Connectix was introducing a new product in the middle of summer, the worst time of the year. The company was only projecting a modest $1,000,000 in sales for the year. The marketing budget was non-existent. There was no staff to support it, no infrastructure for direct sales, no call center - nothing.

But I knew a hot product when I saw one. I analyzed the market and projected $350,000 in sales (8,000 units). Not bad for an investment of only $80,000. Problem was, no one believed me.

I knew we could make it happen, and went ahead with the project, billing the company on net 30 terms. I produced everything for a complete direct mail campaign from soup to nuts. I wrote all the copy, oversaw the design and print production (using the most cost-effective and efficient direct mail production facilities). I combined 3 different customer databases and optimized them for the mail resulting in the lowest possible postage costs. I set up affordable telesales, customer call center, warehousing, order entry, and fulfilment services that were fully trained and ready to go in time for the mail drop.

I was wrong about one thing. We didn't sell 8,000 units over the campaign. We didn't do $350,000 in sales. We sold over 5,000 units the first day! We sold 37,000 units over the campaign. Most customers paid an extra $15 to have it shipped overnight. We sold $1,800,000 and produced over $1,300,000 in net profit. Adn the whole campaign was over in less than 5 weeks. Speed Doubler was their most profitable product introduction of all time and went on to do over $10,000,000 in sales that year - 10 times their forecast.