502: Is this a Partnership or Marketing Ploy?
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Ever wondered how to spot a genuine business partnership opportunity from a marketing ploy? We discuss the red flags to watch for when approached by potential partners. We share our own experiences with high-pressure sales tactics and emphasize the importance of setting boundaries and conducting thorough research. You'll learn how to maintain control during negotiations and make informed decisions. Tune in to hear valuable tips on protecting your business from misleading offers.
Main topics:
Identifying partnership red flags
Handling high-pressure sales tactics
Evaluating genuine partnership opportunities
Setting boundaries and expectations
Conducting research on contacts
Main takeaway: When people say 'partner,' they don't always mean it's a tit-for-tat kind of thing. Usually, you pay money for them to advertise you.
Links:
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/231
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
talk, people, business, contacted, partner, marketers, person, pet sitter, magazine, understand, price, work, meeting, money, decision, pet, marketing, demographics, area, phone call
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin
Meghan 00:02
Hi, I'm Meghan.
Collin 00:03
I'm Collin.
Meghan 00:04
And we are the hosts of pet sitter confessional an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you also to our sponsors, pet sitters associates and our Patreon people. If you don't know what Patreon is, it's kind of a weird word. It just means people who find value in the show, listen week after week, and want to keep the show going. If that sounds like you, you can go to pet sitter confessional.com/support, to see all of the ways that you can help out as business owners we get contacted all the time. And one of those ways is sometimes when people want to partner with us, it's usually for a genuine reason. But sometimes you just get a bad feeling about it. And we seem to be getting these all the time, whether it's phone calls, or emails, you know, somebody calls us with from the TV station and wants to talk about partnering to help pet owners, we always know what to ask, well, how much does that cost? Because usually, it's when people say partner, they don't really mean oh, it's, it's a tit for tat kind of thing. It's usually you pay money for them to advertise you. Exactly.
Collin 01:05
It's a marketer. It's an advertiser with a station with a magazine with some other business trying to get you to spend money to promote your business. And we can sometimes feel desperate for exposure, and the word partner sounds really soft. It sounds really nice. That sounds attractive to us. Yes, I would like to partner with you. And that is really where we have to take a step back and make sure that we assess everything that comes across our plate with open and honest eyes, that we don't get too far ahead of ourselves, and get into situations that we're going to regret later.
Meghan 01:41
And I guess that's really a marketer's term that they've come up with in the past few years. Because when people do say, partner, our minds go, Oh, I'm going to do something for you. And in turn, you're going to do something for me. And if it's, you know, if it's a TV station, well, they are doing something for you in that you are getting exposure to 1000s of people when they put on your program. But ultimately, it's an advertising opportunity, because you are having to pay for that. And when we think of partnership, we think we usually think of free, if I do something for you for free, and you do something for me for free. But that's not usually what marketers are saying when they use the word partner.
Collin 02:19
So we want to talk today about how do we identify these? What are some commonalities between these kinds of requests? How can we understand what it means for us? And if we want to move forward with something, how do we actually conduct ourselves during that kind of business meeting? Because that's not something that a lot of us do on a regular basis. So how do we come prepared for that? So when we look at identifying red flags for when somebody comes in, and they say, I want to partner with you pay attention to how they initially contact you things like vague language, over the top price for your business, or even an urgency to set up the meeting quickly. Phrases like, we'd love to explore opportunities with you and what that would look like to move forward. This happens a lot when we get contacted by especially in people with magazines, or the newspaper going Hi, we'd love to explore opportunities for what it would look like to gain more exposure for your business as we partner together. It's very marketing language. And then the excessive compliments towards your brand about your business is oh, man, I was on your website. And I just couldn't believe how amazing it was, I really felt connected with it, and that your messaging is really strong. I'd love to help you promote that more and explore the opportunities for what that would look like for your business to help pet parents. Like it really comes across as Pete you're not actually saying anything I can you feel when they are trying to puff you up to make you feel good about something? Because ultimately what they are trying to do, they're trying to position your mindset to be ready to say yes, if they can make you feel good. If they can make you feel understood and seen, you are more likely to say yes. And that especially happens with pressure to meet quickly without providing any real details of hey, I'd love to get this on your desk today. So we can talk about this and see what that looks like move forward possibly by the end of today, if that's possible. Anytime somebody is trying to pressure you with a set deadline, that you didn't ask for that there's no details for no rhyme or reason for why that needs to be. That is a major red flag to you that this person is just trying to get you to say yes to something before you have a chance to really think about it.
