Is CPA vs. CPM the issue?

From: Phil Tanny <info_at_subscription-service.com>
Date: Fri 15 Jun 2001 09:24:15 -0500

Thanks to Michael Ehlenberger and others for the CPA/CPM
discussion, I find it quite interesting and informative.

It occurs to me that all of us, buyers and sellers, are
united in facing the same challenge. How to achieve
trust?

Perhaps we could take part of this conversation off of
the mechanics of CPM vs. CPA and address the
underlying issue which, in my impo, is that none of
us trust the other. Each of us prefers whatever
accounting system will get us over our trust obstacles.

Now that I'm beginning to achieve most of my goals via
my CPA based partner program I find my frustration
level as a relatively new member of this marketplace
is falling and my thinking is clearing up considerably.

As the clouds lift what I'm seeing is a group of
information industry professionals, myself included,
who haven't yet learned how to use this medium to
build the bonds of trust.

I started out my campaign perfectly willing to pay via
CPM and with each presentation (if you want to call them
that) that I received my ability to trust declined. Thus
CPA became my only way forward.

In my inexperienced opinion as a novice buyer, the CPM
industry has substantial credibility and communication
obstacles to overcome if it wants to stay in the game
with the growing wave of CPA minded buyers.

That said, we CPA buyers have a lot to work to do as
well. Building my CPA partner program has been _a lot
_ of work and it wouldn't have been so hard to spend
money if my presentations of my own scheme had been
more professional. That seems clear to me now too.

I learned a lot in this regard this week from a local
offline gentleman who came to our home to sell us solar
heating equipment. I'll summarize a quite awkward
hour to say I'm not sure I've ever met anyone more
poorly suited to in-person presentations. Not only
was I not sold, by the time he left we were convinced
we had found the one company we wouldn't use.

The unexpected pleasant surprise occurred when we began
thumbing through the printed materials he had left
behind.

First, we read through some well written explanations
of solar heating principles that accomplished
everything the personal presentation had failed to do.
Now we began to have the confidence we could understand
the subject enough to make an intelligent purchase.

Then we read through an extensive bio of our sales
person which revealed to us that he is actually one
of the pioneers of this field in our state. Sure,
some of these organizations and meetings are filler,
but there was no denying this gentleman knew his business.

But still we're stuck at trust. Do we want to do
business with this person, even if he is qualified?
That question was answered by hundreds of local
references with name, address and phone number. We no
longer had to take his word for anything, we could
answer our trust concerns on our own by talking directly
to his customers, some of whom we already know personally.

The point of this long story is that personality, the main
tool of the CPM sellers I've encountered, is a highly
overvalued technique in a B2B marketplace. If you have
it, use it of course. But you get lazy and allow
yourself to rely on it at your peril.

Hard information, professionally presented and ruthlessly
cleaned of buzz word laden hype, that proves by facts that
you know your business and can be trusted, is the future of
the CPM and CPA markets, to the degree that either of them
have a future.

Perhaps it's presentation, not pricing schemes, that
lies at the center of this discussion?

PS. After my last post explaining how I could be sold I
was contacted by an agency who has been willing to test
our CPA plan and has at least doubled our traffic,
earning themselves about a hundred bucks a day ongoing.
We've yet to discover whether this arrangement will work
out long term but this agency's willingness to step
across the line and try me out has certainly earned
them first place in line should I ever make a CPM
purchase. I can be sold! One just has to listen when
I explain how.

Sincerely,
Phil

Phil Tanny, info_at_subscription-service.com
http://subscription-service.com



Received on Fri Jun 15 2001 - 09:24:15 CDT