Earlier this week I heard a radio commercial for the Get Motivated Business Seminar. The commercial had a too-good-to-be-true offer–$1.95 per person OR send your entire office for $9.95. Motivational speakers include Zig Ziglar, General Colin Powell, Terry Bradshaw! Nice!
I was driving to a business meeting thinking what’s wrong with that offer? But I quickly dismissed it moving along to the course of everything happening that day.
The next morning, while sipping coffee and getting ready for the day, I pulled up the local news online. What popped up in the headlines was a story by one of my reporter friends Dana Hunsinger at The Indianapolis Star: Get Motivated! seminar has hidden cost: sales pitches. Interesting… so I clicked. The story said in between bits of wisdom the audience was pitched real estate and investment advice.
ICK! I worked in timeshare years ago as manager of RCI’s PR office. I know the sales stuff from timeshare and its bad wrap. Maybe you’re ok with being pitched, but my mind went immediately to the traditional timeshare sales guy. Then I thought… AH HA! I knew it. Too good to be true.
I can only imagine how much the organizer spent on marketing… radio ads, direct mail and more. Only to have a reporter do a little digging to figure out the trick. Bad timing because the same day I read the story, I got a direct mail piece. It’s a fancy dye cut, plastic and four color. I kept it. Not to buy a space at the event for me or my whole office. No, it’s going in my samples and examples file of what NOT to do when you’re promoting… meaning be honest about what you’re promoting and what your audience could/should expect.
It’s good karma! And we all know that comes back around.
