It’s the late 1940s. Joe suddenly finds himself out of a job. 2 months go by and he is still out of luck without a job. Bills are piling up. There is little money to buy bread. The only thing he has is an old printer at home that he and his wife use to publish a free Christian newsletter as a hobby.
Being in a desperate position, Joe realizes that his only hope is to make major money with his printer. He and his wife decide to print customized envelopes for small businesses. They figure that all they need is one or two orders to bring in some quick cash. And envelopes is one thing that businesses use everyday, thus, if they played the cards right, they would earn repeat business every month. It would mean the end of all their money problems!
The only thing left to do was to find a couple of businesses that would buy customized envelopes from them. Next day, Joe goes to the business district and enters one store after another trying to convince the store owners to buy customized envelopes. He tells them how sending business letters in customized envelopes would make them look more professional and sharp. He blurts out benefit after benefit on how less it would cost but how much image value it would bring to the store. But he gets no orders. Not many want customized envelopes. And those who do, don’t trust a new printer to do the job.
After one whole day of rejections, Joe realizes that he has to have a better strategy if he wants to compete against the established printers of the town. He decides to go the extra mile and add the personal touch. Next day, Joe goes back to the business district. But this time he doesn’t enter any store. Instead, he just notes down all the stores names and addresses in the district. Then he heads back home and sets his plan in motion.
Back home, he prints out 2 customized envelopes for each store without receiving their orders. Then Joe goes back to the business district, but this time, he is armed with customized envelopes. Joe gives a very similar sales speech to each store owner that he had given last time. But this time, he dangles the 2 customized envelopes in front of the store owners eyes. The store owners would take the sample envelopes thinking that they are samples Joe had made for some other clients. And then he would read his stores name and address in the top left corner in Gold ink!
Seeing how beautiful his own store’s name in gold looked on an envelope, he would instantly place the order for more customized envelopes. Joe uses the same strategy over and over again, and soon he has more business than he can handle. He soon has to buy a larger and quicker printer and hire people to take a bit of his workload!
Action Summary:
° Use the power of demonstration. You can keep on saying your product is the best in the market without any effect. But demonstrate the workings of your product, and people will believe. And people will buy.
° Use the power of personalization. Send personalized offers. Give away personalized samples and you will sell more.