[Paisley Pirate]

Hey Mr Chen, et. al,

Here is a really simple, really quick way to get a bunch of product sold (at least here in the USA)

Take $2 Million out of your billion you are setting on. Tag it to the next 20,000 phones sold through the various wireless retailers here in the states. Pay the sales rep on each phone sold $100. Done.

How it would work: Print up cards for the sales reps to fill out, with a proof of sale to be attached to it when they make a qualified sale. Put the cards out to all authorized sales sources (and maybe even just have it as a printable .pdf on your website). Have them mail the card and proof of sale back to you. You mail them out a check upon verification.

Put a 3 month time limit on it, and make it for retail, as opposed to corp sales (so one guy doesn't make $100k off it). Make sure to attach with it some really strong sales info full of features and benefits, so that the sales people can really sell them up.

This is simple, old school stuff here... but $100 a phone is more than enough to catch the brain of all the sales people at the retail level. And it would make them learn about your product, and it would get 20k more phones out in the wild for people to use and help grow the ecosystem.

Thanks.

(btw, I was a sales rep for several companies, was a mid level manager as well as a front line guy for some of them... this was done by several of our supplying companies over the years, generally with good success on products that were strong product, but poorly represented, as a kickstart to sales on them. It is old school, but old school can be very effective when motivating a sales team that is not your own.)

[leojzueg]

Very sound idea and very well thought out. I hope Chen is listening

Posted via CB10

[ezrunner]

Spiffy used to be very common in cellular sales. Not so much anymore.

Posted via CB10

[g33kphr33k]

Spliffs might get more sales with the younger sales reps.

Z10 until Z30

[BBUK14]

This is a great idea. I'd push it further and offer an unlimited number of 'spiffs' for a 3-6 month period. As you only have to pay out when a phone has been sold, and so few are being sold at the moment, this seems to be doable.

I'd also been yelling for evangelist incentives for BlackBerry users. If BlackBerry would offer money off their next BlackBerry phone to people who got their friends to switch, they could mobilise the loyal fans they've got.

Alas, none of this is likely to happen. As much as we love BlackBerry, BlackBerry is simply a terrible company at marketing. It's sad, but true.

Join the Cause @ BlackBerry Bootleg Marketing Channel - C003483F4

[D_Gui]

Very sound idea and very well thought out. I hope Chen is listening

Already mailed it to Master Chen

[web99]

OP,

Thats a really good idea. Hopefully it will be communicated to CEO Chen, his executives and the folks in the Blackberry marketing department.

Posted via CB10 from my spectacular Z10

[BBUK14]

I think we can probably rely on nothing of the sort being done, unfortunately. We can probably expect another year of arrogant, out of touch marketing from BlackBerry...my hope is that the phones sell despite the poor marketing rather than because of it.

Join the Cause @ BlackBerry Bootleg Marketing Channel - C003483F4

[goku_vegeta]

Spiffs on BlackBerry 10 devices have already been done. They didn't increase sales all that much.

Posted via CB10

[jakie55]

The idea of discounts for convincing friends to buy a BB is intriguing. That type of grass roots marketing would actually cost very little.

[Paisley Pirate]

Spiffs on BlackBerry 10 devices have already been done. They didn't increase sales all that much.

Posted via CB10

Really? I'd be curious about implementation and roll out on it? Did they supply sufficient marketing flyers and explanation to the sales force over it? Did they make sure that there was sufficient inventory to make it worth while?

Where and when? As a publicly traded company, this may be available information (or not, not sure... and if it flopped, they may not wish to discuss that toughest of words... WHY?)

[goku_vegeta]

Really? I'd be curious about implementation and roll out on it? Did they supply sufficient marketing flyers and explanation to the sales force over it? Did they make sure that there was sufficient inventory to make it worth while?

Where and when? As a publicly traded company, this may be available information (or not, not sure... and if it flopped, they may not wish to discuss that toughest of words... WHY?)

Yep, basically corporate said you get 15 dollars of commission on each BlackBerry 10 device activated. Spiffs are always fairly well known amongst the sales team as they get the briefing every week. Most locations I've been to have a lot of Z10 inventory, very few Z30s if any and more Q10s than Z30s but less than the Z10.

Honestly I think the mainstream consumer just didn't want a BlackBerry. I've personally sold a lot of BlackBerry 10 devices and people have even signed new 3 year contracts for the 9900 (Why? I have no idea why) so I don't think a spiff will help in any case. We had one week were we couldn't even keep the HTC One on the shelves for some reason a large amount of customers just flocked to that device. No ads, no price drops, no spiffs. Just out of the blue it seemed every customer wanted an HTC One that week. Although in my experience I will say that many people are undecided when they go to their carrier store, but one thing is fore sure, they want a device that just works. The lower the hassle, the better the phone for the average consumers.


Sent from my iPad using CB Forums mobile app