I was cheated by a friend: I paid 54,800 yuan for the 21-day companionship, but only sold 35 orders of 4,000 yuan worth of goods

Li Ke, the owner of a men's shoe brand store on Douyin, invested tens of thousands of yuan to participate in the "Make Friends" e-commerce training, but ended up in a miserable failure with the actual GMV being only 4,000 yuan. His story reveals the problems existing in the live e-commerce training industry.

Whenever he thought back to his experiences of the past few days, Li Ke felt like he was being harvested like a bunch of fresh green leeks.

And that extremely sharp sickle came from the leading live-streaming e-commerce brand that he once advocated supremely - Make Friends.

Li Ke, who runs a men's shoe brand store called "Hong Kong Classic Cars" on Douyin, has been working in the live streaming industry for three years. Although it has not been very popular, he can maintain the salaries of employees and the normal operation of the live streaming room.

With the mentality of learning from the leaders, he devoted himself to the complete service system of the Jiao Ge Pengyou E-commerce Academy, including online and offline classes, as well as the "21-day companionship" service, but what he got in the end was a tragic lesson.

According to Li Ke, he has purchased services worth about 80,000 yuan on the Jiaogepengyou E-commerce Academy, of which 54,800 yuan was spent on the "21-day companionship" service. If the human cost investment, live broadcast room decoration costs, and streaming costs during this period are taken into account, the total investment is close to 150,000 yuan.

According to the introduction of Jiaogepengyou in the promotion and publicity at that time, after the Jiaogepengyou team took over, the GMV of the original store could be increased by 3-5 times. But in the end, Li Ke found that the Jiaogepengyou training instructors' eloquence in teaching and the invincible operation promoted by the team during the promotion, etc., had almost no effect when they were put into practice.

It was originally agreed that the company would accompany the customers for 21 days, but the time was extended for several days after communication. Even so, the actual transactions of the two accounts in Li Ke's hands, after more than a month, totaled only 35 orders, excluding fake orders and returned orders, and the actual GMV was less than 4,000 yuan.

In other words, after spending 54,800 yuan and working for more than a month, it only brought in less than 4,000 real GMV. This does not include the costs of Li Ke's offline participation in the paid training courses of the Jiao Ge Pengyou E-commerce Academy, and the adjustments and improvements to "people, goods, and venues" based on the suggestions of the accompanying team.

But the responsibility basically lies with Li Ke.

1. “The ghost story begins”

Recalling the moment when he placed an order on April 2 to purchase the three-day online live broadcast operation course of Jiaogepengyou E-commerce Academy, Li Ke described it as:

The ghost story begins.

On this day, he happened to see a video of a live broadcast operation course of Jiaogepengyou E-commerce Academy, and was inspired by the content to further his ambition. Yes, who doesn't want to be another Luo Yonghao?

With the idea of ​​learning and improving himself, hoping to learn from the experiences of the big Vs and broaden his thinking, Li Ke did not hesitate at all and directly placed an order to buy a three-day online video course for 99 yuan.

"From then on, I took the bait." Li Ke said self-deprecatingly.

When attending the online class, Li Ke found that in the two-hour course every day, the instructor of the Make Friends training course really talked about very practical and attractive things. However, when you want to ask questions, communicate, or get more specific and practical experience, the uniform answer you get is that it is not available at this price, "you need to pay further."

Afterwards, Li Ke signed up for the 4-day and 3-night offline Douyin global operation training camp at a price of 22,800. On April 9, he came to the headquarters of the Hangzhou Jiaogepengyou e-commerce academy and, together with about 30 students, devoted himself to the "further study" of Jiaogepengyou.

"Everyone comes here for Luo Yonghao's brand and the halo of Make Friends." In the promotion of the Make Friends E-commerce Academy, Luo Yonghao is the honorary president of the academy.

While attending classes offline, Li Ke still felt strongly confused.

"There are about seven or eight lecturers in total. When they are teaching, each of them gives the students the impression that they can easily achieve the experience from 0 to 1, as if they can succeed if they do what they say. But why don't these teachers start their own broadcasts, but instead teach here? We students also discuss this issue after class."

Although they were very skeptical, the appearance of Wang Tuo, the gold medal anchor's special guest lecturer and Luo Yonghao's live broadcast partner, gave Li Ke and others reassurance - Jiao Ge Pengyou is indeed a leader in the live streaming industry, and what he talks about is definitely the result of practice and exploration.

At the same time, during the break, the training expansion business of "Jiao Ge Pengyou" - the running companion business, extended another extremely tempting "olive branch" to Li Ke and others.

2. “Falling into the runner-up trap”

The salesperson at that time directly showed Li Ke and others the exaggerated performance of the runner-up trader. "I was shocked at once."

Coupled with the sales staff's skilled and attractive rhetoric, for example: after the accompanying team takes over, the original GMV can be increased by 3-5 times; analyze the inventory, adjust the anchor's rhetoric, target the account to the precise audience, make 360-degree adjustments to the live broadcast room, and other comprehensive and meticulous services.

"It feels like, even if you are selling bricks, I can sell them to you." After listening to the introduction, Li Ke placed an order directly.

It is understood that the price of this accompanying service is 54,800, and the cycle is 21 days. During this service cycle, Jiaogepengyou mainly provides content such as cargo analysis, scene optimization, anchor capabilities, and full-case planning, and implements the corresponding implementation according to the four stages of "preparation period", "account start-up period", "optimization period", and "stabilization period" during the implementation process.

However, there is no particularly clear agreement on the effect in the contract, and it also emphasizes that Making Friends does not make any promises/guarantees on the service effect.

On June 6, the accompanying running officially started.

