Do you sell a product or service that is reassuringly expensive?

Ronny is selling $700 vacuum cleaners through a direct-response television campaign he created after attending, “How to Sell Upscale Products and Services” at Wizard Academy.

That ad campaign began as a $100,000 experiment.

Ronny told me he’s currently spending nearly a million dollars a week on national advertising and making a marvelous return on his investment.

Funny thing: we teach that class under the assumption the techniques will be used by brand builders, not direct response marketers. But Ronny proved those same techniques can also work when you have a short time horizon.

We taught Ronny something.He taught us something in return.

Direct response marketers usually sell products that have a short purchase cycle. They want us to make an impulse purchase. This is why the return-on-investment for direct response ads can be measured accurately and immediately.

But not everything can be sold that way.

Brand builders are companies whose products or services have a long purchase cycle. The goal of a brand builder is to be the provider you think of immediately and feel the best about when you finally need what they sell. It takes courage, confidence and patience but it works better and better the longer you invest in it.

The essence of brand building is emotional bonding.

Direct response marketing, on the other hand, is typically intellectual. Features and benefits and added value, “But wait! Order now and you’ll also receive…” It is that world of product demonstrations and money-back guarantees, limited-time offers and upsell incentives.

Direct response ads don’t work better and better as time goes by. They work less and less well until you finally have to come up with something altogether new and different.

Right now you’re thinking, “But hey, if I make enough money on my direct response campaign, I’ll just retire and live happily ever after.”

That sounds like a good plan but I’ve never actually seen it work out that way. Most of us have the fundamental inability to quit while we’re ahead.

A glittering city in Nevada is proof of it.

Wizard Academy teaches powerful concepts.

How you use them is entirely up to you.

Ronny is winning and winning big. I like him.

He’s already taught me one lesson.

I’m hoping he will teach me another.

Roy H. Williams