… you use someone else's contact form as a tool to sell your product or service.

A funny thing happened last night at 10:40 PM. Brandwise got a lead from our website. You might think this is great, that is until you read the contact form submission.

Before I get to the details, I want to let you know that if you are new to BRANDWISE, we are firm believers, that you must answer the question, "What's in it for me?". This is not the "Me" that is me, but the "Me" that is my client. You see you must always bring value to the table. And you must know what is important to the client before you go in to sell them.

If you do not know what's in it for the client, you might want to find a new career, because YOU SUCK AT SALES. Not to mention marketing.

So now back to the lead we got on our website. This lead was from a local senior magazine what was trying to sell me on putting all my clients advertising in their new great magazine which I have never heard of nor have ever seen. They did however sell me on all the great things about their magazine. You know a "HEY, LOOK AT ME! AREN'T I GREAT?" type marketing effort. They did a great job of defining what was in it for them, just a poor job with all 222 words at caring about me or my clients best interests.

What might have worked better? How about these ideas:

1. What would have happened if they had a nice letterhead design that was branded and told their story? They might also mail this along with a copy of their magazine and request a follow up phone conversation. Do you think I would have taken their phone call? Maybe, maybe not depending upon the letter. However the package coming to me in the mail would have felt special like you really cared and were proud of your magazine.
   
   
2. Next instead of knowing the target audience they were going after and qualifying those people, they just blindly sent me this random form letter in the Contact Us form on our site.
   
   Reaching out to someone new via a contact form is one thing, but trying to sell someone through a contact form is cheap and tacky, but more importantly ineffective and called SPAM!

If you need a good sales coach or some sales training, I can recommend some good books, systems, people and companies. So just get in touch and ask, I'll be happy to share them with you.

Watch for tomorrow's continuation of this story entitled: YOU'RE A CHEAP BASTARD if...  You suck at sales - Part 2.