You Can Be A
Millionaire In One-Year Or Less!
by
J.F. (Jim) Straw
You Can Be A
Millionaire In One-Year Or Less!
by
J.F. (Jim) Straw
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
You Can Be A Millionaire In One-Year Or Less! by J.F. (Jim) Straw
Š - 2007, J.F. (Jim) Straw. All rights reserved.
J.F. (Jim) Straw 204 Wildflower Way • Dalton, GA 30720-8029 eMail: jfstraw@businesslyceum.com
Prologue PLEASE read this course at least three times before beginning your business. Although the specific letters and forms included in this course will work to produce the results you need, you will also learn ... How the Buyers and Sellers Think Beyond that, you will learn “WHY’ my friend and I did the things we did. — The kind of entrepreneurial thinking you WILL NOT find in any other money making course ... not even any of the college level business textbooks. Read it! Study it! When you finish, you will know WHY and HOW ...
You Can Be A Millionaire In One-Year or Less!
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Foreword When you have learned that 2 + 2 = 4, you have gained a useful piece of “information.” - When you have learned that 2 apples + 2 apples = 4 apples, but, that 2 apples + 2 oranges = 2 apples & 2 oranges, or 2 pairs of fruit, or 4 fruits, you have gained all-important “knowledge.” Information is nice to know. It lets you answer the questions on tests (or when watching TV game shows). But, until you learn to use that information in a practical application, it isn’t knowledge. Any child of 2 or 3 years of age can tell you that 2 + 2 = 4. They have heard it repeated, over & over, until they can repeat it themselves. But, when confronted with 4 apples, they are at a loss to apply that information. The same holds true for older students (and even adults) who can readily tell you that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity can be expressed by the formula, E = MC2. - Until they know what the E, M & C stand for and can use the formula in a practical application, it is only information, not knowledge. A fine line exists between information and knowledge. That fine line is nothing more than “use.” -- You can memorize bits and pieces of information all day, every day, but, until you actually use that information, it is not knowledge. Once used, information becomes knowledge and, thereby, power. SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE; whether they be self-employed or wage-earners, executive or common laborer, are seekers after knowledge. They absorb information from every direction. The information they can use becomes knowledge, while the information they have no apparent use for is simply stored on the chance that someday it may become useful. UN-SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, on the other hand, claim to be seekers of knowledge, but, they believe that knowledge itself can be imparted. Because the books they read, the courses they take, and the plans they buy contain only “information.,” they are forever disappointed. Because it is ONLY INFORMATION (not the “knowledge” they thought they were going to get), they never use the information and, thereby, the knowledge they sought is lost to them forever. Since I am the author of a great many books, booklets, reports, articles and editorials about success and making & using money (somewhere over 700 so far), those people stick-out like sore-thumbs on my customer lists. They write me long letters detailing their trials and tribulations and explain to me just why the information won’t work for them. But, not one ever writes to say “I used the information and it didn’t work.” - Had they ever used the information, that information would have turned into knowledge and they could have reaped the rewards they have coveted for so long. ii
If there was a way I could “force” those people to use the information they have, I could literally GUARANTEE their success. And, in those few cases over the years where I have been able to shame or intimidate people into actually using the information I have provided, those people have achieved successes they had only dreamed were possible. The RULES OF SUCCESS used by successful people & businesses since the beginning of time have never really changed. Those rules have been written-down for all to read, learn and use, but they appear as “information” only and can only be changed to “knowledge” by use. If there were a way to “force” every person and every business to “use” those known and proven rules of success, there would be NO UN-successful people or businesses in the world. Statistically, 90% of small businesses fail, and 90% of people live a life of sustained mediocrity, simply because they will not “use” the information available to them. In your quest for financial independence you MUST learn to force yourself to use the information you have at your disposal. -- No one (but YOU) is going to force you to assume that responsibility. Of course, some smart aleck reading this is going to say, “Yeah! But, I’m not going to use any bad information.” Granted, there is bad (counter-productive) information out there. BUT - there is NO WAY of telling good information from bad information, UNTIL YOU TRY IT. Judging the value of information without using it is like trying to judge the flavor of a pie without ever tasting it. If you learn nothing else from this course, learn that information only becomes knowledge when you use it - and - the information you have used or failed to use in the past is the reason you are where you are today. YOU can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. No one forces you to be what you are, or do what you do (or don’t do). - What you have today is a direct result of what you did yesterday. What you will have tomorrow will be a direct result of what you do (or don’t do) today. It's up to you!
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Introduction During my lifetime, I have quaffed weak coffee from tin cans in Hobo Jungles beneath railroad trestles; chugged warm beer from canteen-cups in the jungles of Southeast Asia; and sipped fine wine from exquisite crystal goblets in palatial homes around the world ... instances befitting my station in life at the time. I have had more money that I could carry and I have been completely and total without money but I have never been poor. Poverty is a state of mind ... not the state of your pocketbook. Born in Oklahoma and reared on farms in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas, I began my career in business at the age of nine; when I sold my first cans of Cloverleaf Salve and copies of “GRIT” newspaper. My business career progressed through direct selling, finder’s fees, service contracting, wholesale merchandising, entertainment (I was a professional Trumpet player, vocalist and Radio Announcer), freight forwarding, import/export, retail merchandising, warehousing, real estate, electronics manufacturing, closeout merchandising, financial brokerage, business consulting, steel fabrication, mining, banking, mailorder, writing, and publishing,. Over the past 37 years, I have written well over 700 books, booklets, manuals, reports, courses, articles and marketing programs about doing business and making money — all based on my own personal, hands-on experience. My writings are “specific” methods, techniques and approaches to doing business that anyone can use to start or expand their business. Over the years, I have produced revenues of over Four Hundred Million dollars selling products and services, to over 700,000 customers worldwide — everything from Beauty Supplies to Heavy Equipment ... Burglar Alarms to Sleeping Bags ... Fishing Lures to Women’s Wigs ... Automobiles to Wheelchairs ... Investment Opportunities to Seafood ... Consulting Services to “How To” Courses. Throughout the past 50+ years in the business arenas of the world, I have been asked countless times, “What are the secrets of your success?” I hate to tell you this - but ... There are NO “secrets” to success. As a matter of fact, my Daddy used to say, “There really aren’t any secrets in this old world. Only things you don’t happen to know right now” - but - over the past nearly 50 years, I have added ... “Even after you learn what you didn’t know, it still remains a SECRET until you actually do it successfully.” Therein lies the problem. Most people who say they want to succeed, go around all their life looking for some “secret” that people like me are sure to know. They just know that if they ever learned that “secret” they would be successful, too. It ain’t gonna happen, because there are NO secrets. All you need to do is start “doing” something. — That’s all it takes. — Once you start “really” doing something ... other than searching for the “secret” to success ... whatever you are doing will expand and grow into the success for which you couldn’t find the secret. Over the past 50+ years in business, I have heard it thousands upon thousands of times from “success secret seekers”... iv
“I ain’t gonna get into no nickel and dime business. I want to make millions, not nickels and dimes.” So, they keep buying what they think are “secrets”. They never “do” anything longer than it takes to find out they didn’t learn any secrets, they just learned how to “work” at something. Then, they go on to the next “secret,” hoping against hope that the new secret will “give” them the success they seek (without doing anything other than knowing the “secret”). The funny thing is, they all seem to think they are better than me ... and all the other successful people around the world ... because they honestly believe that I just woke up one morning, learned the secret, and made a fortune. When, in pure fact, I started selling nickel and dime items, door to door, in my youth ... selling one item to one customer, one sale at a time, making a nickel or a dime on each sale. As I matured, my endeavors expanded and grew ... changed course ... adapted to the ever changing economy ... moved onward and upward. Each instance of my growth predicated upon providing what my potential customers needed or wanted. Making sure that I gave more value in return for the value I received - and - even today, in my day to day business, I still sell one item to one customer, one sale at a time. The vast majority of people who say they want to succeed, only want to succeed if they can make it all at once ... just one sale won’t do it. They want big sales, or thousands of sales, immediately. — So, when a new opportunity only produces a few sales, they move on to the next “secret,” rather than making those few sales over and over and over and over ... until those few sales have grown into thousands upon thousands of sales. Unfortunately, most people are looking for someone to help them do it (or, worse yet, do it for them), rather than looking for the tools they need to do it themselves. If you want to succeed, “do” something. Let what you are “doing” lead you onward and upward until you have the success you seek. — There are NO “secrets” to it. Many people know the facts. — Many people have the talent. — Many people have the need. — Many people have what it takes. — But ... very, very few succeed because they are seeking the “secrets” to success rather than doing something to make their success happen. Be forewarned, I can’t tell you any “secrets” - but - I will tell you what you can do and how to do it ... some things you probably didn’t know yet. — You may even relearn some great truths that you had learned in your youth but hadn’t used; or acted upon, simply because they didn’t go around disguised as “secrets.” My only hope is that you will enjoy reading and applying the lessons I will teach you in ...
You Can Be A Millionaire In One-Year Or Less! Read it in good wealth.
J.F. (Jim) STRAW
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Table of Contents Page
Prologue.................................................................................................................................i Foreword.............................................................................................................................ii Introduction.........................................................................................................................iv Table of Contents..................................................................................................................vi You Can Be A Millionaire.....................................................................................................1 First Things First!...................................................................................................................4 What We Used To Do.........................................................................................................6 The "Secret" We Learned...................................................................................................8 How We Identified "Known Buyers".............................................................................10 Every "Seller" Is Also A "Buyer"....................................................................................13 What Is A "Known Buyer"...............................................................................................16 How to Be A "Procurement Specialist"..........................................................................19 Your "Sales Letter".............................................................................................................25 Sales Letter - Form Letter (buyer).......................................................................28 Sales Letter (buyer)...............................................................................................29 Email Sales Letter (buyer)...................................................................................30 Email Prospecting Letter (buyer).......................................................................31 Your "FREE Listing Form"................................................................................................32 FREE Listing Form (buyer).................................................................................33 Keeping Your "Directory"...................................................................................................34 Making Notifications to Your “known buyers”...........................................................36 Notification Letter.................................................................................................38 Notification Email.................................................................................................39 Closing The Deals.............................................................................................................40 Sample INVOICE..................................................................................................44 Sample PURCHASE ORDER..............................................................................45 CONSIGNMENT AGREEMENT........................................................................46 You Don’t Have to Buy the Deal Just “Control” it!.....................................................47 OPTION TO PURCHASE....................................................................................49 How To Find The Deals....................................................................................................51 Sales Letter - Form Letter (seller).......................................................................54 Sales Letter (seller)...............................................................................................55 Email Sales Letter (seller)...................................................................................56 FREE Listing Form (seller).................................................................................57 YOUR Group.....................................................................................................................58 Epilogue............................................................................................................................60 PLEASE Pay Close Attention to the Back Page!
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You Can Be A Millionaire In One-Year Or Less! I’m not kidding. — I mean it. Why settle for $50, $100, or even $500 per day ... or week ... when you can grab enough money at one time to live comfortably for a year (or two). Then, you can relax and spend some time grabbing even more money ... money you don’t necessarily need - but - it will always come in handy when you want to buy something special for yourself or your loved ones. You can be a millionaire in one-year or less ... right in your own home town ... from your home (or office) ... in less than 5 hours per week ... while you keep your current job or business (if you want to) ... without any kind of email list or website, Do it just as I have for over 50 years - and - I made my millions before we even had computers ... long before the Internet existed. — Computers just make it faster and easier. Do YOU Want To Be A Millionaire? There are more opportunities to make BIG MONEY; easily and fast, in your home town than there are on the Internet - and - making that money takes less time and far less aggravation, too. (Have you mastered HTML, Java scripting, RSS feeds, PHP, Website creation, Autoresponders, etc., yet?? — I’m still working on it myself.) Which would make you more money ... One-thousand “sellers” - or - One-Hundred “buyers?” Over the past 50 years, I have generated over $400 Million in revenue by simply knowing the buyers and giving them what they wanted or needed. Right now, there are a number of promoters talking about “niche” marketing. That’s where you find a “niche” ... people who regularly buy a specific product or service. Then you find or develop a product or service that the people in that “niche” want or need. — When you have something they may want or need, you “sell” it to them. — But you still have to find the “buyers” - AND ... Just like most of the 700,000 buyers on my old mailing lists, you can only “sell” them one product or one service at a time. It’s good money but it is also a great deal of work. — I still do it every day but my BIG MONEY has always come from a few hundred “known buyers” and a few good deals each year. I don’t have to “sell” them anything. I just tell them I have what they want and they buy it. Right now, there are probably 50 to 100 “known buyers” just like them in your home town. And, I know where you can find another 200; or more, without any real effort. — You don’t have to “sell” them anything. Just tell them you have what they want and they will “buy” it from you - and - they won’t be buying just one of anything. I had been doing this on my own for over 15 years when a friend of mine ... doing much the same thing ... suggested we pool our resources to increase our profits. — We did and our individual incomes skyrocketed. Some of the fees we earned would boggle your mind - but - we never told any outsiders what we were really doing. NOTE: Before I started writing this, I asked my ol’friend if I could use his name. He politely declined and asked me not to. So, throughout this report, he will only be identified as “my friend.” — He also agreed to allow me to tell YOU “what” he and I had done and “how” we had done it ... something we had never revealed before (except to your kids and grandkids).
Soon, other men and women who were doing much the same thing joined with us. — Our individual fortunes grew exponentially. NOTE: Being an incurable entrepreneur, I used my money to buy a bank, a gold mine, a printing company, a coal mine, a steel fabrication business and a number of other businesses ... all the while writing, printing and selling my own information about doing business and making money. Back then, in our group, each of us had “known buyers” for a wide variety of products and services. So, when one of us would come across a hot deal, we would simply share it with the others ... then split the profits (sometimes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars) when one of our “known buyers” bought. As you can imagine, one of our biggest expenses back then was the cost of communicating with each other by Telephone, Telex and Overnight Delivery. — My communication costs regularly ran from $1,000 to $2,000 PER MONTH. — It was costly and it limited our group to only those who could afford it. When FAX machines became available in the 1970s, our expenses dropped but the cost of a FAX machine back then still limited our group to those who could afford the machines - and not all of us had FAX machines. — My first FAX machine cost $2,700. Today, you can buy a FAX machine that does even more than my first one did for less than $100. Recently, another old friend of mine ... a member or our group ... telephoned me out-of-the-blue to see what I was up to these days. We reminisced for about an hour about the good-ol’days, deals we had done, people we had known, money we had made, and airplanes we had owned. Then, he made a comment that got my juices flowing. He said ... “If we had had email communication, cut & paste, save & find, and PDF files back then, we could have made ten times the money in half the time.” When I suggested that we put the old group back together using Internet communication, he laughed. I had forgotten that most of our group were either retired or dead. (Sometimes I forget how old I am.) For about a week after my conversation with my old friend, every time I thought about what he had said, my juices started flowing. — The more I thought about it the more I wanted to get my old group started-up again, so I contacted what few of them I could find. You guessed it. — They loved the idea but were too happy being retired to get involved. — Some of them suggested their grandkids would be better prospects - but - their grandkids really didn’t have the necessary entrepreneurial spirit. — Then, one of them suggested ... “Why don’t you teach some young entrepreneurs to do what we used to do and put together the group for them.” An absolutely brilliant idea - so - that’s what I have done in this work - but - I WILLNOT take a share of any of your deals you make. My old group is now dead or dying and I’m getting older every day. Soon there won’t be any of us left to pass on our methods to a new generation of aggressive entrepreneurs; YOU - so ... As my last hoorah, I have decided to teach you the methods and techniques my generation of entrepreneurs used to make tons of money right in our own home towns ... from our homes (or offices) ... in less than 5 hours per week ... while keeping our jobs or businesses ... without any kind of email list or website (didn’t even have them back then) - but ... 2
As my old friend suggested ... With your email communication, cut & paste, save & find, and PDF files, you can make ten times the money in half the time. Using the communication advantages we never had, your fortune is assured. Let me take you by the hand and teach you exactly “what” we did ... with point-by-point, step-by-step instructions on exactly “HOW” to do it - and - I’ll teach you how to do it using today’s Internet. Be prepared, I am going to reveal some closely guarded secrets that, until now, I have only shared with my kids and grand kids. You will also learn a simple method we old guys used to generate from $500 to $1,000 per week in ready cash. — We used to call it our “bread & butter money.” Money we could use to pay bills, finance a deal, or whatever, until the next big deal came along. — I’ll even give you a source we didn’t have back then. This is my last hoorah (I ain’t getting any younger). — Believe me, “You Can Be A Millionaire In One-Year Or Less!” ... when you know “how.” Let’s get started.
