We distributed some flyers yesterday...
 

Hi,

Actually, my wife did the work of spending 45 minutes placing flyers on 35 doors in a middle-class neighborhood near us. (She's 59 and she can run rings around me.)

I wrote and printed the flyers. I wrote little ads about three of the items from the wholesaler John McTighe told us about. One of them was the 300 piece drill bit kit. The other two were hunting knives. I did searches on eBay for the items available from this wholesaler, and I looked for completed sales in which people had actually bought something (and I noted the price the item went for). The drill bit kit and the two knives actually sold at eBay.

The flyer distribution was about 24 hours ago, and so far we haven't gotten any calls.

We also placed a $7.65 ad in our local shopper newspaper, and after the ad runs I'll report back about what response we got.

Adventures In Entrepreneurship!

- Boyd

Re: We distributed some flyers yesterday...
 

Boyd,
I was thinking on this flyer distribution thing for this and wouldn't it be better to maybe distribute the flyers to cars at shopping centers?
That way you would be able to get a lot more than 35 of them out.

> Hi,

> Actually, my wife did the work of spending
> 45 minutes placing flyers on 35 doors in a
> middle-class neighborhood near us. (She's 59
> and she can run rings around me.)

> I wrote and printed the flyers. I wrote
> little ads about three of the items from the
> wholesaler John McTighe told us about. One
> of them was the 300 piece drill bit kit. The
> other two were hunting knives. I did
> searches on eBay for the items available
> from this wholesaler, and I looked for
> completed sales in which people had actually
> bought something (and I noted the price the
> item went for). The drill bit kit and the
> two knives actually sold at eBay.

> The flyer distribution was about 24 hours
> ago, and so far we haven't gotten any calls.

> We also placed a $7.65 ad in our local
> shopper newspaper, and after the ad runs
> I'll report back about what response we got.

> Adventures In Entrepreneurship!

> - Boyd

Re: We distributed some flyers yesterday...
 

Hi,

Good idea, but I remember seeing something on one of the boards about that kind of flyer distribution being illegal. Or am I mis-remembering something?

Best,

- Boyd

> Boyd,
> I was thinking on this flyer distribution
> thing for this and wouldn't it be better to
> maybe distribute the flyers to cars at
> shopping centers?
> That way you would be able to get a lot more
> than 35 of them out.

Re: We distributed some flyers yesterday...
 

No, it's not illegal to distribute flyers to houses. We get 'em all the time.

Boyd -- I'd try running that under 'garage sale' or some such in the weekend paper. You're more likely to get responses then.

Re: We distributed some flyers yesterday...
 

From what I understand you have to get permission from the owners of the parking lot (which is not always the same as the person who owns the store it's in front of). But I could be wrong about this.

I was actually suppossed to ask a local grocery store today about possibly putting flyers on windshields, but I forgot. I guess I'll be doing that tomorrow.

> Hi,

> Good idea, but I remember seeing something
> on one of the boards about that kind of
> flyer distribution being illegal. Or am I
> mis-remembering something?

> Best,

> - Boyd

Did someone say they took some action?
 

Boyd:

First, Kudos for doing something (and posting about it).

Second, 35 flyers won't really tell you anything useful other than those 35 people might not want any of the items.

Imagine for a moment, the flyer you have created gets a PROVEN 60% response. If you have no response to your 35 flyers it only means you have found the first 35 people out of 100 who were not ever going to buy anyway.

If it turns out that your flyer is a 10 percenter, then technically you have another 55 yet to distribute and get no result from before you get a result.

And if your flyer is a one percenter, then you roughly have a one in three chance of finding that one person in one hundred by distributing 35 flyers. It may turn out to be the 100th flyer distributed before you find that 1 in one hundred person.

My point is, a test of 35 only tells you those 35 are not interested. Do not take it as being an indication of the overall response.

Looking at it from another angle...

How many of those 35 people have demonstrated a desire or want (no matter how small) for a hunting knife? Or drill bits?

Are these the people most likely to buy or would they be the ones most likely to call the handyman who has those drill bits to come and do some drilling.

In other words, are these people in the "target market" for drill bits and hunting knives?

If not, who is and where are they most likely to be found?

As for your ad...

