Hello Mr. Quimby

I found your web site when searching for toll free numbers and used your lookup tool to search for a number that spells billboard. You say that the phone company that has 800 and 888 billboard has a bad reputation. Could you negotiate for the use of the number for me somehow?

Thanks
Donald Williams

Hi Don,

We really can’t help you very much with that. The last time I talked to Loren Stocker of Vanity International, I told him never to call me again and that I was going to pay for my friend’s attorney to sue him for stealing my friend’s domain names. It really wouldn’t help you very much anyway. He’ll act like it’s worth well into six figures and it’s the only number for a billboard business and it’s definitely not!

I realize that 1-800 BILLBOARD might sound like the best number for the Billboard business but it’s NOT. You do NOT need to have the most generic term for your business. It’s not that it’s not a valuable number but it’s ultimately not the most valuable number just because it’s the most obvious number. You don’t need Billboard.com to have a good website for your business, and you wouldn’t name your business just the word “Billboards” because it’s not unique enough. It just doesn’t sound like a name.

1-800 BILLBOARD says what business you’re in but that’s all it does. And how many people seeing your current number or any number you put up aren’t going to know that you’re in the Billboard industry? They should be able to tell that from the context of your advertising. And nobody’s going to buy billboards from you just because you’re in the Billboard business anyway. Your message isn’t that you’re in the Billboard industry. Your message should be why you’re the BEST in the Billboard industry or why callers should use you instead of anyone else in that business.

The other point is that you don’t own the word Billboard. Your business probably isn’t going to come up first if they search on the internet for Billboards. And even if you do come up on the first page you’re going to come up in a list of competitors. And if you dial the 888 version or 4-BILLBOARDs, GO-BILLBOARDS or any other variation you’re probably going to get a competitor. Or even if they don’t use it now, they can make up something confusingly similar and you can’t do anything about it because you don’t own the name Billboard. So look beyond the obvious things to something more creative and more unique.

The point is that you shouldn’t get too hung up on that one generic name. Think about your value proposition, why you’re better than anyone else in the billboard industry. What is the rest of your advertising saying? There are a lot of things you can tie in and come up with if you think about it. Don’t get too hung up with the first super model you fell in love with. You may feel like that is the only girl that can ever make you truly happy, but that’s not really true. There are a lot more girls out there once you start thinking about it and take off the blinders. You may also have to shift your thinking from getting the Perfect 800 Number for your business to getting the best possible 800 number for your business.

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