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First Things First! Before I get into the meat and potatoes of “how” you can really be a millionaire in one-year or less, let me tell you a true story that will reveal to you ... The Only Real “Secret” (if there ever was one) To Success In Any Business! Many years ago, when I was the editor/publisher of America’s leading business opportunities newsletter, a young (back then) fellow by the name of Carlton Sheets sent me a review copy of his new “No Money Down” Real Estate course. — Recently, after watching one of Carlton’s late-night infomercials, I bought his latest course with all the books, CDs, and videos. After all these years, Carlton’s course still teaches the same exceptionally effective methods for acquiring Real Estate as it did nearly 30 years ago. The only real difference being the teaching tools employed. But ... There have been countless articles written and postings to Internet Real Estate forums and discussion boards decrying Carlton’s course as a rip-off; stating emphatically that “it can’t be done.” — In other words, the writers of those articles and postings couldn’t, wouldn’t, or just didn’t do it. Counter to those negative “it can’t be done” articles and postings, there are a host of articles and postings giving testimony to the fact that Carlton’s teachings are do-able. A great many of them tell of their own experiences using those teachings to generate some absolutely amazing profits. By the way, I have done it myself. My wife; Delores, and I recently purchase a $500,000 home with “no money down” and we put over $5,000 in our pocket at closing. — In another case 15 years ago, I acquired a $200,000 office building for an out-of-pocket payment of $800. — So, I know for a fact that it can be done. Why then are there opposing views? The answer is simple: Once Carlton has taught you “how” you can do it ... and you consciously accepted the fact that it can be done ... you will have the personal courage to ASK for the alternative financing methods that Carlton has taught you. — Those who fail with Carlton’s course never truly consciously accept the fact that it can be done so they never ASK ... usually because they have read somewhere; or someone told them, “it can’t be done.” Actually, the only thing Carlton’s course teaches you is “what” to ASK for and “how” to ASK for it. — Hopefully, that will instill in you the courage to ASK. If you have read any of my business writings over the past 37 years, you may have noticed that I have CAPITALIZED, italicized, underlined or emboldened one word almost every time I have used it. That word is ... ASK!! So, if you want to become a millionaire in one-year or less ... All you gotta do is ASK!! Every condition in your life has it’s cause. — Poor people are poor, because they have never ASKed themselves, “Why am I poor?” — They just accept the condition and pass it along to their offspring. Then again, even if they do ASK “Why am I poor?,” they still have to ASK, “How can I change my circumstances?” — Then “do” something about it. 4
Unless YOU learn to ASK for what you want, you won’t get it. — ASK, and you will receive. — You can have anything and everything you want, if you just ASK. Forget about looking for secrets. Learn to ASK the right questions. — Just remember the words of Rudyard Kipling ... I keep six honest serving-men [They taught me all I knew]; Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who Not an answer in the bunch. Just questions. — If you ask yourself the right questions, the answers will come to you. In the following pages, I will teach you “how” to be a millionaire in one-year or less. You will learn ... What - Where - When - Why - How & Who to ASK! BUT ...
You Will Have To Do The ASKing.
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What We Used To Do! Back in the day, when I was young and aggressively building my fortunes, I made millions of dollars acting as a Finder ... matching sellers with buyers and getting paid fees for introducing them. When I learned of someone who had something to sell, I would get all the details. Then, I would beat the bushes until I found someone who wanted to buy it. — I would introduce the possible buyer to the seller and, if they closed a deal, I would be paid my fee. By the way, almost everyone who acts as a Finder earns fees - but - most of them just never get paid. — So ... In 1978, I wrote a comprehensive, detailed report about “how” to be a Finder and, most importantly, “how” to GET PAID. — Over 50,000 copies of that report have been sold worldwide since 1978 ... with hundreds of copycat reports on the market today. (It was one of the first $100 reports ever sold by mailorder.) Actually, you can become a millionaire in one-year or less as a Finder - but - that is only one tip of the iceberg. — What you are going to learn in the following pages will make that look like chicken feed. NOTE: I have included a copy of my “Finder’s Fees - The Easiest Money You’ll Ever Make” along with this course. Study it. It will only increase your earning potential. While I was acting as a Finder, I was also involved in a number of different retail and wholesale operations. I also made fortunes in exporting, and on Real Estate deals - and - I made yet another fortune just snooping around in my local area for abandoned properties (NOT Real Esate). — Of course, I wrote comprehensive, detailed reports about what I had done in those businesses, too. — I have also included copies of my “Sell American,” “How To Make A Fortune Selling Real Estate You Don’t Own,” and “Exactly How To Make A Fortune Just Snooping Around” along with this course. These are just more tips of the same iceberg. After doing it on my own for over 15 years, I met another Finder who was doing much the same thing. We decided to pool our resources to increase our profits. — We did and our individual incomes skyrocketed. The only problems we had were ... 1) Waiting for the next big deal to come along. — There weren’t enough big deals coming down the pike in the areas where we could “find” qualified buyers - and ... 2) There were too many deals that, although good enough to earn some fees, just wouldn’t allow us to make any profit. — The cost of long distance telephone calls alone would have eaten up any possible profits. That’s when we came up with a brilliant idea ... We would simply identify some “known buyers” for the smaller deals in our local areas. Then, we would only have to make local calls ... instead of costly long distance calls to “find” potential buyers. He gave me a list of his LOCAL “known buyers” and I gave him a list of mine. — No names. Just a list of what the “known buyers” (his and mine) would buy ... sometimes there were two or three who would buy the same things. When I came across something that one or more of his “known buyers” were looking for; after calling my own LOCAL “known buyers” first, I would telephone him and tell him what I 6
had. He would, then, call his LOCAL “known buyers” to see if any of them wanted it. (No long disance calls.) — We usually had a deal working within 24 hours. Sometimes putting more than one possible buyer in touch with the seller. — If a deal was made with one of the buyers, either he or I got our fee from the seller and split it 50/50 with each other. But, there were only two of us. That meant, we were only able to contact “known buyers” in two LOCAL areas. — So ... We got other Finders, in other areas, to join with us doing the same thing. — At first, we placed Conference Calls with all of the Finders in our group on the call to get the deals to offer to “their” LOCAL “known buyers.” — The Finder who had the deal collected the fee and split it with the Finder who had brought the buyer to the table. As our group grew larger, the cost of those Conference Calls began eating up our profits on some of the smaller deals. — So, we began only offering those smaller deals to a Finder in the group who had the most “known buyers” for that deal in their area. If that Finder didn’t produce a possible buyer within two or three days, another Finder in the group would be called ... then another, and another, if need be. Sometimes the first Finder called would produce a possible buyer for the deal after the deal had already been sold so we would put out a “wanted” notice for another similar deal. — That would usually produce a second fee to split. Please note, there never more than two Finders involved in any deal ... the Finder that had the seller and the Finder who had the buyer. — If any Finder in the group tried to “daisy chain” a deal, or just sell us their own products, that Finder was summarily dropped from the group. It really wasn’t as complex as it may sound. — Each Finder in the group was responsible for keeping track of the other Finder who had provided the buyer for the deal and was responsible for splitting the fee accordingly when received. As most of us got Telex machines ... later FAX machines ... we were able to provide “printed” details about each deal. Those details could then be relayed to local “known buyers” in more detail. — That sure beat taking notes while on the telephone and then relaying that information from our notes. It wasn’t long after we started our group that we discovered that Finder’s Fees weren’t the only way we could make money - and - my friend and I caught on to a “secret” ... something we hadn’t realized before ... that produced “known buyers” like crazy. With all of the “known buyers” my friend and I had, the other members of our group were forever amazed — but ...
We never told anyone what we were doing or how we were doing it.
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The “Secret” We Learned! Actually, we didn’t learn any secrets ... remember, their really aren’t any ... we just came to the realization that ... “Buyers” are more valuable than “Sellers.” Think about it for a moment. Everybody “sells” something ... even if the only thing they “sell” is the 40-hours each week they “sell” to get a paycheck; their employer “buys” their time, effort and talents. Some of these wage slaves will even pay someone to find them a better paying job (that’s how “head hunters” make their money) and there are even “job agencies” in most areas that will help you find a job; if you need one, for a fee. “Sellers” are ALWAYS looking for “buyers.” They will go to just about any lengths to get a buyer; that’s why people who “sell” advertising do so well. And, most (not all) of the “sellers” will readily pay you a commission; or Finder’s Fee, if you can bring them a “buyer” (that’s why jobs as salesmen are so plentiful). “Drop ship dealers” and “affiliate marketers” are only salesmen. Although some of the promoters make it sound like you have to just about beg to become a “drop ship dealer” or an “affiliate marketer” the fact of the matter is most “sellers” will welcome any kind of dealer of affiliate with open arms. Just remember, “sellers” are ALWAYS looking for “buyers.” — But ... If you know someone who “buys” widgets; all day, every day, all you have to do is offer that “known buyer” better or cheaper widgets to earn a commission. And, you can bet your bippy that “known buyer” won’t buy just one ... they might even take a truck load. Oops! — I think I just heard some smarty-aleck say, “Yeah, but, if that buyer buys widgets all day, every day, he already knows every body who sells widgets.” Wanna bet? There are over 300 million (300,000,000) people in this country and millions of businesses; small, medium and large. Of those millions of businesses, there are hundreds of them that manufacture, produce or import the same products. There is no way any individual “known buyer” can know of all those potential “sellers.” Don’t believe me? Name a product; any product. — Now, go to your local library and tell the Librarian that you are looking for manufacturers, producers, and importers of that product. — The librarian will dutifully show you the directories of manufacturers they have in the library ... those directories will also include the producers and importers of the same products (I’ll just call them manufacturers from now on). As you look through those directories (the library won’t let you take the directories out of the building), you will find there are a good number of manufacturers listed under any product you can name. But, look a little closer. Some of the manufacturers are listed in all of the directories. Others are listed in a few but not all of the directories. Still others only appear in one directory. But, that’s not all. Directory Listings are advertising - so - those listings usually (not always) cost money. Therefore, some manufactures only get listed in the directories that offer “free” listings. Others manufacturers aren’t listed in any of the directories at all. 8
Look around, you might even find a manufacturer of the product you want, that isn’t listed in any of the directories, right in your own backyard by just looking in your local Telephone Book Yellow Pages. — I have. The Internet (at it’s current stage of development) is even worse. Do a “search” (using your favorite Search Engine) for the product you are seeking. — I would almost be willing to bet you won’t find more than one-tenth of the actual manufacturers, producers, importers and suppliers listed - AND - where the printed directories only list actual manufacturers in each product classification, in your Internet seach, you will find hundreds (if not thousands) of websites that aren’t even distantly related to the actual product you are seeking. Then again, the “known buyer” of widgets might not even know that there are better or cheaper widgets on the market. Forty odd years ago, I discovered a niche market in my local community. Since no one was supplying that niche, I decided to open a “retail” store offering those products to a ready market. Visiting all of the “retail” stores in a fifty-mile radius that offered the products I wanted to sell, I gleaned the names and addresses of the suppliers of those products from their packaging. Contacting those suppliers, I was soon set-up to buy all the inventory I would ever need. I learned from my suppliers that the customary profit margin on those products was from 25% to 33%. — That margin was good enough to allow me a solid profit from my sales - so - I opened my store and started making money (not big money but enough to satisfy my needs and provide a few luxuries). As luck would have it, one day a traveling salesman dropped by to see me. He didn’t even know there was a store like mine in the area. At first, I was reluctant to even look at his products. After all, I had good suppliers that were already providing me with all the product inventory I needed. — He sold me the same products I had been buying (different brand names) with a 40% profit margin. — I still made the same number or sales but my profits almost doubled. Later, a young man came by with a list of closeouts of the same products I was selling. My profit margins on those products ranged from 60% to as high as 90%. — Still the same number of sales but my profits tripled and quadrupled. I would have never known about those product sources if the “sellers” hadn’t come to me. Over the years, I have found that this situation is prevalent in almost all businesses; retail, wholesale, manufacturing, whatever; small, medium, and large. When they are satisfied with the products they are buying, they just don’t go looking for better deals. Then again, some major companies have people on their payroll who do nothing but seek-out new, better, cheaper products for their employer. Those “in-house buyers” take their jobs very seriously - but - they usually spend more time making the “sellers” jump through hoops, to get to them, than they do buying. — Other large companies have fully-staffed procurement departments. That should make it quite obvious to you; as we realized, that ... “Buyers” are more valuable than “Sellers.” But, even after we came to that realization, we still had to answer the question ...
How Do You Identify “Known Buyers” To Make Money? 9
How We Identified “Known Buyers” Back then, my friend and I both had our own personal lists of “known buyers” who had bought something that produced a Finder’s Fee for us. — We had accumulated those contacts by beating the bushes on every deal ... chasing down all the blind alleys ... eliminating the fakes and flakes ... until we found a buyer who wanted or needed whatever was available. We knew what they had bought - but ... The best Finder’s Fee deals are almost always unique, one of a kind, individual offerings - and - the final fee had to be large enough to justify the time and effort spent. Beyond that, those “buyers” might never be in need of the same or similar deal again any time in the near future. Finder’s DO NOT take on a line of products and spend their time looking for buyers for those products. If they did, the Finder would (in effect) be just another “salesman” for those products. But, most Finders do keep a list of known sellers and suppliers of a wide variety of products. That way, if they happen to come across a buyer, the Finder can earn a fee by simply introducing that buyer to a known source ... after the Finder “Gets it in writing and puts it in writing” to protect their fee, of course. NOTE: If you really want to know “how” it is done, please read my Finder’s Fee course ... included with this course. As an example of the kind of “known buyers” my friend and I had ... One of my “known buyers” was a WHOLESALER (Rack Jobber) of “Health & Beauty Aids” ... potions, lotions, lipsticks, shampoos, etc. With four well-stocked vans on the road, he sold to over 200 retail stores in his area under a consignment agreement. — That means he would place the products in the retail stores, then get paid for the products that were sold from his displays; replacing products that had been sold, and adding new products to the displays, on a weekly basis. — The retail stores loved it because they had a variety of inventory in their stores but they didn’t have to pay for it until it was sold. Any time I came across a closeout lot of products similar to those he sold, all I had to do was tell him about it. He would then buy the whole lot. — But, the lot had to be big enough to service his 200 retail consignment locations. My friend and I both had our own lists of WHOLESALERS of a wide variety of products from sundries to furniture; from novelties to foodstuffs; from toys to office supplies; from sports equipment to small appliances; from candy to textiles; from leather goods to camping supplies ... everything from A to Z. — Some of them only sold directly to retailers. Others were drop shippers; with dealers selling their wares one or two at a time, anywhere and everywhere. And, Rack Jobbers who placed and stocked their own displays in retail outlets on consignment. — Some of them could only handle the smaller lots. Others had to have the bigger lots to satisfy their customers. These “known buyers” alone allowed the members of our group to turn a lot of deals into earned fees. Our lists of “known buyrs” also included all kinds of Used Equipment Dealers ... buyers for Heavy Equipment, Photographic Eqipment, Medical Equipment, Printing Equipment, Construction Equipment, Dental Equipment, etc., etc., etc. — But, it was impossible to offer Used Equipment from one Dealer to another because they all worked on the same price structures. So, the deals only came available when we had a “private” seller offering their own equipment - or - a Used Equipment Dealer who was going out of business. 10
When we first started, my friend and I (later the others who joined us) concentrated on the “known buyers” in ONLY our local areas. The idea was to save time and money on smaller deals where our communication costs would eat up too much of our profits. Back then ... as it still is today ... CLOSEOUTS (liquidated inventories, overstocks, overruns, seconds, shelf pulls, etc.) were the mainstay of many Finder’s Fee deals. But, you couldn’t find “Closeout Dealers” in your Telephone Book Yellow Pages. As a matter of fact, if you will take a minute and look, you won’t find many (if any at all) listed in the Yellow Pages under that classification even today. Wanna know why? Consumers; the people who buy the merchandise at retail ... then and now ...don’t want to buy “closeout” merchandise. - Why? - Because a “closeout” is seen as being of lesser quality than the ‘real’ thing. Back then, retailers didn’t even mention the word “closeout” in any of their advertising. — It was always advertised as a “special buy,” or a “bargain deal,” they had received from their suppliers - or - the merchandise was simply placed on their shelves with their regular inventory. Today, some of the retailers ... like “Big Lots” ... use the word “closeouts” in their ads. — I really think they would do even better using the old “special buys” and “bargain deals” because, no matter what, the “consumer mentality” hasn’t changed ... a “closeout” is still perceived as being of lesser quality than the ‘real’ thing. NOTE: Although you would think they would know better, MOST BUSINESSES also look upon closeouts as being of lesser quality. Remember, the owners, managers, and all their employees have been “consumers” from childhood so their opinion of closeouts hasn’t really changed. — So, don’t ever offer them closeouts ... offer them “special buys” and “bargain deals.” (The first closeout lot I ever bought was a “special buy” of products I was already selling.) Since “Closeout Dealers” as such were not listed in the Telephone Book Yellow Pages, it was necessary for Finders (like me and my friend) to look under specific product classifications in the Yellow Pages to find possible buyers for any specific product closeout deals we might have. That meant beating the bushes on every deal ... chasing down all the blind alleys ... eliminating the fakes and flakes ... until we found a possible buyer. — If they bought, they were listed on our “known buyers” list of buyers for that specific product to share with the other Finders in our group. Locating “Used Equipment Dealers” was a little easier since many of them did have listings in the Yellow Pages - but - even then, we had to beat the bushes on every deal ... chase down all the blind alleys ... eliminate the fakes and flakes ... until we found a real buyer to put on our list of “known buyers.” It was fun ... it was easy ... and it was very, very profitable — but ... We still had to catch the deals as they came available. That meant reading as many publications as possible to hit upon deals worthy of our efforts. — That usually entailed identifying a “seller” before we could go looking for a “buyer.” Most of us spent inordinate amounts of money communicating with possible “sellers” ... ASKing them what (if anything) they might have to offer. — We didn’t call companies ASKing if we could “sell” their product lines because “real” professional Finders aren’t salesmen. We are only matchmakers ... the “seller” still has to “sell” their own stuff - so - we only wanted their special deals. Deals they were NOT trying to “sell” to their regular customers. 11
Also, we were always scouring the Classified Ads in Newspapera and Trade Publications for ads listing specific pieces of equipment; or whatever, being sold by “private parties” ... not companies unless whatever they had to offer was priced well below the known market. Then, of course, we had to start beating the bushes ... chasing down all the blind alleys ... eliminating the fakes and flakes ... until we found a buyer who wanted or needed whatever was available. — But, again ... It was fun ... it was easy ... and it was very, very profitable! None of us ever worked more than 5 or so hours each week ... about an hour each day. During that hour each day we wrote our letters, responded to inquiries, made our telephone calls, sent out Telex (later FAX) messages, and posted information to our 3”x5” cards or notebooks. — Some days we did nothing at all while waiting for something to happen ... I always liked waiting for checks to arrive. Imagine how much “less” time we would have spent if we had had email communications. One day, while talking on the phone with my friend, we were discussing the fact that “Buyers” are more valuable than “Sellers.” — One thing lead to another and almost simultaneously it dawned on us that ... Every “seller” is also a “buyer.”
