The Honey Trap...

OK so I was offered a free consultation with a local law firm through Business Gateway. I got a call form them on Monday and we arranged to meet at 9.30 yesterday morning.

The person I saw was really nice and read over the contract I have put together myself. She started asking questions about it and giving feed back. This was great!.

That's where it stopped, the next thing was the offer to take my contract and go over it at a cost of £120 per hour!!! WOW! Stop right there.

I explained that as I am just starting out in business and am, for want of a better word, SKINT! then came all the offers to cap the limit, defer payment or pay by installments.

This was turning into a real hard sell. As you'll understand this made me more than a little uncomfortable and I told her in no uncertain terms that I was not prepared to commit myself to any additional debt and there was no way that I was signing up for anything. I was simply there for a "free" consultation in the hope they could tell me if I'd missed anything out from my contract of terms.

As it turned out I did get all the information I needed and a little more. She clearly knew her job very well and had all the relevant information to hand.

I don't like the "hard sell" approach. I am all for incentives but to offer something for free and then try to take that and make the person feel they are obliged to sign up is not in my mind, good business practice.

I would hate to think that any of my customers would ever feel that way. I am all for finding out exactly what they are looking for and discussing how I can help and being totally up front all times. You don't have to take my services if it's not what you are looking for or if you feel the cost is too high for something we can see if we can swap things around so you get exactly what you are looking for within your budget.


www.GearyPhoto.co.uk