One of the unique aspects of Mutual Marketing™ is the fact that Shoppers, Suppliers and Business Owners all benefit. Because eCosway sells other people's products rather than manufacturing to compete with them, Suppliers have the opportunity to sell their products or services to loyal shoppers and Business Owners all over the world at no extra expense to them.

eCosway doesn't pay commissions to Business Owners for finding suppliers. The reason for this is obvious. The profit margin between wholesale cost and retail price is paid out almost entirely to the Business Owner network through the profit plan or to Shoppers in the form of discounts. There is rarely enough margin to also pay a "finders fee".

However, the Mutual Marketing™ business model opens up an interesting avenue for you as a Business Owner in terms of prospecting because it allows you to interest people who might normally not be interested in looking at a business ownership opportunity.

People who already own their own businesses sometimes refuse to consider multiple streams of income, but they rarely turn down an opportunity to sell their current goods or services. If you were to approach a woman who makes beautiful ceramic vases and ask her to look into becoming an eCosway Business Owner, she might turn you down immediately, claiming, "I already have a business and I don't have the time or interest to do anything else." But if you approached her and said, "hey, your vases are really gorgeous, have you ever considered selling them online to people all over the whole world?", she would probably be open to the idea.

You could then explain to her that you work with a company that operates an online shopping mall and sells to shoppers all over the world. Then you could tell her that eCosway wouldn't charge her anything to take pictures of her vases and feature them on the website. At that point she should be clamoring for your eCosway website address. Give her your regular eCosway address, or tell her to go to www.ecosway.com and use your ID to get in. Tell her to click on "supplier" from the globe page to find out how she can sell her vases through eCosway.

The beauty of this arrangement, is that once again, it's win/win for everyone. When the vase maker visits your eCosway website, we'll explain to her why eCosway is so special. We'll show her the business model and explain how the Shopper Rewards Program makes Shoppers loyal and the profit plan makes Business Owners loyal and how the loyalty of these two groups guarantees traffic and sales. The chances that the vase maker will decide to become a Shopper or a Business Owner during her "tour" are probably quite high. After all, she's already an entrepreneur and already has an appreciation of the normal difficulties of running a business. She should immediately see the value of the Business Ownership Support System and see how self-sustaining our business model is.

If she decides to become a Shopper or a Business Owner while visiting your site, she becomes one of your direct branches and you both win as she takes advantage of the eCosway opportunity.

If she decides to submit a supplier application and her vases are accepted as an eCosway product, she wins by becoming a supplier. If this happens, eCosway Shoppers win with a beautiful new item to purchase and Business Owners win with more sales.

Offline, you can talk to almost anyone who has a product or service for sale. People who manufacture or distribute things that can be shipped internationally are obvious choices, but even people who couldn't possibly offer their products or services globally can still be good candidates since eCosway has the ability to offer things region by region. Eye doctors, dentists, florists, photographers, and other professionals can offer their services locally at a discount to eCosway Business Owners and Shoppers. Local stores and restaurants can offer discounts or vouchers through eCosway. The possibilities are actually endless.

The main criteria used to determine whether a product or service is accepted by eCosway or not are 1) Quality 2) Popularity 2) Pricing. The best products and services for eCosway are things that are high quality and in high demand, and which have a good profit margin (so that the eV can be close to the selling price).

These criteria should help you (and your supplier prospects) to understand why some products and services are chosen while others aren't, but it's important that you don't get caught in the trap of trying to "screen" suppliers. It's actually better for the potential suppliers to go to the website and screen themselves if necessary. Even if they realize that their products or services aren't a good fit for eCosway, they might still decide to become Business Owners or Shoppers.

Online, you can go to any search engine and search using the keywords for any product or service to find lots of websites where people are selling things that might be good candidates for the eCosway mall. Most websites have a "contact us" email address where you can contact the owner.

There are a few important points to consider here.

1. Even if you approach suppliers in a responsible manner without spamming, you might still be scolded or reported for spamming by someone who is annoyed by any form of solicitation. If this happens, it is VERY important that you do not respond in a nasty or negative way, no matter how nasty or rude the person was in scolding you. Just send an apology and wish the person success. It won't do you any good and it can bring you a LOT of harm if you exchange nasty email with a person like this. You never know what they might do, but you can be fairly sure that they will at least try to get your email account cancelled and any websites that you are associated with shut down.

