Why Companies have contracts...
Bart Davis
?????????? Restaurant Consultant | Restaurant Marketer | ????Goal Driven, Faith Motivated???? Guarantee Results or our services are free!
The Trap
I don't care who you are, how much money you have, who you know or what you do for a career as long as your over the age of 18 I think we can all agree that we have been trapped or stuck in a bad contract. Some of us it may be a cell phone contract that we didn't read the fine print and now we are stuck paying a huge fee to upgrade our package or get a new phone because our warranty didn't cover the ONE thing that happen to your phone in 15 years of purchasing warranty. For some it may be we took the hook on the auto renew clause we were mislead about and on the 13th month we realize we have to pay 11 more months of cable that is no longer $19.99 for the first 3 months it's $149.99 but there is nothing we can do because we signed the contract. So we suffer through the 11 months and become bitter toward the brand we are contractual stuck in just to receive a call on the 10th month with the good news and it goes a little something like this...
Playing the Game
Congrats Mr. Cable Sufferer we have some great news for you. You have been chosen for our current promotion since you have been a loyal customer for almost two years to receive all the premium channels, NFL Sunday Ticket ( yes they profiled me and know I watch football ) , all of the HBO, Showtimes, Starz and because your so loyal we are gonna throw in every channel we have plus access to all channels on your mobile device. It's only $19.99 for first 6 months. After 6 months if you don't want the channels you can downgrade to your current package for the same price your paying now. What they don't tell you is after the 6 months is not 199.99 is 249.99 because Sunday Ticket doesn't start until after the 6 months. My response now is "Can you turn it off at the 6 month mark now so I don't forget to downgrade?" knowing I'm not gonna renew I just want to give the salesman some practice on objections for the next sucker he tries to fool. I usually have them speechless after I try to sell them a product I'm selling as a good ole boy I scratch your back you scratch mine trade out.
The Reality
After talking with 100's of people out in the field I've come to these conclusions:
- Almost everybody that owns a business lives such a busy life that they tend to forget things like reminding themselves to cancel contracts 30 days in advance.
- Most people that are in contracts can't find them or don't even know when or what they actually signed.
- EVERY BUSINESS OWNER has signed a contract they regretted by the end of it because they wasn't happy with the services and could not do anything about it. Why bend over backwards to make you happy when they have you for 12 months and can spend there time on acquiring new customers?
The Truth
I have to admit one of the worst contracts I got stuck in was my Merchant Processing Contract and it cost me 20k over 3 years. So when I decided to add Payment Processing to my company 360 Merchant Group offerings, I was so excited to find out that the processors I work with don't do contracts or give me option to waive them because they believe the same way I do that if your serving your clients and you giving them a fair price then you shouldn't have to bind them to a contract because they won't go anywhere. As a Sales Partner it also keeps me on my toes because I have to make my customers are happy every month or I risk losing them. I'm more inclined to make calls back as soon as I can or address issues in a timely manner if I know I have something to lose if I don't.
There is still some hope for you that might be in a contract with a merchant service provider
The good news is that my company will buy our your merchant service provider's contract as long as the numbers work out. We only put you in a contract until our company makes back the money we bought your current contract from your merchant. That's only fair or we would be the banker for buying out bad contracts and then a month later you leave us and we are stuck paying the tab. I'm nice but I've yet to figure out the art of growing money on trees..stay turned I'm still working out the process!
The Bottom Line...
The bottom line is that 360 Merchant Group want to EARN your business and if the reason your not giving us that shot to earn it is because your in a contract then let us take that burden off of you and start offering you a fair price and let's get your business back to it's full potential with our small business tools proven to increase revenue and customer engagement. Whether you believe it or not it really doesn't matter what your selling because your still in the people business more than product business. So let my team show you how customer engagement will grow your business faster than any new trend, fad or product that comes out tomorrow and is gone next month.
People are here today and will be here tomorrow, and the next day and the next...
Bart Davis - 360 Merchant Group https://www.360merchantgroup.com