SinglePlatform: High Pressure Sales?

Update: May 24, 2012 I can happily report that SinglePlatform took this post very seriously. Kenny Herman, the Executive Vice President of Single Platform, personally reached out to me. This company’s business model is based on selling a new and innovative product to companies of all sizes. Through our conversations, Kenny made it clearly obvious to me that he persoanlly cares about each and every client/potential client as they continue to grow. He had 3 goals when he called me: 1. To find out all the details of where they went wrong with me (and my client). He wanted these details so he could correct any problems internally. 2. To explain to me some of the basic philosophies of the company and educate me on some points where he could identify things may have gone wrong. 3. To educate me on their product, so I would in turn understand it and feel comfortable recommending it to my clients. And yes, I have spoken to the client I discussed in the post below, and he will be on SinglePLatform very shortly! Win win for everyone….:)

I admit it  – I am a huge Foursquare addict! Ya -I’m a level 2 user – so that makes me “extra dorky Mom” as my kids would say! Heck, I even have my  own and very awesome Foursquare point of contact (POC).  So back over Mardi Gras break, yours truly was purchasing a cocktail at Margaritaville,  in order to help me survive relax during  family vacation. And that was when the “wow” light went on. I actually could see their whole menu on Foursquare. Pure awesomeness!!!

As soon as I got home, I contacted my Foursquare POC and asked him how my clients can sign up. He told me that they were working with SinglePlatform and I would have to get in touch with them. I left them an email and a week went by and I had not heard from them. That is never a good sign! So I decided to give them a call and got a salesperson who was lucky I could not reach through the phone and choke him a bit. He basically told me they don’t deal with consultants but that if I could give him the name of my clients, he would contact them. NOPE…not  going to happen. Then he said for me to  hold on so he could talk to his boss (I felt like I was car shopping now).  He came back on the phone and said he had already checked my website and info out to see I am a legitimate company.  He asked if he could talk to his boss to see if he could deal with me and call me tomorrow. I told him he really insulted me and that at this point, I was not interested, but he could call. I never picked up the phone when he did.

Now to be fair to one of my clients, who I thought may benefit from this service, I told him about the experience and gave him the contact information. Even though I do not normally work this way and would lose any potential revenue, I felt it only fair to offer him this idea. After a couple of weeks of back and forth phone calls with them, he called me absolutely disgusted. They were high pressure, had obvious sales training with scripts and did not leave him alone. His hunch is that any business that works under the old, high pressure model, can’t be doing that well. My hunch was that they gave away their service to some big brands and now have some bragging rights and newbie salespeople to grow.

A lot about them still remains a mystery to me, but it seems it costs under $500 a year for one location, paid up front. Mutli-location discounts need to be negotiated with the “pit boss.” They will create an on-line/mobile menu and submit it to various platforms such as YP.com, Yelp, Foursquare (and others – not sure of details) as well as Foursquare (which I think should be free).

Just writing what I know here. Anyone else have an experience – good or bad – they would like to share about this topic? Would it just be better to make menus mobile ready and call it a day?

Here is the link to the Mashable article, claiming SinglePlatform will bring 250,000 on-line menus to Foursquare.   Crunchbase highlights this 2011 startup company here.