Major Marketing Mistakes: Be Careful Of Name Dropping

I know that it is common practice to do some name dropping when marketing a business. No matter what type of business it is. You might have a celebrity that loves your coffee shop, or a big name has used your products and given you a testimonial, etc. Some companies even pay big names to endorse their products and services.

That in itself is pretty common. Most people do it if they can. why not? It adds credibility to what you sell.

If it is done ethically!

You have to be careful about when you are name dropping and there are a few strict ethical rules you should be following any time you are using someone else’s name.

There is a difference between someone you have met, seen at a seminar, even had coffee with at some time, and someone you can call a friend.

I’m seeing this more and more with people when they call me up to “get together to get to know each other” and it’s nothing more than a ploy to get me to listen to their sales pitch.

It’s bad enough that they aren’t being honest about their intentions, but what about when they start dropping names. “I’m a good friend of ______________ and they said I need to meet you!”

Ever heard that one before? I have! Just recently, a girl called me up with this line. She said she was a good friend of one of my best friends and wanted to meet me.

Come to find out, she wasn’t a friend. They met once over coffee ONCE.

Now, if I was interested in her products before (which I wasn’t) I surely wasn’t going to be once I found this out.

She didn’t “Twist the truth a bit”. She flat lied to get a meeting with me. See where I am going with this?

Had she said she had met my friend and that they told her she should meet me, it wouldn’t have been as bad. But the “Good friends” line just killed her credibility with me.

To make it worse, come to find out she had done with with many other people my friend knows.

Don’t make this marketing mistake in your business.

Name dropping or claiming to be friends in order to get an appointment or sale is just bad karma. You will get found out and it will kill your reputation.

Be honest. Be upfront. If you just met a person, don’t claim to be their friend. If you plan on pitching your wares, be honest and tell people that. Don’t go around telling people that you just want to get to know them or make a new friend if that is not your intention.

It won’t do you good, might hurt the reputation of the person you are talking about and will definitely ruin your own reputation very quickly.

It’s unethical and people will see though you’re scam very quickly. No matter how great your product is, it will not serve you in the end and you will loose more business than you would have ever got by just being honest up front.