Thomson Local

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bigsegs

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Just thought i'd share this with u all...
im not usually one to advertise with people who contact me wanting my business, i usually decide where im gonna advertise and contact them...
however, i was contacted by thomson local, (the blue book) and cos i thought they were a pretty reputable company i agreed to let em come and see me and give me the speil...
so, out comes this rep, names andy.
FIRST THING I ASKED was 'how many other plasterers in this area have signed up for this year and how many u expecting to get'
reply - '6, all repeats from last year, theres only 2 of use in the area and we're moving after next week, so after that we wont be back in area'
so i give him a small deposit (10 percent) off a total of 250+vat..29.50...and off he trollies, i think 250 for a year in the blue book, 6 maybe 10 at most adverts, cant be bad...
gets a call a few days later from 'kirsty'
'hi its thomson local, saw your ad in the paper, was wondering if we can blah blah blah...theres 8 or nine of us in the area and were blah blah ' all unprompted...
hang on i says, how many of u??
8 or nine of us, were all doing your area and were wondering blah...
do you know andy? i says...
who? no sorry..dont know him? why??
cos the bloke came and actually signed me up for your 'little blue book' last week, said there were only 2 of you in the area and youd be gone by now...
OOOH! THAT andy...course, yes he's our team leader...of course what he said is basically correct, there is only two of us...
so you know him then??
yes of course... shall i get him to ring you??
yeh i think youd better....

no phone call...
cancellation form in post...
 
sales men eh ;D if it makes you feel any better there are less lads in my local rag of late so ill be sticking one in soon , don't know what it's like elsewhere?
 
mines up and down, bout 6/7 in the local paper...was only about 3/4 until the last month...
i always keep it up to date though, so its in every night, dont really do the weekly free ads cos i dont reckon they work...mines out 7 days a week, costs 60 quid a month, always easily pays for itself, even on a quiet month...
phones been quiet last 2 weeks though...
hopin end of month will sort it...got a decent size one at the mo, but only a couple of weeks...
 
i think of it the same mate a job will cover the add and the rest i'm not in a great position because unless i work sundays i'm saturdays only, i've done it before, most of my private work was word of mouth but i had to have a bit of time off so lost alot of work so hey ho here we go again time to be the salesman again 8-) .......... :D
 
not too bad a position though mate, im full time private, no site but if the phone dont ring i dont earn...
would help if you get a chance to knock your day job down to 4 days though...still that said, 80 percent of the jobs i get can be done in a day, others can be split up without any major drama, in fact lots of people like to do a room, get it back together again, move the stuff out of the next room and so on...if youre doin a saturday i find its a good idea to get loaded and organised the night before then you aint messin about early doors hung over ::), get there for 9ish gone for teatime and quick sort out sunday..
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didn;t realise you were like me nicks. have to manage fitting jobs in.

I'm in yellow pages and the only people who've phoned me are people selling advertising.

Also in local council's planning application brochure which has generated errr...........nothing
 
didn;t realise you were like me nicks. have to manage fitting jobs in.

I'm in yellow pages and the only people who've phoned me are people selling advertising.

Also in local council's planning application brochure which has generated errr...........nothing
Click to expand...

I used to have a line in the yellow pages as its free for just your number but the only calls i was getting was from crappy little jobs that wasnt worth your while even looking at and soon as you put in a price they thought you were trying to rip them off, only got a couple of jobs that were any good but the time it took to go look at all the poxy little jobs it wasnt worth it and they were phoning me every couple of months trying to badger me into getting a bigger advert, i was working for a firm on the books at the time as well so it was hard to juggle it all, so got rid of the line 6 months later the firm i was working for split up and i have been subbying for the last 4-5 years and working for small builders direct but i am thinking of advertising again but probably in the local paper like seggs says they pay for them self.
 
i hate thomson, i spent £1500 on a 1/4page add they totally fooked it up and after many phone calls n lots of screamin they got it right, to this day i havent had one call from it!! i asked all my recent customers were they would find a plasterer if they didnt have a recomendation and not one said thomson! so if you ask me thomson local is a bag-o-wank!! >:(
 
heres another one...got a call te other day from some people called 'the plasterers directory'...after much beatin round the bush they want 200 quid signing up fee PLUS 39 quid a month...for what? i hear you shout... :P
well, they say they will give you the leads coming in from internet searches by making sure you get your listing on the first page of any google search for 'plasterer (insert area here)'
so, i let em waste a bit if their time while i waited for my small set to go off a bit then f'cked em off..then i went home..
got on the internet and typed 'plasterer peterborough' in google...guess what, there i was!!! first page!!! and guess whats more! I didnt put it there..some very nice little advertising agency has very kindly supplied the search engines with my company name and phone number for absolutely nothing...
try it people, if youve had an advert out anywhere within the last 12 months i'll bet your on the net somewhere without you even realising it!!
 
i ve had 2 calls off the thomson local since it come out :o
also put ad on gumtree for a while, didnt get any calls

isnt it funny how hard the yellow pages try to get u to advertise with them
 
You can't beat selling yourself, word of mouth beats "advertising" IMO, my local rag has 20 plasterers adverts most weeks, at £25 a pop, I,d sooner have some cards and just talk to people.
 
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