The direct sales model is not a simple two phone calls to sell the product, it is a complete set of advanced management and marketing system.

Dell's direct sales method is also formed after exploration, many companies see that Dell's direct sales method is good and have begun to imitate, Compaq, HP, IBM and other large companies see the advantages of Dell's computer direct sales model so they want to apply, but the final results are not ideal, one of the reasons is that their existing channels have been too big and too strong to abandon the existing successful channels.

Just like Pentium Computer Company has established its own sales team and marketing system, if the large-scale implementation of the direct sales model will inevitably impact its own sales channels, and the management of terminal sellers will become more complicated. So, the model of a direct selling company looks simple on the surface, but it is not easy for the business to actually copy it!

San Francisco is the traditional center of California's financial industry, and the city's service industry is also very developed, so Lin Qiangsheng rented a one-story office building in downtown San Francisco and began a large-scale recruitment.

The secret of the direct sales model is the order-to-order production method, which can limit the amount of capital tied up by the inventory as little as possible. Moreover, direct sales are made by customers who pay to produce products, which is much faster than the speed at which merchants can make profits by producing products out of their own pockets. And through negotiation with upstream manufacturers, direct selling companies can also default on payments for several months, which means that merchants have a huge and flexible cash flow in their hands!

Perhaps the initial stage of Dell in history was difficult, after all, it was necessary to ensure sufficient payment for upstream manufacturers before they could start production. Dell's initial stage was not revealed, but according to his previous marketing records, Dell probably used the inventory of various brands of computers to start, he wholesaled the products that were not sold by various merchants, and then DIY and replaced them with better chips and accessories to piece together a more advanced computer to make the first pot of gold.

Dell may have done this because he had little money and it was difficult for computer parts manufacturers to cooperate with him, or perhaps because the start-up company did not have a large amount of orders to convince manufacturers to cooperate with him.

But Lin Johnson's direct sales saved a lot of trouble, and Dell was launched a week later. Soon there was a lot of advertising in major computer journals and magazines across the United States.

"Dell gives you high-quality products and low-cost service!" The most famous newspapers, the New York Times and the Washington Post, both ran such advertisements, and both newspapers used an advertising page to promote the newly formed computer company.

In order to highlight the effect, Dell computer also deliberately replaced the traditional white computer shell with a black shell, on the background of the newspaper a black and shiny Dell brand computer is full of a sense of technology, in order to enhance the effect or use a shadow, it gives people the feeling as if it is about to come out of the report!

And the most refreshing thing is its three-dimensional chassis. The manufacturer has redesigned and organized the control surface of the case, making the buttons and logos that were originally a little messy look organized.

Dell computers are equipped with Pentium, Celeron, Intel and other series, and the price of each series has been reduced significantly. Desktops with Intel 80286 processors are priced at $2,666, making them competitive with other brands in the 286-compatible market. There are also machines with Pentium processors that sell for as low as $1,800, and machines with Celeron processors that sell for as low as $440!

People were amazed at the advertising effect and the ultra-low price of the new computer company, and some computer sellers immediately wanted to cooperate with the manufacturer after seeing the advertisement. With such a cheap sales price, this computer manufacturer called Dell can definitely have good sales in the market for these configurations.

However, after some telephone inquiries, the dealers found out that this computer dealer called Dell turned out to be a direct sales company, and Dell computers did not plan to cooperate with dealers and electronic chain stores, and all business cooperation Dell politely refused. Stick to their dropshipping sales model.

Dealers are angry, there is still such a company, and they still want to break with the traditional sales model, so let's see how long this computer company that insists on direct sales can last, do they think it is a health care product!

Lin Qiangsheng didn't have the intention of letting dealers see a joke, on the contrary, he was seriously running a computer direct sales company. After two days of advertising in two major newspapers, Mr. Lin immediately began to advertise in local newspapers across the United States, with a color product introduction attached to the advertisement. The computer configuration and price are clearly marked on the introduction, and the contact number and ordering method are clearly stated.

And that's not all. He also hired a lot of part-time students on campus to distribute posters in the school, and in a very short period of time, the young people and the public across the United States knew that there was a computer dealer, it was doing direct sales, it was called Dell, and computers were sold very cheaply!