Meghan 04:29
Well, you talked about that timeline, but it is true in that they are asking something of you. You don't owe them anything, even a response to their email or a response right on the phone. If you pick up the phone and it's a marketer, just because they're asking something of you does not mean that you need to oblige you can say this is not a good time, not right now or you can just ignore the email and delete it. We have talked previously about whether something is a scam or not when someone contacts you, so if you want to refer back to that it's episode 231 But it is important When somebody reaches out to do your research, look up the company look up the person, are they legitimate? Are they who they say they are, because a lot of times people will try to make themselves sound loftier than they really are. Check the reviews of the company or the business. What do their testimonials say about them? And not just the testimonials on the website because nobody's going to put bad, bad testimonials and bad reviews on their website, go out to Google business, or Yelp or something else that is verifiable,
Collin 05:28
and then check out their business model? How are they making their money? Or is this something like an MLM where somebody's reaching out to partner with you, because you're already buying these products, and it can help you score points or work your way up the ladder. It's all about understanding that person's motivations at the end of the day. And whenever you do look up that person, it can be hard to catch these details. Because typically, this is how a phone call works. Hey, this is Chad VM. And I just want to let you know there's on your website, I think it looks really cool. And I love your branding and your styles. Can we talk about some of the goals that you have, and how we can partner together to further those, you can get so far down the conversation where you've already been puffed up about your business and you feel good. And now he's talking about partnering and making you more getting more exposure, you can completely forget that person's name or where they're with. And so when they take a breath, your first question needs to be I'm sorry, what was your name again? Okay, and VM what what does that stand for? And it'll be some generic like Google, virtual marketing, 2004, or whatever, just get those details down on paper, you are actually have control of this conversation. And it can be hard to do that in the moment, which is another reason why when these things come across your desk to take your time responding to them. If you can't take the phone call, say I can't take the phone call. If you don't have time to respond to the email right away. Wait until you have time to look at the email and do your due diligence and research about this. And definitely ask them about their goals. Why are they contacting you? Do you have previous relationships that has worked out for both people previously? What do they think this would look like? All of their questions are going to be about you your goals for you, you, you you. But you have to take a step back and as the business owner, regain control of this conversation and understand exactly what is going on. Because I mean, we are we're talking about this from a negative light, somebody contacts you and it's a skeezy person from no name company that's been, you know, bankrupt 17 times before. But what if it really is somebody with the local shelter who is putting together a dogs at the park event, you still have to do due diligence about this, to understand what the outcome of this is going to be it why the person is contacting you? Well,
Meghan 07:45
and I guess that's from you, and I, as many years doing this have kind of our skepticism coming out of Yeah, it could just be somebody from the animal shelter and totally innocent, and they genuinely want to partner with you for no upfront cost or no cost at all. And this is very innocent. But I feel like you and I have been doing this long enough. And you've taken enough phone calls. And I've answered enough emails to where we are just so skeptical and pretty pessimistic about doing anything with anybody, because it's usually and it costs us to do that. And so that's why it's very important to take your time. Because at the end of the day, it's your money, sure, they probably get a commission off of this. So they want you to move as fast as possible in order to get that momentum from you and make you pay. But just because they're asking something of you does not mean that you need to do that right away. It's kind of like how we do with clients have your emergency is not my emergency.