One insertion is not going to tell you too much either.

I have run ads where I have had zero response for the first ten days of the month. And then it's as if something clicked and everyone wanted what I was offering and the phone rang off the hook for the rest of the month.

If I had just run the ad once and made my choice to continue based on the results, I would have chucked the whole thing in after the first week.

Point: one insertion ain't gonna tell you too much either.

There are a lot of things to consider...

Does the "Target Market" read the local shopper?

Where within the local shopper is your ad?

Display or classified?

Is it grabbing?

Targetted? Does it need to be or can it be generic?

Is there ANYTHING going on in the world right now that would/could lower the possible response? For example: Are people getting ready for July 4th celebrations?

World Cup Final? Wimbledon? How's your city's team going in the World Series?

Lots to consider.

No matter which way it pans out, as I said at the start, Kudos for taking action (and posting about it).

Michael Ross.


Get yourself a copy of The Success Report today. It's only $20.

We need something that sells with flyers
 

Hi,

We need to find an item that sells with house-to-house flyers, because we're supposed to walk everyday anyway, and we might as well get paid for it.

I wonder if local seminars at the local library would sell with flyers? It would have to be a free seminar that we figure out some way of making money from. Maybe free seminar to free newsletter to sale? Something like that?

Best,

- Boyd

Another 'doer' leads the way!
 

Hi Boyd,

I remember a quote from some place that said something along the lines of 'The good Lord gave everybody a head to think with and an ass to sit on. The successful ones use one a lot more than the other.'

Congratulations! You're using the right one. LOL.

If selling by house to house leaflet distribution is where you are at, and you are quite right about the desirablility to be paid to take a walk, then look for a product or service that those households MUST need.

I'm not sure that drill bits or knives are universally demanded.

Take a leaf out of the catalogue companies like Amway. Offer plastic garden refuse sacks, brand your own cleaning products, bulk order pet food.

Or how about a home PC/TV cleaning service?

Or a drive and patio pressure wash cleaning company.

Take a leaf out of the book of the lady who sold encyclopedias door to door. After months of struggling, her sales suddenly took off because she started to only call at homes with bicycles and boats out front.

When the householder said 'I can't afford encyclopedias', she answered 'Surely you don't put your boat ahead of your children's education?'

I'm not sure about the ethics of her line, but the point is that faced with a neighborhood of similiar properties, she found a way to select a subset that would need, and could afford her product (bicycles = kids, boat = money).

Sounds like you made a great start. Keep us posted on how you progress.

Best wishes,

Martin


FREE ebook: Success stories, articles and much more.

Car detailing, perhaps?
 

Hi,

You can see their vehicles as you walk up to the door, maybe you could target houses that look like they sacrificed to have a certain car. In our mobile home park there are cars that I know cost more than the home-owner's house. Maybe as a bonus you could give them stuff that played on whatever psychology is going on.

Maybe you could have a flyer for each particular kind of car, sort of the Gary Halbert customized sales letter technique. "Mr. McDonald, did you know that 8000 years ago your noble name etc., etc." "Hello, my name is Boyd and I love black Mustangs like yours. I have one myself, and I keep mine perfectly detailed every day of the week. In fact, I've developed the perfect method of detailing black Mustangs like yours that makes them look so good that every man who sees it will immediately feel smaller than the smallest pissant. My method allows me to work so fast that I can charge an extremely low price when people hire me to detail their Mustangs. I even throw in a framed 8 x 10" color photo of your fine car as part of the deal, as well as a software disk that contains the best black Mustang clubs and resources on the Internet. Blah blah blah, etc., etc."

Just my two cents as usual.

- Boyd

Re: We distributed some flyers yesterday...
 

> Hi,

> Actually, my wife did the work of spending
> 45 minutes placing flyers on 35 doors in a
> middle-class neighborhood near us. (She's 59
> and she can run rings around me.)

> I wrote and printed the flyers. I wrote
> little ads about three of the items from the
> wholesaler John McTighe told us about. One
> of them was the 300 piece drill bit kit. The
> other two were hunting knives. I did
> searches on eBay for the items available
> from this wholesaler, and I looked for
> completed sales in which people had actually
> bought something (and I noted the price the
> item went for). The drill bit kit and the
> two knives actually sold at eBay.

