Business.com has undoubtedly positioned itself among the best and most respected directories in existence today. It’s one of only a handful of “must submit to” directories for any small business owner, right up there with Yahoo (when appropriate) and DMOZ. With the exception of temporarily placing nofollow on some listings, they’ve done a great job and have had surprisingly good customer service in my experiences with them over the years. I always appreciate companies that regularly call or email their customers just to check in and see how things are going. It’s simply good customer service and can definitely lead to increased sales, but I won’t go off on a customer retention lecture (just yet).

Recently I contacted Business.com because I noticed they were now offering master accounts, which enable clients that manage more than one advertiser account like myself to combine everything into a single admin panel. While I had the rep on the phone setting up the master account, I mentioned that one of my sites wasn’t currently listed in their directory and that I’d really appreciate a free submission for being a good customer.

At first she told me that they never do that, but once I had her review my total ad spend and the fact that I’ve been a customer for years she agreed to one free standard listing submission. She provided me with a one-time use coupon code for $198 off, making the total for the submission $1 (when did submissions to Business.com double in price to $199? I must have missed that one).

My point? If you want something, you have to ask for it. You’ll never know if you don’t ask, and the very worst that could happen is the rep will stick with her original response of “No”, at which point you politely move on to the next subject.

Disclaimer: please don’t call or email Business.com expecting the same discount. All I wanted to point out is that opportunities like the one above happen all the time; the key is to recognize when you may have some leverage and then act on it.