Comments on: Why I believe Websourced, MarketSmart Interactive, Keyword Ranking failed

By: Evan

Evan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:34:13 +0000

Anon,

I'm agree that sales did their job, they sold and did it well, for a while.

I agree that I'm glad I worked there and got the experience.

I agree, Sales was the life blood for about 6 months when things were going well. But, anyone can sell water to a thirsty man in a desert. Its my opinion that you can't build a company starting with the sales department. You have to have a product or service first. I'd love for you to give me an example of a long-term successful company that started with a sales team first.

Your same company that grew from 20 to 200 in 4 years is also the same that went from 200 to 0 in 10 months. I'm not saying sales was the downfall of the company, but it had a part in it, because it was mismanaged, like the Client side was.

I don't agree with your statement that sales earned my paycheck for me, I earned a paycheck by managing 40+ accounts and putting out fires from unrealistic expectations set by the salesperson.

I'm disagree that lies were not told, maybe it was not you, but I personally heard and have had other trustworthy sales people there tell me how shady some of the sales pitches were. I got a client w/o a website, how can you say that it was an honest sales job by all? Maybe you were one of the few trustworthy ones, but I think the fact that you posted under Anonymous is a hint in the other direction.

I was there for over 2 years, I really don't think I "rode anyones coat-tails" but that is your opinion.

And lastly, I had this blog before I started there so neither one has anything to do with the other, but thanks for your concern.

By: Websourced VP Arrested? No Seriously. | Evan Roberts

Websourced VP Arrested? No Seriously. | Evan Roberts — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:11:40 +0000

[...] my former employer, WebSourced / MarketSmart / Think / KeywordRanking et al. Sure they have been out of business for a while but the drama never [...]

By: Straight From The Source

Straight From The Source — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:34:58 +0000

Ok I can answer the ? of why the company failed I was there from the beginning…. You guys have it all wrong stay tunned

By: George D.? Jerry J? Pat M? Xavier H.? is that you? | Evan Roberts

George D.? Jerry J? Pat M? Xavier H.? is that you? | Evan Roberts — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:46:28 +0000

[...] is the same company that was making acquisitions and was aiming for IPO until something went wrong. Sound familiar? Yea, I thought so too, and now read the comments on this post and tell me that doesn’t give [...]

By: robert

robert — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:18:11 +0000

hi all.

By: Gil

Gil — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:07:09 +0000

Evan,

Who was the person at Marketsmart Interactive that was dating Demming Bass, Vice President of Communications at the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce? When did that person leave MSI?

Marketsmart used Demming Bass as a reference and when that person ceased working at MSI, Demming Bass ceased to subscribe to MSI service.

Thanks.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 01:21:00 +0000

Sorry to hear about your companies decline. I am a recruiter workign for MSN and we have several positions open in NY, Chicago, IL and Redmond, WA. They all require SEM or SEO experience, and all varry in levels. If you are interested in learning more about the opportunities please email me at vivian.larsen@kenexa.com.

By: Evan

Evan — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 02:26:00 +0000

I dont know about the refunds but I would assume if you don’t actively cancel then they will continue rebilling. I know for a fact of a client who was continuing get billed although no one was servicing them.

I suggest all clients or former clients make sure they are not getting charged.

They dropped clicktrax b/c MSI was developing SEMwebservices.com although it turned out to just be a money pit which some suspect was a money laundering project. It was terrible.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 02:17:00 +0000

Evan, how many former MSI customers have been able to get a refund from those thieves?

Also, why did MSI drop Clicktrax?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 20:28:00 +0000

Evan – I do not believe you know anything of real substance about this organization. Yes I was one of the 20+ who was let go and Yes I had a job lined up, but to make accusations on people not understanding the industry is just plain ignorant. You can not sit on the outside and fully understand the entire situation. There were very knowledgeable people working their with hopes of the corner turning with every lie that was told to them by the new managers or VP’s every 3 motnhs. The bottom line is Pat started it and George Douaire continued the decline as neither of them knew the industry as well as others. This is why they hired many people with NO interactie experience from any other competitor or vertical to be part of this masquarade. But toward the end of 2005 they started hiring good, seasoned people like myself who had a vision of turning this monster around. Yes the old internal buddy network continued to show its ugly head whenever things got dicey, but who let this happen? George and the fools at THK. Or where they fools? They let this place go under to rid themselves of what Pat started. And let’s not forget the Chads and the Dwyers of the world who had ZERO sales experience in this vertical trying to run a sales force. pretty hilarious. To try and instill new products to the company Tom Dwyer brought his fathers Custom Publishing company in where Chad and Tom Dwyer Jr were going to make a piece of the action. Problem was this was an interactive company and when Dwyer Sr. wasted 2 days on Sales 101 he informed us and the company that Custom Publishing was the wave of the future and the Internet was a lost medium. Idiots!!

So with this rant I end by saying when the CEO Scott Mitchell says to the final 28 people, “I am surprised 80% of you do not have your resumes out there” in October you are fools to not have seen thru the BS