Although I said that Nicola didn’t seem to have made very detailed plans before holding her Wealth-A-Thon last Saturday, she had prepared the ground ahead of time in terms of running a competition for a free place in the Money Gym’s Gold program (worth £4.5K). Entrants had to make and submit a video story, telling a little about themselves and why they should win the place. Considering that most of them had never been on either end of a video camera before, the entries were brilliant and, as they were played during the course of the show, viewers were able to vote on the entry of their choice.
A few times during the lead-up to announcing the winner, Nicola shared that when she’s given away free places before, hardly anyone has stayed the course and finished the program. What a waste. And unfortunately it bears out my own experiences. For example, when I work with Southern Entrepreneurs, their training courses are of a high standard and free to members. Popular topics get booked up very quickly, numbers being restricted by the size of the conference room. Come the day of the course however, it isn’t unusual for there to be several no-shows, which is such a shame when we’ve had to turn people away.
I realise there’s a great difference between a half-day training and the Money Gym’s 12 month Gold membership in terms of cost – but the principle is the same. When people don’t have to pay, they just don’t seem to attach the same commitment. When they do pay, they’re much more likely to want to get their money’s worth – and work hard to get every penny’s worth!
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