Prove It Or Lose It

January 13th, 2007This morning I took a call from a Verizon Yellow Pages rep. She began her pitch by telling me that she wanted to verify all the information they had on Caffeine Group was correct. Phone number, address, area of business, website, etc. She made it seem that she was simply checking facts, not selling anything. Knowing better I finally broke into her pitch and asked the question – “so what is this going to cost me?” She then confirmed that yes, this was going to cost me – only $75 per month for the first 3 months and if I was not satisfied I could cancel.
The pitch is an aggressive, old school one that I am sure works. By the time people are done answering questions they almost feel obligated to give it a try.
The problem is, times have changed. Consumers are getting smarter and the bulldozer approach is becoming less and less effective. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth about Verizon that they feel that they can’t be up front about their call from the first sentence. If what they were selling was so good than why hide behind a façade of “just calling to check that we have the correct information”.
If an advertising medium wants my business or the business of one of my clients they are going to have to prove to me that my investment will make me money. Companies waste far too much money on ineffective advertising and they are starting to realize it.
With Google you pay only when someone that types in key words you have specified actually clicks on your link. Kudzu.com is a local services directory here in Atlanta – a modern Yellow Pages. They allow people to sign up for a free basic listing. I did and then a sales rep called asking me to try out their $50/month premium listing. I was skeptical. The sales rep said to give it a try for 30 days for free and if I liked it I would be billed $50/month. This was a can’t lose proposition for me. The ball was in their court to prove to me that they were an effective medium.
And effective they were. Within 2 weeks I had what turned into my biggest client of the year. I gained some smaller clients off of Kudzu and then in my second month of advertising what turned into our 3rd biggest client of the year called us.
Would I have placed the ad if they expected me to prepay? No way. Am I happy I am a paying Kudzu advertiser. You bet. The direct impact to Caffeine Group’s bottom line for our $300 advertising investment (we signed up halfway through 2006) at least $36,000. We typically keep our clients long term so return on this investment will be substantial over the coming years.
So long as Kudzu continues to be an effective advertising investment Caffeine Group will be a Kudzu advertiser. As for Verizon, they are going to have to make a commitment to proving themselves to us and be up front in their telemarketing before we are willing to invest even a dime in their Yellow Pages.
And on a final note, the second the telephone sales rep realized we were not going to advertise without them proving they would be an effective medium her tone turned frosty and she very quickly hung up.