Interview with “Dragon Eater” Ling Valentine

Ling Valentine

Today’s post is an interview with Ling Valentine, she was the 2006 North East Entrepreneur of the year and owns and runs the super successful website LINGsCARS.

Ling became a legend when she pitched for investment on Dragons Den and famously turned down 2 different offers from the Dragons, you can see a video of her pitch over on the Dragons’ Den site which includes the classic line “Chinese eats dragons for breakfast”.

Like herself, Ling’s website and blog are exceedingly unique and it proves that if you have the passion and give your customers what they want with excellent service that you can succeed. So without further ado here’s what Ling had to share with us.


1/ Can you give us specifics as to the traffic you generated through your website through being on BBC2 Dragons Den especially on the night it was aired.

On the Dragons’ Den night - 14th Feb 2006, after the first minute of the programme, my website activity went mental. I use “WhosOn” (www.whoson.com - fantastic British software) to monitor LINGsCARS.com and live visitors went up to over 550 concurrent. The “clicks” of arriving visitors sounded like a machine-gun! My server was disk-swapping like hell. At one stage the server that monitors the live visitors crashed, too, it was overloaded. On that first night, I had over 5000 unique visitors (between 8pm and midnight). The next day, I had over 10,000 visitors. This volume settled to a doubling of pre-DD levels and has stayed pretty constant since then. All the Google links and stories posted on the web about me helped enormously, of course. I’m always surprised that many other businesses on Dragons’ Den don’t have a website to promote to give instant gratification to the 2m TV viewers.

***if you want technical*** My webserver is an AMD-powered unix dedicated server and runs 4GB of RAM. LINGsCARS is programmed mainly in php and ajax and runs a MySQL database.

2/ You used to sell over £1 million worth of cars a month, can you tell us how much car sales you managed to achieve in 2007 and your targets for ’08?

In 2006, I was selling just over £1m of new cars a month, at retail prices. My turnover in 2006 was £125,000 which is finance commission income. In 2007, I have moved over £28m of new cars (£2.3m per month), my commission income reaching over £280,000 (£282,986 to be precise). I am targeting over £40m of new car sales in 2008, to generate a gross income of over £400,000. This seems steep, but I think I can achieve it. Matter of fact, £1m of income would be possible but I am not brave enough to gamble on that much marketing. Plus, I have to cope with the work I generate. I have moved into my new office I bought - “LINGsCARS World Headquarters”. I am planning TV advertising later this year.

3/ You say the website should be an extension of yourself, do you till update the site yourself or have you managed to delegate and let others take more responsibility, do you still change your website everyday?

ling_and_laptop.jpg
I do live inside my website. I am constantly updating it; I really enjoy to do this. Most of my time is spent modifying or changing and adding cars and prices. I also spend a lot of time monitoring who is visiting the site, using “Who’s On”. For instance, as I type this I can see 30 visitors online, 16 from random Google searches (not AdWords). Often I spend 30 minutes just watching customers navigate around LINGsCARS. I do my best to add some customer letters every day, add news articles and every week I modify at least one form. I employ two part-time IT students from Sunderland University and pay them very good money and feed them free doughnuts. We work on long-term projects such as a customer management side to the website, as well as new features, fun stuff and operational improvements. I have developed 9 extra videos to accompany emails at various stages of my sales process. This means I can take a more hands-off approach, yet customers get “Lingged” more than they ever did before.


4/ Your website is something on the busy side, is this intentional and do you think it may confuse some of your visitors?

Yes, it’s intentional. In this World, you generally have just one chance to grab a visitor, and I try to do this by being different. Often visitors can spend a whole hour inside my site. I try to engage with them emotionally instead of the standard about>contact us>home>order approach most companies use. My professionalism is in my service to the customers, but my shop (my website) is as unique in my industry as I can make it. I give customers so much information, treat them like adults not idiots, and allow them to pick and choose what they need. It may confuse some people, but most customers are ABC123 and are quite intelligent enough to find their way around. Most other car sites seem to want to bore people to death instead of entertaining them. Google also seems to like my approach.