During the preliminary preparation process, since the running-along business focused on the launch of new accounts, Li Ke opened a new account: Hong Kong Classic Car Men's Shoes Store, and also reinstalled a live broadcast room.

After the Make Friends Running Team took over, the three words "people, goods, and venue" were always on Li Ke's lips, and they demanded improvements.

In terms of the "venue", the running companion thought that the decoration of the live broadcast room was too low. Okay, let's change it.

As for the goods, the runner also sneered at the goods. The Hong Kong classic car brand that Li Ke represented was of very good quality and comfortable to wear, but based on the brand personality, the runner thought it was not expensive. Well, in order to cooperate with the runner, Li Ke specially ordered some pure handmade cowhide shoes, but the runner said the customer price was too high.

Li Ke had no choice but to grit his teeth, lower the price, and sell at a loss in order to collect data, thus solving a series of "goods" problems pointed out by the running coach.

The above two are still objective factors and can be solved, but in terms of "people", that is, live broadcast operations, anchor's words and other aspects, the true face of the running coach is directly exposed to Li Ke's team.

"First of all, they like to pass on the blame and find faults with the anchor. But the reality is that after accompanying the anchor for a live broadcast, the performance is almost zero. On the contrary, the anchor can still achieve a lot of performance according to his own live broadcast method.

Secondly, it is ridiculous. During the live review, the running coach kept suggesting that we sell at a loss, saying that the goods were expensive and had no advantage. But the problem is that the purchase price of the goods is there, so what is the point of paying a running coach? Finally, it is unprofessional, and very unprofessional. "

According to Li Ke's recollection, since the live broadcast performance did not improve significantly, the coach continued to give different suggestions. However, these suggestions may not be based on successful coaching cases, but rather "trying it according to his ideas."

"A team that claims to be professional, charges such high fees, and advertises so attractively in advance, but in practice, it does not show that it has a professional set of procedures for starting a number."

Finally, after 21 days of running together, the performance was too bleak, so after communication between the two sides, the corresponding extension was made.

But even so, the cumulative results of more than a month are as follows: According to the team's calculations, the actual transactions of the two accounts in Li Ke's hands, excluding fake orders and returned orders, were only 35 orders, and the actual GMV was less than 4,000 yuan.

3. “Live streaming e-commerce harvester?”

Of course Li Ke could not accept this result.

Recalling the various beautiful blueprints described by the lecturer of the Make a Friend E-commerce Academy, and the GMV growth myths told by the business salesmen, and then comparing the dismal performance after his own actual operation, Li Ke knew completely that he was being ripped off by Make a Friend.

Even from diverting traffic to online, from online to offline, and then to being a runner-up, Li Ke did not fall into any trap.

After the running-along business ended, Li Ke was very angry.

The investment of energy, the loss of money, and the disillusionment of dreams all made him exhausted. The only way to stop the loss was to hope to recover some of the losses by making friends.

But after communication, the result was also impossible.

“With the results in front of us, the accompanying team felt embarrassed and suggested that we continue to accompany for a while, but I refused. After this month, I decided that this matter was meaningless.

I basically stopped all work in the live broadcast room. I also asked if I could get a partial refund, but the answer was very firm: no. After that, they just ignored our requests. "Li Ke said.

A 99 yuan lead-in course, a 22,800 yuan offline course, and a 54,800 yuan companion course, Li Ke spent a total of 77,699 yuan on making friends.

If we take into account the human cost investment for this month, the cost of decorating the live broadcast room, the cost of traffic investment, etc., the total investment is close to 150,000 yuan. In return, it was all in vain, and the friend kept shirking the responsibility afterwards, pushing everything onto Li Ke's team themselves: the products were not advanced enough, there was no price advantage, and there was a problem with the anchor.

"I have a very obvious feeling that no matter what the performance is, the team that makes friends and runs with us will still be at the top. If we do well, it is their credit, and if we do poorly, it is our own problem," said Li Ke.

AI Blue Media contacted the Jiao Ge Pengyou E-commerce Academy regarding the situation Li Ke encountered. The latter responded that there is a contract for the entire process from signing to implementation of the accompanying business, and a lot of content is also provided in the delivery, allowing merchants to contact the legal department.

In fact, there are many people who have similar experiences as Li Ke.

AI Blue Media noticed that after Jiao Ge Pengyou started its live e-commerce training business, there have been many voices in the market pointing out that it is cutting leeks and is suspected of exaggerating and false advertising.

For example, there are reports that some users were also attracted by the traffic-generating videos and purchased a 5,980 yuan online course from Jiaogepengyou E-commerce Academy. The official side claimed that with the guidance of famous teachers and practical operation, they could earn 100,000 yuan in 3 months.

But the actual situation is that the teacher who gave the lecture was not the one introduced in the publicity, and his level was far worse. At the same time, after the actual operation, not only did I not make 100,000 yuan, but I actually lost money.

And so on.

Public data shows that as of August 2, the Douyin fan base of the "Make Friends" e-commerce academy has reached 926,000, with cumulative sales of 155,000 and 3.846 million likes. The honorary president of the e-commerce academy is Luo Yonghao.

On the surface, it is still gorgeous, the halo is still shining, and the grasp of human nature is as accurate and direct as ever. But behind this, it is very likely that one business after another like Li Ke is deceived by this appearance, and step by step falls into the network built by making friends with rhetoric, fame, publicity, etc., and then what awaits them is disappointment, or what Li Ke calls "being cut."

(Li Ke is a pseudonym in this article)

Author | Ye Er Editor | Wei Xiao This article is written by the author of Operation School [Blue Media], WeChat public account: [AI Blue Media], authorized to be published on Operation School. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.