The Legendary E. Joseph Cossman & What I Learned
by: Marlon Sanders
You may or may not have heard of the legendary E. Joseph Cossman. But if you've ever seen one of thos "ant farms in a store in the U.S., I wouldn't be surprised if Joe's son Howard STILL isn't getting a royalty on them.
In 1963, Joe wrote a book that is STILL at bookstores -- "How I Made a Million Dollars In Mail Order." You would be hard pressed to find a library in the U.S. that doesn't have a copy on the shelves.
E. Joseph was a man among men. He once wrote this book "The Virile Male." And he was. Here I was, aboard a cruise ship to do my first speech on marketing (coincidentally, about how I did a 12-product survey on AOL). Tag Powell was generous enough to allow me to speak, even though I was a total nervous wreck and could barely hold onto my transparencies.
It was also the first seminar Mizel and I did together. Anyway, Ted Nicholas, Dan Poynter, E. Joseph and others were the big name speakers.
Well, Joe at the time was 79 or something like that. He was still muscular and tan as heck. He oozed charm like you wouldn't believe.
At the dinner table, he took roses from the vase on the table and passed them out to all the women at the table. They swooned. His wife of many years was with him. But if she wasn't, he would have had many interested ladies -- even though at that point he could barely hear.
Like I say, he really WAS the virile male. And a man among men. He was on all the famous talk shows at the time and a celebrity in his own right. He had the art of dominating a trade show and stealing the attention down to a fine art. He was a master showman.
The products Joe brought into this country were many and legendary. The ant farm. The spud gun. Shunken heads. Spy cakes. Hypnotic kits. The list goes on and on.
My mentor, Lew Williams, produced the first seminar E. Joseph ever did on the mail order business. That goes back a long time ago.
Before that, Lew was trained in copywriting by Thomas Hall who did $5,000 and $10,000 seminars and coaching back 30 years ago.
So to say that coaching, seminars and big ticket info stuff is a recent innovation would not be true. It's also proof the business is here to stay.
Lew had given me a letter of introduction to Joe. I gave it to "the man." He looked at my writing portfolio I had brought along. He said, "Son, you have a book here."
And that's all he told me. But it was a profound statement you can understand by reading the rest of this article.
Anyway, the way Joe made money is he imported products from overseas and sold them in the U.S. through 27 distribution channels, a list of which is in Amazing Formula as a I recall.
The KEY to Joe's system and how he made his millions is he ALWAYS got EXCLUSIVE rights to distribute the products.
That is where I first learned that you needed your own exclusive product. Later, when I bought my Harvey Brody course (another old timer), I learned Harvey did the same thing. Mostly he invented products then private labelled them or sold them through master distributors.
I always had this background and knowledge of the benefits and importance of "EXCLUSIVE" rights to a product, at least in the country you're selling it in.
A lot of people today don't have the benefit of this perspective. They're building transaction businesses based on making others rich. Which is fine as a training ground.
Here is my PROOF and point: At age 79 or whatever Joe was when he spoke on that cruise ship, rumor is he STILL had $500,000 a year in passive royalty income coming in from his products.
Well, his son Howard could say if that's true or not. Joe produced courses you can still probably buy from Howard and I recommend then.
It's a bit of a shame when someone like E. Joseph passes on and people are so quick to forget that if they stand tall, it IS because they stand on the shoulders of those who went before them.
Giants and titans like Thomas Hall, E. Joseph Cossman. And for me, my mentor Lew Williams. I could add Gary Halbert to that list now. And others.
I feel like a lone voice in the wilderness in today's market saying, "Guys and gals, don't listen to songs of the sirens. Have your own exclusive products. Create your own resellers. Create private labels. Go forth and expand."
The young kids of today are geniuses. Many of them. Like Matt. Age 21. No college. Works for me 2 years and gets a $60,000 offer. Congrats to him. It's a new world we live in.
A lot of you guys and gals 40 years +. You got retirement staring down the barrell at you. You weren't born with a computer keyboard in your crib. You got something to lose.
You REMEMBER those ant farms and E. Joseph. For you, I want to recommend you have, promote and sell your OWN exclusive products.
I recommend you then sell those products via an affiliate program as your DOMINANT traffic method.
"Son, you have a book here." That, I believe, is the only thing Joe said to me. But he knew I needed my own thing to sell. And he thought in terms of product exclusives.
Go and do thou likewise.
Best wishes,
Marlon Sanders
P.S. If you need someone ideas for your own big ticket info product, here's a link I dug up:
http://getyourprofits.com/z/170/CD23336It has 30 minutes of ideas from Action Grid. It's a good audio to listen to.
About The Author
Marlon Sanders is the author of "The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy." If you'd like to get on his mailing list and receive tips, articles and information about online marketing, visit:
http://www.amazingformula.comREPRINT RIGHTS: You have permission to use the above article without omission and including the resource box. You have the right to insert your reseller URL for "Amazing Formula" in place of the existing URL.
