Wow, this is fun. I can’t remember the last time (probably a few months ago) that I had so much to do that I didn’t stop to look at this site or RB.com or TFL network or any of my other plants in the Garden of Distraction I spend so much of my life cultivating. Yesterday I said I would force myself to come here and play a bit because it is Friday which has been ‘optional early retirement day’ for many years anyhow. THIS Friday I can’t wait to get back but there are a couple things I wanted to mention.
First, thanks to RSS feeds I got to read a whole week’s worth of comments on TFL at once. The only thing that really struck me is a general trend toward naked abuse of the comments function for advertising. I know I both endorse and criticize products all the time. I see that as a bit different than…”Nice article, you can avoid that problem by using my brand of soap” It’s a small enough crime that I’ll stop there. Also, I am only talking about comments…not articles.
The other thing was interesting. Some feedback from a recent Pinnacle Panel was something like “Why don’t you have people who just do local IT or Accountants instead of that guy who does the people with clearances who doesn’t have to make marketing calls and doesn’t have to worry much about reference checks etc etc and has candidates he has known for 20 years?.” I just thought it was kind of sad that the person was saying they’d like to see something else instead of asking for a program on how to put oneself in a situation to perform the same way. By the way…I ,personally, don’t sell anything… I give it away.
I’ll stop with this..And no equivocation here…Anyone in this business for more than 15 years who has a list of 50 companies to make calls to for cold call marketing/sales purposes has been doing it wrong.
4 comments
Jerry Albright Aug 1, 2008 at 10:30 am
Dave - you’ve gotta admit though regarding the Pinnacle feedback - they do (sort of) have a point. Here you guys are being put up on the stage as the “freaks of nature” in our world. Oddities. Like the old traveling circus with the 2 headed pony and the 700lb man/child.
Let’s face it: To bill the kind of numbers you guys (allegedly) do it takes some special circumstances, doesn’t it? A one of a kind niche-oriented customer base? Candidates who have sworn their undying allegiance to The Secret Brotherhood of Guys Who Only Call Dave Staats….(The SBGWOCDS)……isn’t this the case?
I can see where some of the feedback might be genuine. But I would refer them to the NAPS Conference - or Petey Leffkowicz. That might be want your critics are searching for. The basics.
Your stuff is about the inner workings of people who REALLY DO make serious cash. (Allegedly……)
Dave Staats Aug 1, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Ahh, I was kind of expecting both of these points to come from somewhere… First, there is no ‘allegedly’. We have to show invoices to get in. Some of the attempts by people who couldn’t have been rather entertaining.
The ONLY point of a Pinnacle Panel is to share how we did it. There are NO freaks and while membership is limited to 75…our billings may represent as much as the top 10 to 30% of all experienced recruiters. My guess is there may be 1 or 2 thousand who COULD qualify.
Some do it by talking to the same people over and over and nurturing them. Other members do it by making 200 calls a day. One has an average fee of $2200 another does deals that are often 200k fees. We ALL started with basics and are trying to share what we did with those basics… The original complaint is just silly…
disinterested third party Aug 5, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Why are comments constantly censored?
Dave Staats Aug 5, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I can only speak for my own column. Some things get caught in a spam filter that I cannot access. Other than that, I have chosen to only leave comments posted when they are from a person. I understand and respect why some people do not want to post in the open but that doesn’t mean I have to debate them that way. The reasons they have should pose whatever cost,high or low, to them and not to me. Given I know who you are and we have discussed this…if we were debating, I’d ask why you put this here? I left it here because I think the answer needs to be out there.