Collin 08:44
And that's not to say that there can't be an exchange of money with a mutually beneficial partnership. If the if the animal shelter is contacting you and they need a sponsor for their dog in the park event, that's totally fine. If you get a booth and you can talk on stage, you can do all this stuff to talk about your business. But you know, you're giving money to a good cause. And that's where we start to look at how do I differentiate between between this advertiser or the actual legitimate opportunity, you have to focus on the value exchange, because the legitimate partner, somebody who's actually in this for a mutual benefit, we'll talk about those benefits. We'll talk about how it helps both parties instead of what you need to do or what you need to buy or what you can invest in. That's not mutually beneficial in the extensive what we are talking about here.
Meghan 09:31
Well, and as you talked about a minute ago, it usually is circular language, the marketers want you to be confused. They want you to because if you actually dive into what they're they're saying, Oh, well, no, I don't want to do that because it's going to cost me $6,000. No, thank you. If they were upfront about the cost and used plain language about what they want from you, you would probably just say no automatically, but if they can use language, it's a little confusing that you're you're asking more questions they have more time to talk to you than that's a way to kind of hook you in faster. that
Collin 10:04
transparency is huge. One thing that I do with when we get these kinds of contacts or these calls is I'll just say, tell me the price right now. Or tell me what this is going to look like right now. The the less scrupulous people are going to say things like, well, I'd love to meet in person with you. Do we can we meet in person to talk about I will show you what this is like? No, no, you tell me what this is right now over the phone. I'm, I'm a big boy, I can make a decision like this over the phone, if this is actually going to be beneficial to us. That when people try and obfuscate and try and hide that and try and say, Oh, no, no, let me do this, a person can come by where you work, and let's meet for coffee, or let's, let's do that, let's talk about this when we're in person. That's because they know statistically more people are, people are less likely to decline an in person offer like that when you're sitting across the table from somebody that it is over the phone, because it's less personal marketers and advertisers. They know that sales psychology and you have to be aware of that to have that's the pressure they're trying to place on you. Now, if you are talking with somebody about the event at the dog in the park, that's going to help sponsor the local shelter, they may want to meet with you to talk about what the logistics look like for that day. That's different as far as planning and whatever goes. But if somebody says, Oh, well, I'd like to show you what the packages can look like, I'd like to show you what the page layout can look like in the magazine, you know, you're working with somebody who's not in this for genuine partnership. Well, and that's
Meghan 11:32
because over the years marketer, surveys have shown, you know, it's all about sales, psychology, and if they can get you in person, they can read you better to know how to orchestrate and turn the conversation so that they can get what they want. When a marketer reaches out to you, they're probably going to want to know, if you are the sole decision maker in your business. And for our business, we're 5050 here. So they always want to get us both on the phone together, or both in person together. And that is almost 99% not likely to happen, because we are so busy. But again, it's a way for them to read the room of Oh, potentially pitting one of us against each other so that, you know if they can sense that I'm the more emotional one that wants to go with this. They'll try to play that up and go Yeah, doesn't she it sounds like you want this and then Collins the bad guy. And he, you know, the marketer tries to get Colin over to my side,
Collin 12:20
they definitely try and play on emotions and do read that body language, those facial expressions, how your hands are positioned, a good marketer is going to take all of that into account, which is why they're going to pressure to have that in person meeting so they can get a sense for you as well, to understand what's going on. So when you get this request, whether it's an email, a social media DM or it's a phone call, or maybe it's it happens at an in person networking event that you go to with a chamber or other businesses. When you talk about handling this request, you have to know and be upfront with yourself about what you are looking for. Maybe you are looking for help marketing, this person may be the answer to that. So all this stuff that we're talking about, it doesn't mean that these are this is a bad thing. Marketers can help promote your business, you just have to be aware of what you are looking for upfront
13:07
with yourself. You have to be discerning and
Collin 13:11
know okay, oh, I do need help marketing. Okay, oh, no, I'm actually looking to partner with with a community aspect here and not looking for marketing. So when you get these requests, if you personally, if you don't want help marketing, be polite, but firm with them acknowledge their offer, hey, I really appreciate you sending this over. I'm not looking for that kind of thing right now, or appreciate the information. I'll keep this if my mind if you know something I say a lot is thank you for sending over that information. If our needs change in the future, I know who to reach out to. It's polite, but firm saying no, no, thank you. And because their language can be so hard to discern and so hard to understand, because they are trying to be oblique and opaque about their words, if you decide to move forward, or if you're trying to go Huh, what is this that I'm staring at right now asked for a detailed proposal, hey, send me over the information packet with pricing, please, because that's the other thing I used to ask send me over the information packet and they'd send back something without pricing, because they'd want to