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A comment on Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate phone number (2013). Parent comment

Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by goatherders on Saturday March 30, 2019 @07:48PM (#19532725)
Time is indeed money. Most companies track customer acquisition cost in dollars and I've often wondered whether both parties - customers and companies - would like a more direct model.

Let's say an employee earns $50/hour. And a SaaS has identified that employee as being a decision maker on their service. And let's say my current CAC ie $10,000 and the lifetime value of the service is 25k. And let's say that the SaaS closes 1 out of every 5 people that sees the demo.

Wouldnt there be appetite for the SaaS to offer 5 potential decision makers $500 each to participate in a demo? And another $1000 to the DMs company? The CAC decreases by 25% and the spend goes to the people and companies most participating in the process as opposed to tools like Marketo, and spend, etc.

Anyway, I think the guy here has hit on something but not at a high enough price.

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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by harryh on Sunday March 31, 2019 @12:04AM (#19533756)
1 out of 5 people who see the demo without compensation buy the product. The only incentive they had to see the demo is that they were at least somewhat considering purchasing.

But if you start paying people, then a lot of people who have zero interest will participate just to pocket the money. Your close rate will go way way down.

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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by bryanrasmussen on Sunday March 31, 2019 @02:14AM (#19534180)
If you think you have a really kick ass product that everybody will want when they see it though?

well probably you will alter your thinking based on feedback, but maybe not!

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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by httpsterio on Sunday March 31, 2019 @05:11AM (#19534601)
This is basically how advertising works. You're using most likely several, free, ad supported websites or apps. Instead of paying for the app you're using, you're compensating the developer with your attention on ads and the developer is then paid based on that. Instead of directly getting money for hearing pitches or being the subject of cold calls, you get to use free services.
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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by lbotos on Saturday March 30, 2019 @08:03PM (#19532795)
Most serious companies have ethical policies that would require disclosure of such a scheme (as in, if you are targeting me, and giving me a gift, I need to tell my boss) and others will flat out deny or disallow such gifts.
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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by goatherders on Saturday March 30, 2019 @11:38PM (#19533662)
I think a disclosure would be part of it for sure.
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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by kesselvon on Saturday March 30, 2019 @08:04PM (#19532797)
Pretty sure that would be a conflict of interest
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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by ct520 on Saturday March 30, 2019 @11:02PM (#19533515)
And that is how the yearly HR ethics video you are required to watch was born. Lol
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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by LanceH on Sunday March 31, 2019 @01:44AM (#19534110)
One place I was at had a scenario where working on location with a client and they offered you a private chef. I told my manager there is no way I'm passing up a private chef.
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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by ct520 on Friday April 05, 2019 @02:03AM (#19580098)
LOL that’s awesome.
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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by Nasrudith on Saturday March 30, 2019 @09:43PM (#19533187)
I suspect the better answer is to just lower costs for the same benefit - customers come to you attracted by the lower costs and you don't have the free-rider problem that it becomes profitable to generate time wasting corps to do a bunch of paid demos to make money at the cost of productivity to all involved.
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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by goatherders on Sunday March 31, 2019 @10:15AM (#19535670)
Surprisingly this doesnt work that well and degrades the product. I've actually had success in RAISING the price to get more demos booked.
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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by LoSboccacc on Sunday March 31, 2019 @05:39AM (#19534681)
that would be surely against any anti-birbing policy a company has.

at least do what doctor do and book them expensive vacation at exclusive venues where you coincidentally are pitching your company product.

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Re:Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate ... by htormey on Saturday March 30, 2019 @08:24PM (#19532858)
Wasnt this the premise of earn.com?
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