Better Business Bureau

Thank you. I didn't answer this thread because I didn't feel like being called a "conspiracy nutcase", which I probably would have been. Glad skeptic dude answered it. Now I am exonerated from mental issues.

That's very true - in one sense. I spent 6 years with a now defunct company out of Houston, TX named Allen and Associates. They were the largest membership development company in the U.S. servicing BBB's and Chambers of Commerce from coast to coast.

I started as a sales rep in West Palm Beach, FL and was trained by two of the best telemarketers I have ever known. When I walked in, desperate for a job the manager asked me if I was interested in making $800 to $1000 a week by failing 98% of the time that I worked. I was up for that. I was given a letter of the alphabet from the white pages, a script that I was forbidden to deviate from - not so much as a single word and I had to promise that I would simply dial the phone 100 times per day, in an effort to talk to 10 people with a close rate of 2 sales per day. They promised me if I followed their plan I would make that money. They were 100% correct. Within 6 weeks I was the top producer, in 3 months I was assistant manager, within 6 months I took over the office and within a year I was the national training director. I taught hundreds of people to make $1000 per week by pounding the phone. Eventually I had 22 offices under by belt and received an override from every person in every office. I would fly into each city where we signed a new contract, rent an office, equip it, hire and train a staff, stay 21 days on average, and on my way out the door assign someone as manager and would tele-manage that office from that day on.

We took 78% off the top from every one the BBB's and Chamber offices that we signed and they were happy to pay it because the 22% they made from our efforts was a ton more than they ever made by having volunteers do their membership development for them.

I never had more fun in a job and I have never made more money from yakking on the phone. I realize that telemarketing gets a bad rap, but it can be a very honest and lucrative career. I started mine by doing it as a 'survival job' when I moved to NYC to be an actor. I was personally trained by Bill Ziff (Ziff-Davis) to sell his World Aviation Guide which was a $600 tome of all commercial aviation routes.

If you would ever want to hear the only 4 reasons why people join either the BBB or the C of C, LMK. It's fascinating in it's simplicity but can really help those that want insight into the psychology of selling - especially something as intangible as a membership in a professional business organization. When you get a business owner to write you a $1000 membership conrtibution in return for nothing more than a decal for the door and a $2 plaque for the wall, you know you're doing well, especially when 50% of that can go into the salesman's (I mean the 'membership activator's) pocket.

The pitch was brilliant and the only people that didn't make great money were the ones that were too smart to follow it, word for word, without deviation.

There actually are good reasons to be a member of both the BBB and the C of C. Like I said - if you ever want to know more about the pitch and the actual benefits of membership in either organization, ring me up. By the time I'm done with you you'll be happy to write both of them a check. lol

Cheers. - Frank

Agree. I do use the BBB reports as well as Google and Yelp when I am doing a major purchase - such as getting an automatic transmission rebuilt. I am thinking about doing that now and there is a shop that sounds and looks good on a major radio show hosts list of "screened and preferred" vendors. (Same thing, they pay him to be on his directory - a lot more annually than BBB membership.)

Anyway, the transmission shop is not a BBB member and they have a ton of negatives and non-responsiveness on the BBB and Yelp and Google. Seems like they may have changed ownership or management structure, but still look good on the radio show directory.


PS - If I do have my transmission work done, it will be by a guy I've heard great things about. Once so long ago that I forgot about him, and then recently when his name came up again from an insider I know, like, and trust.LOL