How to Use Cheap, Tacky, Homemade Signs

[Rudi Vanhaecke]

How to Use Cheap, Tacky, Homemade Signs to Earn Fast Profits in Your Network Marketing Business

 

Have you ever notice those cheap, tacky, home-made signs that advertise MLM programs and products?

 

You know the signs I'm talking about. The signs that are illegally posted on street corners, sign posts, telephone poles and curbs. These signs usually read like:

 

"Lose 30 lbs. in 30 days. Call xxx-xxxx."

 

"Work at home. Earn $300 - $500 per week."

 

"Management trainees wanted."

 

Do these signs really work? Or are they useless clutter on the horizon?

 

Art Jonak decided to test these signs to find out the real truth. Here is what he did.

 

First, he called the number on several of the signs and talked to the advertisers. Why? He wanted to find out who made the signs for them. After locating the source, Art negotiated the following deal with the local source for signs:

 

The local source would print up 100 signs for only $220. Very inexpensive. But Art didn't want to spend a day or two climbing telephone poles and posting his signs. So, for an extra $100 ($1 per sign), the local source arranged to have Art's signs posted in the specific zip codes Art chose.

 

For a total of $320, the local source would do everything: the printing and the posting of the signs in strategic locations. This was the major expense in Art's campaign.

 

The local source also informed Art that the signs were technically illegal, but no one ever complains. Everyone posts garage sale signs, house for sale signs, lost dog signs, etc. without sign permits. The signs would stay up an average of 6 to 8 days before they were removed or destroyed by weather.

 

Next, Art arranged for a local voice mail number to answer the sign inquiries. Art didn't have the time to take the phone calls personally, so the voice mail would pre-screen the callers, qualify them, and inform them. Obviously this method would reduce the total leads and sales, but Art felt this was necessary because of his personal time restraints.

 

Cost of the local voice mail number was $10 a month with a $10 set-up fee. The voice mail could handle 30 messages at a time and also provided the daily call count totals.

 

Finally, Art chose to advertise his service instead of advertising for distributors. He wanted to make some retail sales and then offer the opportunity to those customers who showed an exceptional interest in sharing the service.

 

The signs were posted on May 25, 1999. The responses were:

 

Column A is the number of prospects who called the voice mail message.

 

Column B is the number of prospects who left their contact information after listening to the message.

A B

May 25 17 7

May 26 13 4

May 27 12 3

May 28 9 2

May 29 8 2

May 30 1 0

May 31 0 0

June 1 4 1

June 2 6 2

June 3 10 3

June 4 3 1

June 5 1 0

June 6 2 0

June 7 3 1

June 8 2 0

June 9 2 1

June 10 4 2

June 11 1 0

June 12 1 1

June 13 0 0

June 14 5 3

June 15 1 0

June 16 2 1

June 17 2 0

June 18 1 1

June 19 3 1

June 20 1 0

June 21 1 0

June 22 3 1

 

Totals 118 37

 

Analysis:

 

Of the 37 callers that left a message:

* 12 did not leave a phone number even though he asked for it

* 3 left only their phone number

* 22 left both their address and a phone number.

 

The callers heard a two-minute message that explained the service, detailed the price, offered a free premium and asked a few qualifying questions. Art only wanted to hear from very qualified prospects, so that he wouldn't waste his time with follow-up phone calls or personal visits.

 

By insisting on this strict qualification criteria, Art missed opportunities for a few extra sales and possible distributorships. You could increase your results by answering the telephone and personally selling each caller.

 

Art gets even more selective.

 

Art didn't follow up the leads by telephone. Instead, he simply mailed each lead an information package with sign-up forms for his service. Each information package included an audio cassette tape, a brochure, and a one-page sales letter. Art felt this would be a good test to see how effective his mailing package would be.

 

Of the 34 response packages mailed, only one package was returned due to a bad address.

 

Art did not follow up the packages with a phone call. He simply waited for the packages to do the selling. He only visited on the telephone with the prospects who called him after receiving their packages.

 

By simply taking these calls, Art signed up four new paying customers for his service. These customers referred another three customers to Art. They wanted their friends to have the service as well. Total new customers from the campaign: 7.