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Every “Seller” Is Also A “Buyer” Think about it. Every grocery story has to buy its groceries somewhere, so thcy can resell those groceries to the public. — Every shoe store has to buy shoes somewhere. — Every “seller,” no matter what they sell, has to “buy” their inventory somewhere; from someone. After coming to the realization that every “seller” was also a “buyer,” my friend and I tried to play the salesman game. — We located manufacturers, producers and importers of various product lines. Then, we contacted the “sellers” in our local areas that sold that particular kind of product. We shot ourselves in the foot.! Since we were offering the “same products” at the “same prices” as all the other salesman, the “buyers” had no reason to consider our offers over the offers of any of the other salesmen. — If the “buyers” couldn’t buy the same; or better, products from us at a more favorable (cheaper) price, the “buyers” really didn’t have any real reason to buy from, or through, us. They could get the same deals from the other salesmen. It didn’t take us long to revert to offering closeouts (special buys & bargain deals) to every “seller” that might be selling the same or similar products. We were making money hand over glove. — Again, it was fun ... it was easy ... and it was very, very profitable. Then, late one night, after my workday was finished, while surfing through the TeeVee channels, I heard one of the show hosts say ... “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King.” Almost instantly, in my mind, I paraphrased him with ... In the land of business, the man who has a buyer is King . Since we had already learned that every “seller” is also a “buyer,” we were Kings - but wouldn’t it be great if we could get those sellers to tell us what they wanted to buy and how much they would pay for it. — It would be even better if we could get those ”buyers” to come to us when they needed anything ... finding “sellers” of whatever they wanted would be much easier than finding a “buyer” for whatever we had to offer. All we had to do was come up with a way to get “buyers” to tell us what they wanted to buy, how much they would pay for it, and come to us when they needed anything. — It took a while before we came up with it. We finally found a way — but ... While were working on a way to get “buyers” to tell us what they wanted to buy, how much they would pay for it, and come to us when they needed anything, we were still using everything we had already learned to earn the BIG Finder’s Fees that came along, and pick up what we called our ...
Bread & Butter Money! Although my friend and I both had on-going, day-to-day; everyday, businesses that we relied upon for cashflow and the everyday luxuries, we also did the “Bread & Butter” deals ... offering closeouts (special buys & bargain deals) to every “seller” that might be selling the same or similar products. It was fun ... it was easy ... and it gave us money whenever we needed it, until the next BIG deal came along. Usually to the tune of about $500 to $1,000 per week. Unfortunately, most of the “Bread & Butter” deals were too small for us to act strickly as Finders ... as we normally would. — The fees just weren’t large enough for us to expend the time and effort necessary so we devised a number of ways to make money from the small deals without too much time or effort. 13
As an example ... I was once offered a lot of 20 dozen Men’s Electric Shavers in counter-top displays with a dozen shavers in each display. Those shavers normally sold at retail for from $6.95 to $9.95 each ... with a wholesale price of $3.50 each ($42/dozen with the counter-top display). Cost from the importer to the wholesaler was $33 per dozen ... $2.75 each. The guy who had the shavers wanted $12 per dozen ... $1 each ... for them, for a total price of $240 for the 20 dozen. NOTE: It is customary in the “closeout” business to buy the closeouts at about 10% (or less) of the “retail price.” In this case, the $1 per shaver price was about 10% of the highest retail price and - the seller offered to pay the freignt. If I had worked the deal as a Finder, my fee wouldn’t have been more than $24 ... 10% of the price. My communication costs to get the Fee Agreement, beat the bushes for a potential buyer, and introduce that potential buyer to the seller (let alone the cost of my personal time) would have left me with a very slim net profit for my efforts. Luckily, in that particular case, I knew a local WHOLESALER who just happened to carry that brand of Men’s Electric Shaver. All I had to do was call him and tell him I had 20 dozen of them available; in their counter displays, for only $24 per dozen ... saving him $9 per dozen ($180 additional profit for him when he sold them). — He wrote me a check and I had the “seller” drop ship the shavers to him. — I cleared over $200 ... for a couple hours of work, a local telephone call to the wholesaler, a long distance call to buy the shavers, and a postage stamp (8¢ back then) to mail my check to the seller. — The deal could have taken 3 to 5 days from start to finish. If we had had email and Credit Cards (or PayPal) back then, it wouldn’t have taken me more than 15 minutes to do the deal. Today, the “seller” would send me an email with a detailed description of what he had to offer. — Back then, he would have had to make a long distance telephone call and stay with me until I had written down the description - or - the “seller” would have had to mail me a letter with a written description of what he was offering. After getting the desription of what was being offered from the “seller,” I had to relay that information by telephone; or mail, to the wholesaler. Then, wait for his check to arrive. Today, I could “copy & paste” the description from the seller’s email into an email to the wholesaler and wait a few minutes for him to give me his Credit Card number or send me the money by PayPal. — I could then transmit the order to the seller by email and pay him with my Credit Card; or PayPal. Instead of three to five days for the whole deal to get done, except for the shipping time, the deal could have been done in about 15 minutes. Of course, that wasn’t the only way my friend and I made our bread & butter money. Sometimes, on small deals like the one in my illustration, we would simply “buy” the lot. Then, we could sell some to “retailers” who were carrying similar products ... below their wholesale cost, of course. (I usually paid High School and College students; on commission, to make those sales.) After we had sold enough of the lot to cover our costs, we could “sell” whatever we had left for even less than we had paid for it ... anything we got was all profit, then. When a small closeout lot came in some kind of counter or stand-up display ... as the shavers did ... we could simply place the displays in various retail locations “on consignment.” (Again, I employed High School and College students to handle the consignment placements and service the accounts.) — We had the merchant sign a receipt for the number of items left in inventory ... with their agreement to pay us for those that were sold. — That’s called “rack jobbing.” Every week or so, we would return to the retail locations and count the number of items left in the display. The merchant would pay us for those that had been sold. By the way, since a “rack jobber” is bearing the cost of the inventory and is responsible for stocking and maintaining the display, the merchant is usually only allowed a 25% profit on the sales. — Actually, you could buy from wholesalers and resell as a rack jobber and still make money ... usually 15% to 20% of the retail price ... most of them do. 14
If you had enough locations and ample inventory, you could become a millionaire in one-year or less as a “rack jobber” yourself. — The WHOLESALER who had over 200 retail locations he serviced was a millionaire many times over ... that was back then, today his fortunes would be even greater ... so, don’t discount the possibilities. One of the problems we faced back then was not always having any small closeout deals we could use to make our “bread & butter” money - but - we were always able to average from $500 to $1,000 per week ... when most men were working for from $2 to $3 per hour ($80 to $120 per week). Today, you don’t even have to worry about it. Every month, “Closeout News” publishes nearly 100 pages (tabloid size) of both “closeouts available” and “closeouts wanted” from all over the country. Looking through just one issue of “Closeout News,” you will find at least 200 (usually more) “sellers” of closeouts, liquidations, overruns, overstocks, seconds, shelf pulls, etc. ... with full descriptions and prices ... from novelties to clothing; foodstuffs to pornographic videos; from health & beauty aids to shoes; from hand tools & power tools to vitamins ... everything from A to Z and in between. — The ads have the addresses, telephone & FAX numbers, email addresses and websites, so you can actually “buy” directly from the ads. Since you now know that every “seller” is also a “buyer,” you can add hundreds upon hundreds of possible “buyers” to your list from the monthly issues of “Closeout News.” If you are into closeouts; or want to be, I highly recommend that you get your personal subscription to “Closeout News.” CLOSEOUT NEWS Suite #510 5900 Wilsshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036 Telephone: (323) 525-2527 FAX: (323) 525-2531 OnLine: http://www.thecloseoutnews.com There is really no need for you to pay someone a big fee; then split your profits with them, when it comes to doing “closeout” deals. — When you come across a “lot” of closeouts, simply look in “Closeout News” for someone who is selling the same kind of products. Contact them. Tell them what you have. — Odds are you’ll find a buyer quicker than you might think - and you won’t have to split your profits with anyone. You can even “buy” from the sources in “Closeout News” and set up your own “rack jobber” business. My friend and I averaged from $500 to $1,000 per week with the “bread & butter” deals. You should be able to do even better than that using the sources we didn’t even have back then. While my friend and I were making our “bread & butter” money and grabbing the BIG Fees when we could, we began concentrating on getting those sellers to tell us what they wanted to buy; how many they would buy and how much they would pay for it; and getting those ”buyers” to come to us when they needed anything. Some of the things we did have never been revealed before ... except to my kids and grandkids; when they ASKed.
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What is a “Known Buyer?” You have already learned that ...
Every “seller” is also a “buyer.” BUT ...
Not every “buyer” is a “known buyer.” When you make a sale to someone, they become a “known buyer” because you “know” what they bought, how many they bought, and how much they paid - so ... In order for a “buyer” to become a “known buyer” you must KNOW ... 1) What the “buyer” buys. 2) How many the “buyer” buys. 3) How much the “buyer” is paying for what he buys. Once you KNOW that, you don’t have to try to “sell” that “buyer” anything. You just tell the “buyer” what you have available. — IF you have what the “buyer” buys; in a quantity that “buyer” would normally buy (or fewer); at a more favorable (cheaper) price, the “buyer” will buy. — It’s that simple. How can you build a list of “known buyers” if you’ve never sold them anything? Until we found a better way, my friend and I found our “know buyers” as we always had, by beating the bushes on every deal ... chasing down all the blind alleys ... eliminating the fakes and flakes ... until we found a buyer who wanted or needed whatever was available. — That “buyer” went on our “known buyer” list because we “knew” what they had bought, how many they had bought, and how much they had paid
There had to be a better, easier way. What we needed was a way to find out what a “buyer” was buying, how many they were buying and how much they were paying for what they bought ... without having to beat the bushes on every deal. Eventually, we finally found a way - but ...
We never told anyone what we were doing or how we were doing it. Other members of our group were forever amazed at the number of “known buyers” we had on our lists and the wide variety of merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery and fixtures we had available. They eagerly worked with us because the fees they could split with us were substantially better than the fees they could earn on their own. When we first determined that we had to find a way to locate, identify, qualify and quantify “known buyers,” my friend and I simply began beating the bushes ... as we normally would ... only WITHOUT having anything specific to offer the potential buyers. Our original method was simplicity itself. — We would simply contact a possible “buyer” and ASK them, “What do you need?” Explaining that we could usually find whatever they might need at a more favorable price - and - there was no charge for our services. — If they would tell us what they needed, we would research our sources to locate the best deals for them. Since we were telling the buyers that “we would research our sources to locate the best deals for them,” we began identifying ourselves as “Business Research Specialists.” Using that simple method, we were able to locate, identify, qualify and quantify some “known buyers” but it really wasn’t any better, or easier, than the methods we had employed before. As a matter of fact, in a great many cases, it was harder, because ... When we asked a buyer “What do you need?” they would often respond with, “What do you mean ... merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures?” — Then we had to convince them that we had sources for ANYTHING they needed, or wanted. — It took 16
time and patience on our part and on the part of the buyer ... most often too much time for the “buyer.” (Remember, we were doing it by telephone so time cost money ... sometimes as much as $1 per minute; back then..) Beyond that, most business people really don’t know what they need. They buy a great many things but when asked what they need; off the top of their head, without advance warning, they really don’t know what to tell you. That meant we had to lead them through the list of things they would buy and try to define what they needed, when they needed it, how many they would buy, and how much they would expect to pay for it. In an effort to locate and identify more “known buyers,” we even went so far as to create and distribute ... by mail to potential buyers ... brochures and flyers asking “What Do YOU Need?” The brochures and flyers explained our “research” services and offered to research our sources for anything they might need. — Since we already knew that every “seller” was also a “buyer,” we mailed those brochures and flyers to any and all businesses. Although it wasn’t a complete waste of time and money, it really didn’t justify the costs involved. We identified a few (very few) “known buyers” from our efforts but all-in-all it wasn’t very productive. We tried Classified Ads ... “What Do YOU Need?” ... as well. — That effort bombed big time. NOTE: A similar Classified Ad in the opposite direction is being used today ... “We Buy Closeouts. Full Inventories purchased for Cash. Normal channels of distribution protected.” ... As if that Classified Ad would reach the principals who actually have closeouts to sell. — If anything, the ad only produces other Finders, small-time closeout dealers, and wannabees asking “What do you buy?” The best method we found for locating, identifying, qualifying and quantifying “known buyers” was by first telephoning a company and ASKing to speak to the buyer ... if the person who answered the telephone said they didn’t have a buyer, we ASKed to speak to the owner. Once we had the buyer ... or owner ... on the telephone, we told them that, as Research Specialists, we had identified a number of sources for the merchandise (supplies, equipment, machinery,, or fixtures) they might normally buy ... at SUPER DISCOUNTED PRICES. We told them that there was NO CHARGE for our research services and if they would give us their correct mailing address, we would be happy to send them a letter explaining our services ... later, we ASKed for their FAX number, so we could FAX them the letter. — We were always sure to get the correct spelling of their name. In our letter ... of FAX ... we first Thanked them for taking the time to talk with us on the Telephone. Then, we explained that we were constantly researching the marketplace for Special Buys and Bargain Deals. We then ASKed them to provide us with a list of what they were currently buying ... or what they needed ... along with what they were currently paying for those items ... or the price range of what they needed. Explaining that there was NO CHARGE for listing their requirements with us - and - they would NOT be under any obligation to buy anything our research may locate for them. Depending upon the type of business we were contacting, we would offer to research whatever we thought most appropriate ... merchandise, or supplies, or raw materials, or equipment, or machinery, or fixtures, or any combination thereof. Our letter was a “sales letter” selling a FREE service. Although we had a “template” of our letter; with a variety of changes we could make for different kinds of businesses, it was NOT a Form Letter. — Each letter was personally typewritten and addressed to a specific person at the company, with a Carbon Copy ... using real Carbon Paper ... for our files. -- Using this method, my friend and I were able to add a good many “known buyers” to out lists. Then, one fateful afternoon, I telephoned a fairly good sized company and ASKed to speak to their buyer. — The telephone receptionist responded, “I’ll connect you with our Procurement Department.” 17
Not knowing what a Procurement Department was, I spent the next hour on the telephone ... ran up a whale of a telephone bill ... asking about “what” a Procurement Department was and “how” if worked. — The person I spoke to in the Procurement Department graciously answered all my questions. What I learned was ... A Procurement Department was responsible for locating sources of supply for anything and everything the company used ... whether it was one piece of specialized machinery or a source for the toilet paper used in all of the company’s rest rooms. — Once a source was located, and a favorable price negotiated, that source was turned over to a Procurement Agent; or Purchasing Agent, who had full authority to actually “buy” for, and in the name of, the company. By the time I got off the telephone, my mind was reeling ... I had even forgotten what I had originally telephone the company about. From that day on, I quit being a “Business Research Specialist” and became a ...