Here's an example of a BAD prospecting email.

Dear Supplier,
Would you be interested in selling your product or service to shoppers all over the world at no extra expense? If so, please contact me and I'll give you the details.
Sincerely,
Your Name.

You should never send an email like this because it is sure to be considered spam even if you only send it to one person. There is nothing in this email that indicates that you visited the supplier's site or specifically chose their product or service.

You'll be much safer from spam complaints and much more successful at prospecting if you take the time to actually visit some sites and then contact suppliers with personalized messages that prove you did.

Here's an example of a GOOD prospecting email.

Hi Jill,
I was visiting your site and admiring the beautiful vases
you've created when I had an idea.

I know that you sell them online yourself at beautifulcreations.com,
but I was wondering if you would be interested in selling your vases on a
wholesale basis to an online shopping mall with customers all over the world.

If you are, I'd really like to talk to you about it.
You can reach me by email at:
mailto:myname@myisp.com

or by phone at: (111) 222-3333.

I look forward to hearing from you!

YourName

When a supplier responds favorably and asks you for more information, you can send them an email like this:

Hi Jill,

It was great to hear from you! I'm eager to see if your vases are a good match for the online shopping mall I was telling you about.

The company is eCosway. They sell products from suppliers all over the world to shoppers from all over the world using a unique business model called Mutual Marketing™. The site is promoted entirely by word of mouth through two different referral programs. People are given exciting rewards and incentives for buying products and for bringing in other shoppers. This virtually guarantees site traffic and steady sales.

I think you'll find the business model intriguing because it eliminates many of the usual problems of e-commerce. Please click on the link below and then on the word "suppliers" to learn more about it and to decide if your vases are a good fit.

http://www.ecosway.com/home/myID

Email me if you have any further questions.
I look forward to talking with you after you've visited the site.

Your First Name

If you write a personalized email like the one above and have the misfortune of receiving a nasty email that accuses you of spamming because the recipient did not ask for your solicitation… stay calm. Just send a reply like this one.

Dear Jill,

I am very sorry that my email upset you. It was certainly not
my intention to cause any problems. .

I can understand that you find junk email irritating. I do too.
I didn't believe that the email I sent you was in that category or
I wouldn't have sent it! I genuinely admired your vases and thought
that you would look forward to the possibility of selling more of them.

Please accept my humblest apology. I won't contact you again and
I assure you that you are not on any "list" that I know of, so you don't
have to be removed from anything.

I wish you great success in your online ventures.

Sincerely,
YourName

That letter should suffice to stop any further action against you. If someone is really nasty and continues to harass you and still tries to get your email account cancelled or your website shut down, just show your ISP the first letter you sent-and explain that it was not a "bulk" email, but rather an honest attempt to do business with a supplier. Then show them the nasty letter that was sent to you and your polite reply. Any reasonable ISP will immediately see that you are well within the bounds of netiquette and that the person complaining is an extremist.

Please note: One of the reasons that eCosway has such a strict anti-spam policy and requires that you use a 2-step marketing process is because extremists like that really do exist and we cannot possibly fight spam complaints on behalf of tens of thousands of Business Owners.

When you use the 2-step marketing method, eCosway does not come into the picture unless a supplier responds favorably and asks for more information. Therefore, even if you do happen to generate a spam complaint from an extremist, it would not jeopardize your business ownership because you would have done nothing to violate our spam policy. In fact, the spam complaint would not even be sent to eCosway since eCosway was never mentioned. It would have only been sent to you, your email provider or to your ISP and showing the entire exchange of emails between you and the complainer should settle the matter quickly without any disruption to your services.

You can also attract suppliers to your eCosway website by using the URL www.lotsmorecustomers.com/home/yourID in classified ads or in a signature file when you post (appropriately) to discussion groups or forums. Please see the Marketing Guidelines for instructions on how to use signature files and post appropriately.

If you use personalized email sent to one supplier at a time, and you follow the marketing guidelines for any advertising or posting, you aren't likely to end up with complaints, but you are likely to end up with some new Business Owners! So… go for it!