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Hub You - 60 Ways to Increase Your Mail Order Catalog Sales
There’s a quiet revolution in the insurance industry that’s freeing up literally millions of dollars to qualified senior citizens, and non-profit organizations stand to benefit by very significant donations from this historically generous group of donors.In the last ten years, insurance companies have looked at the high lapse rate of term policies for folks in their 70’s and 80’s. The premiums were just too expensive and there was less perceived need by the insureds compared to the family-rearing years. Insurers were watching billions of dollars of premiums vanishing and decided to try something radical.As a result, premiums for these policies have dropped up to 40% in recent years to lure seniors to continue paying, to rates that are not even based on actuarial data at this point in many cases. Millions of older folks have kept their policies a couple more years before lapsing, resulting in huge recovery of revenue for the insurers…and it resulted in something else too, a massive opportunity for investors.Institutional investors, always on the lookout for decent return on investment, saw an opportunity and have jumped on it in big numbers. They can make an irresistible offer to qualified seniors to provide free term insurance for two years, during which time the insured names their own beneficiary. The finance company sets up a life insurance trust, pays the premiums, and administers payments, while the senior is the policy owner. In addition, the senior can receive an equity payment of around 3% of the face value of the policy shortly after it’s in place, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars to them, sometimes hundreds of thousands…all without cost or risk.At the end of two years, the senior has various options. Most will choose to sell the term policy on the secondary market, at which point the purchaser continues premium payments for the remainder of the term and eventually receives the death benefit upon the death of the insured. The senior can also keep the policy and take over premium payments themselves, generally only considered by the family in the event of an untimely diagnosis of a terminal condition.Let’s look
services are superior!
15. Take the prospect "behind the scenes" if practical and show
what you do (especially exclusive or improved procedures) to make
your products better than competitive products.
16. Make the most of new items the first time you offer them;
they are only new once.. Give them every opportunity to succeed
sales wise by giving them preferred position and allowing adequate
space for you to do a proper educational and selling job on them
at the time they are introduced.
17. Assure prospects that is easy to use these products...that
instructions are included with each order (if true) and/or are
available in specific books or magazines (preferably obtainable
from you)...and cite case histories to prove how successful other
customers have been in using them.
18. Tell prospect how to start using your merchandise properly
and what other action should be taken-and when-or state that this
information will be included with the shipment.
19. If your products are bought primarily for pleasure or are
considered a luxury or "non-necessity", help the prospect
rationalize the value of the purchase.
Use Procedures 20 to 26 to make it easy as possible for the
prospect to make an accurate selection of the types of
merchandise and the specific items of each type best suited for
his or her purposes:
20. Group all items of the same type in the same section of your
catalog.
21. Arr
Tip #1 Keep Choices To A MinimumMaking their purchasing easy helps maintain customer loyalty. Do not give your customer too much choice of products.When a customer is trying to make a purchasing decision they do not want to have too many confusing decisions to make. If they are not certain then they will want to go away and think about it and then you lose a possible sale.Remember this tip when displaying your products and when selling face to face.....keep choices to a minimum.....preferably just two, yes they want to make the purchase or no they don't.One method of reducing the choices follows in Tip #2Tip #2 Categorize Your ProductsIf possible put all your products into categories and then choose the best product, in each category, to promote.If you only promote one model for each type of product then the customer has only one choice to make...... to buy or not to buy..... that is the question.These categories needn't just be for different categories of product but may consist of various price categories.If you wish to promote more than one model, in any one category, then ensure that all those models are in different price ranges.Keep the price ranges as far apart as possible. The customer already knows how much they are willing to spend therefore a product well over their budget will be ignored and one well below budget will be looked upon as a lesser purchase.The customer's choice is automatically made for the product within their budget.Once again the customer is left with just one choice.........to buy or not to buy.Again, make their purchase an easy, enjoyable, experience and they will come back. Once again, making their purchasing easy helps maintain customer loyalty.Tip #3 Give BonusesOf course there is one other choice your customer always has and that is to buy from someone else.To get round this problem you have to make certain that, although you do not offer the choice that your competition does, the products you sell are of a far higher value than your competitions'.How ?You take your product and
Perfection in a mail order catalog is like infinity...you can
continually approach it but never quite reach it. In the case of
many catalogs it is not necessary to achieve perfection
or even approach it very closely in order to make the catalog
vastly more profitable than it is at present. Relatively small
improvements can result in a more-than-proportionate enlargement
of that all-important figure on the bottom line of the financial
statement.
