Honesty in Sales

Recently, I received a call from a Yelp Account Executive.  His purpose was to sell me advertising for my martial arts studio.

I've received several such calls over the years. My studio has never - not once - had a prospect call that came from Yelp. If none call naturally, then paying extra probably won't generate much better results. I surmise that people do not venture to Yelp to find Martial Arts instruction in these parts. 

As a side note, Google and Facebook ads yield 8:1 returns on investment (ROI) and can be had for as little as $50. Yelp is far more expensive - $15 per day to start, from what I was quoted. 

All that said, Yelp does some things well. Particularly, if you wish to look up food places, Yelp is the place to go to do that.  Folks just don't go to Yelp to look up martial arts schools.

The account executive was relentless.  I like that.  He sent me via email an example of a success story.  He told me the success story was from a martial arts studio in my hometown of Chattanooga, TN. I asked if he would tell me the name of that studio - and if they would recommend Yelp advertising, I'd buy $600 in advertising "right this minute."

He declined to tell me the name of the studio - citing "privacy." Therefore, I ended the call. And I performed a Yelp search.

The graphs from the successful martial arts studio in Chattanooga. 









And then I performed the search -

Oh, wait, neither are martial arts studios!!!
One is a fitness trainer, the other is a place to do cycling, pilates, and yoga.  Quite different than martial arts. 


I wrote the account executive back and said,
Great talking to you.  The only paid advertisers on Yelp in the Chattanooga area are fitness studios - not martial arts.  100% total honesty is required for a long successful career in sales.  I wish you well.  

That's a guarantee I won't ever buy their advertising.