[gwrightson]

  Had four calls yesterday,  All trying to sell me advertising in one form another, i man offering me free web site    thats guaranteed to be high in the listings , when doing a search  as if .
Free !!!, free I thought, So first question to him was "if free what do you get out of it  "?  Reply ....   Well its free, but it will cost you £18 per month to be listed
 "Thank you , but no thanks , bye "
 Two other run of the mill calls , but what really caught my attention was ,
 a guy with a liverpool accent, the speel just ran off his tongue :
  I Have been specially selected as the only c.c. in my area to have the oppurtunity to advertise in my local (police, ambulance, and fire brigade mag)
 wishing all our service men the best of luck in the job they are doing.
  A monthly mag distibuted in the local community ( i,ve never seen it" )
  Any way to cut a long story short , after 3 - 4 more minutes of speel ,and
 how it will only cost £220 + vat , I said "  do you think I could possibly see
 prievious issue,  just to veiw the format ect. 
 With that he said " thanks for wasting my time , and p*****g me about"
  and slammed the phone down
    geoff

[dave401uk]

ive been getting calls from these chaps with a liverpool accent for yrs, the first thing that always makes me cautious is the witheld number when they call you, and they manner in wich they speak to you, do you call your prospective clients MATE?

DAVE

[Dennis]

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

[Dave_Lee]

Hi Goef,
You probably wont have seen one of those 'Emergency Services' mags as they are only distributed to those that are employed by the emergency services. The ads are a waste of money generally, at best you may some of your money back, but thats about it.
Dave.

[gwrightson]

Thanks for the link Dennis,
 just what i though Dave  , I wasnt the least bit interested
  Geoff

[stu_thomson]

what annoys me most is that same scouser whos seems to be calling all of us, claims to be from a childrens charity, to pull at your heartstrings. when you politely refuse to advertise, he says "so you dont care about children with so and so" god that annoys me!
also the people who call you and ask if you would be interested in working for schools and colleges, thinking youve got a chance to price on some big work only to be told its so and so advertising. god im getting stresed just writing about all the scammers out there. need beeeeeerrr!
 hic-up stu

[laurap]

I had a call today claiming to be from the County Cricket Club,  then I noticed that the tel no was not even local.  It was going to cost me £200 and be seen by 1 million people,  dont think there are that many people in the whole county!!  needless to say I declined their kind offer.

Regards
Laura

[Gavin Reardon]

Hi Forum

Dont take part in any of it ive been silly and tryed most of it!!  :

Homebase bis cards holder same with  Tesco, Emergency services handbook and wall planner, internet directorys, Morrisons on the back of there till recipts, Post Office flashing ad boards the list gos on and on

 ALL OF THEM RUBBISH        

Before the days of Forums you did not know what worked and what never!!


Money better spent on yell.com, yellow pages, leaflets, marketing, web site,  
Refferal programs etc Things you no work!

Avertising is very expensive as you know spend your wisely  


Regards

Gavin

[Mark@Eco-Powerclean]

So can anyone say whether Yellow Pages is a good thing to get into?

I've had one of their reps round at my house twice. First idea was, as a new business, to go grand scale. Half page, full colour in about six of the neighbouring directories to see where most work would come from. All seemed to be going well until the laptop popped up with a figure of around TWELVE GRAND!

I've now decided to scale it down to my local directory, and one neighbouring area. Still expensive, but more cost effective (and actually affordable).

While we're on the subject of marketing, do people here design their own flyers, or do you just work out a broad outline and pass it over to a designer for the 'professional touch'? I'm designing my own on recently purchased design software, but I'm not sure whether to run it past a designer who knows more about marketing, or just have it printed and distributed. It looks good to me, but then I'm biased.
 

[CATMAN]

Newbie,

My add for year cost £5,000. This has been running since October. Amount of calls don't even cover the advert. Save your cash, and just go for a small one.

[Mark@Eco-Powerclean]

Thanks Catman. My ad is almost around the same price, but think I may be committed to it now. Haven't had a chance to check the terms and conditions re cancellation, although the new directories I'm advertising in do not appear until August.

He's sent me a draft of the ad, which is nothing like what we discussed. Apparently, I've already upgraded to TM. That's news to me, as I specifically told him that I am using a portable system.

Anyway, I may let a correctly worded version of the ad run and see how it goes. Hopefully, by the time I start paying for the ad (as I've taken the ten months installments option from the time the ad appears) I may have built up a decent client base, and this may just be the attraction of additional work. If it isn't a good medium, then as long as I at least break even, I'll put it down to experience.

[Ian Hare]

See topic on Yellow Pages on www.another forum.co.uk forum.
Lot's of your questions are answered there.

[Mark@Eco-Powerclean]

Thanks, Ian.

Haven't previously registered with another forum, but I have now. All I have to do is wait until the forum administrator approves my application, and then I can log in to see what an idiot I've been. 

[Ian Gourlay]

I thought I would not get caught again, but a very nice Little Old Lady so I thought phoned me asking me to Advertise in Church Diary

Thought I would not one call.

What is interesting i did not sign paperwork send proof or anything but advert went in .

Feel morally obliged as it is a  Church diary to pay but i know its suttle high preasure tatics as its just a cpmmercial company using the Church to sell iys product.

[a55essor]

I used yell.com basic free ad, got few jobs out it, in fact 2 jobs 2nd day on there.
I don't entertain phone calls/reps, the only time I advertise with company's if I contact them myself or they are recomended to me , and they got proven track record.

kev

[Derek]

Hi

I did some work a few years ago for a telesales girl who worked at the local Leicester Evening Newspaper.

Over coffee she told me a few things about the sales strategies and one thing that has stuck with me ever since were the following comments.

"We have targets set daily which we have to meet. I feel awful sometimes when I am pressing a small company for advertising and I KNOW they can't afford it but I have to meet the figures or I'm out of a job"

Knowing this makes it a lot easier for me to say.... NO!

Derek

[John_Flynn]

When these people call and ask to speak with the person who deals with the advertising, tell them

" He only comes in on Saturday afternoon at 3.00pm!!"

Works for us dont it Sheffiled Shaun??

[Dennis]

Hi

I did some work a few years ago for a telesales girl who worked at the local Leicester Evening Newspaper.

Over coffee she told me a few things about the sales strategies and one thing that has stuck with me ever since were the following comments.

"We have targets set daily which we have to meet. I feel awful sometimes when I am pressing a small company for advertising and I KNOW they can't afford it but I have to meet the figures or I'm out of a job"

Knowing this makes it a lot easier for me to say.... NO!

Derek

Years ago that worked to my advantage, I got just under 1/4 of the front page in full colour of the local freesheet for £75 which was less than 1/4 of the going rate at the time from a desparate rep. (I think he was new I never heard of him again) 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

My mate says when they call him"sorry luv he's dead,we're just clearing his desk!"

Shaun

[Ken Wainwright]

Kev

I too often use a ploy similar to yours. I tell the caller "I will not do business with an unknown,  uninvited caller over the phone. Goodbye".

Shaun

I've used that one before too. This American guy called, I told him that Mr Wainwright had died, and I was there helping to clear his desk. The poor chap sounded as though he was in total shock   I didn't feel at all sorry for him with his "pseudo grief". To finish the call, I asked if I could take a message for the family and he said "Tell them Ed Crawford called........"

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

PS For those of you newer to the industry, Ed is Mr. OneStep