RE: Discussion Question " Unless someone knows you: how do they know?" (Full Version)

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BigD -> RE: Discussion Question " Unless someone knows you: how do they know?" (7/24/2003 4:10:55)

Fine Topic!

I deal in a specialized niche in this market catering to the independent car dealer. I' ve found out the hard way " You ain' t gonna get rich" , but nonetheless I keep chipping away.

In the revelency to this topic, I find that many of the dealers I visit have been bombarded by telephone, email, walk-ins and the such with many promises and alot of " blue-sky" for outrageous money. They bit and got " burned" . A lot of this has been created by what I call the " home-page-wonder" . This is either " I have a friend..." or a guy that has built a home page with FP or another WYSIWYG editor and has an " instant webmaster" doctorate, not understanding the needs of the customer he is designing for. When a guy comes in " legitimate" and " well-done" product, it' s hard to replace the bad taste that remains. This is the hardest obstacle I have to overcome. Would the BBB or Chamber be the answer, I think not. I do count on word of mouth recomendations and my commitment to their satisfaction to try and surmount these obstacles.

I try to keep my product in perspective as if it were on the shelf at a retail outlet. Not everybody is going to pick it up, but yet out of the box they won' t get the support that I offer. For the prices that I offer, the $100 deal just ain' t going to cut it, however, I have replaced " junk sites" out of spite, for naught in hopes of the " satisfaction" and " referral" gammit. I am also a very " up front" person in the discussion of this subject, what do I have to lose by speaking up? Does it work all the time? Nope, but I keep plugging!

I' m trying to expand with different web-based products, in hopes of broadening my customer base. I keep plugging.

My wife and I have put literally every penny we have in to making this work, and I' ll be damned if I' m going to throw in the towel. There' s many a company out there that have the image, but not the product. Remember back in the seventies when Harley-Davidson' s leaked oil really bad, they kept plugging and so will we.

I' m sorry to ramble on, but I sure wasn' t invited to Bill Gates' home before I bought Windows and if you expect to get a bug free program with 100% free tech support, try building your own! I don' t have to " bend-over" before you decide on my product and if you expect me to, you' d better look else-where. I didn' t get into this to listen for the " snapping of the latex glove" !

BigD



briesmith -> RE: Discussion Question " Unless someone knows you: how do they know?" (7/24/2003 5:38:50)

Chambers of Commerce, Better Business Bureaux, Federation of Small Businesses, Action Link (UK only that one I think) etc etc etc; they are all of them, without exception, useless.

And, at the end of the day, they are just small businesses themselves chasing after the small business pound or dollar.

Staffed by timeservers, retirees and the worn out they can do nothing for you other then try and sell you services which have no purpose for fees which make no commercial sense. Their pitch is collectivism (" we' ve just signed up our nnn member" ) and respectability (" put this sticker in your window" ). A bit like Soviet Russia I' ve always thought. Nomenclatura and the KGB.

Stay away from them and from anyone who thinks differently - because they won' t be in business long and you might not get paid.

If you need a practical trade association - or just some company after work - join Rotary. You' ll soon find out who the honest businesses are.

You sell templates, I buy templates and when I pay you your fee I get, unsurprisingly, a template. How about that for a business model.



awasson -> RE: Discussion Question " Unless someone knows you: how do they know?" (7/24/2003 11:43:44)

Sorry, this says it' s in reply to BigD... It' s actually just in Reply to the main discussion

Well, there sure is a lot to ponder with all of the advise put forth.

I suppose Thomas, there are a few key items that apply to your business and others that don' t apply are good points non-the-less.

Your clientele are online and the transaction takes place online so there probably won' t be the chance of having a one-on-one with your prospect and business cards won' t be exchanged however paperwork can make a huge impact in the electronic world as can a real address.

If you can get the address of a doubting-thomas (no pun intended), send a quick message on letterhead addressing their concerns and laying out the intent of your business and answers to their questions. It' ll knock their sock off.

I suggest you create an OutFront' s or FrontPagecommerce " Quality Assurance" section that has listings of:

  • your domain records for outfront.net, frontpagecommerce.com, frontpagewebmaster.com with a real address and telephone number. (real contact info is good assurance) You could wire up a webservice that only returns results for your domains, that way the results returned would be fresh and updated daily.
  • A link to Here Nothing like a little real 3rd party referral.
  • Policies regarding use of information and warranties
  • A list and links to authorized template resellers. (You may as well be bold about the fact that others are reselling your products)
  • Support information and an FAQ
  • Testimonials (That' ll be easy)

There are probably others that you can think of and it certainly has me thinking of how I' ll be making some changes.

Cheers,
Andrew



SteveWR -> RE: Discussion Question " Unless someone knows you: how do they know?" (7/25/2003 6:36:27)

In the UK we have this organisation http://www.ukwda.org/ and they have 6,000+ members; I haven' t joined yet mind you.

Its a fact of life that you can only truly establish that someone is trustworthy by making yourself vulnerable to them. It' s my trust that makes someone else trustworthy. Someone who can' t trust, won' t find anyone who is trustworthy. They will end up living lonely and complaining as a result. Deep ... but true.



awasson -> RE: Discussion Question " Unless someone knows you: how do they know?" (7/25/2003 12:28:04)

Steve,

You bring up an interesting point.

IMHO, people who are likely to think the worst of someone or a business they don' t know are less likely to be trustworthy themselves.

Give them the tools to make up their minds but don' t loose any sleep over it.



SteveWR -> RE: Discussion Question " Unless someone knows you: how do they know?" (7/25/2003 16:58:14)

Awasson,

You are right, that' s been mentioned before in this thread (was it you?).

If someone does not " buy-in" to you being trustworthy they think you " will / would have" let them down, and so they " genuinely" feel they owe you nothing and so behave without any integrity of their own, and so yes they themselves become untrustworthy.

We are all mirrors, in the end we reflect what we see about us, in particular what we see in other people (real or imagined), so perceived untrustworthy ness breads more of the same, But if we trust and love then .... (without leaving out common sense of course).

It is better to give than to get, for giving is down to us; giving trust, love, time, help.... it brings freedom and peace because its all in your own control, and the its written somewhere " give and you will receive" which is the payback (but you give without expecting).

If 10 people constantly trust (really trust) someone who is untrustworthy (and they know they are being trusted), I believe they would change.

Must go soon UK Big Brother final eviction 2nite in 20 mins (aren' t I sad).



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