How to kill a sale!

, we all have snake rooms that get cluttered like this from time to time. but to leave it that way is wrong, and in terms of sales, just plain dumb.

I agree, at times space may make things look cluttered, but this pic showed a nasty mess in my eyes. To me it didnt look like a temporary mess.

We have argued in countless ocassions that pictures are essential when doing business on the web.

If you are going through the "trouble" and cost of taking digital pictures, let that be an asset and not a liability for your business. You don't have to be a professional photographer in order to take decent pictures. If it so happens that you haven't had the time to clean your snake room, how hard is it to use a sheet or any other background?

Whether you believe it or not, In internet sales the picture takes the place of the front window of your retail shop! If looking through the window of a pet shop, I see the employees' underwear hanging to dry in the background I will most probably keep on walking (or browsing the web ads for that matter).

One example that strikes me in particular is that of the store "Prehistoric Pets". Hopefully none will feel offended by this example as it is intended as such, just an example. The fact is, I never bought from them, so I don't know first hand the quality of their animals. In a thread about them, several people stated their husbandry practices, animals, etc. were less than desirable.

On the other hand though, the pictures on their ads always have high definition, the animal is dispayed in a way you can see it full body, and there is always a natural, neat background. Add to that a caption with a couple of coherent (or at least semi-coherent; you don't need a "textbook" on the species) lines of what you are offering under the picture and you will find potential customers going once and again through your ad.

Best regards.

Just a couple of examples to illustrate what I meant.

Please compare this add:

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=32&de=59128

With the picture on this add:

http://market.kingsnake.com/image/49776.jpg

The ball python in this second picture is in a clean container so no complaints about the background. I'm not sure if the picture was distorted or what, but take a look at his head! In the add the animal is depicted as "perfect", it even states "click in the pic to enlarge". If anyone was interested in this animal, the first thing to do will obviously be to ask if there was something wrong with the picture and/or the snake.

Best regards.

There seems to be some debate on usage of marketing materials both by the goods guys and the bad guys.

Marketing gets you the first sale. The level of marketing needed is deteremined by your competition. If your competition is placing ads with unsanitary conditions in the background and gibberish that is not related to a language then you don't have to exert too much effort. If, on the other hand, your competition is placing ads with decent pictures and readable text you may need to step it up a bit.

Products and service get your second sale. If the marketing materials are not back up with substance then you will not get repeat customers.

No legitmate business can survive on only "one-time" sales for the long run. Those flashy marketing materials cost money and take time to develop. Repeat customers are where the pot of gold is located and this REQUIRES more than hollywood flash.

Bankruptcy courts are littered with the remains of small businesses that never learned to market AND also those that didn't learn that there is profit in customer service and quality products.

No legitmate business can survive on only "one-time" sales for the long run. Those flashy marketing materials cost money and take time to develop. Repeat customers are where the pot of gold is located and this REQUIRES more than hollywood flash.

Excellent post Daniel! On more than one ocassion I have seen sellers talk about their one-time customers. In MHO a customer is the one that buys from you more than once. Here is where the after-sale support becomes more than important. More often than not there's a lot of communication before the transaction takes place. Once the goods and the money change hands the communication ceases.

Best regards.

**GLOSSY* **PRETTY** **WELL DEFINED**


AND OFTEN THESE ARE ALL

SMOKESCREEN

For anmals that are in ill health and have been taken
poor care of. Not always, example being Gus Renfro, he
posts great looking ads, sells healthy great looking
snakes, and gives good customer service.


But not everyone that posts things in a
"professional" manner sells reptiles that
are healthy.


But of course you would think teyare, because after
all, they went through the trouble of putting up a nice
clear pciture on the net with a GREAT LOOKING
ad.

Addenum: I have been a vocal opponent of
Prehistoric Pets for what seems like forever. I
have been there, seen the diry, crappy conditions,
seen the snakes with mites and ticks, seen the dry
empty waterbowls and the old urates in the cages.
Had fellow reptile breeders make a trip UP THERE
to verify same. BUT I am Happy to say that a friend
of mine went up there less than 3 weeks ago and
as FUSSY as HE IS(Really bad) he gave Prehistoric a
THUMBS UP and said that all those terrbile conditions
had dissappeared, the reptiles looked GREAT and
healthy, and it was the best display that hed ever seen.
So, now their store MATCHES their geat ads.



Sincerely,

Fred Albury

Again, nothing bad to say about them, nice looking snakes, etc. but...

This ad appeared today 02/17:

thes are 2002 growing fast codamanent genebeed to normal get 50% hypos 50%normals. also beed to albino get hets for sunglow breed to anary get hets for ghoust beed hypo to hypo get 25% super hypos

Yet another ad from the same seller:

this is adomanent gene breed to a hypo get sunsets they have lots of color and very littel pattern

At this point I'm more inclined to believe that is probably dyslexia. One way or the other, the concepts expressed are difficult to understand. One point I want to make clear though. This alone will probably not discourage me from buying from them if I liked what they had to offer.

On the other hand (and in reply to Fred's post), in spite of the nice ads put together by Prehistoric Pets, having read all the comments about them on the BOI has discouraged me from buying from them. At least from my perspective the customer's experiences do matter more than flashy ads.

Best regards.

Again..I say, with me as the HARSHEST critics of stores and brokers in general, my good friend went to Prehistoric in Fountain Valley, and having seen with his own eyes what condition the shop was in, gave them an A+ rateing. Since I trust his judgement, and have asked him a MULTITUDE of question regarding the husbandry of the place, I can honestly say they must have really busted there behinds to get the place into the shape it is in now. Guess it rates as a truly good store at this point. My friend is a real clean freak...so if the place even came CLOSE to being dirty or unkept he would have told me that.


Sincerely,

Fred Albury
AZTEC REPTILES

Fred,

That's good to know and it does makes more sense. It was hard to believe how they could be selling $15,000 snakes and yet have a messy facility. New management maybe?

Best regards!