The always on-the-mark magazine Real Business has pointed out that entrepreneurs are now using the Dragon's Den TV programme simply for the publicity, and with no real interest in raising the money.
I didn't see last night's programme, but Real Business highlighted the example of Ling Valentine, who pitched her business Ling's Cars to the dragons and secured a huge amount of publicity. You can see her pitch in the Dragon's Den for yourself and watch a natural saleswoman in action.
Her business is booming and she clearly didn't need the £50k she was asking for - but she got on national TV, and now is being talked about everywhere (including here!). Congratulations Ling, and top marks for your amazing sales and marketing skills - all entrepreneurs can learn an awful lot from you.
But what do you think of her website at lingscars.com? I find it really messy and difficult to read and navigate - but her sales figures would suggest it works well, and that opens up a whole other discussion that I'll perhaps tackle in the future: does good design really lead to good sales, or vice versa? Look at how amazon succeeded with a dull looking site while boo.com failed with a beautiful site.
[EDIT: Ling gives her reaction in the comments below, and reveals what Dragon's Den is like behind the scenes]
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Sun, 02/18/2007 - 18:22
Steve, I am Ling!
Thanks for the comments. As ever, you are not very wide of the mark :)
However, I take issue with the website comments. Who says a site is "beautiful"? Some graphic designer? It is not a competition to have the cleanest, slickest site. My customers (and visitors) spend ages on my site - I have over 3 hours of video - plus tons of other stuff including quiz, poetry, free cash, free lunch etc.
I want to get people laughing out loud on my website. Just like the bloody Dragons.
What is the product? Everyone in the motor industry thinks "cars". I disagree. Product is emotion. Getting people to commit for £10-40k car on a webpage run by a Chinese bird with no franchise badge and no glitzy dealership is bloody difficult. If you have sensible suggestions on how to do it without emotionally grabbing people, please feel free to tell me.
Plus, I have a lot of important (yawn) stuff to get across, a car is the No2 big decision they always say and pitfalls are expensive. So how to tell people all the boring stuff without them ignoring it or slashing wrists/leaving. Go have a look at some beautiful/clean sites, you'll see what I mean. No way do people read metres of "cleanly" formatted text.
My site functionality is second to none. You try to get a printed A4-formatted price list which displays full info and 200 cars from ANY other car website. I even allow people to choose price or A-Z sorting. No other car business will allow this because they want to SELL to you. You have to ASK for price list. How annoying is that?
Same with environment stuff. I am ONLY car website in the UK to offer full enviro-details up front and in detail on the first entry page. the rest bury it (if they have it at all) as they perceive it as a negative. Go explore car sales on the web. You'll see what I mean. Mercedes told me "our dealers have web space constraints" as their excuse for not fronting CO2 on each car. How ridiculous, eh? Treat customers like imbeciles - that's the motor industry motto.
Yes, my site is jumbled and bright, but because I want it to be. I need to suck people in. Everywhere you look you are rewarded with a laugh, a surprise, a movie, a joke, a thoughtful thing (poetry - for God's sake! On a car site?).
I just do my best, with very small resources. I try to treat people like adults not idiots. But as DD shows, it's amazing what a little USP can do for you.
On Wednesday I am up against Perrys and Peter Vardy for Best Website at the Automotive Management Awards 2007. Truly Ling and Goliaths. Will I win? Who knows, but even to have got the nominations is good, I think.
By the way, what's your USP, Steve?
- Ling
Sun, 02/18/2007 - 18:27
Hey! What does "not verified" mean? My phone number is 0191 440 4700. Please verify me, Steve!
- Ling
Sun, 02/18/2007 - 22:11
Hi Ling,
First, don't worry! 'not verified' is simply displayed automatically by the software on this site because I have it set up to let anyone post comments. I didn't want to make everyone go through a tedious registration process just to say hi, so you just get to type your own email address etc in, which means your details aren't verified (I just have to have some very clever spam software so our comments get through okay, but the erectile dysfunction pill adverts are blocked!)
Anyway, while you're here - tell us all about Dragon's Den. What was it like to go down for the filming? How did you prepare? Were the production company helpful? What were the other entrepreneurs like on the day? What was it like to be in the studio in front of the Dragon's? And how do things change in the edit?
We'd all love to hear how it was for you.
But, congratulations for such a great pitch - and for being such an ace saleswoman. They really didn't get it about the missle truck - but anyone who's driven up the A1 a few years back will remember it, and that's the point.
