Did you happen to read any of the later posts I put up? Apparently not. Nor did you see the PMs that Nate and I exchanged. Had you read any of that, you probably would not resort to calling me a fool. I seriously doubt you have enough information from a short post to jump to such a conclusion.
As to your question, I have nine years of marketing experience. This was in a very competitive market where a lot of money was at stake. Every day I spent time marketing to customers or having someone market my company. A lot of those people were not very honorable, and dealing with them drove me to decide to move back home, East Tennessee. As I mentioned in earlier posts, not all of that directly translates to what I am doing now, but I did learn that providing noteworthy service gets referrals to others, and is the best marketing you can do.
By the way, when you resort to name calling, it generally indicates you have lost the argument, or you have nothing valuable to offer.
Marketing is defined as the process of making the public aware of a good or service. Selling is getting the public to buy from your particular company. Nick Markets the home inspection industry and NACJI members in particular. Nathan sells his particular products.
I don’t know if RecallCheck is good, but if it a) looks up recalls and b) keeps a record and notifies you about recalls that come up for things have previously asked about, that is good.
Home warranies, in my experienace after reading the fine print, are not worth much. I refuse to “sell” them because I have to do what is best for my client and selling them something that has little or no value is wrong.
During the Chicago event, Nick presented many free (well, part of being a member of NACHI) stuff as well as promoting the NACHI store, which does sell.
I am sorry if you got the impression that I was slaming Nick or RR. I think the best of both of them. I do not remember ever talking about RR’s “drive by inspections” seriously because I have always taken this as a joke.
I have, and will in the future, buy the NACHI home book and give it to my clients. It has value and is worth the cost and makes me look good. That is the purpose of good service, a) Doing an exceptional job (thorough inspection, good quality report, future support, etc) and b) Making myself look good. If I look good, the client will a) be happy with the inspection, b) refer me to friends and c) use me again. If, on the other hand, I do stuff that makes me look bad (make a bad referral, miss stuff during the inspection or sell them bogus warranties, etc) I will lose business.
Basicaly, Nathan had nothing that was worth buying, at least for me. It’s that simple. Some Vendors that I have met through NACHI are good and reputable and worth doing business with, but Nathan is not.
This is my position. I will leave it to others to make their own judgements.
On phone so short and sweet.
When I joined you told me RR was a marketing genius and I recall it because it was the first time I disagreed with you.
Perhaps you meant sarcasm but I did not catch it…, on to point.
Nathan has at least one good product and I will not judge the rest as of yet.
Does he rub some people the wrong way… Yes
Lol So do many here and I recall Juan hated my guts for po poing Service Magic but we all move on and learn from each other.
We all grow.
Last let me point out Dom who is the most trusted and respected vendor here allows Nates services to integrate and that is enough for me.
Now if this phone will stop ringing long enough to hit send I will be happy.
Nathan, with regards to your 90 day warranty program, I was basing my determination entirely on your own words at the Chicago event. You stated that the verbiage of the warranty makes it, essentially, worthless. Others heard you as well, it’s not just me. As a professional, that has a fiduciary to my clients (again, maybe particular to Illinois) I cannot “sell” it to my clients because it would be worthless to them.
FYI, this is my 3rd carreer. I have two master’s degrees, worked for 10 years in the academic and medical fields and for 23 years in corporate IS environment. I am not your typical HI that came from the Trades (no offense intended to anyone). I am aware of business law and running a business.
If your model works for you, more power to you. My model works for me, in this state and this area. One size does not fit all.
I ask again, when was the last time you actually did a home inspection?
Nathan in the midst of all of this I just want to say thank you for all your help recently. When I went to the marketing tour I was a bit worried. I thought everyone was going to use services and they would become RSP’s instead of USP’s. This thread shows me that is just not going to happen.
To me, his services are a no brainer. I thought everyone was going to use them and they would become Required Sales Points instead of Unique Sales Points. Like digital reports used to be a USP but now its pretty much an RSP. Some people just want to market their thoroughness though.
And I am clearly aware that posting my opinion of your services, as you presented them at the Chicago meeting, and were multiple people heard you wasy what I heard you say, is not libelous, but merely reporting and expressing my opinion. And it seems to be an opinion, based on the comments here, that many inspectors agree.
As to my “credibility” in this industry, I will leave that determination to other people who are actual inspectors, not to a vendor who is miffed that someone was unimpressed with his presentation.
I have never met Nathan, I have never heard him speak, nor do I use any of his services. I have not yet ordered his book but plan to do so. With all of that being said and based on his responses that I have read on this MB I have to say this kid has more class in his little finger than a lot of you could muster up in the whole ofyour beings. Some of ya’ll sling a ton of crap at him and he just shakes it off and keeps going. I have seldom even seen him get his feathers ruffled…he doesn’t resort to name calling…responds to posts regularly and respectfully. I know nothing of his marketing skills but several of you could learn a lot from him about decorum and communication…
Just Sayin’