> The flyer distribution was about 24 hours
> ago, and so far we haven't gotten any calls.

> We also placed a $7.65 ad in our local
> shopper newspaper, and after the ad runs
> I'll report back about what response we got.

> Adventures In Entrepreneurship!

> - Boyd

Boyd,

I'm curious. Did you purchase the drill bits and hunting knives from the wholesaler and are now trying to sell them? Or are you testing the waters to see if there is a need and then will fill it if you get responses? The reason I ask is I was thinking of doing the same thing but when I checked on the wholesaler they had a minimum order of $100.00 or some such thing. I guess I'm not the do-er I need to be yet.

Thanks for the information and the post.
Ken

We'll find a way to fill the order...
 

Hi,

If we can make a sale we'll find a way to fill the order and satisfy the customer without making them wait.

Best,

- Boyd

Re: We'll find a way to fill the order...
 

> Hi,

> If we can make a sale we'll find a way to
> fill the order and satisfy the customer
> without making them wait.

> Best,

> - Boyd
So I take it by that response that you did not purchase anything from the wholesaler yet.

My ego just made me goof
 

Hi,

I shouldn't have just ignored your suggestions and gone off on a tangent. My tendency to go off on tangents is a major flaw of mine.

Your suggestions were quite good, and I especially liked the pet food one. I can see where home delivery of "Boyd's Own" dog food or pet food could fly. "So good, I eat it myself!" might be the tag line. I guess the appeal would be quality and the homeowner wouldn't have to lug big bags home from the Piggly Wiggly.

Best,

- Boyd

We didn't order from the wholesaler, but....
 

Hi,

...but we have plentiful stocks on hand of drill bit kits to fill orders.

Best,

- Boyd

Re: Did someone say they took some action?
 

Hello;

I have been reading from this nice forum off and on
for awhile now. I can see some of you are a pretty tight
knit group.

I agree that "doing" is the key to success, not that
every action will bring immediate success, but learning
through failure is success too!

I have been doing tons of reading about marketing
online AND offline and many business folks say that the
product isn't the first thing to start with, meaning you
can't take a product, which you may think is the best in
the world and build a business around it, without first
establishing many other elements.

Especially in this day and age...just how many flyers
can one person read in a day. We are bombarded with
perhaps 3,000 ads a day (TV, radio, billboards, internet,
newspaper, bulletin boards). What is going to make your
flyer, (product) more interesting than the other 2,999?
And since we are inclined to think "if I just make it
flashier, catchier, more "grabbing", maybe it will get
noticed. So what we see, (and get more numb to) is
flashier, grabbier graphics...bigger letters, more
striking words... just how much can one brain take?

I liked the story about the encyclopedia lady...she
had a very good strategy. All of Michael's points in his
reply are great things to remember.

One of the main points I am learning is that building
a relationship with people is the first step toward being
the one they "will" come to if and when they need or want
your product. Your idea of getting people together at the
library is good, but you must put the idea of selling
something behind you. Nothing will make people trust you
less than using the bait and switch tactic. Your
relationship with people is the "added value" to the
product(s) you sell.

Just think of where you shop, and then think about
why you shop there. If you absolutely hate the
environment and the people, you will not shop there even
if what you want is $5 cheaper there, because they have
actually subtracted value from your experience.
Why do we go out for dinner and spend more than we know
the food costs? Because we have such a good experience and
(someone else does the dishes) Get to be known in your
neigborhood as (Boyd, the walking, talking, smiling guy
who can find anything you need, for a good price, and
bring it right to your door) The part that might be
lacking after that is customer service for the product in
case there are problems with it or they don't want it
afterall....customer service is really a struggle these
days....

Networking will take longer, but in the long run,
when people know you and trust you, and you are the one
they want to buy something from, you will see the
benefits of taking the time to build relationships.

Regards,
Michelle

Really good idea!! [DNO]
 

dno
> No, it's not illegal to distribute flyers to
> houses. We get 'em all the time.

> Boyd -- I'd try running that under 'garage
> sale' or some such in the weekend paper.
> You're more likely to get responses then.

Boyd, has your Shopper Ad ran yet? (dno) (DNO)
 

No calls so far... [DNO]
 

dno