5/ Do you feel your blog helps greatly with traffic flow and sales of cars through to the main part of your website?

Yes. My blog is mainly auto-updated from my customer letters and my added car deals. Google loves to index it, of course it pings out every time it updates. As well as the blog, a great tool is the live chat. I have dozens of live chats with website visitors each day and have webcams in my office during office hours. I simply try to give the best experience to any website visitor. I can’t work miracles, I’m Chinese - not Catholic; but customers can see I am doing my best for them.

6/ You are something of a master at offline marketing and promotion can you give us some examples of your must successful offline marketing campaigns?

Well, they all have an online side to them, my whole purpose is to attract the maximum number of intelligent, credit worthy users to my website.
Ling Cars Missile Launcher
I have my nuclear missile truck which brings in loads of visits every time I park it next to a motorway. Unfortunately the town planners don’t like that rocket. Also, I make movies of everything I get up to. I have over 140,000 views of my movies on You Tube. These include my rescue” of Northern Rock, my adventures sponsoring UK Rallycross and photo-shoot for the Financial Times. I offer “free lunch” for 10 visitors every day, and post out “FUKU” brand noodles and Chinese coffee.

7/ You’ve made a fantastic success with Lings Cars, do you have any other business ideas and plans for the future?

I would like to start another business, but LINGsCARS takes up all my time. I am really not even scratching the surface; I market to the whole of the UK. This way of financing cars is so popular in America, it takes over 20% of the market. In the UK it takes less than 1%, so you can see the potential.

I would encourage anyone to have a go at running a business website, it can be lots of fun. As long as you get loads of visitors, that’s the key. I would advise to talk to customers in personal terms, for example to show them who is behind the website and manage email enquiries in double-fast time. In the motor industry (for example) email replies can take between 24-48 hours, that’s not unusual. I speed that up to 24 minutes at the outside. Often I grab customers when they are still logged into to Outlook and they commit after a few ping-pong questions. It’s all common sense really, but very few other businesses in my business sector take the web seriously. Go for it!

Thank you very much Ling for taking the time to share your answer with our us and our readers, we all wish you every success for the future. If you would like to ask Ling any other questions check out Lings Cars and feel free to drop her a question via a comment.

About Al Carlton

Al quit the 9 to 5 rat race in January of 2007, before then he was a software engineer and systems architect of financial system. Nowadays Al spends the days running his various businesses and experimenting with different ideas and opportunities.
Al can be found on twitter at AlCarlton.

Comments

  1. Ling has done a fantastic job with that business even if the website does look a little crazy. However, with sales figures like that, how can anyone complain :D

    I expect lingscars to move ahead quite quickly this year. I have been hearing a lot about Ling over the last few months.

  2. great story, but the site arghhhh it hurts my brain! information overload or what! But it works so maybe i should use a similar presentation on one of my sites………..

  3. Could someone explain the details of this business? I mean: how do you earn money, where does she find cars offer?, the cars are all new or new and used?…Sure i visited the site but didn’t understand some things.

  4. I can’t work miracles, I’m Chinese - not Catholic

    That is HILARIOUS!

    I’ve heard quite a bit about this Dragons Den, but haven’t seen it yet. I wonder if it will come to South Africa. It sounds like an interesting show.

    And Ling sounds like a HARD worker!!!

  5. That is a phenomenal turnover and rich reward for her efforts, all the more impressive seeing as its affiliate sales, Ling has certainly created her own brand.

  6. Hat’s off to her, she obviously knows what she’s doing. But jeez. That website is awful. Where am I supposed to click on it?

