Free Trash Bags? A Safety and Marketing Lesson
| | Monday, June 14, 2010 @ 10:15 PM EDT
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Contributed by: Jason Hanson
Jason Hanson Properties
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If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Every once in awhile I’ll talk to a new investor and they’re talking to me at 90 miles an hour and I can hear the excitement and enthusiasm in their voice. “Jason, I just found the greatest way to get motivated leads on the Internet. I just have to sign up for this service and they will send me 500 qualified leads per month, isn’t that incredible?”
Like I just said, if it sounds too good to be true… I wish these types of Internet companies were legit. I really do. Who wouldn’t want their inboxes flooded with 500 motivated leads a month? But guess what, I have studied and signed up for many of these companies and I have never found one worthwhile. When I first became an investor I was tempted like everyone else so I joined these companies. Later on, I just did it to see how they marketed and if I could learn from them.
But here’s how they usually work: First, they email you the same leads as everyone else. So there are 100 investors in the area getting the same email and bothering the same homeowner. It’s tough to get a deal this way because owners get so ticked off and overwhelmed with all the calls they get. Second, a lot of the leads are fake. Companies just generate names and when you call the seller they have no idea who you are and say they never filled out any information sheets on the Internet. Lastly, the leads are old. Companies will sell you leads once a deal is done. When you call the person they will tell you they just sold the house and you will think you just barely missed your chance, when in fact you never had a chance in the first place.
My point is, they just don’t work. There is no legit company that is going to give you 500 motivated leads per month for only $50, $100, or even $150 a month. Almost all of them are just pure junk. As far as I know, the only reliable way to get 500 motivated sellers calling you every month is by sending out a lot of direct mail. Letters and postcards are still the #1 to get deals, no matter how many leads you are trying to generate every month.
Now, you might be wondering what this lesson has to do with “free trash bags” which is the title of this article, right? Well… it has to do with the theme of “if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.” Here’s the story: There’s a wanted man private investigators need to locate. The man is wanted for various crimes and other things. They know the man’s best friend lives in Apartment 3C of a certain building. And the PI’s are certain that if they can go through his trash they will find information which will lead them to the person they are looking for. So what do the PI’s do? They knock on every door in the apartment building and say they are from the trash company and are testing out a new type of trash bag. And that they are giving away trash bags to see if people like them.
Of course, they also gave apartment 3C the trash bags too. At the end of one week the PI’s went to the giant dumpster of this apartment building ready to locate the trash of apartment 3C. So how did the PI’s find the correct bags? They gave every apartment in the building green trash bags, but they gave apartment 3C clear trash bags. Once the investigators located the clear bags, they went through the trash, found a cell phone bill and were able to track down the wanted person.
The lesson is, to always be on your toes. Be careful of people offering you something which is too good, like motivated leads, or free items. (By the way, I got that story from a good book on protecting your privacy, which is something I’m obsessive about.)
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