Making as many improvements as possible as quickly as possible is
probably the most profitable procedure. But even making each new
catalog a little better than the one that preceded it can
produce substantial increases in sales per catalog and in total
sales over a period of time.
Following are 60 suggestions that should help your catalog do a
better selling job for you if you are not already using these
ideas. Whether you use all of them in connection with your next
catalog or adopt a few at a time in the course of producing
several future catalogs, the ultimate result should be very
noticeable and very profitable.
BEFORE YOU CREATE YOUR CATALOG....
1. Look at your present catalog with extremely cold, critical and
unsympathetic eye. Pick out all the faults-large or small-that
you could find if you were no longer the owner of the catalog but
a nitpicking customer who has been disappointed in his or her
last purchase from you and is still sore about it. Such a review
could be very enlightening-even if it should prove slightly
embarrassing-and could make your new catalog much more
profitable.
2. Put your "letterman" on your team. Review all incoming
correspondence from customers and prospects during the last two
years for comments, suggestions or criticisms that may be helpful
in preparing your new catalog. Screen all future correspondence
of this nature as it arrives and place copies of the useful
letters in a special file to be reviewed before starting your
next catalog.
3. Think of your catalog as a means of helping your prospects
accomplish something they want to accomplish or create an effect
they want to create-and prepare your layouts, copy and
illustrations accordingly.
4. For each major type of product you sell, determine as many
reasons as possible why different groups of prospects or
customers do buy or should buy this product. Arrange your groups
of prospects or customers in their orders of importance. For each
group arrange the reasons for buying in order of there
importance. Then arrange the reasons in their order of importance
to your total group of prospects or customers. Use the most
important reason as the basis for the copy and illustrations you
use in this catalog.
If there are significant differences in the primary reasons for
purchasing different types of products, make the presentation for
each specific type of product fit the product of using the same
type of presentation for different types of products...
5. If the preceding reasons indicate that different appeals are
needed for different groups of prospects or customers, change the
wrap-around, letter or introductory page of your catalog to
appeal to different groups, and separate your mailings
accordingly.
6. Plan your catalog completely before you start preparing
layouts and copy.. Use all 60 suggestions in this list as your
guide for your planning..
7. Plan to ring your cash register more often by using approaches
in tune with the times.
8. Plan to attract new customers-reactivate dormant customers-and
get bigger and better orders from present customers by adding new
and excitement and extras pleasure to owning or using the types
of products offered in your catalog.. For example, feature
dramatic new items, unusual items, items that are especially
timely, etc... Include unusual facts of interest about specific
items.
9. Plan to add interest to your catalog-and give it a much longer
life--by including helpful information on how to use, operate and
maintain your products...unusual uses, etc.. This is information
that customers can use to advantage and will want to keep for
future reference, such information also increases customer
confidence in your company which correspondingly increases the
customer's inclination to buy from you.
10.. Determine whether items that were unprofitable or barely
profitable in the present catalog should be promoted more
vigorously in the new catalog or should be dropped and replaced
by new products, Never keep an unprofitable product in your
catalog just because it is one of your favorites. If it doesn't
sell, get rid of it!
11. Give your company a distinctive personality. Promote this
personality in all future catalogs as a means of making your
company not "jut another mail order marketer" but a very special
marketer in the minds of your prospects and customers.
WHEN YOU CREATE YOUR NEW CATALOG...
Use Procedure 12 to 19 to make your prospects want your products:
12. Write your copy to tie in with and stimulate the specific
reasons for buying discussed in the preceding section.
13. Wherever possible show your prospects how your merchandise
can accomplish the results desired by the prospects to a greater
degrees than competitive products-and prove it by citing results
of lab tests, field tests, wards received, other special
recognition- and especially testimonials and case history
stories, preferably with photographs. Give the prospect every
possible incentive to buy from you rather than somebody else.
14. Put special emphasis on your products and/or services which
are exclusive or markedly superior to those of your
competitors-and tell your readers WHY your products and/or
services are superior!
15. Take the prospect "behind the scenes" if practical and show
what you do (especially exclusive or improved procedures) to make
your products better than competitive products.
16. Make the most of new items the first time you offer them;
they are only new once.. Give them every opportunity to succeed
sales wise by giving them preferred position and allowing adequate
space for you to do a proper educational and selling job on them
at the time they are introduced.