  7. Gadgets, click anywhere :)

    Wow! Thanks for all the comments, everyone (especially as they are intelligent contributions, from fellow have-a-go people, not the usual rubbish). And thanks to SMM, what a fantastic website this is! You should understand that I operate in a saturated market and the quality of other “lease” car sites in the Uk ranges from boring to awful. Very few others are online businesses, they are simply businesses with a website. So they are often out of date, static, and do not provide much real info to customers. For instance, very few offer a full level-playing-field price list like this and no one else provides full environmental info or NCAP safety info (I even scrape the NCAP crash films, which is more than ANY uk site does, even the official NCAP partners; the AA or Which? I need to compete with proper franchised dealers, how on earth am I supposed to manage that without being totally different? Remamber I am “just” a Chinese bird in a massive established business with “brand” attitudes. Some manufacturers (eg Mazda UK) and dealers hate me with a vengence because I impact their businesses. Mazda blacklist me from product supply, which IMHO verges on the illegal.

    I need to stand out, but also entertain customers; this is about a car, cars are enjoyable (if massive) purchases. So, I am trying to polarise visitors, either they will love me or hate me. I don’t want to be just “OK”. It is not really about cars, I think it about emotion. I would love more feedback, I am always ready to take suggestions on board.

    One thing I am proud of is the effort I put into customer testimonials. Currently, I publish over 800 customer letters here with full addresses (with consent) and a nice reply to each. Very few businesses take the trouble to do that. It really helps new customers.

    Suggestions????? I would REALLY love to hear them, please.

    Thanks again… - Ling!

  8. Wow, that’s one heck of an interview and she has a great blog. I agree with what others said about the site though, it needs a total revamp. Congratulations Ling, job well done! :)

    • I would disagree and say that although the website looks insanely messy it actually does it’s job very well and would be pretty sticky to an end user, I would suspect that Ling converts her traffic as good if not much better than the more traditional ‘clean’ business leasing sites do.

  9. Very nice read, I’d never heard of this site before.

    By the way, you have a spelling mistake here:
    “Yes, it’s intentional. I this World, y”

    I think you meant “In this world”

  10. it was good to hear someone putting the dragons in their place. i stopped watching it a while ago, as i thought it was getting more about the dragons and less about the people trying to get their projects off the ground. Anyway, first reaction of Ling’s site, whoa! Although after the initial shock, it does draw you in, with so much going on there is a lot to look at. Ling - can you see me on your site at the moment?? :) I wonder what this interview has done to your traffic.

  11. In my country is a show like that but the difference is the name: “lions cage”…good luck ling

  12. Can I post this long comment? To help other people understand and see potential, I have made a quick page (I cannot code the date field that well to make it perfect) which shows the quote requests that come into me here:

    I need to find ways of monetising (ugh word) the people I do not convert into cars (roughly 30/35 per day)

    Also, for your info (some may find it interesting/useful), I detail below the last 100 cars I “sold”, and the last 95 “personal” customers’ (as opposed to businesses who had cars) job info:

    Make and Model
    Mercedes C-Class Sports Coupe 2.0 CDI 16v (120bhp) C200 SE Coupe 2148cc Manual
    Mazda BT-50 2.5 (140bhp) TS DoubleCab Pickup 2499cc (140bhp) Manual Diesel
    Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch 1.7 CDTi (100bhp) SRi Sport Hatch Hatchback 3dr 1686cc Manual Diesel
    Citroen C4 1.6 HDi (92bhp) SX Hatchback 5dr 1560cc Manual Diesel
    Lexus IS 2.2 (220d) (177bhp) Saloon 4dr 2231cc Manual Diesel
    Vauxhall Corsa (New Shape) 1.2 i 16v (80bhp) Life A/C Hatchback 5dr 1229cc Manual
    Smart fortwo coupe (New Shape) 1.0 i 12v (61bhp) Pure Hatchback (2-seat) 3dr 999cc Auto Petrol
    Volkswagen Transporter 1.9 TDi (85bhp) T26 SWB Van 1896cc TDi (85bhp) T26 SWB Van 1896cc Manual Diesel
    Mercedes E-Class Saloon 2.2 CDi (167bhp) E220 Special Edition Executive Saloon 4dr 2148cc Auto Diesel
    Toyota Corolla Verso 2.2 D4D T2 5dr Manual Metallic
    Mitsubishi L200 (New Shape) 2.5 DI-D (138bhp) Warrior Double Cab 4WD Pickup 4dr 2477cc Manual Diesel
    Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon 1.9 JTDM (150bhp) Lusso Estate 5dr 1910cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    SAAB 9-3 Convertible 2.0 16v (210bhp) 2.0t Aero Convertible 2dr 1998cc Manual Petrol
    Peugeot 207 Gti 1.6 16v (175bhp) GTi THP Hatchback 3dr 1598cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Mercedes A Class A150 Classic SE 5dr Hatch Metallic
    Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon 1.9 JTDM (150bhp) Lusso Estate 5dr 1910cc Manual Diesel
    Lexus IS 2.2 (220d) (177bhp) Saloon 4dr 2231cc Manual Diesel
    Kia Magentis 2.7 V6 (186bhp) LS Saloon 4dr 2656cc Auto Petrol
    Audi A3 1.6 (102bhp) Special Edition Hatchback 5dr 1595cc Manual Petrol Solid Paint
    Mini Cooper (New Shape) 1.6 (120bhp) Hatchback 3dr 1598cc Manual Petrol
    Nissan Qashqai 1.6 16v (113bhp) Visia 2WD Hatchback 5dr 1598cc Manual Petrol
    SAAB 9-3 Convertible 2.0 16v (210bhp) 2.0t Aero Convertible 2dr 1998cc Manual Petrol
    Suzuki Swift 1.3 16v (91bhp) GL Hatchback 5dr 1328cc Manual Petrol
    Kia Magentis 2.7 V6 (186bhp) LS Saloon 4dr 2656cc Auto Petrol
    Toyota Corolla Verso 2.2 D-4D (136bhp) T2 MPV (7-seat) 5dr 2231cc Manual Diesel
    Honda CR-V (New Shape) 2.2 i-CTDi (138bhp) SE 4WD Station Wagon 5dr 2204cc Manual Diesel
    SAAB 9-3 Convertible 2.0 16v (210bhp) 2.0t Aero Convertible 2dr 1998cc Manual Petrol
    Audi A3 1.6 (102bhp) Special Edition Hatchback 5dr 1595cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Volkswagen Golf 2.0 SDI S Hatch 5dr Metallic
    Toyota Corolla Verso 1.6 VVT-i (109bhp) T2 MPV (7-seat) 5dr 1598cc Manual Petrol
    Audi A6 Saloon 2.7 TDI V6 (177bhp) Le Mans Saloon 4dr 2698cc Auto Diesel Metallic
    Nissan X-Trail (New Shape) 2.0 dCi (147bhp) Trek 4WD Station Wagon 5dr 1995cc Manual Metallic
    Toyota Corolla Verso 1.6 VVTi Petrol T2 MPV (7-seat) 5dr 2231cc Manual
    Land Rover Freelander 2 (New Shape) 2.2 TD4 (158bhp) GS 4WD Station Wagon 5dr 2179cc Manual Diesel Metallic (full size spare wheel)
    TOYOTA VERSO ESTATE 1.6 VVT-i T2 5dr Petrol Metallic
    Citroen C4 1.6 Hdi SX Hatch 5dr Manual Metallic
    TOYOTA VERSO DIESEL ESTATE 2.2 D-4D T2 5dr Metallic
    TOYOTA VERSO DIESEL ESTATE 2.2 D-4D T2 5dr Metallic
    Honda CR-V (New Shape) 2.2 i-CTDi (138bhp) SE 4WD Station Wagon 5dr 2204cc Manual Diesel
    Mini Cooper (New Shape) 1.6 (120bhp) Hatchback 3dr 1598cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    SAAB 9-3 Convertible 2.0 16v (210bhp) 2.0t Aero Convertible 2dr 1998cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Mini One (New Shape) 1.4 16v (93bhp) One Hatchback 3dr 1397cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    TOYOTA VERSO DIESEL ESTATE 2.2 D-4D SR 5dr Metallic
    Audi A3 5Dr Sportback 1.9 TDI Sport 08 Solid Paint
    Nissan X-Trail (New Shape) 2.0 dCi (147bhp) Aventura 4WD Station Wagon 5dr 1995cc Metallic Manual Parking Sensors
    Chevrolet Captiva 2.0 CDTi (148bhp) LT 4WD Station Wagon (7-seat) 5dr 1991cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Mini Cooper Convertible (New Shape) 1.6 (116bhp) Convertible 2dr 1598cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch 1.9 CDTi (150bhp) SRi Hatchback 3dr 1910cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Chevrolet Captiva 2.4 i (133bhp) LS 2WD Station Wagon (5-seat) 5dr 2405cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Lexus IS 2.2 (220d) (177bhp) Saloon 4dr 2231cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    SAAB 9-3 Convertible 2.0 16v (210bhp) 2.0t Aero Convertible 2dr 1998cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch 1.9 CDTi (150bhp) SRi Hatchback 3dr 1910cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Citroen Xsara Picasso 1.6 i (110bhp) Desire MPV 5dr 1587cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Nissan Navara 2.5 DCi (171bhp) Trek Doublecab 4WD Pickup 4dr 2488cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Mini One Convertible 1.6 (93bhp) One Convertible 2dr 1598cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Ford Mondeo (New Shape) 2.0 TDCi (138bhp) Edge Hatchback 5dr 1997cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Fiat Grande Punto 1.2 (65bhp) Active Hatchback 3dr 1242cc Manual Petrol Metallic (Air Con)