“Procurement Specialist” NOTE: After careful thought, I decided upon “Procurement Specialist” because I didn’t have anyone’s authority to “buy” anything in their name so I couldn’t be a Procurement Agent. Having deciding to be a “Procurement Specialist” instead of a “Business Research Specialist,” I telephoned my friend and told him everything I had learned. — He became a “Procurement Specialist,” too. Together we re-wrote the “sales letter” that sold our FREE service. Beyond that, we developed a comprehensive Form so the buyers could tell us what they bought, how many they bought, and how much they paid for each item - or - what they wanted to buy, how many they wanted, and how much they were wlling to pay. It was actually a “FREE Listing Form” for our services. Over time, our “sales letter” and our “FREE Listing Form” were re-written, tweaked, enhanced, and adapted dozens of times until we had creatred the absolute ultimate best possible. We also developed methods to locate the merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures our “known buyers” had told us they needed or wanted. Using those materials ... When we came across ... or developed ... a source that had something to offer, we simply went through all of our “FREE Listing Forms” to find our “known buyers” who had indicated that they needed or wanted that item. Then, we sent that “known buyer” a letter ... or FAX ... with a description of what was being offered, how many were available, and the price. Sometimes, in order to make an offer to our “known buyers,” we would make a Xerox (photo) copy of a catalog sheet showing and describing what we were offering and mail ... or FAX ... it to the “known buyer.” That way, they could compare whatever was being offered to what they were currently buying. In cases where one of our “known buyers” submitted a “FREE Listing Form” looking for a specific item ... indicating the quantity they needed (one or more) and the price they were willing to pay ... we would go looking for a source of that item. — Ir’s always easier to find “sellers” than it is “buyers.”
One-hundred buyers are always worth more than one-thousand sellers! With all of the “known buyers” and “FREE Listing Forms” my friend and I had, the other members of our group were forever amazed. They eagerly worked with us because the fees they could split with us were substantially better than the fees they could earn on their own.
We never told anyone what we were doing or how we were doing it. Now, with the passage of time, it is time for me to reveal what we were doing and how we were doing it to the next generation of entrepreneurs ... YOU! 18
How to be a “Procurement Specialist” In the following pages, I am going to share with you the “exact” methods you can use to become a “Procurement Specialist” and Be A Millionaire in One-year or less. No kidding ... no b.s. ... no hype. Just the way I have done it ... only you will be able to make far more money, faster, with the communication technologies you have today.
Warning! Warning! Warning! What you are about to learn is taken directly from over 50 years of my own, personal experience. — The methods, procedures, approaches and techniques in this course are exactly how my friend and I did it. DO NOT, under any circumstances, provide the information in this course to any other person. — You paid me to teach you how to Be A Millionaire in One-year or less. — Allowing anyone else access to this information would violate the strict confidentiality of the provided information. Since I don’t know your level of commitment or willingness to follow the plan, under no circumsatances do I assume any responsibility for negotiations or contracts that may result from publishing this information. As a “Procurement Specialist” your primary objective is to locate, identify, qualify and quantify “known buyers.” To that end, you should spend 90% of your time and effort locating “known buyers” — only 10% of your time needs to be spent locating “sellers” ... “sellers” are far easier to find than “buyers.”
In the land of business, the man who has a buyer is King . NOTE to the Ladies in the Audience: You will have to forgive me. I am noticeably of the male persuasion. Therefore, throughout my writings you will have to endure my use of male perspectives. For me to even attempt to fathom the female perspective would be the height of arrogant audacity. (Any man who claims otherwise is either a fool, or a liar.) But, I will say “In the land of business, the woman who has a buyer is Queen.” Just remember ...
One-hundred buyers are always worth more than one-thousand sellers! In order to begin to locate, identify, qualify and quantify “known buyers” you will have to contact the “buyers” at companies to whom you want to make your offers. — To get your feet wet, I suggest you start with the companies listed in your Telephone Book Yellow Pages. My friend and I would start with a general “category” of merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures that we already knew were readily available. Then, we would begin identifying companies in the Telephone Book Yellow Pages that we thought would buy those items. As an example, let’s pretend that you have come across a small closeout lot of “Wilson” basketballs. The “seller” has three dozen of them available. Retail price on the basketballs is about $40 each ... wholesale cost is about $20 each ... the “seller” only wants $5 each. — Now ... If you were to just act as a Finder in the deal, you would contact those companies listed under “Sporting Goods” in your Telephone Book Yellow Pages. — ASK them if they sold “Wilson” basketballs. Tell them you had three dozen available for only $180 — If that person wanted them, you would put them in contact with the “seller.” — If the “buyer” bought, you would pocket a Finder’s Fee of about $20; maybe $30. You would only be able to add one “known buyer” to your list as a Finder in the deal. — The same would be true even if you bought the basketballs yourself and resold them ... you would make more money but you would still only add one “known buyer” to your list. — But ... Since you are a “Procurement Specialist” you know full well there will be other “sporting goods” available in the future. Therefore, if you have a list of “known buyers” who buy sporting 19
goods, your future will be assured. — Instead of making just one fee; or one sale, you would have a list of “known buyers” for all kinds of sporting goods in the future - AND - after you have identified a “known buyer” of sporting goods, your first offer to them could be the “Wilson” basketballs. That being the case, you want to get some (most or all) of the companies listed under “Sporting Goods” in your Telephone Book Yellow Pages added to your list of “known buyers.” — After you get your feet wet using the listings in your Yellow Pages, you can expand to listings under “Sporting Goods” in other areas and on the Internet. NOTE: For illustration purposes only, I will continue with our “Sporting Goods” example. My friend and I used three different methods to locate, identify, qualify and quantify “known buyers” ...
On the Hoof To do it “on the hoof,” simply walk (or drive) around your local area, community, city, or even state. — Keep your eyes open. — Stop at EVERY place of business that (continuing our example) offers “Sporting Goods” of any kind. When you visit these places of business, DO NOT carry anything with you but your Business Card. At first, my friend and I carried a brochure explaining our FREE Procument Services ... along with a “FREE Listing Form.” Needless to say, the buyer, or owner, of the business wouldn’t take the time to read the brochure and bombarded us with a thousand questions about what we did and how we did it. — We quit doing that right-fast, — SO ... Upon visiting a place of business that sells “Sporting Goods,” just pretend to be a customer. — Walk around. Look at what is being offered. — Then, ASK to specak to the “buyer,” or owner, or manager. (I’ll just call that person, the “buyer” from now on, to save some time.) When you meet the “buyer” ... it may be the person you are already talking with ... introduce yourself and offer them a FREE listing in your personal directory. — Like this ... “I’m (your name).” — hand them your Business Card — “We offer FREE Procurement Services for businesses” — or companies — “like yours. Since we deal primarily with Special Buysa and Bargain Deals, we can probably save you some mney. If you want, I would be happy to mail you all the information. All I need is the correct spelling of your name and the address to which you want us to mail the information - or - if you prefer, we can send it to you by FAX or email.” If the “buyer” shows some interest in learning about your “FREE” services, the buyer will, without doubt, ASK you to explain more about what you do. — Your answer should be something like this ... “As Procurement Specialists, we have connections with a wide variety of suppliers. We even have some in the Sporting Goods industry. When those suppliers have a Special Buy or Bargain Deal on their merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures, we let you know about it so you can get the best deal possible. It doesn’t cost you anything. And, you are never under any obligation to purchase anything we tell you about. It will all be explained in the information I can send to you. All I need is the correct spelling of your name and the address to which you want us to mail the information - or - we can send it to you by FAX or email.” If the “buyer” persists, simply tell him ... “I’m sorry. I would really like to spend some more time with you but I was just passing by when I saw your business. I’m running a little late right now. If will give me the correct spelling of your name and your address, I will be happy to mail you all the information..” As soon as you get back to your office (or home), send that “buyer” the Sales Letter selling your FREE services ... along with a “FREE Listing Form” so they can tell you what they buy, how many they buy, and what they pay for it. Please be patient. — I will be giving you a copies of the “Sales Letter” offering your FREE 20
services and the “FREE Listing Form” for you to use ... as soon as I finish telling you how to go about contacting the “buyers” for the first time. By the way, the above “On the Hoof” approach works with ANY KIND of business ... On a short vacation trip with my wife Delores, I once noticed a small Plastics manufacturer along the road. — Since I knew of some significant supplies of Styrofoam they used in production, I stopped and went to the receiption area and ASKed to speak to the “buyer.” When I was escorted to the “buyer’s” office, I used the same spiel I would have used at a Sporting Goods business. — I even had a good reason to get out of there because my wife was waiting in the car. In another similar instance, the receptionist at the company told me I would have to have an appointment to see the “buyer.” — Since I, of course, couldn’t wait, I got the name and address of the buyer from the receptionist and followed up with my “Sales Letter” and “FREE Listing Form” ... mentioning in the opening sentence of my “Sales Letter” that the receptionist had been kind enough to give me his name. — “I am indebted to your receptionist; Miss Brown, for providing me with your name and mailing address.” As I said, this “On the Hoof” approach will work well with ANY KIND of business ... retail, wholesale, manufacturer, importer, whatever. — You only need a Business Card to properly introduce yourself. Here’s a Business Card design you may want to use.
YOUR NAME
Procurement Specialist Your Company Name 123 Main Street Anytown, GA 30000
Telephone: (706) 000-0000 TeleFAX: (706) 000-0000 eMail: you@yourdomain.com
You may use a “company name” on your Business Card, or not, if you want ... it’s up to you. — Which ever way you go, be sure to make your letterhead for which ever you choose. — If you use a “company name” on your letterhead ... you will simply use a signature block of “Your Name” with “Procurement Specialist” below it.
On the Telephone Although making your contacts “On the Hoof” is probably the absolute best way to identify, qualify and quantify “known buyers,” it also a very slow process requiring a great deal of time and effort. — It is still the BEST way. The second best way will be “On the Telephone.” It is actually the same as the “On the Hoof” method - but - instead of physically visiting the places of business, you simply telephone each company and ASK to speak to the “buyer.” — If the person answering the telephone tells you they don’t have a “buyer,” ASK to speak to the owner. If that fails, ASK to speak to the manager. Once you have the “buyer” (owner, manger) on the telephone, use the same spiel you would have used “On the Hoof.” — Of course, you will always have a reason to move on when the “buyer” starts asking questions. I used to keep a buzzer on my desk. — When the buyer started getting into a ho’bunch of questions, I would sound my buzzer and excuse myself from the call. Then, I would tell the “buyer” I had another call and get his name, address, etc. 21
After you get off the phone, prepare a “Sales Letter” and “FREE Listing Form” to mail, FAX or email to the buyer.
By Direct Mail & eMail In order to build our “known buyers” list faster, my friend and I trierd a variety of Direct Mail campaigns. Most of them were failures ... or produced so few leads they weren’t worth the expense ... but, three of our campaigns were productive. The LEAST PRODUCTIVE Campaign was a “pre-printed” form letter, just like any other Direct Mail campaign. — Although the number of responses was small, it did produce some “known buyers” to add to our lists. All we did was have our “Sales Letter” pre-printed with the headline, “Get Your FREE Listing, today!” ... no address on the letter itself; no greeting or salutation ... and mailed it to companies for whom we knew we could find Special Buys and Bargain Deals to offer them. Pre-printed Sales Letters did produce some “known buyers” - but - a MORE PRODUCTIVE Campaign took a bit longer to produce but it pulled three times better than the pre-printed Sales Letter. In our more productive campaign, each Sales Letter was individually typewritten, the letter was dated, and the company name and address was typewritten (as it would be in any proper business letter) ... followed by the headline, “Get Your FREE Listing, today!” Our MOSTPRODUCTIVE Campaign was exactly the same - but - we addressed both the envelope and the letter to a real person at the company ... by name. — The name of a real person was taken from the various directory listings ... when a person was named ... if a “buyer” was listed by name, we used it. If there was no “buyer’s” name in the directory listing, we used the name of the owner, president, comptroller, or whoever was listed in the directory. We DID NOT use the headline. Instead, we started each letter with the customary greeting ... Dear Mr. (real name). — This campaign pulled two times better than just the company name alone. Now ...
Let’s talk about eMail When I began writing this course, I decided to test emailing the “Sales Letter” to a variety of businesses. — It was a dismal failure. — Think about it. How many email messages do you delete each day? ONLY ONE of my email campaigns proved highly productive. Remembering that “Every ‘Seller’ is also a ‘buyer.’” — I sent the following email to a dozen of the names and email addresses I found in “Closeout News” ... Subject: Mr. Jay J. Jones (Personal) Mr. Jay J. Jones XYZ Liquidators 123 Main Street Anytown, CA 90000 Dear Mr. Jones: We offer FREE Procurement Services for businesses like yours. Since we deal primarily with Special Buysa and Bargain Deals,we can save you some mney. If you want, I would be happy to mail you all the information. All I need is the correct spelling of your name and the address to which you want us to mail the information - or - if you prefer, we can send it to you by FAX or email. Yours Truly, J.F. (Jim) STRAW Procurement Specialist 204 Wildflower Way Dalton, GA 30720-8029 Telephone: (706) 000-0000 TeleFAX: (706) 000-0000 eMail: jfstraw@businesslyceum.com
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It worked like a charm ... nine of the twelve requested further information. Some eMail Tricks & Hints Please re-read the email message I used. — I used every trick my friend and I learned when we were doing it ... I simply adapted those tricks to the email. To begin with, the “Subject” of my email was a real person’s name, followed by (Personal) in parenthesis. — WHY? On the Internet, in order to “personalize” everything, almost everything is addressed to a person’s given (first) name only; which is fine and good on the Internet - but - believe it or don’t, in the “real” business world proper form demands the use of a person’s full name ... preceded by Mr., Mrs., Miss, or Ms. Beyond that, people respond to their own names better than anything else ... especially when their name is addressed in a proper business fashion. If my subject line had been some hokey headline ... or just Jay; Mr. Jones’ first name ... chances are it would have been deleted before it was read - but - since the “Subject” is the “real person’s name” it would at least get a scan before being deleted. Next ... if you will notice ... I opened my email with the person’s name, company name and address, just as if I were addressing an envelope to that person. — Regardless of what you may think, proper business letter form is still preferred in the “real” busisness community - AND - by using proper business letter form in all your correspondence, you will be more readily accepted as another “real” business person. The same holds true for my greeting ... “Dear Mr. Jones:” — It is the proper business letter form and it shows respect to the person. (If you don’t show respect for that person, how can you expect any respect from them?) Notice I concluded the email message with “Yours Truly,” ... I could have used “Sincerely,” ... again, proper business letter form - and - I fillowed my signature block with my address, telephone numbers, etc. I DO NOT recommend using your business letterhead at the beginning of your email messsage because it puts you above the recipient. — Put them first, then follow with your name, address, etc.
Your Letterhead In ALL of your dealings as a “Procurement Specialist” you MUST use a Business Letterhead. Here is the letterhead I am currently using ..
J.F. (Jim) Straw
Procurement Specialist 204 Wildflower Way Dalton, Georgia 30720-8029 Telephone: (706) 000-0000 • TeleFAX: (706) 000-0000 eMail: jfstraw@businesslyceum.com But, if I were going to use a company name, I would do it like this ...
Straw Enterprises
Procurement Specialists 204 Wildflower Way Dalton, Georgia 30720-8029 Telephone: (706) 000-0000 • TeleFAX: (706) 000-0000 eMail: jfstraw@businesslyceum.com
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In either case, I use the signature block ... J.F. (Jim) STRAW Procurement Specialist NOTE: When you use just your name, you are a “Procurement Specialist” ... singular. — When you use a company name, you are “Procurement Specialists” ... plural. Although there are hundreds of different fonts (type faces) you can use, it is best to use a font that can be easily read by anyone. — I other words, don’t use “Old English” or some kind of weird font ... make it so anyone can read it - AND ... You could put your mailing address, city, state and zip code on one line, but it is better if your name and address appears on your letterhead much the same as it would on an envelope addressed to you. Another thing. As few as 20 years ago, I would have recommended that you use a “street” address for your business - but - today, it makes little difference. Even some of the largest companies in the world now use nothing but a Post Office Box for a mailing address. Then again, if you think using your home street address would invite people to visit you ... FEAR NOT! — For all but about 15 years of the past 50 years, I have used by home or office street address on all of my correspondence. During the 35 years or so that I used my street address, fewer than 10 people ever came to visit me unannounced. Everyone else advised me in advance that they were coming to see me. (If I didn’t have a place to greet them in my home, I simply advised them to meet me at a convenient Restaurant or Coffee House.) Back in the day, we had to have our Business Letterhead and Envelopes pre-printed by a professional printer. They would typeset it for us and then print us 500 to 10,000 (or more). ALL of our correspondence was then typewritten on those sheets of letterhead and mailed in an Envelope ... with our address printed in the upper left hand corner ... with the recipients name and address typewritten on the Envelope. Today, with the many typesetting and printing facilities on your own computers, you can do it yourself ... if you have the talent and ability. — If not, you should have a professional printer do your letterhead and envelopes foryou.