17. Assure prospects that is easy to use these products...that
instructions are included with each order (if true) and/or are
available in specific books or magazines (preferably obtainable
from you)...and cite case histories to prove how successful other
customers have been in using them.
18. Tell prospect how to start using your merchandise properly
and what other action should be taken-and when-or state that this
information will be included with the shipment.
19. If your products are bought primarily for pleasure or are
considered a luxury or "non-necessity", help the prospect
rationalize the value of the purchase.
Use Procedures 20 to 26 to make it easy as possible for the
prospect to make an accurate selection of the types of
merchandise and the specific items of each type best suited for
his or her purposes:
20. Group all items of the same type in the same section of your
catalog.
21. Arra
Truck driving schools, and more specifically those that are nationally recognized, are responsible for training the thousands of students who are then able to successfully take their place in this dynamic industry. It is common knowledge that certain truck driving schools produce the best drivers. These graduates are highly sought after because the trucking companies know that they have been taught correctly. This means a lot when you are about to hand over the keys to a truck worth several hundred thousand dollars.There are many issues that set good truck driving schools head and shoulders above the rest. The first is that the school must offer PTDI courses. In 1986, the Professional Truck Driving Industry developed certification standards for truck driver courses. This was the first time that the industry recognized any teaching programs for their entry-level drivers, and it has been a huge turning point in producing professional, safe drivers. These standards include not just the area of driving skills, but also includes the actual course or program.Another important issue of course is for students to be taught by well qualified instructors. Not only do they need to possess the necessary driving skills and experience, but they also need good communication skills, and plenty of patience. Students who like and respect their instructor will not only learn quicker, but will perform much better at all their given tasks. There is a great deal of time that must be spent in the classroom during a truck driving course, and a great number of things that must be learned. Good teachers always produce the best drivers.Many truck driving schools train their students on ill-repaired and outdated equipment. This is often a cost-saving measure which does the student no good at all. Trucking companies need students who once qualified, can easily make the move into their fleet of trucks. If the training has been carried out on some old clonker which should have been retired 20 years ago, then considerable time and expense has to be spent in familiarizing the novice driver with modern equipment. Naturally at well recognized truck driving schools you would ex
last purchase from you and is still sore about it. Such a review
could be very enlightening-even if it should prove slightly
embarrassing-and could make your new catalog much more
profitable.
2. Put your "letterman" on your team. Review all incoming
correspondence from customers and prospects during the last two
years for comments, suggestions or criticisms that may be helpful
in preparing your new catalog. Screen all future correspondence
of this nature as it arrives and place copies of the useful
letters in a special file to be reviewed before starting your
next catalog.
3. Think of your catalog as a means of helping your prospects
accomplish something they want to accomplish or create an effect
they want to create-and prepare your layouts, copy and
illustrations accordingly.
4. For each major type of product you sell, determine as many
reasons as possible why different groups of prospects or
customers do buy or should buy this product. Arrange your groups
of prospects or customers in their orders of importance. For each
group arrange the reasons for buying in order of there
importance. Then arrange the reasons in their order of importance
to your total group of prospects or customers. Use the most
important reason as the basis for the copy and illustrations you
use in this catalog.
If there are significant differences in the primary reasons for
purchasing different types of products, make the presentation for
each specific type of product fit the product of using the same
type of presentation for different types of products...
5. If the preceding reasons indicate that different appeals are
needed for different groups of prospects or customers, change the
wrap-around, letter or introductory page of your catalog to
appeal to different groups, and separate your mailings
accordingly.
6. Plan your catalog completely before you start preparing
layouts and copy.. Use all 60 suggestions in this list as your
guide for your planning..
7. Plan to ring your cash register more often by using approaches
in tune with the times.
8. Plan to attract new customers-reactivate dormant customers-and
get bigger and better orders from present customers by adding new
and excitement and extras pleasure to owning or using the types
of products offered in your catalog.. For example, feature
dramatic new items, unusual items, items that are especially
timely, etc... Include unusual facts of interest about specific
items.
9. Plan to add interest to your catalog-and give it a much longer
life--by including helpful information on how to use, operate and
maintain your products...unusual uses, etc.. This is information
that customers can use to advantage and will want to keep for
future reference, such information also increases customer
confidence in your company which correspondingly increases the
customer's inclination to buy from you.
