How to Set Up Your Own Mail Order Distributorship for General Merchandise and Books

3/8/2015

Your Own Distributorship

When you have developed, or found, mail-order 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 mail-order 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 mail-order 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 mail-order 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 mail-order ad sheets, 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 mail-order 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!

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