The Secret to Our Greatest Successes! Remember: As my Daddy used to say, “There really aren’t any secrets in this old world. Only things you don’t happen to know right now.” Of all the campaigns my friend and I used to identify, qualify and quantify “known buyers,” those that worked best were those where we took the time to actually speak with a possible “buyer” on the telephone first. That way, when the “buyer” received our “Sales Letter” and “FREE Listing Form” that “buyer” felt familiar with us. From then on, it was much easier to establish a personal rapport with that person. Learn and remember this ... Every business ... no matter how big ... is just a box; whether it be a Post Office box or a marble-columned edifice. The real business of that business is done by real people ... people just like you. — No matter what you might think, the real person working at a Fortune 500 company pulls his britches on the same way you do.
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Your “Sales Letter” On the three pages at the end of this chapter, you will find copies of my most productive “Sales Letters” ... offering our FREE Procurement Services - AND - on the fourth page, an Extra Email Letter you may use for prospecting. THE FIRST SALES LETTER The first letter is the PRE-PRINTED “Sales Letter” FORM LETTER my friend and I would have printed by a professional printer. It would then be mailed to a specific category of businesses from the various directories. If you will notice, the headline “Get Your FREE Listing, today!” is typeset in a sans-serif type ... Arial and Helvetica are the most common. The body of the letter is typeset in a common typewriter; serifed, type ... Courier is the most cmmon. Then, each paragraph of the letter is “indented.” — That makes the letter much easier to read. and it will grab the reader’s attention. NOTE: Standard typewriter type is about an 11-point type. Enclosed with this letter, you MUST include a copy of your “FREE Listing Form” so they can respond with the information you need. This letter was mailed in a Regular #10 Business Envelope, with the name and address of the company typewritten on the face of the envelope. Although this method of identifying, qualifying and quantifying “known buyers” was the least productive ... percentage wise ... since we could mail more of them, the number of “known buyers” we produced made it profitable. But, still not as good as those letters personally typewritten to a specific person ... especially when we had made contact with the buyer in person, or on the telephone, in advance of sending them the letter. SUPER HINT About Your Business Envelopes At first, my printer printed all my Business Envelopes on regular 24# White Envelopes. — Later, he introduced me to something better. Instead of using plain white envelopes, he suggested I use the White envelopes with GREEN Triangles (diamonds) all around the face of the envelope. — It increased my response factor — SO ... When you have your envelopes printed, have them printed on White envelopes with GREEN Triangles (diamonds) all around the face of the envelope - or - if you are printing the envelopes directly from your computer yourself, you can buy those White envelopes with the GREEN Triangles at most office supply stores. — If they don’t have those envelopes, ASK them to order some for you - or - go to another office supply store. After my printer introduced me to the White envelopes with GREEN Triangles all around the face of the envelope, I used them for all of my Procurement Specialist mailings. You can bet your bippy, your envelopes will stand-out in any stack of regular mail the person you are writing to receives because it somehow looks “official.” — That means it will get opened and read. THE SECOND SALES LETTER The SECOND SALES LETTER following is to be sent to any “buyer” that gives you the proper spelling of their name and the address ... or FAX number ... to which they want you to send the information. 25
You MUST mail this letter the same day you meet the person to whom you are writing ... next day at the latest. The ONLY thing you will ever need to change in that letter is the first paragraph ... “It was a pleasure meeting you on the telephone today.” If you met them in person ... “On the Hoof” ... it would be simply, “It was a pleasure meeting you today.” Then again, such as the instance I told you about earlier, “I am indebted to your receptionist; Miss Brown, for providing me with your name and mailing address.” Or, if one of your contacts gives you the name and address of someone you should contact, “I am indebted to Mr. (Mrs. Miss, Ms) — person’s name — for providing me with your name as someone who may benefit from our services.” — You would also eliminate the “Per our conversation,” from the next paragraph and begin with “We offer FREE Procurement Services ...” You may also use this letter as a DIRECT MAILER with the name and address of a person and company you have taken from a Directory. — In that case, you eliminate the first paragraph, “It was a pleasure meeting you on the telephone today.” - and - also eliminate the “Per our conversation,” from the next paragraph and begin with “We offer FREE Procurement Services ...” In EVERY CASE, this letter MUST BE individually produced and personalized to the person to whom you are writing. Back in the day, we just had our Business Letterhead and a template of the body of the letter. Each letter was individually typewritten ... took some time but the results were well worth it. Today, you can prepare a template ot the letter (copy & paste it from this PDF file) in your “text” (typesetting) software. Then, you can change the date, the name and address, and the salutation (greeting) - and- make any necessary changes to the body of the letter (first paragraph) in your “text” software. Once you have the letter personalized, you may print it on the Business Letterhead from your printer ... just allow enough space at the top of your text file to accomodate your pre-printed letterhead - or - if you have prepared your Business Letterhead on your computer, simply insert the text file; or copy & paste it, into your lettehead. — Print it and mail it. Then again, if you don’t have the capability of using a text (typesetting) software on your computer, you can still do it the same way we did ... just typewrite the letter on your Business Letterhead. Enclosed with this letter when you mail it, you must include a copy of your “FREE Listing Form” so they can respond with the information you need. THE THIRD SALES LETTER The third sales letter is the EMAIL MESSAGE you should send to those buyers who have requested information by email. — You will, of ccourse, change the first paragraph to remind the reader about your telephone; or in-person, conversation. Again, this message MUST be sent the same day you speak with that person ... or the next day at the latest. You will have to attach the PDF file of your “FREE Listing Form,” so the reader will have the form to return to you ... by mail, FAX or email. — If you can not set-up your “FREE Listing Form” as a PDF file, ASK them for a FAX numbr where you can send it. 26
This is the same EMAIL MESSAGE you will send to anyone who responds to your EMAIL PROSPECTING LETTER. — In that case, you will eliminate the first paragraph and instead of, “Per our conversation, “ you will use “Per our earlier email to which you responded, “ DO NOT send this email message to anyone until they ASK you to. — I tried it and it failed miserably. — Think about it: How many email do you delete each day? We didn’t have email back when but, it is a simple matter to copy & paste the Email Messsage from this PDF file directly into your email composer; make the necessary changes, and email it. EMAIL PROSPECTING LETTER The fourth page following is an EMAIL PROSPECTING LETTER you may want to use. — I had an exceptional response to it when I tested it for you. — But ... To use it effectively, it MUST be addressed to a specific person at a specific company. — I tried it with just the company name and got no response. Be sure to use a specific person’s name as the Subject line ... followed by (Personal) in parenthesis. Again, just copy & paste the Email Messsage from this PDF file directly into your email composer; make the necessary changes, and email it. NOTE: You may also use these same letters to identify, qualify and quantify “known buyers” all around the world. — Read my book, “Sell American” ... which was included with this course ... to learn how to export to your international “known buyers.” Now, all you need is ... Your “FREE Listing Form”
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Your LetterHead Get Your FREE Listing, today! We offer FREE Procurement Services for busineses like yours.
As Procurement Specialists, we have connections with a wide variety of suppliers. — When those suppliers have a “Special Buy” or a “Bargain Deal” on their merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery or fixtures, we let you know about it so you can take advantage of the best deals available. Since we deal primarily with “Special Buys” and “Bargain Deals,” we CAN and WILL save you money on your future purchases of the same merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery or fixtures, you are currently buying. Our Procurement Services are FREE ... it doesn’t cost your company anything - AND - you are never under any obligation to purchase anything we tell you about.
We are pleased to offer you a FREE Listing in our Directory of Buyers.
To get your FREE Listing, please complete and return the enclosed “FREE Listing Form.” Just tell us what you currently buy or want to buy, the quantities you normally buy or would like to buy, and your current cost or the price you want to pay.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly by Phone, FAX or eMail, for assistance. As “Special Buys” or “Bargain Deals” come available in your areas of interest, we will notify you directly of that availability. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours truly, (Your Signature) YOUR NAME Procurement Specialist
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Your LetterHead January 3, 2007 Mr. Jay J. Jones XYZ Company 123 Main Street Anytown, CA 90000 Dear Mr. Jones:
It was a pleasure meeting you on the telephone today.
Per our conversation, we offer FREE Procurement Services for busineses like yours. As Procurement Specialists, we have connections with a wide variety of suppliers. — When those suppliers have a “Special Buy” or a “Bargain Deal” on their merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery or fixtures, we let you know about it so you can take advantage of the best deals available.
Since we deal primarily with “Special Buys” and “Bargain Deals,” we CAN and WILL save you money on your future purchases of the same merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery or fixtures, you are currently buying. Our Procurement Services are FREE ... it doesn’t cost your company anything - AND - you are never under any obligation to purchase anything we tell you about.
We are pleased to offer you a FREE Listing in our Directory of Buyers.
To get your FREE Listing, please complete and return the enclosed “FREE Listing Form.” Just tell us what you currently buy or want to buy, the quantities you normally buy or would like to buy, and your current cost or the price you want to pay.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly by Phone, FAX or eMail, for assistance. As “Special Buys” or “Bargain Deals” come available in your areas of interest, we will notify you directly of that availability. Get your FREE Listing, today!
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours truly, (Your Signature) YOUR NAME Procurement Specialist
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Subject: Mr. Jay J. Jones (Personal) Mr. Jay J. Jones XYZ Company 123 Main Street Anytown, CA 90000 Dear Mr. Jones: It was a pleasure meeting you on the telephone today. Per our conversation, we offer FREE Procurement Services for busineses like yours. As Procurement Specialists, we have connections with a wide variety of suppliers. — When those suppliers have a “Special Buy” or a “Bargain Deal” on their merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery or fixtures, we let you know about it so you can take advantage of the best deals available. Since we deal primarily with “Special Buys” and “Bargain Deals,” we CAN and WILL save you money on your future purchases of the same merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery or fixtures, you are currently buying. Our Procurement Services are FREE ... it doesn’t cost your company anything - AND - you are never under any obligation to purchase anything we tell you about. We are pleased to offer you a FREE Listing in our Directory of Buyers. To get your FREE Listing, please complete and return the attached “FREE Listing Form” (PDF file). Just tell us what you currently buy or want to buy, the quantities you normally buy or would like to buy, and your current cost or the price you want to pay. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly by Phone, FAX or eMail, for assistance. As “Special Buys” or “Bargain Deals” come available in your areas of interest, we will notify you directly of that availability. Get your FREE Listing, today! Thank you for your time and consideration. Yours truly, YOUR NAME Procurement Specialist 123 Main Street Anytown, GA 30000 Telephone: (706) 000-0000 TeleFAX: (706) 000-0000 eMail: yourname@yourdomain.com
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Subject: Mr. Jay J. Jones (Personal) Mr. Jay J. Jones XYZ Liquidators 123 Main Street Anytown, CA 90000 Dear Mr. Jones: We offer FREE Procurement Services for businesses like yours. Since we deal primarily with Special Buysa and Bargain Deals,we can save you some mney. If you want, I would be happy to mail you all the information. All I need is the correct spelling of your name and the address to which you want us to mail the information - or - if you prefer, we can send it to you by FAX or email. Yours Truly, YOUR NAME Procurement Specialist 123 Main Street Anytown, GA 30000 Telephone: (706) 000-0000 TeleFAX: (706) 000-0000 eMail: yourname@yourdomain.com
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Your “FREE Listing Form” On the following page is a “FREE Listing Form” to use to identify, qualify and quantify your “known buyers.” Back when my friend and I began our quest for “known buyers,” we only ASKed the buyers to provide us with a list. — Some of them did but not as many as we would have liked. — Then we learned another one of those secrets. When anyone ... business person or otherwise ... is asked to “make up a list,” they procrastinate. They get all caught up in the mechanics of preparing the list, what the list should contain, and how to present it. — So, they put it off until they have more time - or - worse yet, they simply don’t do it. By using a Pre-printed Form ... with spaces and blanks to fill in ... they don’t have to think about it. They just do it - IF - they are interested in the purpose of the form. Since your initial contact and your “Sales Letter” should spark their interest, when you provide them with a “FREE Listing Form” the chances of them filling in the spaces and blanks for you will be (almost) assured ... there will still be those who won’t want your services; even if those services are FREE. Over the years, our “FREE Listing Form” has taken on a wide variety of appearances and requested a good number of different pieces of information. Some of the information we requested seemed to offend the buyers. We found other items we really needed to know and other things we didn’t need. Funy thing, in the beginning, we didn’t ask anyone to sign the form. Then, we started hearing from people asking “Where do I sign the form?” Seems, in their eyes, the “FREE Listing” wasn’t official until they signed it. The “FREE Listing Form” published on the next page is the final result. Please take some time to read over the form. — It is very, very simple - but - it will enable you to qualify and quantify your “known buyers.” — Pay special attention to the last item on the form ... “Special Notice.” That notice alone has produced some phenomenal deals over the years. If you are going to be sending your “FREE Listing Form” by eMail, you will have to turn it into a PDFfile for transmission. — So ... First, either typeset the form yourself; on your computer (just Copy & Paste the form into your typesetting software), or take it to a professional printer to have it typeset. — Get as many copies printed as you think you will need for your immediate use - or - print them as needed yourself. NOTE: One of the beauties of PDF files is that you can print any single page of this course. Just select the “print” function on your computer. Then, print a copy of the “FREE Listing Form” to take to your printer for typesetting. Once you have your form typeset, ASK your printer if they can scan it and make a PDF file for you. — If they can’t, ASK if they can provide it to you as a digital file. If they can, get them to give (more likely sell) it to you on a disk compatible with your computer. Then, telephone all of the other printers and ASK if they can convert a digital file to a PDF file. — If you can’t find one, there are a number of FREE Services on the Internet that can, and will, convert the digital file to a PDF file for you. If you have typeset your own “FREE Listing Form” on your computer, it should be a simple matter to have that file converted to a PDF file by any number of FREE On-line services. Even if you can’t find one of the FREE services online, the cost of having your “FREE Listing Form” converted to a PDF file will be well worth the cost because it will be providing you with your own list of “known buyers.” — And ... Always remember ... One-hundred “buyers” is worth more than one-thousand “sellers.” 32
Your (or Company) Name Your Mailing Address • Anytown, YourState 00000-0000 Telephone: (000) 000-0000 • TeleFAX: (000) 000-0000 eMail: yourname@yourdomain.com
FREE Listing Form
Please list our following requirements for merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures. NOTE: Make as many copies of this form as you may need. DESCRIPTION: Describe the merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures, you currently purchase; or would like to purchase. Be as specific as possible. Brand Names are excellent. QUANTITY: Indicate the quantity you normally purchase; or the quantity you would like to purchase. COST/PRICE: List the price you are currently paying; or the price you are willing to pay.
DESCRIPTION
QUANTITY
COST/PRICE
________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ We are:
o-Wholesalers o-Retailers o-Manufacturers o-Other ___________________
We understand that you will notify us of “Special Buys” or “Bargain Deals” in the categories above listed. — We are under NO OBLIGATION to accept or even acknowledge any of your notifications. Please send such notifications by: o-Mail - o-TeleFAX - o-eMail Company Name
_________________________________________________________________________
Mailing Address ______________________________________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip Code __________________________________________________________________________________ Telephone # _____________________TeleFAX #________________________eMail Address __________________
__________________________________________________ Person To Contact
__________________________________________________ Signature
Special Notice If you have any excess or redundant merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures, that you would like to sell, please give us a Description of whatever you have; the Quantity you have available; and the Price you will accept. — We will be happy to check our files to see if we may have a buyer for you. — Thank You!
