I think there are two seperate issue here, and I may have lsot track which
one was being asked about.
1) Customers leaving for services being advertised as faster and cheaper,
when the competitors was just lying.
2) Advertising to attract new customers, when competitors are lying.
If your service is good... #1 is much easier to solve than #2.
But #2, is the harder one. Its your word against the competitor's word, and
the customer has a chance of having more, if they try the competitor first.
I don't like being the guy that the client comes to after the fact. Its
means I loose months of revenue while the client goes through their learning
curve.
I'm running into this with Cellular Aircards. Atleast once a week, a
business turns down my service because I refuse to waive the $250 install
fee, and they go with the Aircard, for about a $30/month savings over what I
would charge them monthly. Within 2 months, they usually come crawling back,
asking to now buy our service, because they need more consistent better
speed.
What I learned is that I have not built the trust factor yet with them, so
they don't believe a word I tell them during the sale process, until they
learn it for them selves. What has been helping most, is developing a
relationship with the prospects's IT guy. the "trusted advisor". I usually
find that they were part of the original decission process, that chose the
aircard. I can win them all, but if I make that contact with the "trusted
advisor" I can prevent it from happening again, for the next client that
that "trusted advisor" might also advise for. However, I recognize that
this may not work for residential, where there is no "trusted advisor".
But what it brings up is that maybe a different marketing plan is needed?
One that sells something other than speed? One that builds "trust"?
For example, "Why buy from us... Ask your neighbor... References provided on
request... satisfaction guaranteed"
I'm starting to learn to close sales without ever discussing the "speed"
that is included in the sale.
Cust-"What speed is it?"
Sales- "Faster than a T1 line, more than most large business use" (customer
of course does not know what a T1 line is)
Cust-"Is it faster than DSL or Cable?"
Sales- "The true measure of speed is Latency, and our latency outperforms
both Cable and DSL. Thats why you won't see a "latency" spec in our
competitor's advertisements"
Cust- "what plans do you offer and what should I get"
Sales- "I suggest our default plan, it offers excellent value, faster than
most ever need, and faster than most websites can deliver content. And the
good thing is, if you want it faster down the road, its a phone call, and it
can be done in minutes with a simple parameter change."
Sales- "Lets take another approach... Do you value your time?... "Whats
really most important? ... We believe its your sanity and peice of mind.
Computers can be frustrating some times, and you shouldnt have to be a
computer tech to get Broadband... Why not make this easy, and let us just
take care of it for you? I can have a tech onsite next Wednesday. Would
Wednesday work for you?"
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
----- Original Message -----
From: "Travis Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 11:29 AM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Advertising
Marlon,
We already did that... with CableOne and with the WiMax competitor...
however, a lot of people don't check that before they read the ad in the
newspaper that says "4meg wireless for $34.95" and think they are paying
too much with our service.
Maybe I should start advertising "up to 100meg for $39.95" and see how
that goes over? :)
Travis
Microserv
Marlon K. Schafer wrote:
I think that the first thing I would do is post a screen capture of a
speakeasy test on your web site. Put yours and theirs right there, side
by side. Let the "proof be in the puddin'".
marlon
----- Original Message ----- From: "Travis Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 2:27 PM
Subject: [WISPA] Advertising
Hi,
This issue with ComCast and their p2p connection blocking brings up
another issue I would like to discuss... false advertising.
I have a competitor that is selling "up to 4meg down by 1meg up" for
$34.95 with free installation and no contract. Another competitor is
doing "up to 2meg" for $39.95... yet, when I purchased their service and
did speed tests, the fastest I ever got was 500kbps. At what point is
there a "false advertising" claim to be made against these companies
that are advertising service that can NEVER been achieved at any time on
their network?
I would think if you did speed tests every hour, 24 hours per day for a
week and never got within 90% of their claimed speed, there could be a
case. The damages would be in customers that are switching from my
service to theirs based on their advertising claims. Each customer
should be worth at least 12x the monthly revenue based on current market
values.
Anyone else agree? Or am I way off base here?
Travis
Microserv
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