Sleazy Advertising Sales Techniques

Did you know that Chapel Hill News & Views is going out of business? As the magazine's publisher, I didn't know this either, until several of our customers asked us about it. Apparently, a sales rep from another publication in a neighboring county had been telling our customers that we were getting ready to go out of business.

Obviously, this is not true, and there was no way that this person could have gotten this idea, other than just by making it up. I guess he was thinking this technique was going to help him get some of our customers to advertise with them, instead of us.

I called the person that said these things and basically told him that if I continued to hear this type of talk, that this is slander since it has absolutely no basis in fact and was said for the purpose of damaging our company, and that there would be definite repercussions if this continued. I am not usually one to threaten someone, but this was obviously an instance where this was warranted.

This same person has somewhat of a history of this type of sleazy sales technique. Over 10 years ago, I owned a business which delivered packets of flyers and coupons to homes all over the western metro area. One of my customers told me he received a letter out of the blue from this same person. The letter basically said "How do you know that the flyers are actually being delivered? Advertise with us because we mail our publication and we can provide mailing receipts." Again, we had a great track record with our service, but this was meant to put doubt into the advertiser's mind, even though it had absolutely no basis in fact.

There are a  few things I would like to point out to sum up what can be learned by this blog.

In at least one of the cases where he was telling people we were about to go belly up, the customer he was saying this to said that he would never advertise with someone like that because he has had a great experience with our company, and he suspected that this might be a lie.

I believe that it is unnecessary to "badmouth" your competition, if you have a good product or service. In this case, our magazine has proven to be a great place to advertise, and we really go out of our way with customer service, and this is why we have over 300 advertisers a month. We have a very spotless reputation. We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, were named Small Business of the Year by the Douglas County Chamber of Commerce, and work closely with a number of the leading entities in Douglas County, such as the government and the board of education. We go out of our way to keep our reputation strong. Saying bad things about a competitor can really make you look bad, because there is a reasonable chance that the person that you are saying it to could be friends with the owner of the other company, or at the very least have a positive opinion of them, and this could cause them to have a very negative opinion of you. If what you are saying is untrue, and designed to hurt the other business it could also open you up to some very serious legal issues, once it gets back to the target of your smear campaign.

On top of everything else, it is just wrong, in my opinion. I believe that it is important to try to conduct yourself and your business where you are beyond reproach. I like to be able to sleep at night. There is enough business out there for legitimate companies to do well, if they provide a good product and treat their customers well.

Sometimes I will hear one of my customers talk about another publication in a negative way, or relate a bad experience they have had. In this case, I try to say something like, "that's a shame that this happened" and then change the subject. I don't want to be one to say things that are bad about other companies. In the case where someone asks what is different about our magazine as opposed to another, I try to focus on what we do, not what the other company does not do.

So, if you hear a salesman start to say bad things about a competitor, let this be a red flag, because they obviously feel that their product is not good enough to purchase on its own merits. And definitely don't believe everything that you hear, because it may not be true. Also, if you hear something that you do not know is true, please don't repeat it to others. You may damage someone's reputation that should not be damaged.