Keeping Your “Directory” Back in the day, our “Directory of Known Buyers" was kept on 3"x5" cards and in spiral notebooks. Then, when we originated our “FREE Listing Form,” we kept those completed forms in alphabetical order in a file folder ... later, I used a 3-hole punch and kept my “FREE Listing Forms” in alphabetical order (by company name) in a 3-ring binder. NOTE: I highly recommend that you keep ALL of your completed “FREE Listing Forms” in alphabetical order in either a file folder or a 3-ring binder. — I’ll tell you why in a moment. When we had something (merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures) to offer to our “known buyers,” we went through all of our 3"x5" cards, notebooks, and “FREE Listing Forms” ... one by one ... looking for any of our “known buyers” who bought the same or similar merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures. As you can imagine, as our list of “known buyers” grew and grew, it was a time consuming task - but - it was highly profitable. On those occassions when we didn’t have a “known buyer” in our files that bought the same or similar merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures, we would look-up possible buyers in that category and use our “Sales Letter” and “FREE Listing Form” to locate, identify, qualify and quantify some “known buyers” in that category and add them to our list for the deal we had ... and future deals as well. Please note that once we had developed our “Sales Letter” and “FREE Listing Form” we discoutinued our efforts to find ONE BUYER for ONE DEAL at a time. — From then on, we attempted to locate, identify, qualify and quantify “known buyers” for THAT CATEGORY of buyers. Had we continued our efforts to find ONE BUYER for ONE DEAL at a time, we would have only had one “known buyer” ... the one who bought that particular deal ... to add to our list of “know buyers.” By dedicating our efforts to locating, identifying, qualifying and quantifying “known buyers” in a specific category, we were able to add a number of “known buyers” to our list in that category ... for the deal we had and all deals in that category in the future. Now you know why we almost always had a buyer before the others in our group even began looking - and - we NEVER told anyone ... except our kids and grandkids ... what we were doing or how we were doing it (until now).
Your Directory, Today! Where we had to go through literally hundreds of hardcopy listings ... 3"x5" cards, notebooks and “FREE Listing Forms” ... to find those “known buyers” who might hava an interest in a specific type of deal, then prepare an offer to them and mail it (or, later, FAX it), you won’t have to do it that way. Instead of spending hours looking through hardcopy listings, all you gotta do is ... Create a “text file” with the information you take directly from the “FREE Listing Form” submitted by your “known buyer.” That “text file” listing should include the person’s name to contact, the company name, address, telephone, FAX, email; whether they are a retailer, wholesaler, manufacturer, or other; whether they want notifications by Mail, FAX, or eMail - and - a list of WHAT they buy. Your list of WHAT they buy should be specific enough to tell you what they buy - but - it should be in general categories. — In other words, if a retailer buys various sundry products ... toys, cosmetics, etc. ... list only toys, cosmetics; NOT the brand names. — If a “known buyer” buys Caterpillar Tractors, you might list Heavy Equipment. — You get the idea, don’t you? Post the information from the “FREE Listing Forms” you receive to your “text file” every day. Then, file the hardcopy “FREE Listing Forms” in alphabetical order in either a file folder or a 3-ring binder. There is absolutely no need to try to alphabetically post the listings in your “text file.” Just keep adding the listings to the end of the file ... no matter how big the file gets. 34
When you have a specific deal, simply use the “find” function on your “text file” to locate the “known buyers” in your list. As an example: Say you have a “Special Buy” or “Bargain Deal” (closeout, overstock, overrun, whatever) of 10,000 widgets. You would simply use the “find” function on your “text file” and search for “widgets.” — As you “find” each “known buyer” on your list that buys widgets, copy & paste their listing from your “text file” into a new “text file” ... I would name tha file “widgets.” Once you have found all of the “known buyers” on your list who may be interested in buying the widgets you have available, go to the alphabetical hardcopy file of your “FREE Listing Forms” and take a look to see which of your “known buyers” would be interested in buying all 10,000 widgets ... hopefully you will find two or three; maybe more. Then again, in some instances, the “seller” will accept orders in smaller lots; not for the entire lot of 10,000 widgets. — In those cases, select those “known buyers” who buy widgets in smaller lots. — Be sure to find out what the “seller” will accept as a “Minimum Order.” — But ... Before you make any notifications to any of your “known buyers,” determine how you are going to do the deal ... strictly as a Finder, as a Pre-seller, or for your own account. — Then ... Notify the “known buyers” you have determined would be possible buyers for the deal and wait for them to buy the deal.
SPECIAL NOTE Here’s something I used to do all the time. Any time one of my “known buyers” mentioned their birthdate; wedding anniversary, or whatever, I would make a note on their 3"x5" card; in my notebook; or on their “FREE Listing Form,” noting that date. Then, I would send them a Birthday, Wedding Anniversary, or whatever, note ... a “personal note” not a store-bought card ... right before that date. Right before the end of each month, I would go through ALL of my listings and find those “known buyers” for whom I had listed some kind of personal occassion in the next month. — I would set up a separate sheet with their names, addreses, the day of the month, and the occassion. Then, I would prepare a “personal note” (NOT a card) for them for that occassion and mail it right before that day of the month. It took some time and effort - but - it paid off like a broken slot machine. When you learn one of your “known buyers” birthdates ... or the date or any other personal occassion ... go into your “text file,” find that person and add that information to their listing — like ... “Birthday: January 19” or “Wedding Anniversary: January 19” or “Birth of Son: January 19” or “Birth of Daughter: January 19” or whatever. At the end of December, use the “find” function on your “text tile” to find “January.” — All of the personal occassions you have posted will be found. — Copy them to another “text file,” and send them a “personal note” for that occassion right before that day of the month. It will take a little time and effort - but - you can bet your bippy your “personal note” will be filed in “your file” in their office ... a store-bought card usually won’t get filed - and - the person receiving your “personal note” will remember YOU. Think how much faster and easier using your computer will make it. — You can even send most of your “personal notes” by email ... where I had to send them by uail (or FAX).
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Making Notifications to Your “known buyers” When you come across a deal that any (or all) of your “known buyers” might want or need, you will have to notify them of that availability. On page following this chapter is a letter that my friend and I used to notify our “known buyers” of any deals we had that might interest them. — On the page following that letter is the same letter done as an email message. Actually, I really shouldn’t have to give you a letter for you to use ... nobody else does ... I recently purchased a couple books about “Closeouts & Liquidations” ... one for $395, the other for $97. In both those books, the readers were simply told to “contact a buyer and tell them what you have” - but - I promised you I would tell you exactly “what” my friend and I did and “how” we did it, so I won’t leave anything to guess work for you. Take a look at the letter at the end of this chapter. — It’s really pretty simple - but - let me give you an idea what you need to include. QUANTITY — This should be the full quantity of the particular items the “seller” is offering ... whether it be one or 100,000. DESCRIPTION — Be as concise as possible. Use Brand Names, Manufacturer, Model Numbers, etc., if possible. Use a “Catalog Description” if you have one. (You can find product catalogs for almost anything by doing a search on the Internet.) Include whether the items are new, used, in packages, counter displays, or what condition the item is in, — It is also a good idea to include the normal retail price and the normal wholesale price - or - the normal dealer’s price. — Don’t leave anything for your “known buyer” to guess about. PRICE — This can be quoted as each, per dozen, or whatever. If you quote a price “each” and there are 24 of them available, include the price for all 24 after you quote the price each ... for example: $1 each; $24 for the lot. MINIMUM ORDER — IF the “seller” will accept orders for less than the whole lot, list the minimum order the seller will accept, followed by the price for the minimum order. Using our example above: 6 ($6). — IF the “seller” will only sell the whole lot, don’t just say “all.” Put in the number and the amount for the whole lot. Using our example: 24 ($24). If you are acting as a pre-seller; or for your own account, for the deal, your ‘MINIMUM ORDER” can be the minimum you want to sell on any single order. The ABSOLUTE MOST IMPORTANT notation on the notifications you send to your “know buyers” is ... SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALE Without that notation, you could have a very ticked-off “known buyer” if they ordered what was offered and you couldn’t have it delivered - and - it can save your buns if you are acting as a pre-seller; or for your own account. Let’s pretend that you have been offered 100 dozen widgets but you don’t have a “known buyer” who would normally buy 100 dozen - but - you do have a number of “known buyers” who do normally buy two or three doaen at a time. If you need to sell 12 to 15 dozen to cover you “cost” of the whole lot, you could set your “MINIMUM ORDER” at three dozen. With just four or five orders for your “MINIMUM ORDER” you could purchase the whole lot ... any other sales would be pure profit for you - but - if you didn’t sell the first four or five orders, your “SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALE” notation will allow you to APOLOGIZE to your “know buyer” and explain that the entire lot was gone before his order was received but you will try to find some more for him. (Ain’t you a nice guy?) Then again, if you have already APOLOGIZED to your “known buyer” and a batch of orders come in, you can go back to that “known buyer” and tell him that you have found another lot and let him send you the order again. 36
NOTE: When my college edjerkated grandson read that, he said: “They never told us anything about doing that in any of my business classes.” — So, I guess you now know something even the Business College graduates never learned. On occasion, one or more of your “known buyers” will request a more detailed description of what is being offered ... especially when you are notifying them of a piece of used equipment or some item that might not be easily described. Back in the day, we would have to find a “catalog” that had that item in it, photocopy (Xerox) a copy of that catalog page and send it along to the “known buyer” who requested it. Sometimes, we sent a photocopy of the catalog page with each and all of the notifications to the “known buyers.” — The catalog page also allowed the buyer to see the actual sales price of the item from the catalog. If I were doing it today, I would simply do a “search” for the specific item online and either print out the web page that offered the specific product and send it along with the notification - or - if my “known buyer” was online, I would simply refer him to that web page ... of course, the web page you refer him to should show a price well above what you are offering. Even back then, there were those instances where a catalog sheet simply wouldn’t do - so - we would get a camera and take pictures of whatever was being offered and send those pictures to the buyer. Today, you can get a throw-away camera at just about any supermarket or drugstore. Take pictures of whatever is being offered. — Then, when you have the pictures developed, ASK them to give you digital copies of the picturs on a CD. — You can either print out those digital pictures on your computer to send to the buyer - or - insert one or more of the pictures in an email to the buyer. Boy ... I wish we had that capability back then. — It would have saved me hours and hours of time photocopying catalog descriptions and taking pictures. NOTE: If you don’t currently have computer software to do it using the new technologies, just do it the same way we used to do it. — It won’t be long until you will be able to afford to buy any of the fancy computer software you want. — A million dollars goes a long way ... even today.
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Your LetterHead January 19, 2007 Mr. Jay J. Jones XYZ Company 123 Main Street Anytown, CA 90000 Dear Mr. Jones:
In accord with your listing in our Directory of Buyers, we have the following available. QUANTITY:
DESCRIPTION: PRICE:
MINIMUM ORDER: SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALE If you are interested in purchasing any or all of the above, please contact me directly by telephone, FAX, or email. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours truly, (Your Signature) YOUR NAME Procurement Specialist
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Subject: Mr. Jay J. Jones (Personal) Mr. Jay J. Jones XYZ Company 123 Main Street Anytown, CA 90000 Dear Mr. Jones: In accord with your listing in our Directory of Buyers, we have the following available. QUANTITY: DESCRIPTION: PRICE: MINIMUM ORDER: SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALE If you are interested in purchasing any or all of the above, please contact me directly by telephone, FAX, or email. Thank you for your time and consideration. Yours truly, YOUR NAME Procurement Specialist 123 Main Street Anytown, GA 30000 Telephone: (706) 000-0000 TeleFAX: (706) 000-0000 eMail: yourname@yourdomain.com
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Closing The Deals No matter how many “known buyers” you notify about a deal, if you don’t “Close The Deal,” you won’t make any money. In the notifications you sent to your “known buyers,” you told them ... “If you are interested in purchasing any or all of the above, please contact me directly by telephone, FAX, or email.” But ... what do you do next? That all depends upon how you have structured your deal. If you are working as a Finder ... which is the way I usually handled the bigger deals so I wouldn’t have to do anything but put the buyer and seller together, let them make a deal, and collect my fee ... when one of your “known buyers” contacts you about buying the deal, you simply relay that buyer’s name, address, etc., to the seller who will be paying your fee. — Here’s how you do it ... When one of your “known buyers” contacts you about buying the deal, tell them ... “Just send me a note by mail, FAX or email, and I will have the seller contact you.” You are a “Procurement Specialist” so (in this case) you are NOT the seller. Your buyer will accept that you will have to put him in touch with the seller without question. — If the buyer does question you, simply tell him, “I am a Procurement Specialist, not the seller.” Once you have the note from your “known buyer” expressing an interest in buying the deal, simply send a copy of that note to the seller in accord with your Finder’s Fee Agreement. — Wait for the buyer and seller to do their deal. — Collect your fee. PLEASE read; or re-read, my Finder’s Fee course which was included with this course. It will teach you how to get a Finder’s Fee Agreement and how to relay your buyer’s information directly to the seller. — DO NOT, under any circumstances, relay your buyer to the seller until you have an agreement from the seller to pay your fee. — Get it in writing. Put it in writing. Although acting as a Finder is one of the easiest ways to make money from your “known buyers,” you will soon learn ... as my friend and I did ... that there are a lot more deals where the Finder’s Fee to be earned wouldn’t justify the time and expense of doing the deal. — In those cases, you can (as we did) do the deal for your own account ... either as a Pre-seller, or by buying; or controlling, the deal and re-selling it. NOTE: If you will notice, for the lack of a better word, I use the word “sell” when writing about letting your “known buyers” buy what you have to offer - but - you are really NOT SELLING ... you are simply telling your “known buyers” about something you have available; something they are already buying, and letting them buy it from you. When working as a Pre-seller, there are a variety ways to handle the sale ... depending upon how you are doing the deal. If it is a small lot where you are only going to let one of your “known buyers” buy the whole deal, when a buyer inquires about buying the lot, simply send them an INVOICE for the entire lot. At the end of this chapter is an INVOICE that I have used for years. Notice on the INVOICE there are places for the buyer’s “Telephone Number,” “Special Instructions,” “Terms.” and “Your Order Number.” — On the INVOICE you send, put in your buyer’s “Telephone Number.” Leave the “Special Instructions” and the “Terms” blank. — In the “Your Order Number” put in how the order was received and the date ... like this: By Phone 1/19/07 - or- By Email - 1/19/07 - or - By FAX - 1/19/07 When your “known buyer” receives your INVOICE, most of them will simply pay the INVOICE and send it back to you with their payment. — You, then, buy the deal from your seller and have it shipped directly to your buyer. 40
In those rare cases where the buyer wants a 30-day billing; or whatever, ASK them if they have established an “Open Account” with you. — Since they haven’t, have them send you three credit references; the name of their Bank; and any other information you can think of to establish their “Open Account” - and - tell them if they go ahead and pay the INVOICE, you can arrange shipment for them while their “Open Account” is being established. That works almost every time - but - when the buyer is willing to wait for an “Open Account,” you might (if the profit is good enough) want to find a way to finance the deal for the 30-days; or whatever. — You might even ASK your seller for the same terms yourself ... get paid by the buyer, then pay the seller - but - be sure to check your buyer’s credit before you do it, to be sure you are going to get paid. Another way to handle it is to tell the buyer that you can’t hold the shipment while you establish an “Open Account” for them since the deal is “SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALE.” — If someone else wants to buy the deal before their “Open Account” is established, the deal will be gone. NOTE: Back in the day, we could only accept checks and money orders in payment. Today, you have more options ... Credit Cards and PayPal for instance. Here’s what to do if you are going to try to Pre-sell enough pieces of an entire deal to cover the cost of the entire deal. When a buyer inquires about buying the “Minimum Order” you have established ... BEFORE you send an INVOICE ... ASK them to send you a “Purchase Order.” — Some businesses have a pre-printed “Purchase Order” they can send you ... not most; or even many, just ‘some.’ — SO ... On the second page following this chapter is a “Purchase Order” form you can have printed ... with your name or company name on it, of course. If one of your “known buyers” inquires about buying the “Minimum Order” you have established, just ASK them to send you their “Purchase Order.” — If they say they don’t have a “Purchase Order,” just tell them you will be happy to send them one by FAX ... or mail. (I wouldn’t recommend sending it by email ... unless you want to have it converted to a PDF file to attach to an email.) Since a “Purchase Order” is NOT a demand for payment ... as is an INVOICE ... should you not produce enough Pre-sold orders to cover the cost of the entire lot, you can APOLOGIZE and tell the buyer that the deal was SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALE and it had already been sold when you received their “Purchase Order.” Once you have enough “Purchase Orders” for the “Minimum Order” you have established, send those who sent you a “Purchase Order” an INVOICE. — Get the payments from your buyers. Buy the entire lot from your seller. — Keep making notifications to your other “known buyers” to sell the remainder of the lot ... you can even drop the price because anything you sell for is pure profit. But ... What Do You Do With The Left-overs? Let’s pretend you were offered 100-dozen widgets. You Pre-sold enough of them in 10-dozen “Minimum Order” lots to buy the entire lot and sold some more after you had bought the entire lot - but - you still had 20-dozen left-over. — What could you do with them? You could place them to sell On Consignment. Just take your left-overs to “sellers” (from here on, I will refer to them as “merchants”) in your area that normally sell the same (or similar) widgets. Put your widgets in their place of business (store; or whatever). When the widgets are sold, you get paid for them under your “Consignment Agreement.” For your convenience, a “Consignment Agreement” in included at the end of this chapter.. As I told you earlier, I usually paid High School and College students; on commission, to handle the consignment placements and service the accounts. But, don’t get the impression that you can only sell consumer goods on consignment. 41
