How To Fail Using Bait and Switch Style Deceptive Advertising.

sleazy-salesman

Here is a great story that I get a chuckle out of every time it happens. Someone opts into one of my mailing lists and then when I say “Hi” by sending them an email. They send me an email back asking me to offer my “opinion” about their business opportunity.

Talk about obvious cannibalism!

Lets lay out some ground rules so you don’t look like these idiots do.

  1. Your target market is other network marketers… or other online business owners… (But this doesn’t mean you spam them by making an offer to them that they didn’t ask for.)
  2. You have to lead first with value. If you can offer a tool to business owners or network marketer that will help them make more money then by all means offer the tool… but don’t offer a car salesman a car. That is just crazy. You could offer a car salesman a way to sell more cars… because it will help him to succeed by pushing him in the same direction he is already headed.
  3. By offering someone who sells vitamins a new vitamin you are effectively telling them you think they are stupid. (Why would they buy your product if they have one already?)
  4. But offering them a way to sell more vitamins in a new way would be an offer that pushes them forward faster in a direction they are already headed. (You know the old saying, the best way to ride a horse is in the direction it is headed.)

One of the most dangerous things you can to in order to ruin your credibility in any market is to prospect incorrectly.

It also makes you feel like an idiot when you do this and professionals calls you on it. You will feel like an amateur. This makes you feel weak, and powerless… And that is NO place to be in order help others. (Because helping others is the only way to get ahead, it is what makes you money, and makes it easy to sleep at night.)

I have rather large mailing lists I use for different opportunities I promote. And, often, I get a “marketing guru” who wants me to “Check Out” his/her opportunity. While I’m flattered that they would be interested in my opinion I’m also not stupid enough to think that they are making a unique offer to me by asking my “opinion”.

This approach reminiscent of the 70′s and is destined for failure. Why? Well, the truth is this approach is missing 3 vital ingredients for success.

  1. You are asking a seller to buy (call a telemarketer and ask him to buy something… I bet you could call a thousand and never make a sale even if you were the ULTIMATE phone salesman with a product that could bring world peace and cure cancer.)
  2. You are showing you prospect that you are weak and desperate. Not going to help you at all will it… who wants to do business with someone who is desperate like this slick looking Mustang Salesman in the picture…
  3. They don’t know why you’re prospecting them… after all you opted into their list right? Who is offering value to who?

Sure it is funny but it isn’t going to place you in a position to help others or have them respect you… which is exactly what others will need to see in you in order to want to do business with you.

The bottom line.

To have success people need to respect you and trust you. Prospecting a prospector does nothing to build trust or respect. In fact it does the opposite.

Actions For You:

Go through your marketing strategy and ask yourself these questions.

  • If I was approached this way would I respect the person making the offer?
  • Do I really understand what spam is? (It isn’t just sending emails. Spam is making an offer to someone who has not expressed an explicit interest it. Another way of saying it is this, you are giving them what YOU want whether THEY like it or not.)
  • How can I make changes to lead with value first that leads to sales, in a cost effective way?

Related posts:

  1. Email Marketing With Aweber