2005 - 10-27-05

Let me pause here a moment to tell you a true story.

There's a man named Melvin Powers who owns Wilshire Books in the Los Angeles area. Years ago he wrote a book about how to become a mail order millionaire. The problem was, Melvin, himself, did not know how to become a mail order millionaire. That's because most of his books were sold through retail outlets. So Melvin hired me to write a full-page newspaper ad for him selling his book. I used a lot of the copy and sales arguments he had already been using in the ad he had created. I changed some of it but the main change was the addition of the 30-day hold.

Melvin refused to test my ad. Melvin demanded his money back.

As you might guess, I told him to go piss up a rope. I'm not going to deal with anyone who thinks their marketing judgment is better than mine. So much so, they won't even test what I've created for them.

Well, it came to pass I was in Melvin's office while he was sitting at his desk almost apoplectic with a red face and veins so swollen, they looked like they were going to rupture and burst. He opened the top left hand drawer of his desk and reached in and grabbed with both hands a bundle of checks. He said, "Damn you Gary! You and your insane crazy idea! Look at this! This is all the bad checks I got using your stupid idea! You are absolutely out of your mind!"

To which I calmly replied, "Mel, let me ask you something. Were the ads that produced all those bad checks profitable?"

"Yes, they were," he replied.

"Well then," I thundered at him...

"You Should Wish You Had A Barn Full Of Those Checks!"

In a newsletter I wrote a long time ago, I talked about a man who sold information books on a COD (Cash On Delivery) basis. I told my readers how he had a 50% non-acceptance rate which meant he was only making $250,000 per week profit!