talk about pricing in person because what they wanted to do and this actually happened, there is a high end magazine that only partners with local golf courses and country clubs to market to those people. They their information has no pricing on it. They want to sit in person with you so they can show you an example to see your emotional response to the size of the advertisements in the magazine so they can talk about that went hey, well, regardless of price. Just tell me which one of these do you think would communicate your brand the best? Well, that's not how I think I want to know what's each price and I'm going to make a decision based off of that I am the price conscientious business purchaser in these respects. So asking for detailed information so that you can get that information from them. And again, say if you're on the phone, don't make a decision over the phone, ask for those details to be sent by a follow up email, say, Hey, you already have my phone number, why don't you just send me over those details to my email. And that way I can review those at a later time. Now it's not now's not good. Because you never want to agree to do anything on the phone without more details. Even if they outline all of the information for you get it in writing, have them send an email to follow up. And that way also, you can get them off of the phone and into an email where you can better manage that when you are good and ready to
Meghan 15:32
do that. Something that actually helps your business is pet sitters associates. As pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members. And that's why pet sitters Associates is here to help. for over 20 years, they've provided 1000s of members with quality pet care insurance. Because you work in the pet care industry, you can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom in running your business. Learn why pet sitters Associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote at pets@llc.com. You can get a discount when you join by clicking membership petsitter confessional and use the discount code confessional when you go to checkout, check out the benefits of membership and insurance once again, at pets@llc.com. If you are interested in pursuing something, and somebody is contacting you make sure to set those boundaries clearly state what you are interested in and what you are not interested in. But at the end of the day, you don't owe them anything. So if you just want to say I'll look over this, or no thank you not a good time, or not respond to their email at all. That is okay. Because just because they asked doesn't require a response. And be
Collin 16:30
honest with them about your timeline. That's one of the questions I always ask when somebody initially reaches out to me, when How soon does a decision need to be made about this? And I'll tell them no, that's not in my timeframe for whenever I can get around to this thank you for your information, we'll hold on to it for next time. Or, Hey, I can't get to this today, it's going to be several days before I can get back to you on this. And if they again, they say well, I really need to know because you know, this is going to print in a week. And we've got to go through this process. And we've got to do all these things. Say well, then appreciate the offer that I can't do that right now. We had that happen to us, we had a local newspaper reach out to us. And it was high pressure. It was, hey, I've got an ad spot. Basically, he said, I'm reaching out about marketing your business. We want to get your name more out there. Because I really appreciate what you guys are doing for the community. Here's what we can do. I need an answer within a couple days. And we just said we're not in a position to make a decision on that timeline. So thank you, but no, thank you. And we just said left it at that. Again, Megan said it earlier, their emergency is not our emergency, just because they're at the end of the month, and it's their time to meet their sales quota doesn't mean you have to help them do that. If you legitimately need more time to work through that to make sure it's a good decision for you and your business. Yeah,
Meghan 17:45
again, it's all about discernment here, going with your gut. But yes, going online and doing your research. Is this person who they say they are, do they have decision making power? Because that's another thing is maybe they're just a lowly salesman trying to again hit their quota. But do they actually have the power that you are looking for in a partnership? Can they move things around in the magazine willy nilly can if you want a certain spot is that can they guarantee that
Collin 18:13
so ask them to clarify what they do and what their role is with whatever organization or company that that they are calling you from is so that you can get a judgment of okay, what is this person capable of doing? Why they will also help you understand why they're contacting you. Because if somebody contacts you from a local nonprofit, and they say, Hey, I'm, I'm the Outreach Coordinator for, you know, pas and whiskers rescue, and I'd love to talk to you about setting up a booth at our next event. Okay, well, that really gives you a lot of information and knowledge about this person, and what is what their intentions are going to be. So getting that job title down from somebody can help you in this process as well. So let's say you have gone through all this process, you've taken a phone call a couple emails, you have some information in hand and you've agreed to go to a meeting with this. This can be really intimidating, especially if we are meeting with somebody with decision making power with authority. It's the leader of an HOA or it's somebody with a big apartment complex in your area. Or maybe it is a big week at a marketing agency that wants to talk about what it would look like to advertise for your business. These are situations that we can feel very uncomfortable with right we a lot of people get into dog walking and pet sitting to not spend time around other people and to not have to dress up in business attire and go to these kinds of meetings and events. So it is outside of our comfort zone. Which can unfortunately leave us feeling like we are less empowered than we actually are.
