Truth in Advertising - Does it still exist?

One of the major responsibilities that I have with my organization involves advertising. Our goal is to let people know about The Vernon Company. Yes it involves recruiting but more importantly it involves disseminating information about who we are and who we are not. We go to great lengths to try to dispel misconceptions about our organization.

The ultimate goal is to encourage an individual or a company that is looking at making a change down the road to engage us in conversation. Let's get together and talk. We can talk about what is important to you and what is important to us. We can establish what you need and then compare that to what we offer to see if there might be a match. We can examine the culture of our organization to see if there is a philosophical fit. We are very proud of the messages that we put out there and we are confident that we can stand behind any claims that we make. Can all advertisers make this claim? Heck no!

I am getting more and more peeved at the claims I see in ads from some major companies. When we sit down to discuss ad concepts we are very quick to say that we really do not want to use words like best, most and only. We are honest enough to know that we do not know all there is to know about all the distributors in this industry.

We offer the BEST Service!

We pay the MOST commissions!

We are the ONLY company to do....(insert your claim here)

Recently I have viewed some ads by Top 40 distributors with blatantly false claims. Does anyone who takes their money ask for proof that their claims are real? I think not as the almighty dollar carries an awful lot of weight.

A recent ad placed by an Ohio based company features a pie chart showing a "traditional" distributor and the fact that they are paid 50 % of the profit while it lays out an example of their organization paying 91 % of the profit to the rep owner. This is a perfect example of mixing apples and oranges because in reality their representation of the "traditional" distributor is accurate (in my opinion) while they fail to mention that they pay the rep owner 91 % of the gross sales revenue, NOT 91 % of the profit! Some of you might say this is NO BIG DEAL but the reality in this example is that they would pay 75 % of the profit to the owner if the order has 36 % gross profit percentage and less if the the GP % was lower. If the order was sold at 20 % they would pay the rep owner 55 % of the profit NOT 91 %! Some people can't handle the TRUTH!

Another company ad (from another Ohio based firm) makes the claim, actually several of them, that they are the ONLY company to do several things. They protect against bad debt and product liability. Nobody else does this, they claim! Really...I don't think this is true! But there is no "fact checker" in this industry. It has to be YOU!

A third company from the great state of Texas finds a way to spin everything in their favor while we hear from many of their reps that they cannot handle some of the most basic functions of the business like processing orders in a timely manner. H-m-m-m? It appears to me in this instance that even the lies are bigger in Texas. This same company is very proud to announce to their world that they have raised another round of venture capital to run their business. This is the third or fourth time. Shouldn't the company be able to survive on its own profits by now? This would be like me announcing to the world that I managed to find another company to give me a credit card or that my current credit company has increased my credit limit. Great news...I have more debt or I owe people more! This doesn't seem to be a good thing to me, but what do I know?

So where does the truth fit in with all these companies? I am not sure! The reality is that they all need to sleep at night. My interest and concern enters into this discussion as we attempt to tell people who we are and how we operate.

To some this may sound like sour grapes and while I understand that, my real intent here is to encourage all advertisers to advertise with integrity. We are very direct when talking to potential candidates looking to learn more about Vernon to be honest and forthcoming. Misleading or hiding information from them that will eventually come out two to three months down the road does no one any good. If presenting the facts in a straight forward manner causes a prospect to decide that Vernon is not for them we are OK with that. We only succeed if the salesperson or business owner who aligns with us succeeds! Having someone on board with us who feels like they were duped, lied to, or misled does nothing positive for our organization.

So if you are reading this what do you do? My suggestion is to do your due diligence up front! You are talking about a career choice. You can not afford to make mistakes because you acted too quickly or it seemed too good to be true. We all know the old adage that if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is! Talk to other reps from the organization. Talk to your supplier friends about the company. Pull a D & B report on the company to see their financial rating. Ask to see their financial reports. Ask to see any contracts or agreements that they might have in place. Find out how you can get out if things do not work out the way you thought. Is there an exit strategy?

Think about what you need and what the company offers.

Everyone loves money ....right? However at the end of the day what you might need is sales support.

Everyone wants to own their own business...right? Really? I am not sure because with ownership comes more responsibility and more pressure and more sleepless nights. In good times certainly a case can be made that ownership means more money but during tough, lean times it can mean more debt, more uncertainty, less sleep and more anxiety medication.

So do your homework! Don't rush into anything. Investigate and compare organizations. Go to meet them. I don't know how a significant producer in this business can make a decision to join a company (even if it is our organization) without going to visit. At Vernon we encourage people to come visit. We will cover the costs for anyone who is seriously considering a change. Even if the visit shows them something that causes them to pass on our organization it is better than them joining and both parties investing a good deal of time in a transition only to part ways three months down the road. We want people to join us for the right reasons. We want people to align with us for the long term! Immediate gratification...sure there is some of that when you make a decision to change but we want to be a home for our sales executives for a long, long time!

We welcome your questions. In fact we encourage them! We hope that you ask lots of questions because there are a lot of loose claims out there in the industry, and you owe it to yourself to work for a company that is honest and ethical first and foremost. Often that begins with the claims that they make in print!

OK, I feel better that I got this off my chest. I should be okay now at least until I open another industry magazine and read that "Company ABC was the first to invent the internet" and that "they are the ONLY company to pay 105 % of the profit in commissions".

I know that we all want to believe that everyone has your best interests at heart but no one should be more concerned about you than you!