Warning: Rant Ahead
I know that I’m talking to a handful of my readers here, but you probably know someone who could use this information. Please pass it on. And as always, I would love to hear YOUR comments.
A friend of mine recently offered a webinar. It was a great webinar and she got a lot of very positive comments on it.
But she also got a lot of complaints. Things like
“You tricked us. I thought this was a class and it was a pitch.”
“How dare you try to sell something with that price tag!”
“I was shocked at the price. I cannot justify that price for a course for beginners when I already have experience.”
“I suppose that now that you have my email address you’ll start pitching me all sorts of offer.”
Let’s get real!
If you’re in business online, you should be interested in making money. You also need to recognize that other business owners are in the same business – making money. Here are five tips that will keep you in business without going broke.
1. Just because someone offers a product, doesn’t mean you have to buy it. If you don’t want it or it is not affordable for you at this time – don’t buy it.
The reason they sell Mercedes Benz is that there are some people who both want a luxury car and can afford to drive a Mercedes.
At the same time they also sell a Yugo – because some people want a smaller car and/or can afford a smaller car at this time.
It doesn’t mean that one is right and the other is wrong. It’s part of our free economy – people have choices.
2. If someone offers a free teleseminar or a webinar, assume they are going to make an offer at end of it. If they don’t, they are losing money and will be out of business soon.
Rarely can you find someone who offers one free event after another. Yes, some people “seem” to – but they are either broke or they are using other means to generate revenue.
3. If YOU offer a free teleseminar or webinar, you need to spend at least 80% of the time teaching good content. That way you deliver quality and “earn” the right to tell people how they can continue learning with you.
4. If you join a mailing list (which is always a voluntary action) and don’t like what they talk about or offer to you, unsubscribe. There is always a link at the bottom of every email that lets you do that easily. Be an adult and take responsibility. You are not a helpless “victim” of email being thrown at you!
5. If you listen to the presenter and take their information, please don’t stoop to complaining because they offer you a product. Yes, you can complain if you buy a product and it doesn’t live up to your expectations. But on a free event you haven’t paid a penny. It was a GIFT of information to you.
Remember, it’s always YOUR choice to sign up, to attend, to hang up, to unsubscribe – or to buy.
Great post Jeanette! I agree with you 100%. On a free event, take the gems from the class and purchase the product IF it is right for you. I feel that even if I get one good, implementable tip for building my business from a teleseminar, it was worth my time.
If the product is right for me, I buy it. If not I don’t.
On the flip side of that, being in the business of showing people how to build successful business for the past 8 years, I am continually surprised at the growing number of people who want you to show THEM how to make money, sell their products at the highest prices, sell the most products – but they want YOU to show them that for free.
And usually these are the same people who continually complain about falling prices for their products LOL! (whatever niche they’re in).
I think the Internet is partly to blame for the shift – with the massive amount of free information available. But free does not equate to good. And I have seen a lot of people spend physical money, and “life money” (i.e. time) implementing free solutions that don’t work.
I also think that the new “free line” model of business used by company’s like Facebook and Twitter (i.e. “Get customers now and figure out how to monetize later) has trained people to come to expect more and more for free.
But what people don’t realize is that companies that offer quality products for free are heavily venture capitalist funded or monetized in another way. In the real world, there is no such thing as free (except maybe a smile) 🙂
And especially not for self-funded, entrepreneurial businesses. I’ve seen a significant increase in the “teach me for free” mentality since I came online in 2002.
Here’s the bottom line – choose your training wisely. Don’t follow every bright shiny object and thereby deplete your bank account. Realize that building a business DOES cost. Both time AND money. Use what you learn and implement it FIRST before moving on to the next thing.
That was you can get income from the money you’ve invested in training before you invest in the next steps!
Lisa – I totally agree. You made some very valid points.
Online business has changed significantly. But as you said, many people promote starting a business “for free” Yes, you can find a LOT of free information on starting and running a business. But it takes YOUR TIME to sort through it, try it out, see what works and doesn’t. I think it’s that time drain that discourages most people who want to build a business online.
