Since I was pretty much a baby, I’ve been a fan of Dan Kennedy -- the marketing genius and godfather of “the direct mail sales letter.” He’s written what seems like 100 books and has been around since dirt (I actually didn’t know he was still alive, until recently LOL).
This email landed in my inbox today, and I couldn’t help but marvel at how perfectly timed it was, and how relevant it is to the stunts that Airbnb and Vrbo are pulling on our businesses this month.
I don’t think Dan would mind me copying his email verbatim, as long as I include a link to the thing he’s plugging (a book, and a persistent pitch for his monthly newsletter). [The thing Dan is plugging is at https://www.thedirectmarketingbook.com/.]
Subject Line: Amazon Sold Out. The Printer Said No.
On May 21st, 2024, we launched this book, and a few hours in the message came through that Amazon had sold out of every copy. The team moved them to Barnes & Noble and got told they'd be "selling out shortly." Then the publisher put a cap on how many copies we could re-print, and that's the part worth your attention.
Here's what it meant. A book that had just sold out on the largest retailer on earth couldn't be restocked in the quantity the market wanted, because a third party decided how many existed.
So I did what I'd tell any owner to do: I took the selling back. Not the writing, but the selling, along with control of where my work went and what it cost the person receiving it.
That's the lesson, and it's got nothing to do with books. If another company controls how many of your customers can get what you sell, they own your business, and they set your ceiling.
Every owner I've met who's stuck at a number he can't explain is stuck there because somebody upstream sells the permission to grow, and he's never once priced what that permission costs him.
If another company decides how many customers you can have, they own your business.
Run this over the weekend. List everything between your work and your customer: the platform, the distributor, the listing, the group, the aggregator.
Next to each one, write whether you could wake up tomorrow and find it closed, throttled, or sold to your competitor. Any line where the answer is yes isn't a channel.
It's a landlord.
Then decide which one you're taking back first and put a date on it. Not a plan, but a date, because a plan is how a decision gets postponed for another year.
What would you do differently if that line closed tomorrow morning?