10.. Determine whether items that were unprofitable or barely
profitable in the present catalog should be promoted more
vigorously in the new catalog or should be dropped and replaced
by new products, Never keep an unprofitable product in your
catalog just because it is one of your favorites. If it doesn't
sell, get rid of it!
11. Give your company a distinctive personality. Promote this
personality in all future catalogs as a means of making your
company not "jut another mail order marketer" but a very special
marketer in the minds of your prospects and customers.
WHEN YOU CREATE YOUR NEW CATALOG...
Use Procedure 12 to 19 to make your prospects want your products:
12. Write your copy to tie in with and stimulate the specific
reasons for buying discussed in the preceding section.
13. Wherever possible show your prospects how your merchandise
can accomplish the results desired by the prospects to a greater
degrees than competitive products-and prove it by citing results
of lab tests, field tests, wards received, other special
recognition- and especially testimonials and case history
stories, preferably with photographs. Give the prospect every
possible incentive to buy from you rather than somebody else.
14. Put special emphasis on your products and/or services which
are exclusive or markedly superior to those of your
competitors-and tell your readers WHY your products and/or
services are superior!
15. Take the prospect "behind the scenes" if practical and show
what you do (especially exclusive or improved procedures) to make
your products better than competitive products.
16. Make the most of new items the first time you offer them;
they are only new once.. Give them every opportunity to succeed
sales wise by giving them preferred position and allowing adequate
space for you to do a proper educational and selling job on them
at the time they are introduced.
17. Assure prospects that is easy to use these products...that
instructions are included with each order (if true) and/or are
available in specific books or magazines (preferably obtainable
from you)...and cite case histories to prove how successful other
customers have been in using them.
18. Tell prospect how to start using your merchandise properly
and what other action should be taken-and when-or state that this
information will be included with the shipment.
19. If your products are bought primarily for pleasure or are
considered a luxury or "non-necessity", help the prospect
rationalize the value of the purchase.
Use Procedures 20 to 26 to make it easy as possible for the
prospect to make an accurate selection of the types of
merchandise and the specific items of each type best suited for
his or her purposes:
20. Group all items of the same type in the same section of your
catalog.
21. Arr
With only twenty four hours in the day, it is almost impossible to get everything done. We have all been in a situation – whether it is in school or a work environment, when we pray for even just an extra minute of time. After all, with such demanding schedules, even a few more seconds would allow us to actually have a life after work. Luckily, since the internet boom, there have been many alternatives which will help us manage our time better.Online training is now essentially part of every company. It not only makes it easier to learn and comprehend, but it is more affordable for both the business and the staff member. For instance, if a company were to hire a trainer for new employees, they would have to create an entire budget for another salary. However, if they use e-training, it is much more reasonably priced and they do not have to take out a loan just to cover a few more paychecks. It is also great because with an online computer trainer, employees can access the lessons at any time. Unfortunately, humans only work seven or eight hours a day, leaving a lot of scheduling conflicts and headaches. By having online computer training, employees will be able to focus in a quiet setting and study on their own time. With such modern technology, the employee will come away with a better understanding of what they need to accomplish. One could compare e-training to an SAT’s practice assignment, because many of these programs allow you to chart your progress. By listening to speakers and answering questions on this program, it will be much easier to see if you understand the concepts.Surprisingly, online training courses also generate more revenue for the company. This is due to the fact that e-training is now providing courses that teach customers about a specific product. The training will also compare other products and therefore may do a better job convincing the customer to spend money. E-learning also allows a company to set up marketing tutorials and different training techniques for sales teams to use. By educating the staff with the same material, employees will be more experienced and thus can work together.Nevertheless, online traini
each specific type of product fit the product of using the same
type of presentation for different types of products...
5. If the preceding reasons indicate that different appeals are
needed for different groups of prospects or customers, change the
wrap-around, letter or introductory page of your catalog to
appeal to different groups, and separate your mailings
accordingly.
6. Plan your catalog completely before you start preparing
layouts and copy.. Use all 60 suggestions in this list as your
guide for your planning..
7. Plan to ring your cash register more often by using approaches
in tune with the times.
8. Plan to attract new customers-reactivate dormant customers-and
get bigger and better orders from present customers by adding new
and excitement and extras pleasure to owning or using the types
of products offered in your catalog.. For example, feature
dramatic new items, unusual items, items that are especially
timely, etc... Include unusual facts of interest about specific
items.
