Don’t Sell Your Attention Too Cheap
I got a call last week while I was lining up to board a plane. Did I know a Yolanda Guzman? Yep, that would be my mother-in-law. Well she suggested I give you a call. She’s a member of our hotel chain, and thought it might be beneficial for you too.
The deal was this – for $300 a year I could be a member of this hotel chain, always get 10% off their lowest rate, get one night free and some other good stuff. Sounded reasonable, so I thought I’d give it a go for a year.
I got home and there was the email with the terms and conditions, and a cancellation letter that I could send within a 10 day cooling off period.
I realised that there was a cost to the whole thing that I hadn’t factored in. My attention. I have limited bandwidth, and my time, energy and attention is the most valuable thing I have. Another card in my wallet takes up a little bit of my time and energy. A little bit of my bandwidth. I also need to create a process to include that membership when we book accommodation. A bit more of my time and energy. And life is just a little bit more complicated.
I cancelled the card. While it was worth the money, it wasn’t worth the money and my attention.
Love to hear your thoughts and experiences – you can leave your comments below.
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I agree totally Pete. It’s so easy to agree in the moment – and each of us make expedient decisions when pressed by the ‘tele-marketers’ or at times sellers in general. I’ve taken to regularly checking the cards in my wallet – it’s still overflowing but on the way to thinner – hopefully like me!
Same for me. The value of the discount is not sufficiently offset by the cost of time.
I agree! So many people in my life are into “discounts” of all kinds, both online and offline. They will fill in all manner of forms and cut out coupons and set up memberships and run all over time to save a few dollars. I realised very early on that it’s just not worth my time and life blood….
Life is short!
Totally agree. Understanding the “real” cost of things is key.
Kinda clever little bit of marketing in their approach to you though …. established basic credibility and worth-giving-a-hearing-to-ness by mentioning a trusted association and got to a ‘yes’ where otherwise they may have struggled to have received even a hearing.
Clever doesn’t equal good though
On deceptive practices … not saying this one was such …. but I received a call yesterday from a marketing group selling coupons to encourage local shopping – the person kept referring to “our” town and region needing to ensure we all get behind local business, yet I could clearly hear that she was calling from a large call centre (we all know that sound) … I listened to her for maybe a minute then told her to please get to the punchline, which was of course the once-only special price of $99.99 for the book of coupons because I had been identified as a community minded person, blah blah blah…
When she came up for air I asked her how she got my name and phone number (home number) … she couldn’t give me any sensible response, so I just told her we were on the do not call register and I would be lodging a complaint.
Having been the previous Chamber of Commerce president, I knew they had not organised this – no one else would have, so it was simply a cleverly constructed ploy to make people feel compelled to participate.
Deceptive.
… end of rant
Yes attention stealers are everywhere and we are very susceptible to their distractions.
I recently got into all the cheap daily deals around Melbourne and bought heaps of them and spent many a great night eating cheaply as well as discount massages, naturopath and kite-boarding lesions etc. Then I realised the pressure of having to monitor mange and organise to do all these things before the vouchers ran out plus all the other little complications like getting refunds when a business closed down before I could get there. I found it was not worth the time and effort to ‘save’ the money. Also I ended up spending money on extras while I was there so not such a bargain as it consumed lots of time and money then became a stress.