    SAAB 9-3 Convertible 2.0 16v (210bhp) 2.0t Aero Convertible 2dr 1998cc Manual Petrol Metallic Heated seats
    Nissan Micra 1.2 (64bhp) Acenta Hatchback 3dr 1240cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Chevrolet Matiz 1.0 i (65bhp) SE+ Hatchback 5dr 995cc Manual Petrol Solid Paint
    Nissan Navara 2.5 DCi (171bhp) Adventura Doublecab 4WD Pickup 4dr 2488cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Fiat Grande Punto 1.2 (65bhp) Active Hatchback 3dr 1242cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Honda CR-V (New Shape) 2.2 i-CTDi (138bhp) SE 4WD Station Wagon 5dr 2204cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Volvo V50 Sportswagon 1.6 D (109bhp) S Estate 5dr 1560cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Ford Galaxy 1.8 TDCi (100bhp) LX MPV (7-seat) 5dr 1753cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Nissan Navara 2.5 DCi (171bhp) Outlaw Doublecab 4WD Auto Pickup 4dr 2488cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Citroen C2 1.6 16v (125bhp) Code (full leather) Hatchback 3dr 1587cc Manual Petrol Non-Metallic
    Chevrolet Captiva 2.0 CDTi (148bhp) LT 4WD Station Wagon (7-seat) 5dr 1991cc Auto Diesel Metallic
    Citroen C1 1.0i (68bhp) Vibe Hatchback 3dr 998cc Non-Metallic paint
    Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch 1.7 CDTi (100bhp) SRi Sport Hatch Hatchback 3dr 1686cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch 1.9 CDTi (150bhp) SRi Hatchback 3dr 1910cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Vauxhall Zafira 1.9 CDTi (150bhp) SRi MPV (7-seat) 5dr 1910cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Nissan Qashqai 2.0 16v (139bhp) Visia 2WD Hatchback 5dr 1997cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Citroen C2 Code 1.6 16v Full Leather Hatch 3dr
    Audi A3 1.9 TDI (103bhp) Special Edition Hatchback 3dr 1896cc Manual Diesel Non-Metallic
    Audi A3 1.9 TDI (103bhp) Special Edition Hatchback 5dr 1896cc Manual Diesel Non-metallic
    Ford Mondeo (New Shape) 2.0 TDCi (138bhp) Edge Hatchback 5dr 1997cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Kia Picanto 1.1 (64bhp) LS (A/C) Hatchback 5dr 1086cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Citroen Berlingo 1.6 HDi (75bhp) Enterprise Van 1560cc HDi (75bhp) Enterprise Van 1560cc Manual Diesel Non-Metallic
    Fiat Grande Punto 1.2 (65bhp) Active Hatchback 3dr 1242cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Ford Galaxy 1.8 TDCi (125bhp) Zetec (5-speed) MPV (7-seat) 5dr 1753cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    “Mini Cooper S (new model) Hatchback 1.6 3dr petrol manual metallic ((17″” Flame spoke light alloy wheels&run flat tyres) (smokers pack) (Bluetooth)”
    Mercedes C-Class Saloon (New Shape) 2.2 CDi (134bhp) C200 SE Saloon 4dr 2148cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Nissan Qashqai 1.6 16v (113bhp) Acenta 2WD Hatchback 5dr 1598cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    SAAB 9-3 Sport Saloon 1.9 TiD (120bhp) Linear SE (08) Saloon 4dr 1910cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch 1.9 CDTi (150bhp) SRi Hatchback 3dr 1910cc Manual Diesel Metallic Maintenance
    Chevrolet Captiva 2.0 CDTi (148bhp) LT 4WD Station Wagon (7-seat) 5dr 1991cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Chevrolet Matiz 1.0 i (65bhp) SE+ Hatchback 5dr 995cc Manual Petrol Non metallic
    Fiat Grande Punto 1.2 (65bhp) Active Hatchback 3dr Petrol Manual metallic
    Vauxhall Zafira 1.6 16v Life A/C 5dr Metallic
    Audi A6 Saloon 2.0 Tdi TDV SE Multi Metallic with Milano Leather, DVD Sat Nav, GSM Phone Prep, CD Changer, Bose
    Renault Clio 1.2 16v (75bhp) Expression Hatchback 3dr 1149cc Manual Petrol Metallic air con
    Mini One (New Shape) 1.4 16v (93bhp) One Hatchback 3dr 1397cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Volkswagen Touareg TDI Altitude 225PS 6spd Automatic Diesel Metallic
    Fiat Grande Punto 1.2 (65bhp) Active Hatchback 3dr 1242cc Manual Petrol Metallic
    Citroen Xsara Picasso 1.6 HDi (92bhp) Desire MPV 5dr 1560cc Manual Diesel Metallic
    Citroen Berlingo 1.6 HDi (75bhp) 600 D LX Van 1560cc HDi (75bhp) 600 D LX Van 1560cc Manual Diesel Non Metallic
    Honda Civic Type-R 2.0 i-VTEC (198bhp) Hatchback 3dr 1998cc Manual Petrol Non metallic