Meghan 19:41
Understand what you want from the partnership. line out specific things in your head or on paper that you want to see from them before you're able to make a decision moving forward. Also know your budget. If this is a money exchange, know what you're willing to say yes to know what your numbers are. Because typically What they try to do is they try to start high, because they there is an initial shock that you're going to have. But that way they can kind of talk you down and say, Oh, well, that may be out of your budget. But what about this one this little bit lower priced? One, they'll always have a multi tiered system. So maybe you want to go into the meeting and say, what is the baseline here? What are what are we starting with instead of starting at the top, because that's what they typically do. Go to the bottom, and they may ask what your budget is, but do your best to not reveal that to them. Because marketers ruin everything, they will try to use that to their advantage if they know Oh, $600 is their absolute max, okay, well, I have a package for 598, or I have a package for 630. It's just a little bit above your price range. But this would be amazing for you.
Collin 20:47
And you could be honest with them and say we've done this before we had a magazine guy reach out to us wanting us to promote our business with some coupons and stuff and a local book and, and we said hey, he said, What, what's your budget on this? And I looked at him and I said, I have no idea what something like this should cost, I need you to go ahead and quote out three different things for me high, medium, and low. And what that gets me. And then I can make a better decision on this. Have them give you that information for this. Because I mean, we use this in our own business, when people contact us about services, and they want something like 24/7 live in care, I have a price that I will quote to people, okay, that's $500 a day. Oh, and you're leaving for 14 days, okay, well, let's do the math together. That's a super, super high price to them that they're asking for, they asked for total living care, here's the price associated with that. From there, we can then back it down to three or four visits a day or an early morning and a late night tuck in with a quick walk in the afternoon, we can then talk about more realistic stuff that we can actually provide as a business and that make more financial sense to somebody else. So if I know that we can do that with that as a tactic that we use to say no, the what you're asking for is not something that we want to provide. But if we do provide it, here's the price. But here's something way more reasonable that as Megan mentioned, marketers will do this, they'll start at the Lamborghini, they will start at the Porsche and they will work down to the base model Civic. And that what they look for is they start to see where where does your facial expression start to get a little bit more relief? Where does the pain start leaving your eyes and you stop sweating? Right? It's is it? Is it? Is it $15,000? Oh, oh, they're not sweating anymore at $5? Okay, well, I know this, again, why they want to get you in person. So they can see your physiological reaction to those prices, I highly recommend not meeting at their office, always meet in a coffee shop or in a restaurant, something that is going is very temporary. So you have a reason to leave at some point, right, you can't stay there all day, they have to leave, you have to leave meet at a neutral location, and you should pick it, you pick that location so that it's easier for you. It's easier for your route planning, and it's going to be a better fit for what you're looking for. Coffee shops are great, because they're a little noisy, it's a little bit distracting. And to get there, they have a very temporary feel of people come to the coffee shop, you don't stay there all day, very few people do. You can have a quick meeting and then you can leave. So it kind of sets up that expectation of not being here all day. And no, I'm not going to eat lunch with you while we talk business because that's awkward for me. I don't I don't really want to do that. But I can drink coffee with you. That's totally fine. So you find your comfort level and have a couple places where you can direct those to. And
Meghan 23:27
