealer Inquiries Invited...
Look over all the submitted circulars and choose the one (s) you consider the best. then have a supply of these printed up at your local print shop, obtain a mailing list of opportunity seekers, and get them in the mail.
Just as soon as you've dropped these first circulars in the mail, start writing your dealer/distributor letter. This should be simply an explanation describing how you will drop ship orders for their customers, allowing them a certain commission on each sale and, the price per copy you'll sell your book to them in wholesale quantity lots. At the same time, this letter should include a copy of your advertising circular, and an explanation, reassuring these dealers that they can reproduce this circular with their name/address in place of yours on the order coupon. You might even include a brief note that you will pre-print these circulars with the dealer's name/address and ship them to him for a wholesale printing price. All of this boils down to your supplying him or her with whatever is needed to promote and sell copies of your book for you. The bottom line is simply that you can only reach so many people, and sell so many books yourself. With 1,000 people helping you-mailing out advertising circulars and running small ads in hundreds of opportunity seeker publications-your costs of running your business will be minimal while your book sale skyrocket.
Remember though, you need an impressive, eye-catching advertising circular or mailing package for your sales force to use as their own, and you need a clear easy-to-understand books in wholesale quantity lots, and the availability of advertising materials for your dealers.
The advertising circular should be dual purpose- you send it out to solicit sales of your product, and at the same time, recruit dealers who are impressed with your advertising materials and feel that they can make some money for themselves by promoting your product. Again, this needn't be much more than a simple "throw-way" line at the bottom of the circular: Dealer Inquiries Invited...
Now that you're organized thus far, the next thing is to contract to run as many small DEALERS WANTED ads in as many of the mail order publications as possible. Such ads can be either a classified or a small, but eye-catching one inch display ad:
| DEALERS WANTED! Outstanding new book. Sells like wildfire! Everybody wants a copy! Make $10 profit on every $15 sale! Details for SASE to: |
Basically that's all your "dealers wanted" ad needs to say, and then with plenty of exposure in all the mail order publications over a period of six or eight months, you should have hundreds of people all over the country selling your book for you. Simple, easy, almost cut and dried, but it works!
In building my own business from scratch over the past 10 years, I've found that once you've established a basic dealer/distributor network-or a list of people selling for you, you can add hundreds of related products, and the orders just keep coming in. Give it a try and see for yourself just how easy and profitable it can be for you!
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