Ordinary vs Extraordinary Companies: The Proper Use Of Money

My good friend, Don Libey says, "The Extraordinary companies spend money. The Ordinary companies take money out of the business. The Extraordinary companies know the value of talent and investment in prospecting. The Ordinary companies try to get by without investing in their future. Consequently, often they don't have one."

I am lucky to have an Extraordinary company as a client. Like any decent direct marketing creator, I designed a mailing that broke even at less than three tenths of a percent. We tested a 25,000 segment of a 250,000 list. By the "half life" date we were 400% above break even. The client called me and asked how fast could we be back in the mail with the remaining 225,000 names?

Now, you tell me? Are you a manager or work for one who will roll out to an entire list having tested only 10% of it? Almost certainly the answer is ... NO!

Let me tell you his reasoning. The test pulled 400% above break even only 12 days into the results. That's the half way mark. When all was said and done the mailing would record 800% above break even. (We had measured. We were at 50% in sales in 12 days of results with this product and offer.) Even if the roll out produced results at 10% above the test, we would be at 80% above break even. My client was laughing all the way to the bank! He wanted to be in the mail before the competition could catch up!

This is an example of an Extraordinary company with a passionate owner not afraid to invest his money to acquire customers. To this day, he enjoys the "fruits" of being Extraordinary.