then dress like a pet sitter and dog walker, you're not gonna go into this with a sued. We don't even you don't even own a suit, Colin? No, I don't. So don't worry about it, take the pressure off yourself dress like normally dress, but do come with a list of questions prepared to gauge their intentions and their interest in really partnering with you. Have they done similar partnerships before? Can they share examples? What are their demographics and their stats? If it's a magazine, make sure that you really are targeting that specific area. If it's a radio station, do you service all of the radio waves that they go out to? If it's a golf course? Are there people that live in your service area that frequent that golf course there was a pet magazine that reached out to us. And we want to know specific demographics of people that pick up their magazine. It's a free magazine that they put in restaurants and coffee shops and grocery stores. But we wanted to know specifically dollar for dollar what are we actually getting here who is picking up this magazine. And the person that owns the magazine could not tell us those demographics. And I understand that for a multitude of reasons. But at the end of the day, we want to get our money's worth. We are the ones paying the money. She is just providing the the free magazine to the community. But we need to be wise and diligent with the money that we have. And so I want to know exactly who is getting this magazine and she couldn't tell us that so we passed on the opportunity.
Collin 24:52
You gave more of the national numbers of well in general this is what pet parents spend and in general this is there a didn't but it was all national figures, it was nothing local to our area. So it didn't make sense because we couldn't pinpoint that to our direct demographic and our direct client avatar as a possible solution. Could it have been? Sure it could have been a good fit, but we wanted to go in with with hard numbers and figures so that we could get some better results than what was being offered.
Meghan 25:21
And just as you're preparing questions, prepare your response as well be ready with a polite decline, if it turns out to be an advertising pitch or something that you need to think about or talk to your business partner about or your husband or your wife, or whatever it is, you have permission to give yourself time to make a decision. Or you can just plainly say No, something that we don't like to tell clients often. But it is a complete sentence. And you can tell this person no as well.
Collin 25:45
So I want to walk through a couple of different examples that we've gotten in the past. In one of our service areas, the the local newspaper produces a pet calendar for the year for free for local businesses to distribute at their storefronts. And we were contacted by them for if we would want to pay to have our advertisement in this calendar that would be then distributed across the area in local businesses, again, at their storefronts, and this is one where again, going okay, this person has asked if I want to advertise in their business and partner with them to promote us and get this calendar out there. Okay. Some questions that I have for them a What's your timeline? And they responded with? Well, I need a response in it within, you know, two days so we can get this to print because we're coming up towards the end. I've got a couple of spots left. Okay, so you need two days for me to make a major financial decision for this. Understood. Let me ask about distribution. How many of these go out? Okay, how far do these go out? And he said, Okay, well, this actually goes out within like 30 miles or whatever of the of the place. Okay, well, that's actually okay, let's, uh, knock against it. Because that's not a good fit for us. We don't serve us that far out. And then wanting to know what other businesses Okay, so again, I'm asking him about similar partnerships. Okay. So tell me about other businesses that you have advertising in this calendar so that we Megan, and I can make a decision of that's a fit for us, given the kind of people who are also advertising it in that are partnering with them in that quote, unquote, partnering, that will give you some idea to when you ask that question, tell me about other partnerships you have with this team about other people you're working with on this thing, the kind of businesses that are advertising in that magazine, or who are working with them on this project will tell you a lot about whether it will or will not be a good fit for you.