In terms of the website, I found it a little uneasy on the eye at first, but that's my personal taste. As I mentioned in my original post though, there are many cases of people who do go down the 'pretty' route and fail to make the sales it's the content and personality that matters more.
I think you are excellent at engaging the customer, drawing them in, making it very personal, and (as you say) connecting to them emotionally. You've spent a lot of time creating great content for the site - and making it fun.
You seem to have done a great job, and I'm hugely impressed.
You asked about my USP. I'd like to think it's that I make start-up business advice easy to understand, engaging and fun - and I create a community of entrepreneurs to help each other (www.flyingstartups.com). But other people may have other ideas!
Good luck with the website awards!
cheers
Steve
Sun, 02/18/2007 - 23:17
OK, Steve. So here is reality. If this reveals too much or bursts anyone's perception of DD, please remove it.
What happens is this.
BBC approach me. (I did not approach them). They force me to drive to Manchester for screen test to make sure I will stand up in front of camera. They encourage me to bring truck pic (so much advertising allowed on BBC!). They ask me to wear worst clothes possible ("Hezbollah" trousers were requested). They say it would be great if I kicked the Dragons off (so I develop Chinese eat Dragons for breakfast line, Chinglish line and many more they did not show :).
Then the night before, the cunning BBC b4stards :) (love them really) deliberately get me train ticket to London leaving Newcastle at 7pm, arriving 10.30pm, put me in shitty noisy holiday inn express in Greenwich where if I leave hotel to get food I will be stabbed, insisting on no taxi to get there, just public transport. After no food, to sleep at 1am. Good to know licence cash is spent wisely.
Then wake me at 5am, get me on freezing set at 6am after no breakfast, lock me in a room with no catering until 9am. Then get me out and do 3 1/2 hours of filming in 100 degrees until I mess up.
They certainly have a plan, eh? It is same as how you treat prisoners; disorientate, lack of sleep/food, extremes of temperature, alien environments, stress, prolonged questioning under bright lights... really! SAS would be proud. Coincidence SAS has 3 initials like BBC?
Theo knows I was Partnership business, but still shouts about Corporation tax and audited accounts. Do you know they are quite impossible for a partnership? Just Ltd Co. Then, they edit out me correcting him and complaining he is talking rubbish.
Now, I do not object (of course) because it is beautiful publicity and I know they made perfect show with up-down-up thing but it is all contrived as you know. Of course just like the Top Gear America thing and everything except Hammonds crash.
But I still love the BBC. However, they film until they get what they want to use. Keep me standing there 3 1/2 hours. Dragons go away, the BBC people still film. And then they edit. Of course. You will understand how unreal it is.
I pitched at £50k (most here and me could borrow that from the bank in 10 mins - how stupid to ask for that) because I wanted the Dragons to make offer. The Australian would have been useful in a few years if I float (!). If they had pitched at realistic % - 5% each then they would have been taken. My business is currently valued at 8 x earnings at £1m... possibly unrealistic at the moment, but with another 3 years of new/repeat business growth, and critical mass, should float for well over £5m on AIM.
But honestly I love the BBC, they really are professional. Truly do not expose Dragons to me until I walk in. The Dragons were sweet to me. So it IS spontaneous, but with 3 1/2 hours filming hardly live. If they had filmed it Live (now I know why Michael O'Leary always insists on live interviews) it would probably have been a) boring b) Dragons would have messed up more than me because as you see I had practiced, c) not good enough or controversial enough.
But I have 2 x episodes incl repeat (1 just after Top Gear!! And I am on first...so I get Top Gear residue audience, of course the BBC want car people not to switch over, and what an audience to get) then all the UK Gold stuff, plus BBC News locally, 2 x local radio stations, newspapers, forums, blogs (like yours :), etc etc. And I am known for 5 days as the mental Chinese bird who told them to stuff their money. Good creds. My Google Alerts are pinging every minute!!!
I had over 5k unique visitors on the night, 10k Thurs, 5k Fri, 4k Sat, 4k today Sunday (to 10.30). As I type this at 23:13 on sunday evening there are still 47 people on my site!! Peak visitors (not "hits") was 550!!! How my server stood up, max should be 250 visitors. And my website is far heavier than this board, some pages over 1Mb. My 3 Litre, 2GB Ram server was needing an apache restart every 30 secs :) I was sat here restarting apache for 3 hours non-stop to avoid the server crashing (and it is £250 a month server!). Amazing how some businesses would not even think to stroke and cuddle their server and would just let it crash and shrug their shoulders.