9. Plan to add interest to your catalog-and give it a much longer
life--by including helpful information on how to use, operate and
maintain your products...unusual uses, etc.. This is information
that customers can use to advantage and will want to keep for
future reference, such information also increases customer
confidence in your company which correspondingly increases the
customer's inclination to buy from you.
10.. Determine whether items that were unprofitable or barely
profitable in the present catalog should be promoted more
vigorously in the new catalog or should be dropped and replaced
by new products, Never keep an unprofitable product in your
catalog just because it is one of your favorites. If it doesn't
sell, get rid of it!
11. Give your company a distinctive personality. Promote this
personality in all future catalogs as a means of making your
company not "jut another mail order marketer" but a very special
marketer in the minds of your prospects and customers.
WHEN YOU CREATE YOUR NEW CATALOG...
Use Procedure 12 to 19 to make your prospects want your products:
12. Write your copy to tie in with and stimulate the specific
reasons for buying discussed in the preceding section.
13. Wherever possible show your prospects how your merchandise
can accomplish the results desired by the prospects to a greater
degrees than competitive products-and prove it by citing results
of lab tests, field tests, wards received, other special
recognition- and especially testimonials and case history
stories, preferably with photographs. Give the prospect every
possible incentive to buy from you rather than somebody else.
14. Put special emphasis on your products and/or services which
are exclusive or markedly superior to those of your
competitors-and tell your readers WHY your products and/or
services are superior!
15. Take the prospect "behind the scenes" if practical and show
what you do (especially exclusive or improved procedures) to make
your products better than competitive products.
16. Make the most of new items the first time you offer them;
they are only new once.. Give them every opportunity to succeed
sales wise by giving them preferred position and allowing adequate
space for you to do a proper educational and selling job on them
at the time they are introduced.
17. Assure prospects that is easy to use these products...that
instructions are included with each order (if true) and/or are
available in specific books or magazines (preferably obtainable
from you)...and cite case histories to prove how successful other
customers have been in using them.
18. Tell prospect how to start using your merchandise properly
and what other action should be taken-and when-or state that this
information will be included with the shipment.
19. If your products are bought primarily for pleasure or are
considered a luxury or "non-necessity", help the prospect
rationalize the value of the purchase.
Use Procedures 20 to 26 to make it easy as possible for the
prospect to make an accurate selection of the types of
merchandise and the specific items of each type best suited for
his or her purposes:
20. Group all items of the same type in the same section of your
catalog.
21. Arr
Want to learn how to lose a billion dollars?Just follow the marketing strategies used by GM, Ford and Daimler Chrysler. Yes, some of the largest corporations in the world are missing some basic tenants of marketing and it's worth taking a look at what they're doing wrong so you don't make the same mistakes. You don't want the following headline written about your company."GM Hits Billion Dollar pot hole" - Miami Herald "GM shares fell to a 12 year low." - New York TimesWhat are some of the most glaring mistakes a handful of car companies are making?1. Discount PricingGM and Ford offer free loans and rebates worth thousands of dollars to prompt people to buy their vehicles. Good idea?When you need to resort to bribing people to buy your products or services, it's a sign that something is terribly wrong. The idea is to provide value, help your prospects understand the perceived value and charge enough to make a reasonable profit. When you start discounting your product as a means to get people to buy it you've entered an endless downward cycle.The next time a prospect buys, they'll want an even larger discount and there will always be somebody who will undercut you on price. Eventually you'll end up like GM, losing lots, maybe not billions, but enough to threaten the life of your business.2. Making Products People Don't WantAccording to the New York Times, "General Motors and Ford have swerved off course for a far more basic reason: not enough people like their cars." Whoops!The objective is to market a product or service people want.3. Not Paying Attention to What People WantIf you want to make money you'd pay attention to what your prospects want? Right?In the case of Daimler Chrysler you'd be wrong. At the Detroit Auto Show crowds loved the two-seat 8 foot long "Smart Car". So logically Daimler Chrysler decided not to sell it in the United States despite booming sales in Europe for years. Zap, a Santa Rosa CA firm, saw an opportunity especially with rising gas prices and went direct to the European Daimler dealers to buy the cars. Surprise! Ten thousand U.S. buyers put
10.. Determine whether items that were unprofitable or barely
profitable in the present catalog should be promoted more
vigorously in the new catalog or should be dropped and replaced
by new products, Never keep an unprofitable product in your
catalog just because it is one of your favorites. If it doesn't
sell, get rid of it!