Meghan 27:30
Again, that's where this discernment comes in. Because depending on your business, and depending on the services you offer, in your service area, probably 99% of the pitches that you get are not going to be a good fit for you. And for us, that's mostly because of the area that we serve, we serve as such a small area, it has a massive amount of people in it that we can service. But it is such a small area that, you know, typically businesses, especially brick and mortar, they want everybody they want everybody in a 50 mile radius, to see their stuff to come into their store. Because the pet sitting and dog walking industry is really so niche. And we have such small service areas, a lot of the advertising opportunities are not going to be beneficial to you because they are not hyperlocal, they are not specific enough to the exact people that you want to target. Well,
Collin 28:19
and their answers to some of these questions will tell you a lot about whether they understand your business at all. And that is is huge. Because again, when this person contacted us about the calendar, one of the benefits that they said is that we could get some calendars to put in our store. And I thought to myself, You have no idea what we do, do you and so I had to explain to this person about what we do and why that's not a benefit to us. You know what will benefit your business, don't be afraid to tell them when it's not same thing when the radio advertisers reach out to us and they want us to advertise they, they they want to brag about their reach and the demographics and how far it out goes and go, okay, cool. I serve as a six mile radius around this. And all of a sudden, they'll be big, great. They'll be radio silence as they try and go. Well, thank you for your time, not a good fit. One of the trickier marketing partner clinical partnerships that that that we found out about was actually a local radio station, put on a brand camp or a brand advertising workshop one day and we were invited to it had some time and I kind of like going to these things every now and then just to see what it's like and get some of that experience at breakfast was provided and everything and they brought in a speaker from Texas to come in and talk about what it meant to have a strong brand, how to advertise and market and it wasn't a bad presentation. It's actually some good information in there. But here's the thing at the very end, they started pitching. Oh, and if you want to do a one on one consultation with us to talk about putting your marketing campaign together, let us know that's also free. That's also where you're going Talk about what that looks like. And they kind of pitched that throughout the day of oh, we only have five spots, oh, we only have two spots. Oh, we have one spot. And then towards the end, they started throwing in some confusion of what we had one cancel. So we had one open up. And again, all along in the background, they knew exactly how many spots they were. Nobody was canceling nothing was booking. They were just taking people for these things. It was a total Sham. And they reached out to us and said, Hey, do you want one? Well, I had some time on my hands. So I said, Well, sure. Let's see what this is like, I've extended I've attended this free workshop. I've had their biscuits and gravy. I'm ready for you know, I'm feeling zesty. Let's go. And what it was, is they brought to you one on one to sit down again, remember who put on this event? The radio station? Who does what? Marketing and Advertising? What are they trying to get people to market and advertise with them on their radio station and their digital platforms? So going into this meeting, knowing they're going to ask me questions, they're gonna help me talk about pain points, then they're going to talk about what they can do to alleviate those. For me, that kind of mindset helped me understand, okay, when they're asking these questions, their goal is for me to spend 10 grand with them on their top end marketing package.
Meghan 31:11
Well, and I think earlier, when I talked about being skeptical, I think that's where this comes from, is our experience in this in that a lot of people just want you to give them your money. And so it really is about mindset of if you go in with the skeptical mind, you are less likely to be taken advantage of because over time when you do when you experience more and more of these things, because marketers always market they never go away. When you experience one of the more of these things over time, you're going to see the commonalities and the threads that are linked through everybody and the market or language and you can start to see, oh, this person has used some of this language. And I've experienced this before because of this other person that contacted me. And so when we do these things, now, when you went to that marketing thing, we our guard was up because we knew that we eventually we were going to be sold to it was a great presentation, you got some things out of it that we could use in our business. But at the end of the day, we knew that we were going to be sold to so it is about having your guard up because you don't want to be taken advantage of and you don't want to just throw your hard earned money that your business is making and you are making away
Collin 32:19
asking that question. Am I being sold to? To what end? Beatty? Why is this person calling me at 1pm? On a Tuesday, ask yourself at every time you get those questions those calls me Why is this person calling me? Do they really think that my brand is so amazing, and they loved my website? And they thought my most recent social media posts was just the bomb diggity? Do they really think that? Or is there something else going on here? That way you can, what you need to do is take control over that and listen to people. Again, we're not saying that everybody who calls you is looking to pull one over on you or trying to do that. But you have to be discerning in this. Listen for the scripts. Listen for the transparency, listen to when you ask a question, do they actually answer it? Or do they redirect you back to a point that they're they're trying to make, they're not actually having a lot of people will not actually have a conversation with you. They have talking points that they must get to, because that's part of their script, listened to people, but go in knowing what your boundaries are what you are and are not willing to agree to because like just as an example, good marketers will steer steer you to other options. Again, the price point starting at the 10 Grand and option per year, and working the way down so that when they hear hear the $1,000 for the year and you kind of go, oh, they'll gonna lean into that. But if you really aren't interested in this, and it's really not a good fit, because you could pay for it. It could be in your budget, but you have other things of it's not my demographics, not my target area, it's not actually a good fit brand wise, and I don't like these other people that are there to say no, you have control and power over this to make that good decision. And that should give you a lot of freedom to both a take these kinds of phone calls, because they may be a legitimately good option one day, but also be to say no and walk away from them without feeling guilty.
