Warning - Snake Oil Salespeople in town for 1 day only

[mtraininjax]

Come one, come all, gather round, at the Arena today there are great deals to be had for the sales people who cannot seem to get motivated on their own. For either $225 at the door, or as low as $19 for an entire office, you can come in and hear speakers such as Zig Zigler, Laura Bush, Colin Powell, Steve Forbes. Of course you have to wait until the afternoon to hear them speak, because we have lots of good programs we want you to sign up for, before the afternoon session.

At least the Arena is being used, and there is some revenue coming into it that is not High School graduation related. One of our reps went, said people were selling $3,200 worth of programs and software, for only $99. When they announced it, he said 3-4000 people got up, falling over each other for the program. You'd have thought they were giving out holy water, he said.

Review of the similar "Get Motivated" event held in Pittsburgh:

http://www.buzzillions.com/dz_129350_get_motivated_business_seminar_review_9399362?prRo=0&reviewSortBy=mostHelpfulFirst&prRpp=1

[stjr]

Come one, come all, gather round, at the Arena today there are great deals to be had for the sales people who cannot seem to get motivated on their own.

It's the old adage, if it's too good to be true, it probably is.  $5 a person or $19 an office to hear so many famous names is not reasonable when you consider each of the folks probably gets $25,000 to over $100,000 each for such appearances.  Do the math.

Unfortunately, most of those going will likely benefit little once the echos of this pep talk fade away.  But they will be the proud new owners of hundreds of dollars in materials most of them will never use.

It's just like those "You can do it, no-money-down, get-rich-quick" real estate seminars.  In my just-starting-out days, I attended one of these.  No doubt they gave you your money's worth BUT.... 99% of the people there didn't have the personalities, time, education, skills, street instincts, patience, or good luck to find the 1 in 10,000 or more chances of putting such deals to together.  They were told all the right things except the real probabilities of finding the gold.  They would have done better to take the money and buy lottery tickets.  At least their losses would go to support education.

[Cliffs_Daughter]

My coworker is actually there today.     She's never been all-together anyway.
I'm sure she'll tell me all about it tomorrow morning, and I'll try like mad to find any other thing to be busy when she gets here.

[copperfiend]

Sounds like an all day timeshare demo.

[RiversideLoki]

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-october-27-2009/george-w--bush-hits-the-lecture-circuit

Related.

[Cricket]

Reminds me of those "pack-your-bags" congratulatory postcards that I get at least once a month.

I called the 800 number once and said "why don't you just drop those airline tickets in the mail?"

She says, "Oh no, you need to pick them up in person".

Hello!

[Ocklawaha]

My favorite is the car dealers clearance, overstock, sale... "So many cars we had to rent the Fairgrounds!" Like they're going to save me thousands more then on their own stupid lot. Does anyone think the Fairgrounds, hot dogs, burgers, coke, tents, and circus clowns are free?

OCKLAWAHA

[mtraininjax]

Well, at the very least, we got another function out of the Arena and the vending in the Arena. So a little more cash flowed through the economy today, and not directly into the carpetbaggers.

[stjr]

Well, at the very least, we got another function out of the Arena and the vending in the Arena. So a little more cash flowed through the economy today, and not directly into the carpetbaggers.

Actually, just the reverse Mtrain.  The carpetbaggers collect the gross proceeds (admission charges, concessions, sales of never-to-be-used books, CDS, videos, etc.) from our locals attending, pay a small part to rent the arena, and skip town with all the rest.  Fleeced again. 

[mtraininjax]

STJR - Actually, for one day, downtown looked impressive with 12,000 extra people.

[Seraphs]

My spin on this is totally different from you guys.  This was nothing like a time share demo, I've been to more of those than my sanity can allow.  This motivational seminar was fantastic.  There was absolutely no pressure to make any purchases.  There were people making mad dashes to get the offers, however, not me.  My total tally, $20.00 for tickets and workbooks for my friend and me,
plus $12.00 (ouch!) for lunch.  I got exactly what I wanted, information, entertainment, and instead of motivation I was inspired.

Reinforcement was mostly the key for me because most of this I've been through many times.
*Help others achieve their dreams and in doing so you will achieve yours.

After more Zig Zigler courses than I can count it was great to see him in person.  Laura Busch was good.  Gen. Colin Powell was dynamic.  Terry Bradshaw was very entertaining.  All of these folks gave excellent speeches and presentations.  For me, I had a blast.

[stjr]

Seraphs, did they get your email, phone number, and/or mailing address?  Just curious if there are more solicitations to come.

Maybe I am too skeptical, but you can't do these events without a return on investment.  They must have a way to get it.  Someone's gonna pay.

[Seraphs]

Seraphs, did they get your email, phone number, and/or mailing address?  Just curious if there are more solicitations to come.

Maybe I am too skeptical, but you can't do these events without a return on investment.  They must have a way to get it.  Someone's gonna pay.

Believe me, I'm skeptical too and for good reason.  Sometimes you have to out fox the fox.  I knew exactly what I was looking for out of this.  This was the trick, 'Please fill out this card for a chance to win $10,000.'  This is the oldest sales trick out.  Yes, they did get my e-mail, but never my phone number, I learned that the hard way.  I don't care about giving out my e-mail.  I mostly delete everything anyway.  I'm kind of a rags to riches nut.  I love to hear peoples stories as I'm a writer. Almost all of these people have had humble beginnings.

[mtraininjax]

America, the greatest country in the world. You can go from rags to riches to rags to riches as many times as you want. Glad you had a blast down there.