The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich - Expanded and Updated

often isn’t. Those who call to order will generally order online if given no other option.

Before signing on with a call center, get several 800 numbers they answer for current clients and make test calls, asking difficult product-related questions and gauging sales abilities. Call each number at least three times (morning, afternoon, and evening) and note the make-or-break factor: wait time. The phone should be answered within three to four rings, and if you are put on hold, the shorter the wait the better. More than 15 seconds will result in too many abandoned calls and waste advertising dollars.

The Art of Undecision: Fewer Options = More Revenue

Companies go out of business when they make the wrong decisions or, just as important, make too many decisions. The latter creates complexity.

—MIKE MAPLES, cofounder of Motive Communications (IPO to $260 million market cap), founding executive of Tivoli (sold to IBM for $750 million), and investor in companies such as Digg.com

Joseph Sugarman is the marketing genius behind dozens of direct-response and retail successes, including the BluBlocker sunglasses phenomenon. Prior to his string of home runs on television (he sold 20,000 pairs of BluBlockers within 15 minutes of his first QVC appearance), his domain was print media, where he made millions and built an empire called JS&A Group. He was once recruited to design an advertisement for a manufacturer’s watch line. The manufacturer wanted to feature nine different watches in the ad, and Joe recommended featuring just one. The client insisted and Joe offered to do both and test them in the same issue of The Wall Street Journal. The result? The one-watch offer outsold the nine-watch offer 6-to- 1.⁵⁵

Henry Ford once said, referring to his Model-T, the bestselling car of all time,⁵⁶ “The customer can have any color he wants, so long as it’s black.” He understood something that businesspeople seem to have forgotten: Serving the customer (“customer service”) is not becoming a personal concierge and catering to their every whim and want. Customer service is providing an excellent product at an acceptable price and solving legitimate problems (lost packages, replacements, refunds, etc.) in the fastest manner possible. That’s it.

The more options you offer the customer, the more indecision you create and the fewer orders you receive— it is a disservice all around. Furthermore, the more options you offer the customer, the more manufacturing and customer service burden you create for yourself.

The art of “undecision” refers to minimizing the number of decisions your customers can or need to make. Here are a few methods that I and other NR have used to reduce service overhead 20– 80%:

Offer one or two purchase options (“basic” and “premium,” for example) and no more.

Do not offer multiple shipping options. Offer one fast method instead and charge a premium.

Do not offer overnight or expedited shipping (it is possible to refer them to a reseller who does, as is true with all of these points), as these shipping methods will produce hundreds of anxious phone calls.

Eliminate phone orders completely and direct all prospects to online ordering. This seems outrageous until you realize that success stories like Amazon.com have depended on it as a fundamental cost-saver to survive and thrive.

Do not offer international shipments. Spending 10 minutes per order filling out customs forms and then dealing with customer complaints when the product costs 20–100% more with tariffs and duties is about as fun as headbutting a curb. It’s about as profitable, too.

Some of these policies hint at what is perhaps the biggest time-saver of all: customer filtering.

Not All Customers Are Created Equal

Once you reach Phase III and have some cash flow, it’s time to re-evaluate your customers and thin the herd. There are good and bad versions of all things: good food, bad food; good movies, bad movies; good sex, bad sex; and, yes, good customers and bad customers.

Decide now to do business with the former and avoid the latter. I recommend looking at the customer as an equal trading partner and not as an infallible blessing of a human being to be pleased at all costs. If you offer an excellent product at an acceptable price, it is an equal trade and not a begging session between subordinate (you) and superior (customer). Be professional but never kowtow to unreasonable people.

Instead of dealing with problem customers, I recommend you prevent them from ordering in the first place.

I know dozens of NR who don’t accept Western Union or checks as payment. Some would respond to this with, “You’re giving up 10–15% of your sales!” The NR, in turn, would say, “I am, but I’m also avoiding the 10–15% of the customers who create 40% of the expenses and eat 40% of my time.” It’s classic 80/20.

Those who spend the least and ask for the most before ordering will do the same after the sale. Cutting them out is both a good lifestyle decision and a good financial decision. Low-profit and high-maintenance customers like to call operators and spend up to 30 minutes on the phone asking questions that are unimportant or answered online, costing—in my case—$24.90 (30 x $0.83) per 30-minute incident, eliminating the minuscule profit they contribute in the first place.

Those who spend the most complain the least. In addition to our premium $50–200 pricing, here are a few additional policies that attract the high-profit and low-maintenance customers we want:

Do not accept payment via Western Union, checks, or money order.

Raise wholesale minimums to 12–100 units and require a tax ID number to qualify resellers who are real businesspeople and not time-intensive novices. Don’t run a personal business school.

Refer all potential resellers to an online order form that must be printed, filled out, and faxed in. Never negotiate pricing or approve lower pricing for higher-volume orders. Cite “company policy” due to having had problems in the past.

Offer low-priced products (a la MRI’s NO2 book) instead of free products to capture contact information for follow-up sales. Offering something for free is the best way to attract time-eaters and spend money on those unwilling to return the favor.

Offer a lose-win guarantee (see boxed text) instead of free trials.

Do not accept orders from common mail fraud countries such as Nigeria.

Make your customer base an exclusive club, and treat the members well once they’ve been accepted.

The Lose-Win Guarantee—How to Sell Anything to Anyone

If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.

—CLINT EASTWOOD

The 30-day money-back guarantee is dead. It just doesn’t have the pizzazz it once did. If a product doesn’t work, I’ve been lied to and will have to spend an afternoon at the post office to return it. This costs me more than just the price I paid for the product, both in time and actual postage. Risk elimination just isn’t enough.

This is where we enter the neglected realm of lose-win guarantees and risk reversal. The NR use what most consider an afterthought—the guarantee—as a cornerstone sales tool.

The NR aim to make it profitable for the customer even if the product fails. Lose-win guarantees not only remove risk for the consumer but put the company at financial risk.

Here are a few examples of putting your money where your mouth is.

Delivered in 30 minutes or less or it’s free!

(Domino’s Pizza built its business on this guarantee.)

We’re so confident you’ll like CIALIS, if you don’t we’ll pay for the brand of your choice.

(The “CIALIS® Promise Program” offers a free sample of CIALIS and then offers to pay for competing