God knows the bandwidth. Have been flooded with positive wishes and enquiries and offers of cash (Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh).
(By the way, I use whoson www.whoson.com - British Company run by a really great guy called Stephen Parker - to monitor my site and do live chats. I can see every visitor, what page they are on, their opsys, the referrer (and the google/yahoo/msn search term, plus their dns which often reveals identity like bbc.co.uk - I pick those people up STRAIGHT away! I recommend whoson (I use their hosted edition) as a fantastic live cheap tool for anyone with an ecommerce website).
So all in all you see the background. But damn nice result, I was pleased with big P.
Hope this does not burst the bubble of DD, but of course it is a TV show first, the BBC want the BEST prog, I want the BEST publicity, the Dragons want the BEST ego massage or whatever, and surely no one seriously goes on to raise capital... but it may help anyone else in the same position.
Also to note: The other contenders did not make the Dragons laugh. I think entertainment should ALWAYS be No1. The noodles I gave them were FUKU brand - really! They loved this and it set the tone, but as I knew it could not be used on air they did not lose face - I am Chinese :) I would never have publicly humiliated them. That is just a no-brainer. But it was obvious that I would not accept an offer with that gift of FUKU noodles, eh?
And you notice, while other business ventures of course benefited, mine was the only one that the audience could react to by going to my website. It is madness not to have something the audience can engage with or else it is a bit of a waste.
Steve, what do you think? Value your comments... and what would you have done differently? What would you advise your clients? As a BBC man, this must ring bells :)
- Ling
Mon, 02/19/2007 - 20:51
Ling - you really don't need my advice, you were great! I think you could have taught the Dragon's a thing or two about sales and marketing, and building a start-up on a very tight budget.
Thanks for the behind the scenes view of the programme. From my limited experience of telly (I was in radio which is a bit different!), I had imagined it would be pretty much as you described, but it's a shame to have my cynicism confirmed.
However, you did turn it into a great promotional opportunity, so you really played the game and won.
What are your tips and advice for entrepreneurs who would like to go on Dragon's Den? How do you get on? How should you prepare? What should you do in your pitch?
cheers
steve
Fri, 02/23/2007 - 07:14
Steve,
I am not a guru, I am not very good at advice.
I would have taken their money if they had pitched at a realistic level. I think that helped. So I was honest. I also did not misrepresent or inflate any figures, so they did not get aggressive about that. That always turns them off.
But my amaazement is really aimed at how many people go on the show and do not capitalise from it. What was 13 minutes of prime BBC worth?
I made absolutely sure that the 3 million-ish viewers were a) entertained, b) could get instant gratification by visiting my website.
It seems so basic to me, but if people cannot visit you online then you miss the spontaneous response that people want to give. I have also made sure that I replied every email of support, not with automatic replies... and that everyone who applied for a free lunch has got one. That has cost me over £1000 so far, but it is a reward for visiting my website. Cheaper than using Google adwords, and these people will remember me forever.
Luckily, I am in a market where everyone can consider my product, it is a mature car market and I am simply rearranging market share, not converting new customers. Not sure how this is officially described.
But I have had a massive flood of business, please email me in the future and I will describe the decay trends.
If you email me Steve, I will send you a jpg of my stats so you can post (if you want) to allow everyone to see the traffic map after DD.
- Ling
Wed, 03/07/2007 - 16:03
I have to agree with Steve.
Perhaps Ling, you can read some articles on Ecommerce/Ebusiness (http://www.nueronic.com/ecommerce-site-fails/) so that you can see why businesses fail online-and how their web site is A MAJOR cause of that.
Thanks
Andreas
Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:57
I think Lings site is fantastic Itried to contact her a few times with a view to supply Kia cars for her but she never got back to me!!
Also Ling if your reading this - I still haven't had my "Free Lunch"
Regards
John M-M (Evans halshaw Kia Gateshead)
Fri, 12/07/2007 - 22:36
Hi Steve, Ling. Wow, am shocked at the SAS tactics used by the Beeb - and I thought Dragons Den was supposed to be a helpful thing for entrepruneurs?????
I just bought the first 2 series on DVD, and the pitches are rubbish compared to Ling's. I won't apply to go on DD myself, as it seems to be unfair and to make genuine folks appear like idiots.
Well done Ling.
Nice blog Steve.
Sun, 11/16/2008 - 01:38
i don't like the design of the site, i think that if there was a nice design "easy to navigate" it would of sold, e.g "good website"
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