 

What about distributors? Art enrolled two new distributors from the packages he mailed.

 

Here is a breakdown of Art's expenses:

* $330 for the signs and to have them posted.

* $10 for voice-mail box set-up.

* $20 for two months of voice-mail usage

* $68 to mail 34 response packets ($2/each including postage).

 

Total invested in this campaign: $428 and 3 hours of his time.

* 1 hour meeting the sign maker

* 1 hour putting together response packages

* 1 hour doing paperwork for 7 customers and 2 new distributors.

 

Art's figured that his cost per lead was $12.59 ($428 divided by 34 leads). The cost per lead would be lower if he had converted more callers into leads by personally answering the telephone.

 

But what about profit? How much did Art earn from this campaign?

 

First, Art earned $1197 in advanced commissions from sales to his 7 new customers. Because Art is at the top in his pay plan, his earnings would naturally be more than a new distributor just starting.

 

In addition, Art made $342 in bonuses from sales made to his two new distributors.

 

Art's initial profit was $1539.00, minus his expenses of $428, which left him with a $1,111 net profit.

 

But it gets better.

 

Art will continue to collect on his customers as they continue to use and purchase the service he offers, for the lifetime of that customer.

 

In addition, Art will follow-up with these customers and let them know about the business opportunity. He might convert a few customers into distributors over the next few months.

 

Plus, Art now has two new distributors who will be working the business with him with the potential of becoming leaders. If these distributors remain active, Art could earn an additional $1,000 income per year for the lifetime of each distributor.

 

It gets better.

 

One of Art's new distributors is Jim. Jim has two businesses.

 

First, Jim provides a financial service to people. He sells this service and makes a good living.

 

Second, Jim also has a sign service. Jim has figured out that it's a lot cheaper to make his own signs rather than pay someone else to do it like Art did. Jim makes his own signs right from his garage. Jim also doesn't mind putting up the signs himself. He actually prefers it because he knows exactly where they will be.

 

Jim is going to be good in Art's business. Why?

 

First, every one of Jim's present customers needs Art's service. There is a potential of up to 20 retail sales monthly by doing what he's already doing.

 

Second, since Jim already makes his own signs and drives around to put them up, he figures that it doesn't take him any more effort to put up an extra sign on each post. So, now every week he puts up 100 signs promoting his MLM business along with 100 signs promoting his original business.

 

But Art's business can get even better. Why?

 

Art knows that salesman and distributors hate to prospect -- but they don't mind doing presentations to qualified leads.

 

What does Art have?

 

Lots of uncontacted, highly qualified leads!

 

Art had 18 names left with a phone number and 12 with addresses only. A total of 30 leads that he could either offer as an incentive for someone to join his MLM business or to use as a prize to the winners of a sponsoring contest he has for his local downline.

 

Or, he could use the leads to generate more distributor prospects with an ad something like this:

"Leads, leads, leads! Salesman needed. Call xxx-xxx-xxxx for more info."

 

But before Art would run this ad, he needed to know how qualified the remaining leads were. After all, if the remaining leads were of low quality, he didn't want to run a misleading ad for more distributors.

 

So, Art called the 18 leads with phone numbers to see what level of interest there was. He gave each person a "courtesy call" that went something like this:

 

"Hello, Mr. Prospect. I just wanted to give you a short courtesy call regarding the information that we sent to you."

* Did you get the packet of information?

* Did you have a chance to review it yet?

* Would you like to meet so we can go over the service in detail?

* Do you know anyone else who would be interested in this service that I could contact and put the information in front of?

 

Here are the results:

* 3 leads said they didn't get the packet and wanted another one sent.

* 6 leads had not reviewed the information yet and said they would by the time Art called them back in two days.

* 3 leads wanted to meet to go over the information.

* 6 leads were not interested.

 

Plus, three of the leads gave Art an additional seven new leads during their telephone conversation.

 

One lead even wanted Art to send him a few more overview audio cassettes because he wanted to give them to his co-workers. Do you think it will be hard to convert this prospect into a distributor once he finds out that he can pick up a check for simply recommending and promoting the service (which he's already doing!)?

 

Now, some people in network marketing say, "Advertising doesn't work."

 

But these people don't know Art Jonak.