One
of the common advertising strategies marketers use is the “Before and After”
strategy. Probably you would have come across many such advertisements. For
example, companies who sell weight loss product such as weight loss
supplements, depict the effectiveness of their product by offering testimonies
of people who have used it and lost weight. Generally these advertisements
portray the photo of an obese person (before using their product) and another
photo of the same person who now looks slim (after using their product) .
Similar advertisements can also be found for hair growth promoters, pimple
removal cream and so on.
So,
this “before and after” strategy is something that easily catches the attention
of the audience. Now let me refer this to the context of effectiveness of some
of the training programmes I attend. Because most of the training programmes,
almost adapt the same strategy. The programme promises that at the end of the
programme your life will transform to something fantastic, unimaginable,
amazing etc.
I
keep attending a number of training programmes, periodically as I aspire to be
updated with new concepts. Quiet recently, I had the opportunity to attend an
event titled “Achievers Conference” which happened in Bangalore. The conference had an expert panel of
speakers, including motivational speakers, subject experts, book authors,
trainers and the like. The crowd puller for this event was the author of the
bestselling book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, Robert Kiyosaki. However, in the panel of speakers were also
others, who were not as prominent as Robert Kiyosaki, but were experts in their
own field.
Their
speeches did create an impact among the audience. All the speakers invariably
used the same strategy, which I am about to elaborate. They started with their
early life of how poor they were or how much of difficult time they had come
across and then talked about a defining moment in their life that dramatically
changed their life for good, and how their life has been transformed ever
since. As they talk about this WOW moment of their life and when the audience
are totally enthralled, they gently push in this desire amidst the audience by
saying. “You too can achieve this level of success, if you sign up for my
upcoming programme, where I will be teaching you the techniques I adopted to
achieve this level of success”. With this they end making an announcement of
the programme cost and special discounted offer, if they sign up immediately.
These
type of programmes that they offer, are generally very highly priced. However,
these speakers sound so convincing, that at the end of their speech the
audience are literally running to the sign-up counter with their wallets or
cheque book, to book a seat.
Well
everyone is looking for a breakthrough in their life and it is natural for us
to be tempted to believe that the breakthrough in our life is going to come by
attending this particular programme.The speakers are also aware of this and
that is why their programmes sell like hot cakes.
Well,
I am not saying that these programmes don’t work, but it is wise to consider
some pointsbefore we enrol for any such programmes.
Firstly,
we need to understand that, what works for one may not work for someone else.
So, what worked for the speaker may not work for us. It depends upon our level
of passion, commitment, availability of time and resources, family support and
many other factors, which are needed to make it a reality.
Secondly,
in any such programme there are two parts. The first part is the learning part
i.e attending the programme and understanding the techniques and the second
part is the doing part i.e what we do with what we learnt in the programme.
Here is where the glitch is. Quite often, with passage of time and amidst our
other priorities, our enthusiasm tends to fades away. Then we just blame that
the programme didn’t work, but most often the reality is that, we did not take
the extra effort to make the programme work for us.
Thirdly,
it all depends upon how much we immerse ourselves in the chosenactivity. We
should have fun doing it, otherwise sooner or later, it would become a stress
and ultimately, we would give up. So, it is important to find out how well this
programme will align with one’s passion. If it aligns, I am sure, they would
discover their breakthroughmomentof their life. If not, it is just more time
and money wasted.
So,
never get carried away by others words or promises. Your world is very
different from their world. Don’t do
something, just because everyone else is doing it. Take the time to discover
who you really are and what type of work, truly fascinates you and then put
your heart and soul into it. And you are
sure to discover true success and happiness.
Happy Reading,
D. Senthil Kannan
Article Dated Dec 2014