Yelp Ad Reps Overly Agressive

[Eric Rohrback]

<rant>

Just got a call from a Yelp ad rep. Cold call - no warning. I wanted to be nice, and explain that I was in the middle of client work and he could email me details to review... He continued to ask me to google something so he could prove Yelp ads have a high ROI.

After a few minutes his tone actually got pretty aggressive after I tried to end the call politely a couple more times. Had to tell him he was getting aggressive and to pump the breaks on how he was attempting to "pitch" me.

Basically if your ad platform is showing a return as high as your reps are saying, then why would you need aggressive and combative sales people cold calling businesses? Yelp needs to get it together. Why would I consider buying into a product where I know I'll be harassed by someone when I ask to get back to work?

ugh... threw off my workflow. I was busy configuring GTM>GA events when this happened. How annoying.

</rant>

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Couldn't agree more. They never stop! I've actually had several clients ask me to become more aggressive with Yelp because Yelp sales would constantly contact them by phone or email several times a week, even after being told multiple times by clients that they weren't interested in advertising with Yelp. Frustrating to say the least.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Their sales style is well... to be nice... stupid. Why would you try to pressure me into doing what you want when you've interrupted me in my day. Not once was I asked if this was a good time to talk, just bull rushed in and started talking why they're great.

Like... what kind of amateur sales team does this company have? They don't even understand basic courtesy.

What a bunch of clowns.

 

[j_holtslander]

We have a pre-written support article for our clients on Yelp's aggressive calls.

Feel free to steal this text

It’s easy to think of Yelp as just a free listing service that will also help with your web presence and tie into other services like Apple Maps. The important thing to remember is that Yelp is a business that depends on revenue just like you. Yelp has a very proactive sales team whose goal is to convert you from a free user to a paid user through various paid profile upgrade options.

That being said, if you are a business owner, on Yelp, and have a phone number, Yelp WILL phone you in a sales capacity. Some clients may find the sales calls disruptive and wish to stop them from being made.

Stopping Yelp’s sales calls
To stop Yelp's sales calls there are 2 options you can take.

1. When Yelp phones you, direct them to speak to us about your Yelp profile instead of your firm directly. Provide them with our phone number and your Account manager’s name.
2. Preferred: Ask to be added to Yelp’s internal Do not call list. (Which they should honor.)

Are you concerned that Yelp may genuinely have something of interest to your business that you may not be taking advantage of? Rest assured that our staff are fluently familiar with all of Yelp’s paid offerings and the benefits of each of them. In fact we have it all documented in our internal wiki already.

Our staff are also far more versed than Yelp’s sales staff in how lawyers are allowed to use Yelp without breaking any Law Society rules.

Did you know? Yelp encourages businesses to describe themselves in their profile using a field labelled specialties. Both the Law Society of British Columbia as well as the Law Society of Upper Canada specifically prohibit lawyers from marketing themselves as "Specialists"​

Talk to your account manager about your businesses' Yelp options and we can skip the Yelp sales talk and tell you no-nonsense what the available options are to you, whether they will be of a benefit to you, and what they will cost your firm.

Regardless of all the extra bells and whistles a Yelp profile *could* have, the most important thing a Yelp profile can have aside from a completed profile is reviews.

 

[Rik Delta]

+1 to everything above. Grrr!

 

[JoshuaMackens]

<rant>

Just got a call from a Yelp ad rep. Cold call - no warning. I wanted to be nice, and explain that I was in the middle of client work and he could email me details to review... He continued to ask me to google something so he could prove Yelp ads have a high ROI.

After a few minutes his tone actually got pretty aggressive after I tried to end the call politely a couple more times. Had to tell him he was getting aggressive and to pump the breaks on how he was attempting to "pitch" me.

Basically if your ad platform is showing a return as high as your reps are saying, then why would you need aggressive and combative sales people cold calling businesses? Yelp needs to get it together. Why would I consider buying into a product where I know I'll be harassed by someone when I ask to get back to work?

ugh... threw off my workflow. I was busy configuring GTM>GA events when this happened. How annoying.

</rant>

I'm always curious about who is coaching these companies (not just Yelp) to be this aggressive? I'd like to know who the head strategists of sales are. Is it the VP of sales telling them to do this? Or what?

 

[JoyHawkins]

As someone who comes from a sales background, I wish I could say this is only true for Yelp. It's not. This type of sales strategy is fairly common for certain types of businesses. I hate it but it does work to a degree.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

As someone who comes from a sales background, I wish I could say this is only true for Yelp. It's not. This type of sales strategy is fairly common for certain types of businesses. I hate it but it does work to a degree.

I think it works for sales but I think it ends up biting you on retention. And in the end if you don't retain the client, was it worth it in the first place? And then you throw in the fact you're sullying your reputation?

 

[SmallBizGeek]

There's another company called Yell aka hibu who employ similar strategies. I repeatedly told them to stop calling and they didn't. I got pretty angry with this one guy who kept hounding me. I was firm, but fair.

A few weeks later, it seemed someone had changed my phone number on my free Yell listing to that of a scrap metal dealer in Belfast. Similarly, I was receiving enquiries about scrap metal.

I tried raising this with Yell but was ignored. I think the sales guy at Yell had got sour grapes and tried to exact some sort of revenge on me. I resolved it all eventually but it was a very odd thing to happen and it was not easy trying to make any of their support staff understand what I was telling them.

Every time I called to try to resolve it, they'd end up just trying to upgrade me to a paid listing. FFS.

 

[Jac]

Just waste their time as much as you can, so that they get billed per hour at least.