    My last batch of “personal” customers (who are employed) as opposed to “business” rentals have been:

    emp_nature emp_title
    Sales Business Manager
    Analyst Business Analyst
    IT Manger Deputy Systems Editor
    Construction Package Manger
    Sales Manger Telesales Manger
    Service Manger Community Safety Manager
    Advisory Teacher Childrens Centre Teacher
    Admin Administrator
    IT Project Manager Project Manager
    Building Surveyor Contract Management
    Habour Master Habour Master
    IT Consultant Managing Director
    Caravan Manufacture Joiner
    Electrical Jointer
    Sales Sales Manager
    Healthcare Training Officer
    IT Senior Systems Analyst
    Quantity Surveyor Project Surveyor
    Police Officer Police Officer
    IT Operations Shift Manager
    Accountant Partner
    Train Engineer Technician T3
    Networks Network Architect
    Management Training Director
    Agency Accountant
    Property Valuation Surveyor
    Pub Group Proprietor
    Teacher Head of Maths
    Account Manager European Manager
    Teaching Senior Lecturer
    PC Repairs & Tuition Computer Engineer
    Medical Distribution Senior Patient Service Rep
    Mortgage Broker Area Sales Manger
    Construction Site Manager
    Internet Development Development
    Coffee Wholesale Sales Manager
    Tour Guide Driver Guide
    Ops Manager Funding Manager
    Heathcare Director of Business Development
    Sales Sales Manager
    Pig Farm Assistant Manager
    Director Business Development
    Builders Contracts Manager
    Sole Trader Propoerty Maintenance
    Internet Café Proprietor
    HR HR Manager
    Recruitment Recruitment Manager
    Technician C3 Grade
    Marketing Marketing Assistant
    Electricain Foreman
    Audiologist Paediatric Audiologist
    Computer Analyst Operations Manager
    Account Manager Business Development Manager
    Advertising Proprietor
    Boat Building Manager
    Technical Author Intergrated Support Engineer
    Management Assistant Management Assistant
    Marketing Manager Marketing Manager
    Air Conditioning Sales Director
    Air Traffic Sevices Air Traffic Controller
    Software Sales Manger
    Senior Manager Management Consultant
    Accountant Owner
    Director Sales Director
    Managing Director Managing Director
    IT Project manager Project Manager
    IT Engineer System Admin
    Education Teaching Assistant
    Construction Owner
    IT Manager IT Manager
    Support Rep Support Rep
    IT Business Process Consultant
    HR & Payroll Personell Admin
    Programmer programmer
    Sales Manager Sales Manager
    Production Production Controller
    Computer Engineer Owner
    Precision Copponents Engineering Manager
    Dental Lab Manager
    IT Consultant Director
    Audio Visual Sales Southern Sales Manager
    Franchise Auditor Qaulity Auditor
    Day Nursery Nursery Teacher
    Direct Sales Sales Advisor
    Quality Manager Quality Manager
    Law Senior Practice Manager
    Office Admin Office Admin
    School Teacher of Science
    Construction Quantity Surveyor
    Director Director
    Joiner Joiner
    Medicine and Surgery Veterinary Surgeon
    Property Property Buyer
    Accountant Accountant

