If you don't have 10% returns then you aren't tryin!

> This is taken from Joe Sugerman’s book
> “Marketing Secrets of a Mail Order
> Maverick”.

> What do you think?
> Mike Winicki

I could care less if Joe Sugerman (remind me not to buy anything from him) or any other "guru" spouted this kind of crap to me. They aren't responsible to my customers, my clients, and don't have my best interest in mind. They have no idea how I want to operate my business.

So before anyone starts to think they should be over-hyping their sales letters and starts over promising and under delivering just to make a sale -- I think you need to take a good long look at yourself, your beliefs, and your values.

Imagine answering your daughter or son:

"Don't tell your school mates and teachers what I do. It is based on being deceitful. See... what I do is pry hard earned dollars from the tight fists of SUCKERS who only dream of getting rich. There isn't a chance in h*ll they will succeed as long as they keep buying from your dear 'ol dad."

You asked what everyone thinks Mike, so I told you how I feel about it. It is my choice NOT to run a business like that. What do you choose Mike?

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan


homebusiness-websites.com

dno
> I could care less if Joe Sugerman (remind me
> not to buy anything from him) or any other
> "guru" spouted this kind of crap
> to me. They aren't responsible to my
> customers, my clients, and don't have my
> best interest in mind. They have no idea how
> I want to operate my business.

> So before anyone starts to think they should
> be over-hyping their sales letters and
> starts over promising and under delivering
> just to make a sale -- I think you need to
> take a good long look at yourself, your
> beliefs, and your values.

> Imagine answering your daughter or son:

> "Don't tell your school mates and
> teachers what I do. It is based on being
> deceitful. See... what I do is pry hard
> earned dollars from the tight fists of
> SUCKERS who only dream of getting rich.
> There isn't a chance in h*ll they will
> succeed as long as they keep buying from
> your dear 'ol dad."

> You asked what everyone thinks Mike, so I
> told you how I feel about it. It is my
> choice NOT to run a business like that. What
> do you choose Mike?

> Best Regards,
> Steve MacLellan

> I could care less if Joe Sugerman (remind me
> not to buy anything from him) or any other
> "guru" spouted this kind of crap
> to me. They aren't responsible to my
> customers, my clients, and don't have my
> best interest in mind. They have no idea how
> I want to operate my business.

> So before anyone starts to think they should
> be over-hyping their sales letters and
> starts over promising and under delivering
> just to make a sale -- I think you need to
> take a good long look at yourself, your
> beliefs, and your values.

> Imagine answering your daughter or son:

> "Don't tell your school mates and
> teachers what I do. It is based on being
> deceitful. See... what I do is pry hard
> earned dollars from the tight fists of
> SUCKERS who only dream of getting rich.
> There isn't a chance in h*ll they will
> succeed as long as they keep buying from
> your dear 'ol dad."

> You asked what everyone thinks Mike, so I
> told you how I feel about it. It is my
> choice NOT to run a business like that. What
> do you choose Mike?

> Best Regards,
> Steve MacLellan

I am reposting a critical part of the article...

"The return rate he was referring to is the percentage of customers who purchase an item, receive it and then, for some reason, return it. At the time, a typical return rate was anywhere from 10 to 15%. Some customers might change their mind about the item, find it cheaper somewhere else, or just plain try it and not like it. If you had a return rate over 20%, there was usually some latent defect in the product, or the product wasn’t described properly and therefore didn’t fulfill the customer’s expectations."

Where does Joe talk about being dishonest? As a matter of fact he is saying that a rate over 20% is not good and certainly doesn't suggest making claims that are going to shoot the return rate up that high (or higher).

What he is saying is that most marketers do not sell their products hard enough...consequently you (the marketer) is leaving hard-earned dollars on the table for others to get.

That's all Joe is saying...nothing more, nothing less. It's not about deceit. It's about marketing your products as stongly as possible so that you can get a acceptable return on your investment.

Take care,

Mike Winicki

When Joe says:

"One of the symptoms of not doing a good marketing job is when most people feel they got a better product and value than they thought they would."

IMHO Joe is wrong. That is a GOOD marketing job.

Joe says:

"A 3% return rate tells me that he didn’t sell hard enough"

I interpret this to read that the sales message did a good job explaining the benefits and features of the product. People were satisfied with what they bought from the sales copy that convinced them of their need/want.

When you start getting a higher return rate it is because people are unsatisfied. What lead them to believe they wanted it in the first place? Wouldn't it be the sales copy?

I look at it this way Mike. Assume Joe is right where a 3% return rate means you didn't try hard enough to sell. So how do you try to sell "harder" with your sales copy?

In my opinion it alludes to be deceitful by making exaggerated claims.

We are two different people Mike. You read the message and interpret it differently then I do. Perhaps your interpretation can help generate more sales for you -- my interpretation is a reality check to buying informational products or services that aren't going to do "didley squat" for you.

An example is a client (a very experienced marketer) who has bought not once but twice, from two different companies offering to send a million visitors to his website. The sales copy sold him. He emailed me about it to see if the server his site is hosted on could withstand the traffic.

Well... in both cases the traffic never came, and he got his money back from one company -- the other one wouldn't return it based on some loophole.

So it would seem that the companies "tried very hard" to promote their service with their sales copy, and no doubt have a high return rate.

And this is good marketing because...?

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan


homebusiness-websites.com

promising benefits you can't deliver on is wrong. And again Joe does not say (this is a fact) nor imply (this is my opinion) you should do that in any of his books or related information.

What he is saying is that if your returns are minimal your copy could be made stronger to flag a wider audience. With any ad you have a wide variety of prospects that may purchse. Consider for a moment that you have people that "want" your product, have an "urgency" to buy it and have the "means" in order to pay for. These folks are a slam dunk...they buy and the returns are low. Now consider the person that has a "want" and an "urgency" but they don't have the
"means" to buy--at least not buy without injurying their current financial position. Your ad is so strong that many of these folks take a chance, risk their financial situation and buy. They receive the package...many of them keep it, they like the package and are happy. Others return it...it's not what they are looking for under their current financial circumstances. Does this mean your copy is making promises your product can't keep? No, absolutely not. Your returns go up but you end up selling a lot more product. Is this a bad thing? Only if your returns are astronomically high or you don't return the money to those folks that are unhappy.

There is nothing wrong with getting more people to buy (and risking higher returns) using more powerful sale's copy. And "more powerful" doesn't mean make promises you can't keep. It could be something as simple as a new headline.

Take care,

Mike Winicki

> So before anyone starts to think they should
> be over-hyping their sales letters and
> starts over promising and under delivering
> just to make a sale -- I think you need to
> take a good long look at yourself, your
> beliefs, and your values.

I think that targeting a higher return rate, as suggested in the original post, can make sense, and is not necessarily bad or immoral.

Let's suppose you don't promote your products that well, and you sell 100 products, with 3 customers returning it. After deciding this is too low, you decide to put more effort into marketing.

You do some more aggressive marketing, and you sell an additional 100 products, but this time 12 people return the product. Suddenly your return rate has jumped from 3% previously to 12% on this batch.

Is this immoral? I don't think it is. It means an additional 88 people have gotten a product they find useful, that they may not have gotten had you not marketed more aggressively. Of the 12 people that return the product, what do they lose? They've gotten their money back.

If you believe your product has value, and is of use to other people, I don't think there is anything wrong with targeting a higher return rate.

It's important to keep in mind, however, that this makes more sense and works better with products rather than services due to the ease in which they can be returned.

Best Regards,

- Thomas.