Forget the first sale...what about the second?

Very few businesses can be profitable making just one sale per customer. The profit kicks in when you make one sale to a customer and then another to the same customer (and then hopefully again and again).

The cost of marketing be it time or money eats up profit of the first sale (and usually more than the profit) so unless you sell the customer something else you'll at best break even or at worst be in the hole.

This is how catalogers become profitable--by continually to pummel their house list with offers, which for many catalogers results in a response rate of 4-15% as compared to a 0-2% response rate for 'cold' prospects.

To go into any project thinking you are going to be profitable selling one item to one customer, without having any followup product in the works is more than risky.

In many ways your second product is even more important than your first.

Take care,

Mike Winicki

Agree entirely - as long as netiquette is observed and your intent is to build long term relationships with your purchasers. Its all
about trust and credibility isn't it? and giving folk the option to cut out from your list if they want to.

> Very few businesses can be profitable making
> just one sale per customer. The profit kicks
> in when you make one sale to a customer and
> then another to the same customer (and then
> hopefully again and again).

> The cost of marketing be it time or money
> eats up profit of the first sale (and
> usually more than the profit) so unless you
> sell the customer something else you'll at
> best break even or at worst be in the hole.

> This is how catalogers become profitable--by
> continually to pummel their house list with
> offers, which for many catalogers results in
> a response rate of 4-15% as compared to a
> 0-2% response rate for 'cold' prospects.

> To go into any project thinking you are
> going to be profitable selling one item to
> one customer, without having any followup
> product in the works is more than risky.

> In many ways your second product is even
> more important than your first.

> Take care,

> Mike Winicki