ASK AN AMBASSADOR: How To Vet Advertisers When They Call or Spam You.
One of my pet peeves is not spending time on the phone with someone that is trying to sell me something that they claim to be great but have tokeep selling the same slot every other monthbecause they can't keep someone in their program. A little long winded but had to get it all out at once. Read below a blog by Lenn Harley. Well put!!!
ASK AN AMBASSADOR: How do I determine the value of products and services when salespersons call?
ANSWER: Before commiting your advertising money to a product or service, MEASURE THE RISK. That said, it's not as easy as many would believe.
MEASURE THE RISK AGAINST WHAT?
How Do We Measure Risk? We can more easily measure risk of a new expense, process, program or plan if we have some experience against which to compare the risk.Put in practical terms and something the advertiser can't do for you is MEASURE THE BENEFIT of the product or service they are advertising or selling. Empty promises are not evidence of a benefit.
Wayne Martin in his post, Measure the Risk suggests taking risks (I think). To quote T.S. Elliot as Wayne did: "Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go!", HA! That all depends on the ramifications of going too far. One thing for sure, spending our hard earned money buying product or service from a telephone sales person is not generally a wise move when there is NO EVIDENCE of a benefit, only a CLAIM of a future benefit.
TRY THIS?? A recent ActiveRain article about cold callers, I hate sales calls, I hate them! reminded me of the years these sales persons hounded me all day long with buy this, use this, and the most rediculous, TRY THIS. Why would I TRY A PRODUCT or SERVICE? Especially when they expect me to pay in advance for the product or service. Worse yet, they not only want me to BUY IT, they want me to BUY IT month after month FOR A YEAR!
I CONFESS. I'm very risk averse. Especially when the entity trying to sell me the product or service IS TAKING NO RISK.
SURPRISE! It will often come as a surprise to new real estate agents, loan officers, home inspectors, etc. that a large amount of their time and resources will have to be spent in BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. Business Development is another way of describing the act of selling our services to consumers. If we cannot sell our services to consumers, WE HAVE NO BUSINESS. No business?? What does "no business mean? It means NO BUYER OR SELLER CLIENTS.
No buyer or seller clients = No business.
No business = NO INCOME!Fact: The caller with a product or service to sell is not taking the risk of failure, YOU ARE!
Fact: You are not generally offered a TRIAL PERIOD to test the product or service, even if you could pay for it.
Fact: The caller is NOT A USER of the product or service.
Fact: The product or service touted is often not to be found on the Internet in a Google search.
Fact: You can't verify their claims for the benefit of using their product or service.
Fact: They will want to automatically tap your credit card monthly to pay for their product or service.THERE'S A WAY TEST THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE THE CALLER IS SELLING.
Go to Google. Search for the benefit the company is promising. For instance, if they are promising that they'll get your web page to page one in Google search for their site for the benefit they're offering:
Search for: "SEO companies Maryland"
Is their web site indexed by Google? If a company offering SEO services isn't listed on page one of Google for "SEO services" in your area, how can you verify their claims for your site if they can't even get their own site to a spot on page one of Google.
Give them a "test run" in Google. When a caller is trying to sell web site services to me, the first thing I do is see when the last Googlebot visited THEIR SITE, and how many linkbacks their web site has.
TRIAL AND ERROR can be very costly. Be careful TAKING RISKS with your advertising money.
VET advertisers and if they can't answer all of your questions ABOUT THEMSELVES, they're not a good RISK.
ACTIVERAIN SPEAKS GOOGLE!! LEST THERE BE ANY DOUBT, ACTIVERAIN MEETS AND EXCEEDS ANY TEST FOR SEO. ActiveRain speaks Google and our blogs and sites with links to our web sites enhances our SEO.
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Courtesy, Lenn Harley, Broker, Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988, serving home buyers in Loudoun County, VA.
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