NOT Inbound Marketing - Who's Who $799 to $9.95 in under 5 minutes
I recently participated in an interesting sales call. The vendor was attempting to include my business in their 2011 who's who listing. In a matter of minutes, the sales person quickly discounted pricing from $799 annual to $9.95 monthly. The offer price went lower and lower with merely the slightest objection and (more surprising) without asking me single question.
Is this a worthwhile tactic? Does it make sense for a business to spend the amount of time this sales person invested attempting to gain a $9.95 a month customer?
Sure, the company gained more of my information details and a very small sale. With enough follow-up, they may be able to increase the sale and make it worthwhile 'later'. Consider the alternatives: With only a little more initial interest and effort during her call, she may have achieved a higher value sale on her initial call! I find it interesting to observe the seller's tactics of lowering her price before taking time to understand if I have any reason for the listings. Or, even what my specific concerns or objections may be. The caller had attempted at least four prior conversations, with each call resulting in my non availability to entertain the pitch. Rather than setting up a specific agreed upon appointment, the seller continued calling back randomly. With year end approaching, I'd guess most business owners are receiving calls from various list publishers offering inclusion in their 'famous' 2011 who's who directory of person or business with an urgent plea to verify information for the listing prior to publication. Since my business transitioned from an SEO consulting firm into a full service Inbound Marketing agency this past year, I'm open to entertaining new opportunities for new listings with inbound links for my business. My HubSpot advanced marketing software will verify if the inbound link appears and proves worthwhile.
I knew of this particular company and was actually interested in their offer. If the sales rep had taken a small amount of time to ask questions along the way to learn what interested me, she could have probably obtained a larger sale and a happier longer term customer.
Instead, I almost didn’t purchase or list at all (even at the $9.95 monthly price). When the sales person went into the fast talking routine spewing information with details of offers while discounting the price, I felt I quickly lost confidence and respect for the sales person due to the tactics being used rather than the product or service offering. I grew concerned of the sales person seemingly only wanting 'a sale' of any kind while not caring about the kind of sale or buyer. Other than a very brief mention, no effort was spent to sway me to consider the higher priced options or even understanding what my objections may have been. Instead, each time I would say, "I don’t think I’m interested..." and before finishing the statement or finding why I wasn't interested, the sales person interrupted with "since your budget is the issue, I’m certain a lower priced option will show you how great our listings are and then you can upgrade later."
Beginning with the starting price of $799 annual, the caller quickly dropped through a series of 6 additional lower priced offers before finally arriving at what I assume is their lowest offering at $9.95/mo. What do you think? Would you rather spend two months tracking someone down to sell them a $9.95 a month subscription or would it be worthwhile to invest a few minutes learning about your prospect. Perhaps the sales person has heard a lot of rejections and reasons why a new customer wouldn’t buy the higher cost items. Or, maybe their sales model is simply to sign up a large volume of business with an attempt an up sell later. Still, it made me think when a customer calls me or I call them, I need to listen to what they have to say. Even when they are saying 'No'.
What are your thoughts about quick discount sales tactics? Does your web site marketing strategy immediately discount your product or services?