The other week I wrote about a “dummy-spit” by Rob Toth. An old friend recently reminded me about another “dummy-spit”, many years ago, at Melbourne’s Dallas Brookes Hall by Brad Sugars. Brad was just starting out in the speaking and coaching game. It was a free seminar pitching Brad’s coaching and consulting services, from memory.

What I do remember, vividly, is Brad’s tantrum on stage, in front of 400 small business owners.

Just before the break he’d delivered a full-on pitch for attendees to sign up during the break for what was, at the time, a fairly expensive coaching program for which he hadn’t really established the perceived value needed to justify the price.

When he discovered that very few sign-ups had occurred, he harangued his audience for more than ten minutes after the break, accusing them of being unresponsive, short-sighted, unimaginative, unadventurous… and he was talking to 400 small business owners? People who’d risked everything they owned to take charge of their own destinies?

It didn’t go down well. (Surprise, surprise!)

By my estimation, at the time, around one third of his audience walked out. It was a monumental error of judgment and it damaged his credibility in the country’s second biggest market for some time.

To Brad’s credit, he learned from that debacle, bounced back and now heads a highly successful international business coaching operation.

My first encounter with confronting your audience online was at least 10 years ago, when Paul Myers of TalkBizNews challenged people who were on his list for the wrong reasons to unsubscribe immediately.

It was a very effective move on Paul’s part — and was promptly followed by a bunch of clueless imitators ordering subscribers to unsubscribe if they didn’t buy whatever the imitators were trying to flog their hapless, much-abused subscribers.

They just didn’t get it. the tactic blew up in their faces, and some of them have never recovered to this day.

What was the difference?

Once again, the critical difference between what’s good or bad, smart or stoopid, desirable or undesirable isn’t found in WHAT we do, but in WHY and HOW we do it. In other words, if you understand the cause-and-effect relationships involved, and do it with skill, intelligence and style, you can make it work brilliantly for you.

But do it without these attributes and insights and you court instant self-destruction because of your terminal stupidity.

You’ll get what you deserve, either way. And that brings me to the latest example…

Mike Dillard’s launch of “What’s Working Now”

I have a lot of respect for Mike Dillard. He’s smart, talented and savvy. On most things related to network marketing we see eye-to-eye. I don’t always agree with his methods, but that’s usually a question of personal style rather than ethics.

I was very interested to receive several emails from Mike at the weekend telling me, in no uncertain terms, that because I hadn’t signed up for his new continuity program, “What’s Working Now”, I was no longer welcome to be on his list. To quote Mike verbatim…

You have two choices…

Join What’s Working Now — today — because I know it will help you, or kindly remove yourself from my list.

Here’s the sign-up link, or you can find the unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email.

The choice is yours, but it’s TIME TO GET OFF THE FENCE AND MAKE THE CHOICE. It’s your life, not mine, so either way is fine by me.

It’ll be interesting to hear the results from this high-risk email — if Mike ever decides to share that information. I suspect it may have done him more harm than good because, while Mike is intelligent and clued-in, this isn’t the same situation as the ONLY example of this approach I’ve ever seen that actually worked. (By the way, Paul Myers is one of the few REAL go-to experts consulted by the top-tier online marketers. Compared to Paul, Mike is still “climbing the hill”, despite his successes.)

Mike’s promoting this on the basis of a $10 initial purchase of a thumb drive/data-stick loaded with initial information, ahead of a monthly continuity program that costs $37, $67 or $97 per month.

He’s also promoting it heavily through a strategy that, until now, was really only seen in the Internet marketing niche, where a bunch of super-stars promote the product through the addition of spectacular bonuses if you purchase through their affiliate links.

Alarm bells should be ringing about now!

If you’re not familiar with IM tactics, you should be aware that this approach is a sure sign that those experts expect to rake in the cash from promoting this program… especially on the back-end: the continuity program and plenty of high-ticket up-sells and cross-sells further down the track.

So why do I think this tactic by Mike was so risky?

Because it was nothing more than blatant emotional blackmail. It ignored the reality of the back-end commitment required, which a LOT of people on Mike’s list would have been wary of in today’s financial climate, implying instead that they were indecisive losers because they wouldn’t purchase the $10 thumb drive.

If that’s an example of the kind of strategy to be delivered by “What’s Working Now”, I’ll pass. Thanks, but no thanks.

For a start, not only are Visa and MasterCard terminating merchant accounts, hand over fist, for just this kind of tactic, but the FTC has weighed into the fight as well. And this has been happening for months now.

Your thoughts and comments are welcome. Do you agree? Disagree?

Author Profile  Consults to managements of direct selling companies, small business and home business owners. Writes regular columns and feature articles for various business media, online and offline. Author of several best-selling business books. Presents seminars and workshops, webinars and other training programs. Creator of Fourth Generation Thinking, Selling, Business Systems. Read more from this author

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