- December 12, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I can’t count and may not even know about all of the portals now on the web that feature subject matter experts, content, free downloads, articles and tips from people like me. It’s generally a good thing, at first, until someone like me loses control of his intellectual property – the articles I write.
Some sites run my articles with my permission. Others simply include the RSS feed. Others run teasers with links back to my Blog. These are all OK. However there are some that run my articles, copy my articles, take excerpts from my articles or rewrite my articles and pass them off as their articles. That’s when it becomes a generally bad thing.
One site that said they would change that is ilearningGlobal.tv. They claim to have the exclusive technology that will stream high-def, full screen content from experts like Dennis Waitley, Bob Proctor, and me directly to your desktop and protect the content from being pirated. Sounded good to me. They invited me to join their faculty, offered a revenue sharing model and said they would fly me to their studios to record my content at their cost. Sounded even better…until my third conversation with them when they were more interested in the 3,000 of you that visit this blog each week, the 10,000 that subscribe to Baseline Selling Tips and my network of sales development experts that provide our world-class sales assessments to companies around the world. Why? The engine underneath this cool concept is…Multi-Level Marketing. They wanted me to generate a down line with a few key people that would really market it. Market what exactly? $79 per person, per month subscriptions to “their” content. And the revenue share? 3%. Wow – is that appealing! I’ve never been willing to go near the MLM space, either as participant or consultant. And what makes them think they can even sell these subscriptions?
One site that I thought had a lot of promise and to whom I agreed to let feature my content is CanDoGo.com. Their premise was to feature nuggets of content rather than content in its entirety. They too were going to sell subscriptions but recently changed the model and went to a free service.
One of the sites I particularly like because of their design and richness of content from experts like me is EvanCarmichael.com. Two more that do a great job of culling the best from the best are EyesOnSales.com and TopSalesExperts.com. And then there are sites like Guy Kawasaki’s AllTop.com, which aggregates the top content on a variety of subjects. And then there is the webinar version of all this, BusinessExpertWebinar.com, which features various experts in webinar format all through the day.
Today’s Lessons:
I still hate Multi-Level Marketing. If you can invest even an hour a week in their business, think about the impact that additional hour per week will have on your existing business!
If you have something that others want you have leverage. As soon as you give them what they want your leverage goes away.
If someone dangles an offer that sounds too good to be true they probably want something for nothing.
You get what you pay for. Much of the free content out there (not mine, of course) is either contradicting, regurgitated, unproven, inapplicable or stupid. And there is a huge gap between a great article on strategy or tactics and your ability to apply that strategy or tactic, as written, at your company.
Watch your step.
(c) Copyright 2008 Dave Kurlan
