Synergetic Marketing Sales/1-800-Marketing for Success- Things you should be aware of

If you are considering setting up a marketing system through Synergetic Marketing Sales and becoming a member of one of their vanity numbers, think twice. Jim K does not honor his guarantee. Or, he has it set up so that you will never see your refund as promised. How many of you Synergetic "Members" out there has sent every piece of advertising, along with pictures and signs of every truck or sign that you produced with your vanity # to them within 14 days of implementation. Anyway, you are stuck for 2 years if you are not happy with their marketing schemes. And, they have no obligation to actually help you develop your "brand". You can advertise any number and get the phone to ring. You don't need a 1-800-vanity number and their membership fee is very expensive. Feel free to email me at rickl@mrwlawns.com if you would like more information.

Lawn care business tips

In hindsight, I would like to retract a statement that I made in the above thread. The statement that Synergetic Marketing Sales does not honor their contract is inaccurate. It is true that we did not follow one stipulation, and that was to send every piece of marketing that we produced under our 1-800 CURBAPPEAL brand. Therefore, I will admit we were in violation of our contract. However, that does not change the fact that in our opinion, their service is expensive not very good.

[Steve]

Rick,

Can you give us a little information about what lead up to this?

We have discussed such services in the past, talking about the pros and cons.

What got you interested in doing this and why did you choose it?

What were you looking to get out of it?

and that was to send every piece of marketing that we produced under our 1-800 CURBAPPEAL brand.

So contractually you were obligated to include their brand with every outgoing piece of marketing material you sent out?

Steve,
I just want to let people know that they need to be careful when they enter into a contract with a marketing company. Read your contract carefully and do not enter into any contract unless you understand your obligations, the marketing company's obligation, and exactly what your expectations are about the results you are going to get. Also, make sure that their ideas match the business ethics you have set for your company. That will not necessarily come out in the initial consult. If you are not careful at the beginning, you will find yourself spending a bunch of money with no recourse to stop the bleeding.

We chose 1-800-CURBAPPEAL because that is what they had available. WRONG! The vanity # should be chosen to match the company and it's personality. You should not have to revamp your entire marketing strategy to fit the vanity #. We are a lawn care company. While the argument could be made, this fits a hardscaper or home improvement contractor more than it fits us. Now, we were very excited at the beginning and we spent gobs of money putting the vanity # on everything. Trucks, mailers, signs, invoices, statements, webpage and web advertising, even radio advertising. It was not long that we noticed that the only calls we were getting on the vanity # were customers with billing or service questions. It stands to reason, if you advertise a phone #, people will call it. People call whatever number is most convenient. Because that was the number on invoices and statements that was the number they would call. We also found out that new customers were not getting the number off of the trucks. Rather, they were approaching the technicians and getting a business card to call, because they wanted to meet and interview, even if just for a moment, the person doing the work. In my opinion, you can advertise any number and you will get the phone to ring.

There is a lot more to this story, but the bottom line is, this marketing did not work for us, and when we approached the company about our concerns, their approach was to try to prove that the system was working with no offer to help us adjust the strategy to make it work for us. Just be careful what you do and make sure you know the people you are dealing with.

[Leon]

I had a meeting with the same company about a few months ago. We had a great talk, but in the long run I could not come to grib with paying $200 a month for a phone number. They had a great sales pitch by the time you finish talking with the rep you was runing for your check book. I had to stop and think, I said to myself why pay them I can do the samething for pennies on the dollar. My vanity # cost me under $10per month.

Originally Posted by Leon

My vanity # cost me under $10per month.

Leon, please share how you accomplished this

I've thought about an 800# but I don't even have a home phone I use the cell for everything.

[Leon]

I was just onlineand I googled vanity #. You will get a ton of info. I checked out a lot of them, but the best one to fit my needs is call freedom voice. I must say best $10bucks I have sent. I GO TO (This is my call to action )
www.freedomvoice.com My number cost $30 to get it becauses it's a vanity number. What so great about it is that you can have 5 voicemail boxes. you can let the customer think you are a big company. You can route the voicemails to you cell phone. Just say you call me the call will come right to my cell phone or office or home you get the picture. I can even tranfer the call to someone else and the customer will never know that we are not in the same place/state. When someone calls the number you get the call right on you cell with a special # so you know that it is a customer not a friend or family. Also you well get a text and a email. on the email you can play the message. It's great. Just to let you know 9.95 you get 100 free min every month, but they round it up by 6sec not mins. So if a customers call and talk you 15sec they round it to 18sec, not the full 1min. so they don't cheat you at all. Check them out and watch the demo it's about 30sec. hope this helps

Can You Envision The Possibilities... We Can!

[Steve]

I had a meeting with the same company about a few months ago. We had a great talk, but in the long run I could not come to grib with paying $200 a month for a phone number.

So ultimately was it the monthly fee that turned you off?

When you were considering this, what were the pros and cons in your head about using such a service?

[Leon]

Yes It was the monthly fees was a big part. The other is that I would be sharing that number. How this service works you buy a zip code I if I wanted to market in more that one zip code I had to pay, other wise my marketing dollars go you who has that zip. so if you see company (a) driving down the road an you want to hire them, when you call the # on their truck you might get compant (B) because you live in their zip. Pros you ge tthe promise of growing your company fast, and you can say you have a 1800 #, an they can design your estimates, flyers,etc, but you still pay to have them printed.

[Steve]

How did you get the idea to initially want to use such a service? Did you know someone else that did it or did you just research it on your own?