YOU'RE SUCCESSFUL

The fun part is when the checks come in and you complete the promises you advertised, sending the information out. There are government regulations concerning prompt responses, so be certain to ship your order within thirty days of receiving the request, or you must inform the customer of the delay and offer a full refund.

Here's where you put your organizational skills to a test. It's important to keep the inquiries and orders straight, so you're sure to send out the proper materials for each request. You might invest in a pre-inked stamp that marks the inquiry or order "received," and another stamp to mark the date it came in and the date it was responded to.

ANALYZING RESULTS

Are your ads pulling? Is one magazine better than another? How many inquiries are you getting? How many convert into sales? How much money are you making?

An easy way to analyze results is to keep accurate records of the responses. You can then determine whether you want to keep renewing your classifieds, or if you need to change your sales letter.

To make a record sheet, you can use accountants' columned paper or use a ruler to make your own. You should have a separate page for each ad you placed, or for each key. The top of the sheet should have the following information: the name of the publication; the issue number or date; the date the issue was placed on sale; the address key; the size and cost of the ad; which ad you used; the price of the product; and the profit.

The columns of the record sheet should be divided into two categories - inquiries from the classified ads, and orders placed from the sales literature mailed in response to the inquiries.

Along the left side, number consecutively in a vertical column. These numbers indicate the number of dates that you received answers to your ad or orders from the sales literature.

The headings under inquiries are: date received, number received, and running total.

The headings under orders should be: number of orders received, running total, cash sales, and running total for cash sales.

In order to decide if your classified ad has been a worthwhile investment, you can determine the cost per inquiry by dividing the number of inquiries into the total cost per ad. Compare three months worth of ads, and compare the average results to the ads run in another magazine. Which has provided the best response?

But inquiries are not what you're after. Sales and profit are more important. How many orders are you getting?

You can find out the cost of advertising per order by first adding the cost of the sales literature to the cost of the ad. Then divide the total number of orders into that sum.

To figure out how much pure profit you have, simply take the running total for cash sales, subtract the cost of your product per order and the cost of mailing and handling; subtract the cost of sending the sales literature per order and the cost of the ad.

Even if you break even the first few months of running the business, YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY. The treasure of selling information is not to be grabbed at first. It is built up, steadily, little by little until it brings in a tidy income.

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