Malene
Rohnert Park,#2Consumer Comment
Thu, June 18, 2009
Dear Janet, I honestly hope you are not as naive as you sound. This summer I worked for a company that has very short selling cycle each year. They have a product they can only sell about 4 months of the year. This year the CEO was not surprisingly worried about the economy. So he changed his marketing strategy slightly this year. He told us in some detail about the marketing strategy and what has really struck me is that he pretty much used the exact principles for marketing that is sold in the intermediate package with HBSA. This year he made 29 million dollars. He "only" used the strategies that is listed in the intermediate section of the HBSA classes. Not bad I would say. Here is the thing - we are all profiled by business's every single day. Take the web. The web sites leave trails on your computer and those are checked by other company web sites. What you buy online is extensively tracked by the company you purchase from, and multiple other companies. How you behave online is tracked by marketing firms as well. How long you stay at some given web sites is tracked. The kinds of links you click on are tracked. THis is all done for marketing purposes and you are a statistical number in the data, not a person. But the tracking is there. Sometimes you are a person when for instance Amazon keeps tracking what you buy and suggest other related products to attract your attention. In the off line world the same tracking happens constantly. THe large multimillion dollar companies take advantage of that tracking in their marketing campaigns. HBSA teaches us small folks to do the same thing. I think thats a neat deal. Now is it "immoral and unethical"? I dont think so. Not if you have a product you truly believe in. We all know that on the market place today there are amazing products that we would really want or even need. Then there are products we want nothing to do with. Some nasty people are taking advantage of good marketing and sales principles to sell bad products and that suck. Does it mean that those representing good products are wrong to use the same skills? I dont think so. Not as long as the product you sell is good and you know the product will make a positive impact in that persons life. For instance if I had to deal with a medical issue or another life altering issue that I really needed help with. So say I went to the net to check research on this issue. Initially I didnt really find anything that I either believed in or seemed ot answer my questions. But now my behavior was tracked. Lets say a great company with a fantastic new product had gotten a hold of the tracking done for me and found a way to contact me? Well, I would be very sceptical at first, and chances are very high they would have to work horribly hard to get through to me in the first place. But if the product really solved a painful issue that I needed solved I would be grateful for them making the effort. OF course the problem is the scammers. We have to stay on high alert and do research on stuff that we want to purchase. If you sell something that in your heart of hearts you dont really believe in. Or you dont believe the customer you talk to really needs it. Or you dont believe your product will really change your perspective customers life for the better. Or you dont believe the price is reasonable for your product. IE the value to price ratio isnt there. Or you dont believe you deserve to succeed. These are all reasons not to use the strong marketing methods to help your business. Then find something you do believe in and start to sell that. THen there is the supposed deceptive marketing you claim to have been exposed to by HBSA. I just signed up with them and of course was subjected to all their marketing material. Before I even got to talk to a sales person I listened to some calls and read material that said I would have to use the phone to sell. So when you say it was a shock you had to do cold calling I am shocked you didnt know that. If you had read even one of their sales web sites you would have known it. In fact the material also clearly spelled out that we would learn ways to get access to the right prospects - IE profiling prospects. It was all there for me to read. I will check back in on this report in a month or two, to let all of you know how I do. Malene
Mark
Henderson,#3Consumer Comment
Wed, February 04, 2009
I have been involved with home businesses for the past five years. Always looking for the right fit and group of individuals in my upline to help me produce what I know is possible, success in this industry. I spent thousands of dollars learning the hard way that this industry isn't about the networking as much as it is the marketing. You see I networked very well and saw success for a while involving my friends and family but sooner or later the well ran dry. Where would I turn and how was it that the individuals on the stage were so productive? Does it really take a used car salesman mentality to see these results? The answer is simple, absolutely not! I am the perfect example of someone with very strong morals who is the farthest thing from a used car salesman. I am personable but never pushy and I needed to find a way to reach out to thousands of people so I didn't have to become just that. This is where HBSA changed my life. They taught me how to properly market not only by using the phone but many forms of media which opened endless doors to individuals who truly wanted what I had to offer. As some of the other posters have stated I'm not always welcomed with open arms but the percentages are staggering, in my favor. I think back to the dozens of meetings I attended with friends and family and what those percentages used to look like, not pretty. Some of them still don't speak to me today. Now this is the most important part about HBSA, I have dealt with many people in my years of working this business and have never come across individuals like the men and women of this academy. I guess that's what truly shocked me and motivated me to write a response about this report. It's simple and common in today's society to take someone's money and send them out into this sometimes harsh world of network marketing without true guidance. Trust me, I know and have purchased a few of them through the years. But this academy has provided me with the best training materials and most importantly the best support system that I could ask for. They actually care and all I or my family can say is thank you HBSA!! Thank you.
Bill
Bham,#4Consumer Comment
Fri, January 30, 2009
After reviewing this article, I find that the experiences I have had while being affiliated with this company are entirely opposite from what the writer states. When I learned about this company and left my email and phone number asking for help I fully expected to receive a phone call from someone to share that information. I did receive a phone call, listened to their presentation, went thru the qualification process and was accepted into the program. At the time I began, I was approximately $26000 in credit card debt after doing everything my upline told me to do. I was so frustrated and really felt like a failure even though I worked harder at growing my business than I have ever worked before. I have learned so much from the educational process that they employ and I have actually grown as a person. The techniques that I have applied have given me much more confidence. I have been able to pay off my credit cards and now, as I use it, I am making a profit in my business. I am also able to lead others to more success. My results have been completely opposite from this writer's experiences. I would definitely recommend this program to anyone who is serious about learning marketing skills that can be used in any industry.
Justin
Carlsbad,#5Consumer Comment
Fri, January 30, 2009
I am actually a student with HBSA and I've benefited tremendously. I've followed the same exact guidelines outlined by Janet and with the mentoring team, have had phenomenal results. What I did before I came to the Home Business Success Academy was truly foolish. Trying to sell to friends and family, trying to promote to other people a business opportunity that wasn't making me any money was truly a mistake and is likely the biggest scam of all. And I know that hundreds of thousands are duped into doing this. Nonsense really. In defense of them (which really isn't even necessary), I hope that this response will be helpful to those who are doing their research. The biggest key I've learned from them is to lead with the product as a marketer should, and that once you've identified a target audience of people who through understanding their buying patters are pre-disposed to want what you have, there are endless ways to get a marketing message in front of them. Calling them on the phone is one way, and yes it's the cheapest way, but it's not mandatory, and in fact if you have a good message and confidence in what you are promoting, many times you will be seen as a welcome guest rather than a pest as they say. I doubt anyone likes to get those annoying phone calls from a call center trying to pitch a discount phone plan or whatever, but developing the right message and a strategy to get that message in front of a VERY targeted audience who has shown a predisposition to already need what you have, is absolutely a win/win... BUT there needs to be some skill involved with how you get that message seen or heard. I've learned their system, and have generated XXX (I'll skip the hype) dollars without having to host home parties, or any of the other outdated foolish strategies taught to me by my upline. With the academy's system, I and a stack of 10-15 cent names, I have been delighted with my results. I've been successful with the phone AND with using many other options such as postcards and voicebroadcasting. Do I occasionally miss my target? Yeah for sure. You can't aim to please 100% of people, but with the hundreds and hundreds of lives that have chosen to participate in wanting more of my information and in turn my solutions, the benefits and reward FAR outweigh the risk or the occasional upset. My guess is that Janet simply wasn't able to see beyond this, but she's entitled to her opinion non the less, and if a marketers focus is more on their own fears, than on trying to connect a person in pain with a solution that their product can deliver, I doubt they will get very far in business.