Just how cheap is an 8-bit PC like the C64 for $499. The Dell Celeron series computers under the direct sales model are priced at $440, and they are 16-bit 128KB memory, supporting up to 1G virtual memory, while the C64 computer only has 64KB memory. Although it doesn't come with a hard drive, it comes with a floppy drive, while the C64 is tape storage. There is a tape recorder-like device.

Dell's large-scale publicity campaign naturally shocked the computer market, and the market exclaimed that there was a big bad wolf after Commodore!

The $440 Dell Celeron computer made many computer manufacturers lament, they don't know why this company will sell so low, can they make a profit at such a low price, no matter what, manufacturers have reluctantly lowered their prices again.

"Dell's Celeron computers are cost-effective, if you want to buy them, buy Dell products!" This advertising slogan gradually began to become popular in the market.

Lin Qiangsheng also deliberately launched a special propaganda offensive in colleges and middle schools, and those students who were originally hired to distribute posters did not just post posters.

If they talk about electronics when they meet their classmates, if they say a good word about Dell products among their friends, Dell will pay them 5 cents for a month.

After the introduction of this policy, the students who worked part-time jobs were ecstatic, and they were warmly welcomed, so much so that some students came together to make money and met some chatters to come up with such a sentence. Because if you can say five cents a day, that's three dollars if you can say sixty sentences a day, and mowing the lawn, brushing the dishes, and washing the car at home is just a few dollars to earn your parents, which is not very common.

At this time, there was such an interesting scene in a middle school in Oakland County, San Francisco, where a small black high school student was discussing basketball stars and beautiful cheerleaders, and gradually they talked about which basketball team started to pick people again.

At this point, a white boy with glasses saw that the timing was right, but he was a little afraid of the black students, but it was a good opportunity, wasn't it? After hesitating for a moment, he felt that he couldn't wait any longer, otherwise others would take the lead, and if he was preempted, it would not be counted if he was preempted.

The white boy boldly walked up to the black students and said with a smile: "Hey, Dell computers are cost-effective, buy Dell products if you want to buy them!" ”

Several black boys were stunned by the sudden appearance of the white boy, they looked at the white boy as if they were looking at a monster, and the white boy didn't care that he ran away immediately after he finished speaking, and he took out his notebook as he ran, and snickered the time and passage in his notebook, muttering: "Another five cents!" ”

"Is five cents a good earning? Hey, don't you run! You're Kevin in Year 10 Class 3 and I know you! One of the black children reacted and shouted at the white boy, who picked up his notebook and ran faster. It's not easy to earn this kind of five cents, and many people are reluctant to let them get close after discovering it.

This nasty marketing campaign didn't go under wraps for long, and soon became known to the other students, and when the students were on guard, Dell immediately announced the end of the five-cent program. Although I only worked for half a month, the students who received the remuneration were still very happy.

Although direct selling companies save the cost of large-scale construction of sales channels, they have to do more in advertising than traditional manufacturers. Without a lot of advertising, it's easy for a dropshipping company to be forgotten by consumers!

Seeing that the five-cent plan was not working, Lin Qiangsheng hurriedly took a second wave of propaganda offensive, and he asked computer engineers to go into the campus to program for college and middle school students to practice on the spot, which was also welcomed by many schools.

In order to achieve a better publicity effect, Dell announced in early March that it would hold a computer technology knowledge contest among college and middle school students across the United States. The period starts on March 15 and ends on April 15, and applicants will receive an envelope with questions in advance.

The competition will produce three champions with a cash prize of $10,000; The second runner-up and third runners-up each set up cash prizes of $6,000 and $3,000 respectively.

In addition, there will be 100 runners, each of whom will receive a cash prize of $1,000. In addition, all participants in the computer literacy contest will participate in the raffle, the three manufacturers provide a total of 1,000 places, and the lottery participants will receive a valuable prize of $500!

The event was jointly organized by Dell, Pentium and Compaq, and was held among primary and secondary school students across the United States.

Soon after the event was announced, the nation's largest newspapers rushed to report on the new developments in the computer industry, and several large computer magazines included an entry form.

Several major magazines have also expressed interest in the computer literacy contest, and the publicity for the event has basically not asked for money, but only charged a symbolic cost. And in order to increase sales, the heads of several magazines also said that they would give more coverage to this computer competition.

The rewards set by Lin Qiangsheng are too rich, and the rewards for this event as a private event are unprecedented, and they will definitely have a very big influence among computer enthusiasts and students, and even the heads of several magazines can hardly predict how much influence it has! (To be continued......)