Latest Ponzi Tactics Exposed

The ringleaders of what's dubbed a "£1.3m Ponzi fraud" have just been jailed in London. 'The scam involved a fake trading platform that was used to dupe 74 victims into making multiple crypto investments between 2015 and 2016, Southwark Crown Court was told'.

Described by prosecutors as a "boiler room" scam, they;

"used aggressive tactics to persuade people to invest, including pleading with them and accusing reluctant victims of wasting traders' time".

The same emotional blackmail and time-wasting accusations still show up in our B2B world, just without the fake trading platform.

You'd be surprised how many a supposed solution salesteam in milder form can still today be infected from such caustic culture. Always when a boss is focused on their own number, ego and fiefdom rule over any genuine customer problem resolution.

They may indeed skew towards the rapid growth, scale-up, tech side of our space, but such pressure tactics are not limited there.

They are extreme extensions of valid urgency creation routines. Where collaborative buying crosses the boundary of what's acceptable into coercive demanding.

It's the tactical branches, not the root crime here, that interests us as sales pros.

I'm saddened to recall times I have heard 'pleading'. Forever my-my-my.

My job's at stake. My missus will leave me. My kids won't go to Disneyland.

As a cubrep, the nearest to this I was shown by a boss that I permitted myself to use was;

"blimey, I've put this deal on my forecast to the bosses, should I have?"

Likewise, when hearing a seller berate a prospect they're 'wasting my time'.

In similar vein, here's a cubrep line that stuck;

"I'm sure you wouldn't want my time to be wasted, and I certainly don't want you to waste yours, so ..."

... Is this gonna happen? ... I sense there's something in the background ... I feel we're missing something.

Both to be used sparingly, with extreme caution. You could almost say that if you must do so, they're last resort type tactics. As it shouldn't really get to this.

But at least you should then know where you stand. And sometimes you just gotta walk away. Qualify out. Then work on where the process mis-step came in, and fix it.