About 35 years ago; while driving home from my office, I saw a Bulldozer on the side of the road with a “For Sale” sign on it. Of course, I stopped and got all the information about the Bulldozer ... make, model, etc. ... and found out how much the owner wanted for it. The next day, at my office, I called a number of Used Heavy Equipment Dealers around the country to find out what they were asking for the same Bulldozers - and - I ASKed if they happened to have one for sale. — I learned that the owner/seller was asking about one-third of the going price and only one of the Used Equipment Dealers had a Bulldozer like it in stock. — So, I went back to the owner/seller and took “control” of the Bulldoaer (I’ll tell you how I did it, shortly.) After I took control of the Bulldozer, I put out a notification to all of my “known buyers” who regularly dealt in Used Heavy Equipment, those who had expressed an interest in buying a piece of Heary Equipment, and those involved in the Construction industry. — As I had expected, I didn’t get any inquiries immediately ... a Bulldozer isn’t something you buy; or sell, every day. Over the next couple weeks, every time I drove by that Bulldozer; with the “For Sale” sign on it (the owner/seller was going to refer anyone who inquired about it to me) I would try to figure out “how” I could get a buyer for it. — Then, I had an idea. There was an aggressive “Used Car Lot” in our area that ran big ads in the newspaper two or three time each week. — In each of their ads, they had a “Special Buy of the Week” with a picture, description and price of a specific vehicle. — So, I went to them with an advertising idea. Instead of running a car, pickup, or van, as their “Special Buy, “ why not run a Bulldozer ... it would not only spark some amusing comments, if the Bulldozer sold they would make a nice profit. — They went for the idea. — I told the Car Lot owner the going price for the Bulldozer; the price I would accept, and told him to list his price well below the going price ... with a line under his price stating, “Regularly Sells For $____” (the going price). Getting the seller’s permission, I paid over $200 to get the Bulldozer moved from the side of the road where it was to the “Used Car Lot.” — The owner of the Car Lot took some pictures of the Bulldozer and ran it as his “Special Buy” in his next week’s advertising. As luck would have it, one of the local Radio DJs saw the ad and made some jokes about the Bulldozer for sale at a Used Car Lot. — That inspired a comical news story in the newspaper. — The Bulldozer sold that week. Over the next year, the Used Car Lot took four other pieces of equipment on consignment and did the same thing. — We both made money. — SO ... Please remember that ANYTHING can be sold on consignment. By the way ... Here’s something you need to remember when dealing with any kind of Used Equipment Dealers. Used Equipment Dealers usually don’t buy a piece of equipment unless thay normally sell a ho’bunch of that particular piece of equipment. For that reason, when you send them a notification of a piece of equipment you have available, they may simply file the information for future use ... in case someone asks about buying a piece of equipment like it. Then, they will ASK you if you still have that piece of equipment available. One of the members of our group (not my friend; or me) once sold a hard-to-sell piece of equipment rather deviously. — After sending out a notification of the availability of that piece of equipment to all of the “known buyers” on his list who might buy it, he arranged for some of his friends (stooges) ... 5 of them; if memory serves ... call a number of Used Equipment Dealers on his list. His friends ASKed each of the dealers if they happened to have that particular piece of equipment. Since each Used Equipment Dealer had had at least five telephone calls asking about that particular piece of equipment, each of them started thinking there was a “demand” for it. — They asked our group member if it was still available and he told them that, since it was offered SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALE, he would have to check and get back to them. 42
When the member of our group told them that it was still available, each of the dealers called back the five people who had inquired about it and told them that they could get one for them. — Of course, the stooges then asked for pictures of it and asked where they could see it. That week, one of the Used Equipment Dealers bought that piece of equipment and had it moved to his sales lot. But, when he called back the stooges who had wanted to buy one like it, each of them told him they had already bought one. I DO NOT recommend that you use any tactic like that ... I never have ... but, I have included it because “it has been done.” Now, here’s ... A Way To Use “Consignments” to Make Bread & Butter Money! You can buy sundry products from the sellers in “Closeout News” and place them for sale on consignment in retail stores in your area. — You’ll be able to give the merchants some additional inventory and let them make a buck doing it ... since your prices will be far below what they would have had to pay a regular wholesaler. Be generous with the profits you allow the merchants to make so they’ll welcome you every time you come to re-count the inventory and add more inventory. As a Pre-seller you can also send out notifications to your “known buyers” who buy merchandise like the merchandise you find in “Closeout News.” Believe it or not, 999 of 1,000 of your “known buyers” won’t know anything about “Closeout News” or the kind of deals you can find in every issue. -- Just remember ... You are offering “Special Buys” and “Bargain Deals” ... NOT closeouts. AND -- you can always ... SELL IT ON eBAY! When you have leftovers ... where all of your costs have been met ... you can always sell them on eBay. -- Anything you get for those items will be 100% profit to you. Then again, if you are buying and selling for your own account, you can probably find a ton of stuff to sell in every issue of "Closeout News."
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Your (or Company) Name Your Mailing Address • Anytown, YourState 00000-0000
I N V O I C E SOLD TO:
Telephone Number
QUANTITY
Telephone: (000) 000-0000 TeleFAX: (000) 000-0000 eMail: yourname@yourdomain.com
INVOICE #: ________________ DATE: ______________________
SHIP TO:
Special Instructions
DESCRIPTION
Terms
Your Order Number
UNIT PRICE
AMOUNT
___________________________________ SUB-TOTAL ___________________________________ SHIPPING ___________________________________ TOTAL DUE
Thank You for your patronage.
Your (or Company) Name Your Mailing Address • Anytown, YourState 00000-0000 Telephone: (000) 000-0000 • TeleFAX: (000) 000-0000 eMail: yourname@yourdomain.com
PURCHASE ORDER
Your Purchase Order # _____________
QUANTITY
DESCRIPTION
PRICE
________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ TOTAL ________________________________________________________________________ Company Name
_________________________________________________________________________
Mailing Address ______________________________________________________________________________________ SHIPPING Address __________________________________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip Code __________________________________________________________________________________ Telephone # _____________________TeleFAX #________________________ eMail Address __________________
__________________________________________________ Person To Contact
__________________________________________________ Signature
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Your (or Company) Name Your Mailing Address • Anytown, YourState 00000-0000 Telephone: (000) 000-0000 • TeleFAX: (000) 000-0000 eMail: yourname@yourdomain.com
Consignment Agreement We, the undresigned, do hereby accept the following item(s) from (Your Name or Company Name); herinafter the “Vendor,” on consignment: QUANTITY
DESCRIPTION
RETAIL PRICE
YOUR COST
________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ The above “Retail Price” is subject to our discretion. We understand the we may market the item(s) at any price above our “Cost” we think appropriate for our customer base. We agree to pay the Vendor for the item(s) sold; at the “Cost” price listed above, upon a (Date) . recount of the “Quantity” listed. — Such recount to be conducted on or about Company Name
_________________________________________________________________________
Mailing Address ______________________________________________________________________________________ SHIPPING Address __________________________________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip Code __________________________________________________________________________________ Telephone # _____________________TeleFAX #________________________ eMail Address __________________
__________________________________________________ Person To Contact
__________________________________________________ Signature
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You Don’t Have to Buy the Deal Just “Control” it! Over the years, although I have had money enough to “buy” almost any deal, in most cases I have chosen to just “control” the deal ... without putting up any money (like I did with the Bulldozer). — To do that, I have used an ... OPTION TO PURCHASE So ... what is an “Option To Purchase?” An option gives you absolute “control” of a piece of property (any kind of property) WITHOUT BUYING IT. — By having an option on a piece of property, you have the exclusive right to either buy that property, or NOT to buy it. The choice (option) is yours ... and yours ALONE. — It is an “exclusive” right. — That means NO ONE ELSE can buy or sell that property during the term of your option ... not even the “owner/seller” of that property. If the seller sells the property to someone else, while you hold this exclusive option, you are entitled to any monies the seller receives over the price you have agreed to pay for the property — or — if the seller sells the property for less than what he agreed to sell it to you for on your option, you can collect the difference from the seller. — ‘Exclusive’ means ‘exclusive’ under the law. Right now, I think I heard some schmarty-aleck say, “Nobody is going to give me an option with that kind of control over their property.” In a way you are right, nobody is going to “give” you an option on their property - but you can “take” an option on it. — Let me explain ...
Business is, and always has been, one of the very few level playing grounds in the world. There are NO Free Lunches in the business world. — No one is required to “give” you anything. — It doesn’t matter whether you are white, black, red, yellow, or purple with orange polka dots; male or female; young or old; tall or short; in the business world you only get what you have earned ... be it money, respect, friendship, fame, or just the opportunity to do a deal. In the business world, you earn the opportunity to do another deal by doing what you promise to do, when you promise to do it, on the first deal. — That means you must NEVER attempt to do any deal in business unless you are willing to see the deal through to the end ... win or lose. ‘Nuff said. When an “owner/seller” lets you take an option on their property, they are taking NO RISK. — If they have been trying to “sell” their property for some time - or - if they really don’t want to put out the effort to sell it, another 30, 60, 90 days (the length of your option) won’t really be a risk to them ... if you don’t exercise your option, it will still be the same amount of time the property hasn’t sold anyway. The “Option To Purchase” is really a very simple form, but, before you can use it to accomplish your goals, you should familiarize yourself with its structure. So ... please turn to the two pages at the end of this chapter, where you will find the standard “Option To Purchase” form I have used for as long as I can remember. Over the years, I have used options to control almost anything you can imagine - and - in most cases, the option only cost me $1 ... that’s right, $1. — Remember, the “seller” wants to sell the property (whatever it is) but either hasn’t been able to sell it, or doesn’t want to take the time; or exert the effort, to sell it. For that reason, they are not looking to make money from letting you take an option. They just want to sell the property - and - they lose nothing if you don’t exercise the option. 47
Although MOST options are taken at a cost of only $1 ... just enough to make it legally binding ... for larger deals, I have offered $5; or even $10. However, in some major deals, the seller has demanded as much as 10% of the cost of the property for the option (their intent is to make a profit on the option whether they sell the property or not) ... in those cases, unless I have an absolute confirmed buyer for the property and my profit on the deal is big enough, I simply walk away (usually the seller comes back to accept my low-cost option when they don’t sell the property anyway). In the business world ... as when playing Poker ... know when to hold’em; know when to fold’em; know when to walk away; and know when to RUN. Now ... before you read any further ... sit down in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed and study the “Option To Purchase” form. Simple, isn’t it? - But, there are some important parts of the form you should be made aware of... Paragraph #1 - which is titled “PROPERTY” - does some very important things for you. It gives you, your heirs and assigns the exclusive right to purchase the seller’s property at a specified price for a specified period of time. That “exclusive right” prevents anyone except you from buying the property from the seller until your option expires. If the seller sells the property to someone else, while you hold this exclusive right, you are entitled to any monies the seller receives over the price you have agreed to pay for the property - or - if the seller sells the property for less than what he agreed to sell it to you for on your option, you can collect the difference from the seller. — “Exclusive” means “exclusive” under the law. Once you exercise your option, you are bound by the purchase price and terms contained in Paragraph #2. So ... don’t even think of exercising your option unless you are ready, willing and able to meet that price under those terms. In Paragraph #3, you get the right to extend the option for two (2) additional periods of time by paying the seller another option fee. And, under that agreement, the seller MUST give you those extensions; he has no choice in the matter. You, of course, would only want to extend your option if you had a deal working when the option was about to expire - or - you have a plan for the property that extends past the expiration of the first option period. Otherwise, you can simply let the option expire at the end of any option period. Paragraph #5(c); last sentence, gives both you and the seller legal recourse if either of you don’t live up to your respective parts of the bargain. WHEN YOU HOLD AN OPTION ON A PIECE OF PROPERTY (any kind of property), YOU “CONTROL” THE SALE OF THAT PROPERTY UNTIL YOUR OPTION EXPIRES. You own the “exclusive right” to buy that property, or not buy that property, or sell that property to someone else, or sell the option itself to someone else. But ... since you are only buying an “exclusive” right, not the property... you cannot, and must not, sell the property ... unless, of course you are acting as a Pre-seller with a SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALE clause in your offer ... until such time as you have exercised your “right to purchase” (paid the owner the agreed upon price) and taken legal ownership of the property ... even if that legal ownership only lasts a few minutes while you ship (or have the seller ship) it to your buyer. NOTE: I heartily recommend that you take the time to read my book, “How To Make A Fortune Selling Real Estate You Don’t Own” to learn more about getting sellers to let you take an option. A copy of that book was included with this course. As I said ...
You Don’t Have to Buy the Deal Just “Control” it!
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OPTION TO PURCHASE Know All Men By These Presents: That _________________________________________________________________ (hereinafter referred to as “Seller”) hereby agrees for and in consideration of _______________________________________________ Dollars ($_____________ ), paid by _____________________________________________________________________ (hereinafter referred to as “Buyer”) AS FOLLOWS: 1. PROPERTY: Seller hereby gives and grants to Buyer and to his heirs and assigns for a period of: ___________ _______________________ from the date hereon (hereinafter referred to as “First Option Period”) the exclusive right and privilege of purchasing the following described real property located at: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ County of ___________________, State of ____________________, and more particularly described as follows:
Together with all rights appurtenant thereto or used in connection therewith. (Said real property and improvements, if any, shall hereinafter be referred to as "The Property). 2. PRICE. The total purchase price for said property is: _____________________________________________________________________________ Dollars ($ ___________________ ) , payable in lawful money of the United States, strictly within the following times, to-wit. All sums paid of this option and any extension thereof as herein provided, shall be first applied on the purchase price, and the balance shall be paid as follows:
3. EXTENSION OF OPTION. Upon payment by Buyer to Seller of an additional sum of: _______________________________________________________________________________________ Dollars ($ __________ ), cash or by cashier’s check, prior to the expiration of the first option period, this option shall be extended for: ______________________________________________________________ (hereinafter referred to as “Second Option Period”). Upon Buyer’s payment to Seller of a further sum of: _______________________________________________________________________________________ Dollars ($ __________), prior to the expiration of the second option period, this option shall be extended for a third period of: ________________________________________________________________ (hereinafter referred to as “Third Option Period).
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4. EXERCISE OF OPTION. This option shall be exercised by written notice to Seller on or before the expiration of the first option period, or if extended, the expiration of the second or third option periods as the case may be. Notice to exercise this option or to extend the option for a second or third option period, whether personally delivered or mailed to Seller at his address as indicated after Seller’s signature hereto, by registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, and postmarked on or before such date of expiration, shall be timely and shall be deemed actual notice to Seller. 5. EVIDENCE OF TITLE. (a) Promptly after the execution of this option, Seller shall deliver to Buyer for examination such abstracts of title, title policies, and other evidences of title as the Seller may have. In the event this option is not exercised by Buyer, all such evidences of title shall be immediately returned without expense to Seller. (b) In the event this option is exercised as herein provided, Seller agrees to pay all abstracting expense or at Seller’s option to furnish a policy of title insurance in the name of the Buyer. (c) If an examination of the title should reveal defects in the title, Buyer shall notify Seller in writing thereof, and Seller agrees to forthwith take all reasonable action to clear the title. If the Seller does not clear title within a reasonable time, Buyer may do so at Seller’s expense. Seller agrees to make final conveyance by Warranty Deed or in the event of sale of other than real property. If either party fails to perform the provisions of this agreement, the party at fault agrees to pay all costs of enforcing this agreement, or any right arising out of the breach thereof, including a reasonable Attorney’s fee. 6. CLOSING ADJUSTMENTS. All risk of loss and destruction of property and expenses of insurance shall be borne by Seller until date of possession. At time of closing of sale, property taxes, rent, insurance, interest and other expenses of property shall be prorated as of date of possession. All other taxes, including documentary taxes, and all assessments, mortgage liens and other liens, encumbrances or charges against the property of any nature shall be paid by Seller except:
7. POSSESSION. Seller agrees to surrender possession of property on or before _______ days following written notice of the exercising of this option by Buyer. 8. If this option be not exercised on or before the dates specified herein for exercise of same, the option shall expire of its own force and effect and the Seller may retain such option monies as have been paid to the Seller as full consideration for the granting of this option. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Seller has set his hand and seal this _______ day of __________________________ 19_____.