11. Give your company a distinctive personality. Promote this
personality in all future catalogs as a means of making your
company not "jut another mail order marketer" but a very special
marketer in the minds of your prospects and customers.
WHEN YOU CREATE YOUR NEW CATALOG...
Use Procedure 12 to 19 to make your prospects want your products:
12. Write your copy to tie in with and stimulate the specific
reasons for buying discussed in the preceding section.
13. Wherever possible show your prospects how your merchandise
can accomplish the results desired by the prospects to a greater
degrees than competitive products-and prove it by citing results
of lab tests, field tests, wards received, other special
recognition- and especially testimonials and case history
stories, preferably with photographs. Give the prospect every
possible incentive to buy from you rather than somebody else.
14. Put special emphasis on your products and/or services which
are exclusive or markedly superior to those of your
competitors-and tell your readers WHY your products and/or
services are superior!
15. Take the prospect "behind the scenes" if practical and show
what you do (especially exclusive or improved procedures) to make
your products better than competitive products.
16. Make the most of new items the first time you offer them;
they are only new once.. Give them every opportunity to succeed
sales wise by giving them preferred position and allowing adequate
space for you to do a proper educational and selling job on them
at the time they are introduced.
17. Assure prospects that is easy to use these products...that
instructions are included with each order (if true) and/or are
available in specific books or magazines (preferably obtainable
from you)...and cite case histories to prove how successful other
customers have been in using them.
18. Tell prospect how to start using your merchandise properly
and what other action should be taken-and when-or state that this
information will be included with the shipment.
19. If your products are bought primarily for pleasure or are
considered a luxury or "non-necessity", help the prospect
rationalize the value of the purchase.
Use Procedures 20 to 26 to make it easy as possible for the
prospect to make an accurate selection of the types of
merchandise and the specific items of each type best suited for
his or her purposes:
20. Group all items of the same type in the same section of your
catalog.
21. Arr
Are you so busy that you battle to find time to have the kind of conversation with people that absorbs your full attention? The kind of conversation where you're listening to them with your eyes and ears and speaking to them from your heart? Do you instead write them emails, speak in bullet points and hope that when you call their phone you'll go straight to message bank so you can leave a concise message without getting caught up in small talk?Are you writing your business goals and "communicating" them to everyone through email and presentations? Is "consultation" when you run some brainstorming workshops so people feel that have participated (irrespective of what you do with their ideas)? Then you are very likely still having trouble getting people to understand and buy-in to your strategy, performance measures and performance improvement.Emails, brochures, PowerPoint presentations, strategy documents and vision/mission posters fail to get people excited about organisational performance. They consist of words and maybe a few images that are usually too vague and too bland to paint colourful and animated visions in the minds of those that read them. These artefacts of modern organisational strategy are always political: designed more to not provoke those that would oppose it, designed less to evoke those that would bring it to life.When people read things that are written in typical management-speak, what happens in their minds, honestly? They can jump to their own conclusions about what "efficient, effective and productive best practice processes" look like, or they can slide deeper into cynicism or learned helplessness, or they can keep on keeping on, oblivious and unresponsive to any change in organisational direction. Not buying in, not owning it, not seeing their own aspirations and values in it.Remember: staff usually have no knowledge whatsoever of the conversations that were had before the goals were written (and polished and rewritten and polished some more). The seven strategic objectives or the five critical success factors are just the sanitized remains of what probably started out as a very rich, emotive and inspirationa
services are superior!
15. Take the prospect "behind the scenes" if practical and show
what you do (especially exclusive or improved procedures) to make
your products better than competitive products.
16. Make the most of new items the first time you offer them;
they are only new once.. Give them every opportunity to succeed
sales wise by giving them preferred position and allowing adequate
space for you to do a proper educational and selling job on them
at the time they are introduced.
17. Assure prospects that is easy to use these products...that
instructions are included with each order (if true) and/or are
available in specific books or magazines (preferably obtainable
from you)...and cite case histories to prove how successful other
customers have been in using them.
18. Tell prospect how to start using your merchandise properly
and what other action should be taken-and when-or state that this
information will be included with the shipment.
19. If your products are bought primarily for pleasure or are
considered a luxury or "non-necessity", help the prospect
rationalize the value of the purchase.
Use Procedures 20 to 26 to make it easy as possible for the
prospect to make an accurate selection of the types of
merchandise and the specific items of each type best suited for
his or her purposes:
20. Group all items of the same type in the same section of your
catalog.