  13. I missed off the link in the top paragraph showing the “quote requests”. Page is here: http://www.lingscars.com/quote_view.php

  14. Wow, had never heard of this before. Very interesting … Ling obviously knows what she is doing. This serves as great motivation to keep working hard.

  15. I saw that Dragons Den episode.

    That lady has heart!

    Andy ;)

    • Hey, thanks to everyone. This is an old blog post but a good one. I am trying so hard, 2-years since DD my turnover in 2008 increased to £355k (from circa £120k 2006). So something is working :) Me! I am knackered. hahaha. But with a new office, new online systems and new white label websites coming soon for people who want to affiliate (I do all admin etc), I am a busy bunny.

      Thanks again!

      - Ling!

      Ling Valentine’s last blog post..New Toyota Avensis Hatchback, £263.99+VAT

  16. Thanks for the update Ling, you’re doing great. Have you ever considered using Twitter to keep in contact with customers and another marketing channel, it could work well for you.

    Al’s last blog post..Sometimes it Pays to Bite thy Tongue

  17. The 2006 Dragon’s Den episode with Ling appeared on BBC America recently. I was blown away by Ling and her business. I’d like to start a similar one here. Any advise? Want to be my partner?

  18. Tis a very clever business money and extremely shrewd online marketing campaign. The fact that she seems to run it all herself is equally impressive - that’s a whole lot of work and busting your chops, but evidently well worth it.

  19. also the fact that there is still 19% of the market still left to capture is quite incredible

  20. Telesales is actually good for promoting your affiliate products both online and offline situations.;**

Trackbacks

  1. [...] SelfMadeMinds.com has an interview with super affiliate Ling Valentine of Lings Lease Cars. Ling is a great example of somebody who has managed to turn an affiliate [...]

Speak Your Mind

*