I would have bought, but they made this mistake

I felt cheated this week at a paid online event.

But I don't think they did it on purpose.

Here's what happened, why I'm not going to buy from them even though I had planned to, and the psychology back tips you can use to avoid the same fate.

But first let's establish a few things:

1. The average worker in America makes 11.15 an hour (Statista)
2. Attention is a precious commodity
3. We create positive associations when value > cost
4. The peak-end effect shows that what we recall from past experiences is not always accurate.
5. We tend to remember the peak emotional moments (whether positive or negative) and the final moments of an experience.
6. The overall average of the experience doesn’t play a significant role in our memory
7. Expectations are lower when something is free

So, if there's one thing you'll never catch me doing

It's making people pay for a disguised sales call.

Why listen to me? For those of you who don't know me my name is Laura Mai and I am the content creator for Dan Ariely, Director of Marketing at Grit Blueprint and I also help people over 50 with digital marketing. I was formerly a behavioural design consultant and business analyst which is where I found my love for psychology, data and marketing.

Let me be clear, I'm not talking about

-3-5 minutes at the end of a paid call

-talking about your product as it comes up naturally on a call

-selling in general

I'm also not against turning a free call into a sales call if you still provide the information promised.

But we have to be careful

With most people you only get one chance at trust

So let's look at a few examples, using estimated math to help illustrate a point about sales at the wrong time can break trust

Scenario one: The free sales call

If the average person in America gets paid $11.15 an hour

You make them sit there for an hour in a free call

But half of it is a sales call they were not expecting and did not schedule,

Even if the other half passed the $5 test (which is that every post or any free thing you give should be worth over $5)

They would feel like they only got -0.43 worth of value

5-$5.57

Scenario 2: The paid sales call

Let's use the exact example I experienced

Let's say you have a 5 day event

1 Hour a day is free

It's definetly subjective, but let's say each session holds $30 worth of information

But you have a VIP Option where you have people pay for 3 Q&A calls over the week geared to help them with specific questions.

Let's say the cost was $99

But each session feels worth about $15

And you turn a one-hour free session and a one-hour paid session into a sales pitch and Q&A about your more expensive program.

Let's look at the average perceived value for the free package:

Average day ROI: $30value of information-11.15 average opportunity cost

= $18.85 average value

Let's look at the average perceived value for the VIP package on a Q&A day:

Average day ROI: $30value of information-11.15 average opportunity cost- $15 value of Q&A-$11.15 average opportunity cost-$33cost per Q&A=

= -$29.15 average value

Now let's look at the average perceived value of the worst day:

Let's look at the average perceived value for the free package:

Average day ROI: $5 value of information-11.15 average opportunity cost

= -$6.15 average value

Let's look at the average perceived value for the VIP package:

Average day ROI: $5 value of information-11.15 average opportunity cost- $15 value of Q&A-$11.15 average opportunity cost-$33cost per Q&A= -$54.15 average value

Looking over the course of the week and the seven psychology facts at the beginning of this post, it makes sense why I

-Feel I lost money paying for this course

-Don't want to buy because I think I'll always be sold to

-Have spread negative Work of Mouth when anyone asked me about it

To overcome the negative effects sales calls can have on your brand

Try these 3 fixes:

1. Bump up your value threshhold, sure a post should pass the $5 test but a free event needs to equal the opportunity cost. If you're providing a free event aim to have it be at worth at least $20 to be safe
2. Make it clear when you are about to sell to set expectations.
3. If you do sell for an extended period of time, especially on a paid call, make sure to offer a free trial or great coupon with a high perceived value exclusive for those on the call

Of course you should sell,

You need to make a living.

But this company lost an almost guaranteed sale from me because they didn't provide value when it mattered.

If you keep in mind what the real cost is for others.

You can avoid making the same mistake.

Don't cheat people by accident.

I'm rooting for you.

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