Meghan 34:10
The last example I wanted to bring up was with the insurance and benefits to our employees now that we have employees, people are searching us out and insurance companies are calling us of oh, we can help get you a quote. And so colin has sat in on several of those meetings. And now we have the talking points for them to
Collin 34:30
write Yeah, we have insurance salespeople that want to come in and say okay, you're a business owner, you've got employees. Talk to me about what your turnover rate is and what kind of complaints do they have and what it is they always want to talk about. They want to get you complaining. That's one tactic that I've been noticing recently they want to get you complaining because what they want to do they want say, well, we want to help you with staff retention. We want to help you have happier employees. Oh, I want happy employees. Yeah, that's absolutely okay. But what they actually want is for you to sign up with a big service for them and to pay A for them to manage retirement accounts and manage 401 ks and manage the administration of these benefits and everything. And so when I go into these meetings, can I, I sounds like I'm a glutton for punishment here. But I do enjoy sitting through these and looking for those tactics and getting that experience of what people are trying what this actually is. And again, I also go in with an open mind of one of these may be beneficial one day one of these may actually be good for us, depending on our state and business. But they always want to start with Well tell us what you're currently doing with your business, then they want to hear your pain points and get you complaining again. And then they want to start talking about how statistically, nationally, this is what labor surveys are talking about, and the benefits that people are looking for, and retention rates for people who implement these, and then they'll move into their packages and what they can do for you. And yes, they do start out high, everybody starts off with the full service, everything all in 100% package that it will cost you immense amount of money every single month, and they will whittle that down, they'll start taking certain things off, they'll start reducing the amount of in a package or they'll reduce this goes all the way down to every single insurance agent who's ever contacted us will always end with well sounds like I can't help you directly with your business. Today. However, I do offer individual financial coaching to help make sure that people are put in a good position with their own home life. So if you would recommend me to your employees, so that they can be better financial footing. That would really appreciate that. And I know your employees would too. So it goes all the way down from this big six that grand a year package to will just refer me to your employees see that arc of that high down to a cost you nothing just refer out. And then we end the conversation say I appreciate that. Thank you very much. But it's all about understanding, why is this person contacting me and not being so puffed up to go, oh, man, I'm really special because this person thinks my brand is really cool. And they really love what I'm doing. And they saw my employee post, because that's what happens. We post about our employees on social media, we get these phone calls, they are scraping this data and looking for it. And you have to be aware of that. So
Meghan 37:12
again, we're not trying to say that marketers are always bad, they're demons, they're out to get us and steal our money. But we do need to go into these meetings or these phone calls or just life in general, when we're meeting people in a coffee shop or just passing people on the street, going with our eyes wide open of going it is my money, I get to choose how I spend it and be very discerning and doing your research on who you are actually talking to because it is very easy to be taken advantage of. And that's what we're trying to prevent. If you've had these kinds of conversations with people who want to partner with you, and you've got tips on how to handle that and deal with it. You can email us at PetSitterconfessional@gmail.com. Thank you for taking your time and listening to this today. Thank you also to pet sitters associates for sponsoring today's episode, and we will talk with you next time. Bye
