Friday, January 24, 2014

You Won the Jackpot!




The phone rang and I answered. It was an automated call that said something like “You’ve won 260,000 reward points. Press “one” now if you want to learn more.”

I recently cashed-in points to get a coffee maker. While looking at the other items available I noticed that I could cash in my remaining 3400 points for a tablet computer, digital SLR camera or iPod Touch.

I couldn’t imagine what 260,000 points might offer. So I pressed “one”. I was intrigued and greedy.

The live person came on the line and said, “Can you confirm that you are over the age of 30?”

That seemed like a strange thing to say.

If you are calling about a program that I’m registered you know my age. You don’t need to ask. So that probably means you’re not calling about a program that I’m registered with.

Naturally I said, “If you have my information, why are you asking my age?”

There was a few seconds of silence, and then the line went dead. He hung up on me. He was trying to sell me something and got caught in his lie. So he bailed.

Most people are registered in a least one reward points program so this caller was trying to leverage that to his advantage.  The caller was also counting on the listener to assume that the reward points were one of the ones she was registered in. And yes, women tend to register for reward points more than men.







George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter Share/Save/Bookmark

How do you feel when the bank calls you?



How do you feel when the bank calls you?

I’ve learned that the bank and credit card company never calls to give good news. They usually call to sell insurance – even though the person states “This is a courtesy call.”

Sometimes they have bad news (account overdrawn, missed a payment or market collapse)  – but they don’t call me with that – they prefer to send a letter. It takes longer, they can charge more for the INTEREST and the letter was written by their lawyers.

Why did the Small Business Advisor call at 4:58PM on Friday to announce that she wanted to talk with me? Her voice message stated that she was leaving at 5:00pm and I should call her on Monday.

The reason I should call her is “She wants to talk to me.”

What does that mean?

Is there a problem or are you trying to sell me something?





George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter Share/Save/Bookmark