That Sippery Slope

I was wandering around the Internet looking for some information about the NY Giant vs. Chicago Bears game this Sunday when I saw a sidebar that said, “Check out your IQ. Tony Romo has 143. Are you smarter than Tony?”

Not being a Cowboy fan and wanting to test this fact, I clicked on the icon to take the test. I got all the way through the 10 questions and was then asked to fill in my cell number, so they will send me my score.

But before they would send it to me they had to send me a pin number on my cell phone. When I received my pin number, I entered it in the box and guess what came up? It was an offer for a text messaging service that I would be RECEIVING…and it would only cost me $19.95 per month

Now if I had not read the terms and conditions, I would have agreed to a $19.95 fee for at least six months. And would have felt that i got ripped off, not a feeling that anyone likes.

Now you see why it is so hard to get people to open your email.

It’s because of shady marketers like this that the rest of us suffer. It’s because the element of trust between the seller (us) and our customers (them) has been so damaged that we can’t even get 85% of our customers, (Our Customers!!) to open our emails.

If you don’t continue to build the element of trust into your relationship with your customers you will begin, at least in the customer’s mind, to migrate more towards the type of marketer described above.

Build the trust first. Sell second.

That slippery slope just got a little slippier.