Just in case you don't know, a card deck is a pack of (usually) 3" x 5" post cards bundled together and mailed to a designated audience. Decks run anywhere between 25-100+ cards per issue and are mailed to anywhere between 25,000-200,000.

Decks work for several reasons:

they're targeted. You get to the people you want to get to.
they're inexpensive when you compare them to the cost of mailing your own advertisement to the designated audience
they produce results fast.

So, card decks constitute an excellent way of building your business. I know. I've been a card deck publisher now for over 7 years, during that time mailing over 250,000,000 (that's 250 MILLION) cards for the lowest prices in the entire industry. I mail another 10 million every 90 days!

Say that the co-op organizer is in a network marketing company and wants her organization to grow. By organizing a co-op and ensuring that each member gets a certain percentage of leads, she ensures that her overall organization will grow. Moreover, she can cut herself in for a free percentage of the leads, her "wage" for organizing everything.

Smart Co-op Management

Let's say you decide to purchase 100,000 cards and let's say for the sake of argument that you want them in my quarterly Sales & Marketing Success Card Deck (an excellent choice, if I say so myself). Traditional thinking says to divide the price of the card evenly between however many co-op participants you can find, every one getting an equal share.

Personally I've never thought that was a very smart way of arranging co-ops, mainly because different people have different amounts of resources and different levels of commitment to the project.

Instead, your job as co-op manager is to create the co-op with as FEW people as possible, not as many. Thus, if the cost of 100,000 cards (plus the cost of developing the camera ready art) is, say, $1600 (as it is with my card deck), a not-so-swift organizer will look for 16 people who will each take $100 worth of the cost, or 8 people at $200 each.

Well, friend, it's time-consuming and often very frustrating to get 16 people to walk in a straight line, get their money together at the right time, and generally cooperate. I prefer a different way.

Instead, look for ONE person to take half the cost of the cards. There are always people who understand that building a business cannot be done episodically. They understand the impact of the old saying, "If it's to be, it's up to me," and are willing to commit the necessary resources accordingly.

Look at the pool of your potential co-op participants. Which one or two have you got who's:

more motivated
understands the necessities for business success
has got the necessary funds to bankroll his commitment?

Go to that person first and pitch half the co-op. Even if you fail at placing that much of your offering, you may succeed in selling off a quarter... and that's certainly better than 1/16, or even 1/8!

Before making a single call, review all the names of potential participants and guesstimate what each might be able to afford. To sell off $1600 in costs, the optimum co-op looks like this:

1 @ $800
2 @ 400.

If you can't do that sell off four at $250 and the rest at $100 each.

In other words, aim for efficiency... and to get as few people as possible to buy in for as much as possible. That's efficient co-op management.

Note: don't forget to cut yourself in for your free share of the leads. How many should you take? 10% is a good round number and should provide adequate compensation for your efforts.

Running The Show

Be as organized as possible about running your co-op. Create an information sheet listing:

the name of the advertising medium
its circulation
reasons why it makes sense to advertise in it
how leads will be divided (usually leads come back to a central place
are divided according to an agreed upon formula. Since you're the coordinator, you should get the leads and handle this role. Note: In my card deck, we have the capacity of offering "split runs," that is of putting one address on a run of 50,000 cards and another address on the next run of 50,000. This means you can, in the same issue, actually use two different addresses. This may help you efficiently handle the matter of who gets prospect leads.)
the number of co-op shares and the cost of each (4 @ $250, 6 @ $100, etc)
the deadline for participating
address to send the money to
all your follow-up information, including name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, etc.

Develop a template with this information that you can fax or e-mail. It'll save you a lot of time and, after updating, can continually be used!