Through your prospecting and selling process online, you will need to weed out what we call “posers”. These are people for whatever reason are not who they say that are during your sales process. Most of the posers are out to either harvest your contact information and sell it to other entities. Or they are doing it to “case you” This is to find out your weaknesses, so they can rob you in some way. This could be in the form of a fake ebay link or sob story about how that are an Army vet down on their luck. But in reality, behind the email hides a low life thief with one goal in mind…getting your money in their pocket. With this in mind, here are 6 ways to recognize poses online before they get to you.
#1 – Poor Grammar – Many Posers are from terrible economic environments. Their emails use poor grammar which is a quick sign that your poser prospect is uneducated and not aware customs or grammar of the country they are trying to communicate with. So, keep this in mind when you see a line like. “Saw website, want buy some of product of you.” This might work for Yoda in Star Wars, (Dating myself) but not for posers on line!
#2 – Location: If the email you received from your interested prospect is from another country and you work primarily in your own country or area, there is a good chance the person on the other end of the email or on-line social message is not who they say they are. Think about it, why would anybody from another country go to a different country to buy your product or service it you are local to your area or region? It’s more common sense than anything…. Right?
#3 – Over excited to purchase your product right now: Ask yourself, how many new customers want to purchase my product without asking any questions? Normally if someone wants your product what do they do. They ask questions, kick tires, ask for samples, quotes, customer testimonials…right? So, if somebody doesn’t do these things, there is a good chance they have different motives to their communications. Would you buy your product or service from another country on-line without asking questions or checking references? Most likely not. So why would anybody else?
#4 – Generic greeting – This by far is the biggest flag that you are dealing with someone that is less than honest. When someone sends an email that simply says. “Hello or hi there or to my dearest friend, do you really think they are your dearest friend? Far from it. More like your arch enemy. First, they didn’t even take the time to bother to look at your profile to get your name let alone know whether your company can handle whatever order they are looking to place with you. I know this may sound like common sense things. However, every day there are unsuspecting victims that fall for this line even with a generic greeting. It’s truly sad. Think about it, if it wasn’t working for crooks, they wouldn’t keep doing it. As astute, on-line sales professionals, we always need to be aware of all these signs and keep our guard up.
#5 Generic email – Many posers’ emails may come from a generic email accounts that anyone can get. Like a Gmail or Yahoo account. Most real companies have their own email address like dan@bvsfilmproductions.com. If someone is using a Gmail account, there is a reason for that. And most of the time, it’s not a good one. It this situation it could be because they are not traceable, and they can say whatever they want, and they won’t get caught. Either way, be cautious when someone reaches out to you with this sort of email. Real companies use real emails for the most part.
#6 Multiple emails with the same message – Again, this sounds like common sense to delete these, but some get through and get acted upon by unsuspecting victims. Sometimes online thieves and posers will send multiple emails to several of your email accounts or two or three in a row to see if one of them will get through the spam filter. Normally if one gets through they all do. Another big red flag. Why would a real customer do this? They won’t…
All of us at BVS Film Productions hopes this information was helpful and hope all your marketing efforts on line are safe and productive!
Some of the above information was taken from our new Amazon #1 best seller book Fill Your Funnel. Coauthored by Dan Portik and Tom Hopkins. For more information on selling with social media, feel free to order your copy HERE.
New social media selling and prospecting book Fill Your Funnel
Dan Portik Best Selling Author owner of BVS Film Productions
Legendary master sales trainer and best-selling author Tom Hopkins about working relationship with Dan Portik and collaboration with their new book on social media prospecting “Fill Your Funnel”. It has been a fantastic time working with his team to create what we think is the new manual to prospecting and closing sales through social media