I am SO over these discount site sales people!!!

[Rana]

I must get at least one call a day from the latest parasite-who-can't-do-math in the world of discount deal sites.

A) learn something about my business before you call. If you had any idea the variable cost of a spa treatment was 40-50%, you can only be a parasite if you are asking me to discount services an average of 50% AND you expect to take 50% of what's left. A symbiotic relationship helps both parties -- just ask those little birds on the back of a rhino. A parasite devours its host, which is what will happen when your advertising provider makes $25 and you LOSE $25 on every sale.

B) stop promising things you have no way of delivering. Repeat clients -- they all promise it, but they have no proof they ever deliver any. Clients who came to y ou through a deal site are just going to wait for the next deal on that site or your next deal on another site.

C) Stop touting how many new customers I will get if you business model necessitates me losing money on every new customer's first visit. This is not a grocery store which can give away a 2nd head of lettuce as part of your $300 weekly purchase. Loss-leaders only lead to bankruptcy in low volume, low frequency industries. The last thing I want when I am losing money on every client is more clients. Please learn to do math, or at least understand the basics of business before calling me with your idiotic idea to grow my business a tombstone.

D) Your clients are not high-value clients. They are the biggest complainers -- just read YELP or TripAdivsor -- those who scream the loudest paid the least.

E) Put your money where your mouth - and business model -- is. If you think your brilliant me-too discounting deal site will deliver repeat business, I will give you $0 on first time visits and 100% of 100% of repeat clients for the next 90 days.

 

[John S.]

I am SO over these discount site sales people!!!

:iagree: I liked the vent!

 

[AZMI]

I am SO over these discount site sales people!!!

Nice. Best Groupon rant ever. Can I repost it with a link back here?

 

[#1 Cat Lover!]

I am SO over these discount site sales people!!!

R & R,

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[nene2007]

I am SO over these discount site sales people!!!

I met a great MT through a group coupon site.

Previously, when I searched for an MT using Google, her name never came up. I suppose that I could have searched via the AMTA website but most MTs on the AMTA don't seem to have websites -- at least not in this area -- and I always want more information about the therapist other than their hours and the modalities provided.

Had it not been for the discount site, I don't think that I would have ever known about this MT.

Also, I totally think that a great MT is worth their weight in gold but I was also looking for an MT that offered packages since I like to get massages on a regular basis despite a modest salary. :2cents:

 

[JDroo]

I am SO over these discount site sales people!!!

Offering packages/series of massages for a discount is not the same thing as offering a rock-bottom first-visit deal. Those DO. NOT. WORK. for the vast majority of us in this industry. We do offer packages/series, but only to clients AFTER they have established themselves to us as "good clients, whom we desire to keep and to reward with a discount to help them come more often". We have found *from experience* that offering first-time clients deep discounts and packages backfires more often than not. Nope-- no more of that.

R&R, I wholeheartedly agree with you. There's this guy in our area who keeps calling-- he runs/markets for a bartering group, and he continues to insist that this would be a great way to not only get new clients, but also to obtain products and services "we need in our business". Um, nope-- not happening. We do barter, but only after much discussion and mutual agreement on terms by both parties, only for things we TRULY NEED and would have spent money for anyway, and only with people we know personally. Oh, and we now also set a "limit" on how much barter business we'll do each month/given time span.

It's taken us a while, but we're finally learning.

 

[FelafelTodd]

I am SO over these discount site sales people!!!

I always tell these people... "Please remove me from your call list".

 

[Ana]

I am SO over these discount site sales people!!!

I always tell these people... "Please remove me from your call list".

I usually stop them before they say a word, and say "What discount do you expect?" and "What % of the revenue do you take?" and "if both of these answers are over 30%, we have nothing to talk about"

But every so often they just decide to tell me what they want to tell me, and I make sure to tell them what I want to tell them. I have found the word "parasite" really hits a raw nerve with them. Geez, you would think they were lawyers....

 

[an anonymous female]

I am SO over these discount site sales people!!!

It sounds like you are getting a lot of these calls. In my practice, this one sentence has reduced the call load from solicitations to practically nil. It took a while, but I am down to maybe one every 2-3 weeks. I recognize that they are a sales call of some sort and spout out my sentence. If they keep talking, I say it again, and then hang up.