This is one of my pet peeves. Some of you may disagree with me and is certainly your right, but allow me to explain.

Just one phone call can set my blood boiling in a heartbeat….

In fact today I got home from grocery shopping and had a message on my machine from a guy I will call Mike who inquired about an online business I am currently promoting.

I called Mike back and here is how the conversation went.

Mike said “ I am interested in hearing more about the business but first I want to know if you have heard about 2 businesses I am involved in and began to pitch me “sort of “ on his businesses.

I say sort of because it was more than apparent he was not very experienced and stumbled through most of his ill rehearsed speech.

I stopped him short and said “let me get this straight, you called my phone and deliberately lied about the purpose of your call so you could pitch me your businesses?

Mike replied “Yes” but couldn’t you use more leads? To which I replied “that would depend on the quality of those leads and how highly targeted they are”.

Mike then said hold on and I could hear him talking to his brother, Dave, whom he in turn introduced me to on the phone. Dave asked me “How much do you know about the business?”

I told him nothing at all and that Mike had apparently found my phone number on the internet and decided to call me and pitch me on it. Dave then said “ Thank You very much “ ……..

And…HE HUNG UP THE PHONE!!!! Unbelievable to say the least and beyond stupid.

First of all, his brother, Mike had the courage to call and get me on the phone. The not so smart more experienced brother, Dave, should have handled the call with a quick apology and moved on to find out if their business could be of service to me.

Instead he annoyed the heck out of me by hanging up on me….

The rather ridiculous part of this scenario is, I could tell immediately that Mike was a new marketer as evidenced by his stuttering and stumbling over his words. Nonetheless, I respected him for finding the courage to contact me. Because he had basically cold called me, I was ready to listen to what he had to say.

( Don’t try this at home, I am normally not this tolerant of this type of marketing . I even surprised myself that I didn’t tell him off and hang up)

Now enters the brother, Dave, who probably told him to do it to begin with and now the brother blows the entire call!!

As an online marketer you have probably gotten your marketing education the hard way, though trial and error. I have spent thousands of hours and dollars getting mine. I also have had many trials and tribulations along the way to my state of proficiency in the world of online marketing.

My point concerning reverse marketing is ….it is deceptive and lazy. Just don’t do it.

When you choose to market this way, you are leeching off of the efforts of someone like me who has spent countless hours and dollars learning how to craft effective marketing campaigns.

If you reverse market you have no choice but to be deceptive, because in every case, you must pretend to have an interest in another marketer’s product or service in order to have them contact you.

This is not “pretend” like when you were a kid. This is “pretend” as in under false pretenses and takes on an entirely different connotation.

I have spent my time and money, writing ads, articles etc. I spend time researching venues, placing ads and other marketing materials. I spend my money paying for them to be placed in high quality venues.

Who are you, reverse marketers, to take my contact information from those ads and lie to me about why you are contacting me and then expect me to be interested in ANYTHING you have to say?

I work hard and I will not tolerate you taking the lazy way out just because you don’t want to put the effort into learning how to market online. It is, in my mind, like cheating on a test or stealing. No one wants to do business with a person who starts off the relationship by lying.

Think about what that might reveal about you to a person you have just met…..

This person is a liar.

This person can’t be trusted.

If they will lie to me to create a contact what else will they lie to me about?

Here is a news flash for you. You have just blown your credibility with the new prospect. Still expect to sign them up or sell them anything?

So, please, as I stated earlier, just don’t do it, period. No matter what these companies tell you, reverse marketing is deceptive, it makes real marketers very angry and you will most assuredly alienate the very people you are trying to entice into your business.

Ok, pretty sure you have heard this a gazillion time by now but here it goes again…THE IS NO SECRET!

And if there truly were a secret it would be this…

• Figure out what your passion is
• Find a network marketing business that promotes products or services related to that passion
• Decide if you want this to be an expensive hobby or a income producing business because there is a big difference and one can drain your bank account if you are not careful
• Talk to people who are already promoting it ( before you get involved)
• Investigate all the out of pocket costs
• Promote, Promote, Promote everyway you can think of
• Do this consistently, every single day