I was contacted this week by a referral company. I won't name names. Here's their offer....
They say they're huge. Actually, they said they were the biggest referral company for contractors. I pick a budget and they send me referrals based on my budget. Here's the shocking part. For every referral - not for every contract I write from their referrals - but for just the referral I am to pay them $22. They don't have a set number of any business category. They could have 50 stagers. So if I want to keep getting referrals from them, I'd up my budget.
Really?
Does anyone use this type of referral company for marketing?
Here's my problems with that.
- I know how people are searching the Internet for stagers in my area. I check all the time to make sure my website comes up on the first page. During all my time spent checking, I've never seen them!
- I get calls all the time from people inquiring about my services. I'm happy to talk them through the process as most people have no idea about their staging budget, etc. Many of those calls lead nowhere. Many do. But for the ones that don't, here's $22. Really?
- If someone were really to go to these people to find a stager, wouldn't they think it odd that they could just have easily have found those same stagers by Googling "(insert city name) home staging"?
I'm interested to see how many of you have used or are using this type of referral. I'm always interested in increasing my business but I don't think this is the way.
Thanks
Amy Jeffrey, Currant Designs and Home Staging
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