21. Arrange the groups of items in their present or potential
order of importance to you profit wise. Put the most important
group at the front of your catalog and the least important near
the end of your catalog (but not on the last three pages).
22. Within each group , arrange the individual items in
descending order of quality, price, popularity or promotional
possibilities.
Give the most important items the most valuable positions and
extra space for copy and illustrations. Allocate positions and
space to the other items in the order of their importance.
23. If practicable, use the Sears system of offering the same
type of item in three different qualities-- GOOD, BETTER and
BEST- with different price ranges to match the differences in
quality. Usually it is more effective to talk about the BEST
quality first and the GOOD quality last.
24. Use COMMON copy to present features or qualities that are the
same for all or most items of the same type.
25. Use INDIVIDUAL copy to talk about the features or qualities
that make each specific item different from all or most of the
other specific items in the group.
26. In preparing the INDIVIDUAL copy above, use "parallel
construction" to help the prospect make a point-by-point
comparison of the specific items as quickly, easily and
accurately as possible.
Once the prospects have selected the merchandise they wish to
buy, make it as easy as possible for them to order Procedures
27-31
27. Be sure your ordering information is easy to understand.
28.. Make your order form easy to use, with adequate space to
write the necessary information.
29. Put in one or more extra order forms to make it easier for
customers to order again..
30. Encourage prospects to order by phone on credit, charge or
c.o.d. sales and encourages them to telephone for further
information they may desire.
31. Offer a 24-hour phone-in service through an arrangement with
a local telephone answering service that can answer your phone
during the hours that your business is not normally open.. This
is especially convenient for the customer who shops in your
catalog during evening or weekend hours.
Make it as easy as possible for customers to pay for their orders
Procedures 32 and 33
Offer credit card service on orders for a specified amount or
more.. By putting a minimum on credit card orders you will often
increase the original order to at least that minimum amount.
Credit card orders tend to be nearly double the size of cash
orders.
33. Make it easy to determine shipping charges so they can be
included in cash-with-order payments.
Use order starters and sales stimulators such as 34 to 42
34. Use a wrap-around letter on the front of your catalog to
stimulate ,ore orders and to do a selling job on the merchandise
in the catalog; also to make special appeals to special groups or
call attention to merchandise in the catalog of special interest
to special groups.
35. Use the wrap-around to offer order starters (loss leaders or
hot items to get prospects in to the catalog).
36. Offer specials at intervals throughout the catalog to entice
readers to start an order. Once they buy even one lonely item
they'll tend to order other items to go with it.
37. Offer logical assortments of mixed or matched seasonal items
to provide extra variety and pleasure at any given period of
time. Make suggestions for these assortments and provide
inducements for prospects to order them.
38. Offer assortments of mixed or matched items designed for use
during different seasons in order to provide variety and pleasure
throughout the year (or most of it) instead of during just one
season.
39. Offer a free guide or plan for using each assortment above
correctly and offer information on how to make the most effective
overall use of the assortments.
40. Offer a gift or discount for orders of certain sizes and use
a stair step graduated approach to increase the value of these
discounts or gifts as the size of the order increases.
41. Offer a gift shipping with gift cards.
42. Provide extra services such as "Seeker Service" for items not
listed in the catalog. Through extra service techniques you will
make your customers more dependent on the information you provide
and they will become more dedicated customers.
Stimulate promptness in ordering Procedures 43 and 44
43. Use action incentives to spark early orders, such as premiums
for ordering by a specified date; special offers for a limited
time only; etc. When a time limit is involved, send a reminder
(letter, promotional mailing, second catalog, etc) timed to
arrive two weeks ahead of expiration date (as nearly as you can
time it with current third class mail service).
44. Mention frequently and prominently in your catalog that
anyone who orders merchandise from this catalog will
automatically receive the next catalog free. If you wish, this
offer can be modified to require the purchase of a specified
amount during the life of the catalog or by a specified date.
Other suggestions Procedures 45 to 53
45. Use the back cover of your catalog for special offers; also
the inside front and back covers and the pages facing the inside
covers.
46. Use teaser copy and cross-references throughout the catalog
to entice readers (into other sections. This can be especially
effective when related accessory items are sold.
47. Concentrate service information on a Service Page; locate it
on a page conveniently adjacent to the order form; and use
frequent cross-references to this page throughout the catalog to
stimulate extra page traffic.
48. Humanize yourself and your catalog by making it seem like the
catalog came from helpful,
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