If you were going to invest in building a business in the offline world you would need to get a business license, find a building, pay rent, pay for advertising, etc. And in many cases you would earn a much smaller profit margin than you do with an online business selling digital products.
Yes, people seem to think you can just “start a business” online overnight and start making big money. If someone were trying to sell you that idea in a face-to-face carnival atmosphere, you’d never fall for it. But online people believe the hype all the time.
Okay, I’ll stop my rant. And thank you for contributing your ideas. It’s always great to have you stop by!
Jeanette
As usual, you both have excellent comments. If, however, the complaints were about the webinar I think (no, I don’t have ESP) they were appropriate complaints. I was on a webinar that was for “newbies” but was marketing a course. And although there was some info on it, it was really just a show and tell about how your “thing” (protecting the identity) COULD look/be so nice if you purchased this course/product. I didn’t learn a darn thing on the call.
My bad though for staying on it.
Most of the time there are pitches and I’m aware of that and expect it and have taken advantage of many of the offers. If I don’t want to do what they’re offering I either stop listening – mentally or actually end the webinar. I feel that the person giving the information has the right to offer me more of what I signed on to learn about and usually it’s great stuff.
Thanks for this topic.
Terrie
I have heard good and not so good webinars in terms of marketing a product, seminar or service. It seems to me that if you are selling consulting services then you want to deliver real information, not just back and forth banter between facilitators until you can make your pitch. Why would someone want to buy services if the webinar is fluff? I have hung up on a number of webinars in the middle for that very reason.
Attending a free event is a bonus and should be viewed as such. It is the Introduction to what you might learn if you attend the paid webinar or course. I expect that the person presenting will give me information about the products that they offer and allow me the opportunity to decide based on what they are teaching me in the “free” format. How many stores open their doors and tell you “take it home free” when you are looking at something?? That’s why there are such things as “free trial sizes” and that is what I consider free events – a trial size.
Thanks for the great discussion. Sometimes the “customer” is not at all right!!
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by jeanettecates: Webinars That Sell: Choice and Reality Have you ever attended a free webinar then gotten upset when they sold? http://bit.ly/clyrfT…
Jeanette,
I have always learned from anything you ever offered free or paid. So I would be happy to exchange my time for your information. I may have to give you my email and I may get an offer from you and I know that what you have to offer is of huge value to me. So I view it all as a choice and I think you are a great choice.
Hi Jeanette,
I appreciate your points above, especially point 3!
About the pitches? I don’t mind them and even expect them. Heck, I can learn how to do my own from listening to them and watching them.
But if the webinar (or teleseminar) is just an excuse for pitching me without delivering real value, I get VERY annoyed. Whoever got me to attend that webinar will lose a great deal of credibility in my eyes, and I’m much less likely to attend any future webinars they may recommend. Of course, that ends up being a terrific time saver…
I also think people offering webinars should keep in mind that webinars take up a lot of time, bandwidth, and screen space (which makes it hard to impossible to get much else done while attending), so unless they deliver lots of value, they can be too costly, even if they’re “free.” Same thing for teleseminars.
And just one morsel of “gold” won’t cut it (well, it does depend on the morsel I suppose).
Also, often the free webinars tend to be more geared towards beginners, and they rarely if ever venture to a level where I learn something new.
And I get really annoyed when someone’s idea of value consists of telling me how I would find out exactly how to do X in the (paid) course. If they don’t tell me stuff I can use NOW, I feel cheated out of my time.
I realize they can’t give away ALL the info, and they shouldn’t, but they should provide some of the stuff in enough detail so people can actually put it to use. If they think of the attendees’ time as having value and treat them accordingly, I think they’ll find that there will be a lot fewer complaints about those webinars, and that people are more likely to buy stuff too.
Thanks for providing a space for discussing this.
