Do You Need a Street Address to be Successful In Business? No--What You Really Need is Something Much Better.
c2002 by Dennis Hessler
When I started my business many years ago, the one inarguable truth was that you had to have a real street address. People wouldn't send their money to a post office box.
Really? For the past ten years I've cashed checks sent by customers from around the world to my post office box. But so strong was the belief that a post office box was a bad idea that I rented a "suite number" back in the days when you could do that. What do you think happened?
For one thing, I paid a lot more for the address. And my mail orders didn't go up. They went down. Now I'm not prepared to say that a street address will cut down on sales, but it sure didn't help in my case.
Yes, in the "old days" (before the Internet), P.O. boxes sometimes had a bad reputation. The belief was that sellers would take your check, cash it, then flee town and do it all over again somewhere else. If you're even thinking of doing this, forget it. Do you really want the postal service after you? And believe me, they'll catch up to you eventually. You've heard the term "going postal?" Well, you don't want an irate postal inspector "going postal" on you?
The real issue with a P.O. Box is credibility. And you gain credibility, not by an address, but by giving your potential customer confidence. Let me tell you a brief story.
Many years ago when I was in the Navy, an air traffic controller on my ship was communicating with a fighter that wanted to be directed or vectored to a Soviet aircraft in the vicinity. The pilot was calling out for a friendly air traffic controller to direct him to the Soviet plane he was supposed to intercept and follow.
I remember well my commanding officer telling the eager controller before he said anything to the pilot. "Speak quietly and confidently to the aircraft. Give him a warm feeling in his tummy that you're going to take care of him."
And that's a phrase I want you to remember--A WARM FEELING IN YOUR TUMMY.
Before your customer will lay out her long green bills for you, she wants that warm feeling. She wants to know that you'll take care of her, that you're there to help her.
You can do this by being available by phone so she can talk to you in person. I try to have regular hours when I'm in the office. I sell most of my products during those periods. These days, another good way to give that "warm feeling" is to put up a strong website.
Make sure your site has lots of good information that proves you know what you're talking about. If you're emailed, send a prompt reply. Don't let customers linger. If a customer takes the time to write, call or email, get back to him right away. I'd say 75 percent of customers who ask me questions by phone or email end up purchasing one of my products.
When I get back to them right away, they are grateful and usually surprised. And they give me their business. Why? Because they feel that I'm real. That I'm here. And that I care about them and their problems. They have a warm feeling in their tummy.
And, in the end, that's what sells. Not a street address. Give 'em that warm feeling in their tummy and you can live where you like.
Dennis Hessler is an international trade consultant and publisher. He recently published an ebook about lessons he's learned over the years on how to sell through the mail and over the Internet. It's called "39 Myths About How to Make Money Selling Information Products or How I Break All the Rules and Make Thousands Every Month."
For information, contact:
Spyglass Point Productions P.O. Box 13141 Pensacola, FL 32591 U.S.A. Phone: 850-438-5527 www.spyglasspoint.com/myths Dennis@spyglasspoint.com
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