SIGNED IN PRESENCE OF:
SELLER:
______________________________________________________ (Notary Pulic)
_____________________________________________________ (Signature)
My Commission Expires: ______________________________
______________________________________________________ (Typewritten or Printed Name) ______________________________________________________ (Address) ______________________________________________________ (City/State/Zip) ______________________________________________________ (Telephone Number)
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How To Find The Deals Finding deals for your “known buyers” is really the easiest part of your task because Everybody Sells Something - but - you have to find deals that will sve and make money for your “known buyers” and make a profit for you, too. Remember, I told you how my friend and I shot ourselves in the foot when we took on product lines to sell to our “known buyers.” We because just another salesman trying to sell the same things every other salesman was trying to sell. — Don’t Do It! It is so-o-o-o easy to get a Wholesaler or Retailer to agree to pay you a “commission” for bringing a buyer to them - but - finding “buyers” at the wholesale or retail level is a more difficult task than you really want to undertake. Besides, your “activities will be in direct competition with the Wholesaler’s, or Retailer’s, own advertising ... making it all that much more difficult to find a “buyer” who hasn’t already seen their advertising. The methods and techniques offered in this course are best used to locate “private” and “individual” sellers. — Sellers who are NOT spending all their time; every day, trying to market a line of products. — But ... Deals are everywhere! Back in the day, when my friend and I were aggressively pursuing deals, we simply scanned the Classified Ads in newspapers, magazines, and trade publications for ads offering any kind of merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery or fixtures For Sale. — Make an initial inquiry ... as explained in my Finder’s Fee course. Then, if the deal was worth doing, follow through until we earned our fees. By the way, a “Trade Publication” is a publication directed to a specific trade, industry, or type of business ... such as: Restaurants, Franchises, Construction Companies, Beauty Salons, Barber Shops, Printing Companies, Plastics Manufacturers, Steel Fabricators, Amusement Parks, etc., etc., etc. ... you name it. Almost every trade, industry, or type of business has a publication (usually more than just one or two). To find the “Trade Publications” simply go to your local Public Library and ASK to see a Directory of Periodical Publications. Those directories are divided into classifications. — If you are looking for Used Restaurant Equipment, just check the classification “Restaurants” to find the publications published for the Restaurant Industry. — They won’t let you take those directories out of the Library so you’ll have to write down the information you need to take with you. — Later you can, as I did, purchase copies of those directories for your own library - but most of them are expensive, so use the Library to save your money in the beginning ... you’ll soon be able to afford all the directories you want. When you have a list of “Trade Publications” for the trade, industry, or type of business you are interested in, simply TELEPHONE each of those publications ans ASK to speak to their “Advertising Department.” Tell the “Advertising Department” that you are considering the possibility of advertising in their publication and ASK them to send you a “Media Kit.” — In the “Media Kit” you will usually get one or two back issues of the publication. — When the “Media Kit” arrives, check the Classified Ads to find any items offered For Sale. By the way, sometimes (not always) after you request a “Media Kit” you will also receive three to six complimentary (free) issues of the publication. — Check the Classified Ads in each issue for more items For Sale. Almost any publication in any trade, industry, or type of business should yield at least one ... if not a ho’bunch more ... deals for you to pursue. If I were doing it today, I would check every issue of “Closeout News” every month when it arrived in my mailbox. — Remember, 999 of 1,000 of your “known buyers” won’t know anything about “Closeout News” or the kind of deals you can find in every issue. Then again, if you want to find some exceptional deals to offer to your “known buyers,” 51
be sure to read my book, “Exactly How To Make A Fortune Just Snooping Around” ... which was included with this course. If you want to get really aggressive in your pursuit of deals for your “known buyers,” on the three pages at the end of this chapter I have included copies of a “Pre-printed Form Letter,” a “Sales Letter,” and an “Email Message” you can use to locate some deals. — Use those letters the same way you would use the letters you use to identify, qualify and quantify your “known buyers” —BUT ... You MUST make those letters more specific than those you sent to find your “known buyers.” If you will notice, each of the sample letters contains the paragraph, “As Procurement Specialists, we are in contact with a wide variety of buyers, who may be interested in purchasing any — (excess inventories of (whatever)) — (used equipment) — you may have available.” If you are looking for closeouts of leather goods, that paragraph would read ... “As Procurement Specialists, we are in contact with a wide variety of buyers, who may be interested in purchasing any excess inventories of leather goods you may have available.” Then again, if you were looking for used equipment, the paragraph would read ... “As Procurement Specialists, we are in contact with a wide variety of buyers, who may be interested in purchasing any used equipment you may have available.” The fourth page following this chapter is a “FREE Listing Form” you can use to get the “sellers” to list what they have available with you - and - on the form, they also agree to pay you a commission if you bring them a buyer. As when looking for “known buyers,” by offering a “FREE Listing” ... rather than just asking what they have available ... will produce the kind of results you need. Of course, as with our “Sales Letter” looking for “known buyers,” the ABSOLUTE BEST way to find the deals is to START WITH A TELEPHONE CALL. If you are looking for closeouts, telephone the company (almost any company) and ASK to speak with “The peson who handles your excess inventories.” NEVER, NEVER, NEVER ask to speak to someone who handles their “closeouts” ... never mention “closeouts” unless they mention it first. Always ASK about “excess inventories” ... NOT closeouts. If the person answering the telephone doesn’t know who might handle their excess inventories, ASK to speak to the owner or manager. When you get the right person on the telephone, tell them ... “As Procurement Specialists, we are in contact with a wide variety of buyers, who may be interested in purchasing any excess inventories you may have available. We offer a FREE Listing service for any excess inventories you may haave. It doesn’t cost you anything. It will all be explained in the information I can send to you. All I need is the correct spelling of your name and the address to which you want us to mail the information - or - we can send it to you by FAX (or email).” Just use the same methods you used to locate your “known buyers.” — Go back and re-read those instructions. Of course, if you are looking for used equipment, change the “excess inventories” to “used equipment” in each instance. By the way, over the past 50 years, I have observed one constant factor prevalent in almost every industry in this country. — Knowing that one constant factor has provided me with more fees and commissions than any other over the years. — That one constant factor is... In every industry in this country, you will find used, excess, surplus,
redundant and other equipment not being used, just gathering dust in storage areas and back rooms. 52
As the individual businesses, in any industry, succeed and grow, they must expand and improve their capacity to do their business. To do that, they acquire bigger and better equipment in order to serve their customers. Usually, the source or supplier of the ‘new’ bigger and better equipment will offer trade-in allowances for the old equipment - but - business people (in any industry) are most often contingency planners. — So, they ask themselves... “What if the ‘new’ equipment doesn’t work as well as intended?” — “What if the capacity of the ‘new’ equipment is exceeded?” — “What if the ‘new’ equipment requires repairs or maintenance that takes it off-line?” — “What will we do?” To be prepared for such contingencies, many (if not most) businesses keep and maintain the ‘old’ equipment they have replaced with ‘new’ equipment, as a back-up. — Just in case! — They figure they can always “sell” the old equipment, later, to recover any “trade-in allowance” they missed - but - they rarely do. On the other side of the coin: Every year, in every industry, there are “new” businesses being formed. New businesses that need, want and could readily use the used, excess, surplus, redundant and other unused equipment gathering dust in storage areas and back rooms of their more mature counterparts, contemporaries and competitors. NOTE: By knowing and acknowledging just this one constant factor in industry, you can use it to provide yourself with on-going fees and commissions in almost any industry you choose ... at any time you choose. Another way to find the deals ... Watch for “Going Out Of Business” signs on the front of a business ... any kind of business. — You simply make a deal with the “seller” to pay you a ‘commission’ if you can find a buyer for everything they have left after they finish their “Going Out Of Business Sale.” — You might even take an option on everything they have left. — Then, you offer everything they have left to the “known buyers” on your list who may need or want those products, equipment, machinery, or fixtures. Finding deals for your “known buyers” is really the easiest part of your task ... Deals Are Everywhere!
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Your LetterHead Get Your FREE Listing, today! As Procurement Specialists, we are in contact with a wide variety of buyers, who may be interested in purchasing any — (excess inventories of (whatever)) — (used equipment) — you may have available. We deal primarily with excess inventories (redundant equipment) that you may want to get out of your place of business. — Sorry, we are not interested in representing your on-going lines of products or services. Our Listing Services are FREE ... it doesn’t cost your company anything - AND - we only earn our commission when your excesses or redundancies are sold.
You never have to go beating the bushes; chasing down blind alleys; or wade through any fakes or flakes. — We do that, until we find a buyer for you. We are pleased to offer you a FREE Listing.
To get your FREE Listing, please complete and return the enclosed “FREE Listing Form.” Just tell us what you currently have available, the quantity available, price you want, and the commission you will pay.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly by Phone, FAX or eMail, for assistance. Upon receipt of your “FREE Listing Form,” we will notify our known buyers of that availability. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours truly, (Your Signature) YOUR NAME Procurement Specialist
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Your LetterHead January 19, 2007 Mr. Jay J. Jones XYZ Company 123 Main Street Anytown, CA 90000 Dear Mr. Jones:
It was a pleasure meeting you on the telephone today.
Per our conversation, as Procurement Specialists, we are in contact with a wide variety of buyers, who may be interested in purchasing any — (excess inventories of (whatever)) — (used equipment) — you may have available.
We deal primarily with excess inventories (redundant equipment) that you may want to get out of your place of business. — Sorry, we are not interested in representing your on-going lines of products or services. Our Listing Services are FREE ... it doesn’t cost your company anything - AND - we only earn our commission when your excesses or redundancies are sold.
You never have to go beating the bushes; chasing down blind alleys; or wade through any fakes or flakes. — We do that, until we find a buyer for you. We are pleased to offer you a FREE Listing.
To get your FREE Listing, please complete and return the enclosed “FREE Listing Form.” Just tell us what you currently have available, the quantity available, price you want, and the commission you will pay.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly by Phone, FAX or eMail, for assistance. Upon receipt of your “FREE Listing Form,” we will notify our known buyers of that availability. Get your FREE Listing, today!
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours truly, (Your Signature) YOUR NAME Procurement Specialist
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Subject: Mr. Jay J. Jones (Personal) Mr. Jay J. Jones XYZ Company 123 Main Street Anytown, CA 90000 Dear Mr. Jones: It was a pleasure meeting you on the telephone today. Per our conversation, as Procurement Specialists, we are in contact with a wide variety of buyers, who may be interested in purchasing any — (excess inventories of (whatever)) — (used equipment) — you may have available. We deal primarily with excess inventories (redundant equipment) that you may want to get out of your place of business. — Sorry, we are not interested in representing your on-going lines of products or services. Our Listing Services are FREE ... it doesn’t cost your company anything - AND - we only earn our commission when your excesses or redundancies are sold. You never have to go beating the bushes; chasing down blind alleys; or wade through any fakes or flakes. — We do that, until we find a buyer for you. We are pleased to offer you a FREE Listing. To get your FREE Listing, please complete and return the enclosed “FREE Listing Form.” Just tell us what you currently have available, the quantity available, price you want, and the commission you will pay. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly by Phone, FAX or eMail, for assistance. Upon receipt of your “FREE Listing Form,” we will notify our known buyers of that availability. Get your FREE Listing, today! Thank you for your time and consideration. Yours truly, YOUR NAME Procurement Specialist 123 Main Street Anytown, GA 30000 Telephone: (706) 000-0000 TeleFAX: (706) 000-0000 eMail: yourname@yourdomain.com 56
Your (or Company) Name Your Mailing Address • Anytown, YourState 00000-0000 Telephone: (000) 000-0000 • TeleFAX: (000) 000-0000 eMail: yourname@yourdomain.com
FREE Listing Form
We have the following excess or redundant merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery or fixtures, available. NOTE: Make as many copies of this form as you may need. DESCRIPTION: Describe the merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures, you currently have available. Be as specific as possible. Brand Names are excellent. QUANTITY: Indicate the quantity available. COST/PRICE: List the price you will accept for the items. DESCRIPTION
QUANTITY
COST/PRICE
________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Please indicate any “Minimum Order” you will accept (if applicable): ____________________________ We are willing to pay a Commission of: $__________ - or - ____% — should you find a buyer for any of the above items.
Company Name
_________________________________________________________________________
Mailing Address ______________________________________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip Code __________________________________________________________________________________ Telephone # _____________________TeleFAX #________________________eMail Address __________________
__________________________________________________ Person To Contact
__________________________________________________ Signature
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YOUR Group When my friend and I first joined forces, there were only the two of us. — Soon, other men and women who were doing much the same thing joined with us. — Our individual fortunes grew exponentially. With all of the “known buyers” my friend and I had, the other members of our group were forever amazed — but ...
We never told anyone what we were doing or how we were doing it. Over the years, our group expanded world wide. — We had members of our group in over 40 countries - but - it took us years. You don’t have to do it the way we did. When you purchased this course, you automatically became a member of the ...
“Mercantile Connections Exchange” “Mercantile Connections Exchange” is a Member’s Only group. Membership is strictly limited to those aggressive entrepreneur’s who have purchased, read and studied this course. The purpose of the “Mercantile Connections Exchange” is to allow the members of the Exchange to share their connections with “known buyers,” and deals they may have available, among and between the members of the group ... as my friend and I did. Members of the Exchange are invited to list both their AVAILABLE and WANTED situations in the daily updated “Member’s Listings” publications Free Of Charge. Publication of any “Member’s Listing” is to the sole discretion of the publisher and may be edited or rewritten by the publisher. While the many and various listings from the members are believed to be from reliable sources, the publisher neither guarantees them, nor assumes any responsibility for contracts or other negotiations which result from publishing this type of information. The “Mercantile Connections Exchange” is a news reporting and public information service available to Member’s Only. — Membership Dues: $240 per year. Here’s How to Use Your “Mercantile Connections Exchange” Membership As a member of the Exchange, you are invited to submit the WANTED situations of your “known buyers” ... you should NOT submit any specific contact information about the “known buyer,” only the type of merchandise, supplies, raw materials, equipment, machinery, or fixtures that “known buyer” is known to buy - or - is specifically wanting to buy. You may also list any deals you have AVAILABLE for the “known buyers” of your fellow members. Again, you should NOT list any specific contact information. PLEASE don’t list the same items over & over. When a new listing is received, it is published in an email to all of the members of the Exchange. -- It is the responsibility of each member to keep and maintain those email for future reference. Upon receiving a response to YOUR listings, it is your obligation to respond with the pertinent information - and ... By Posting a Member’s Listing in the “Mercantile Connections Exchange” you are AGREEING to split your commission/fee with other members of the Exchange ... 50/50. There will only be two (2) members of the Exchange involved on each individuatl deal ... YOU and EACH other Member of the Exchange with whom you close a deal. — I DO NOT get involved in your deals ... unless I happen to have a “known buyer” or seller myself (then, we split 50/50). 58
Here are our ...
RULES OF USE 1) You MUST confirm your buyers and sellers before submitting a listing. 2) You MUST NOT “spam” the Members of the Exchange. 3) You MUST NOT get involved, or get the Members of the Exchange involved in, any "daisy chains." 4) You MUST NOT list any offers for any on-going product lines. 5) You MUST NOT list any offers for any affiliate programs. 6) You MUST agree to split your commissions/fees 50/50 with any Member of the Exchange who closes the deal in your listing with their buyer or seller. 7) Deals outside the Exchange ... between members ... are encouraged. Play fair.
VIOLATION of any of the above rules will result in immediate termination of membership. — NO REFUND of club dues will be made. Members MUST report any violation of these rules to the publisher. That’s it ... you now have a group much like the one my friend and I set-up for ourselves years ago - but - you don’t have to spend the time building your group the way we did. Use the “Mercantile Connections Exchange” to your advantage - and ...
You Can Be A Millionaire In One-Year Or Less!
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Epilogue Let me close by telling you ...
THREE MAGIC WORDS Back when I was just a boy, I asked my Dad how to succeed. — He told me, “There are only three words you really need to know to succeed.” — Those words were ...
“Please” & “Thank You” Of those three words, the words “Thank You” are the most important. Why? — Because ... in this old world, no matter what you might think ... No One Owes YOU Anything! Therefore, the simply act of saying “Thank You” is a show of gratitude for whatever (anything) you receive. In this instance ... I will take this opportunity to say Thank you to my friend for allowing to me to share our secrets with the next generation of entrepreneurs. We did it ...
Go Ye And Do Likewise!
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Have You Read Your “business bible” Today?? In all religions, the faithful are constantly admonished to “read your Bible every day” ... or whatever Holy Book the religion adheres to. Unfortunately, too many people who study doing business read a book once and, thinking they know everything it says, never open it again Those who really succeed, read and study their “business bibles” every day ... re-reading those books that relate to the business they are doing. — So ... Keep this report next to your easy chair ... or on your desk ... or on the kitchen table ... wherever it will be seen every day. — Be sure to keep this back cover facing up ... so you will remember why you have this report lying around. — Each time you see it, pick it up and read a few passages. — Your proficiency will build upon your repetitions. Try it. You will find that you learn (or re-learn) something every day.
Read Your “business bible” Today!