The TMI Trap

A trap in the jungle:
I wanted to start this blog citing a movie where someone gets lured into net or lasso in the jungle, and hung upside until rescued. As I started thinking about it, a number of movies blurred in my mind. Why do so many movies use this gag? Because it is true.

The sucker in the movie sees the object on the trail and is drawn to it. In the movies it seems to always be food or something valuable. How stupid you think as you see them propelled upward into the trap.

Why does this work? Because people's self-centeredness thinks that what is open and available could be valuable to them. What they grab for deceives them, unfortunately. Its obvious to the natives setting the trap, and to the viewer, but the adventurer doesn't have a clue until it is too late.

Traps in the sales jungle:
Prospects are just as astute as those natives. Those in active buying mode may call, even announcing that they are going to buy soon. They start asking a number of detailed questions about your company or product, or service. The trap has been set.

Oh, not me, you think. I'm not going to be trapped into losing this order because the customer doesn't know enough. I'm going to answer his questions clearly and confidently. The phone call finishes and you pull up your CRM system to log all the exciting details and update your forecast.

You fool! Don't you feel all the blood rushing to your head as you hang upside down? You should! You've just fallen for the TMI Trap.

The TMI Trap:
TMI in today's slang is used to reference "too much information". The prospect called looking for reasons to eliminate your product from their short-list. The questions they asked are about unique features of your product, but the prospect has already decided he doesn't like those. He just wants to learn more to help him justify it to his boss.

The blood-rush comes when your hang up the phone and realize you've talked too much. Or realize the icy, yet rational tone of the conversation. Unfortunately, sometimes the blood-rush doesn't come until you learn you've lost the sale.

Stay safe:
Once you've been caught in a trap a couple times, you learn to recognize it (hopefully). You walk around it warily, poke it with a stick until the trap is sprung and you are still on the ground. I wrote this because sometimes we can let our guard down and get trapped despite our previous experience. But that would never happen to me, would it? Would it?

Hints for making a little money on the side

Starting a new site to earn money requires time in the beginning. The easiest to start is a home affiliate business site, I think. It will require research to be carried out to see which companies offer good products and nice referral fees. But before you can start, domain registration and website hosting research has to be done. The best web hosting packages can be easily located online. I'd also consider running through companies that are offering reseller hosting so you can have more than one domain, if needed.

If you don't have it already, get a wireless internet service so the site can be uploaded and maintained conveniently wherever you are. Actually creating the site itself will take some work, but there are some neat free tools that make it easier, like WordPress. By learning to constantly manage SEO and search engine submission, the site can do well in search engine ranking and develop enough traffic that proposals will fly in for banner advertising on the site.