Elisabeth
Hi Jeanette,
I should listen to what I’m about to “preach”…LOL
Anybody giving a free seminar has the ABSOLUTE right to pitch a product during and at the end of the seminar. It’s their seminar/webinar/teleseminar. But…if they advertise the event as a workshop and promise some solutions, then it’s a little deceptive. (People remember that too)
However, the presenter shouldn’t be disappointed when they lose 1/2 their audience after 10 minutes due to not summarizing “what” they will be covering for the duration.
Usually, if I don’t see a point to the event, I hang up or click off. My time is way too valuable and TIME is more important to me then money. I think what REALLY gets people going is when they spend an hour our 90 minutes looking for tips but never get it. They spent all that time and then are asked to buy something. They feel like they got tricked into a time share presentation (less the vacation).
I think a lot of people feel the same as me so it’s REALLY important that if YOU are the one putting on the event with the intent of a pitch (which I expect), then they need to remember to get that good stuff in the seminar as well.
Some of the best webinars I’ve been on consisted of a step by step approach. Something that you can actually implement right away. Something of real value. Then…and only then…when they offer additional resources to make the job easier or to enhance what they just revealed will people not complain that the event was ONLY about a pitch.
Personally, I’m really selective about the webinars I attend. I know that there are LOTS of them out there that just talk about rags to riches for 90% of the time, then they say they discovered the goose that lays golden eggs. Good “emotional” pitch but certainly not anything with real value.
I agree with you Jeanette. I do expect a pitch towards the end of a webinar that has great content. If the price is too high, I may try to find a less expensive alternative by finding their website(s) to see what else they offer.
I would like to add webinars are a great filter because you can find out fairly quickly if someone has something of value to offer. If the webinar content does not meet my expectations given the information I had when I signed up, why would I expect their product to meet my expectations? I will leave the webinar and unsubscribe from their list because I am an adult – most of the time.
Hi Jeanette,
I wonder if some of these people ever watch television, or if they avoid that because they are offended by the commercials?
Cheers,
Helen
As a follow up to my last comment about TV commercials, I should say that I watch television programs if they are worth watching either as entertainment or education. If not, I switch them off, but that’s based on the content of the program, not the fact that they contain commercials, and I usually make my decision early in the program.
Same applies to webinars. If I tune in and see little of value, or feel it is going to be an hourlong pitch, then I leave. If it is valuable or interesting, I’ll stay to the end and then decide if I want to purchase the product. Either way, it’s my choice, so I don’t see any reason to complain.
Helen
When I attend a free webinar I expect to get a gem or two out of it and I expect the pitch.
The person giving the webinar is running a business and is giving a great deal of their time to share information and the pitch is to be expected.
I agree Jeanette; I believe that webinars are not and should not be online commercials.
There are some excellent free webinars which provide both useful and helpful information. I always expect a pitch for a related product or service. But I am also grateful for the advice and knowledge I can gain. Even more so if it is about a product or service which is beyond my current financial consideration. Without the webinar I would not have had another opportunity to be exposed those ideas or methods.
There are a group of people online who seem to like to only complain.
I feel that they have taken “Whats in it for Me” to the nth degree. I think that these people will complain about everything they come across if it does not hand them cash instantly. (Although maybe they would also complain if they did get some cash that it wasn’t enough LOL).
Thanks for another thought provoking topic,
Suzy
Hi Jeanette,
I find I have to reach a balance because I “invest” in too many training programs and free webinars, telesiminars, etc. After a while, I found that I have a hugh backlog of training materials just sitting there on my hard drive along with all of the other programs I have purchased.
The key is taking action. So now I am taking the time to extract the key points that I need to take action on to move ahead with an online program. Right now I am working to get my blog(s) up and running so that I can participate in the next 30-day challenge you will be hosing starting June 1st.
I believe with proper application of the “focus time” principle as promulgated by Ed Dale that I will be able to get an online business going successfully.
Thanks for giving us your valuable insight.
Terry