The Campbell Academy Blog (85)

When you are ready

When we're looking to buy a product or to access a service or to get help from someone, either something that we purchase or something that we get on a voluntary basis, it's great to be able to get the information that we're looking for at our fingertips as quickly and as easily as possible.

This happens, especially when it's something urgent or something that we need or feel we need quickly, but that's different to being interrupted in your day-to-day life by somebody trying to sell you something.

I cannot handle people who come to my door and try to sell me something unbidden; I find that a massive intrusion into my privacy, and I don't feel there's any need for anyone ever to knock on my door and ask me if I want to buy something just off the bat.

This is precisely what happens when people spam you or interrupt you with emails or telephone calls or any other sort of interruption when you're trying to do something else.

The best way to attract business is to be available for people when needed.

This is also the best way to reduce hyper-consumption, but that's not the direction that the world is heading in.

The world is trying to tell you that you need something you didn't know you needed, so you buy it now.

I spent the last few days unsubscribing from as many spam emails that come into my account as possible, the ones that get through the spam filters and all the rest of the stuff because I still open my personal email account (my fat arse account). There are still way more emails than I ever want to look at or read.

The interesting thing is that I've subscribed to a lot of this stuff, but I no longer want the interruption, so today, I unsubscribed from SunGod, the sunglasses company I really like, but I'm not in the market for sunglasses.

And so, the risk is that they'll show me a product, and I'll think that I want it now, and I'll buy it, but I honestly have more pairs of sunglasses than I can possibly wear, and so I should probably wait till I don't have any more until I go back out and see what SunGod is offering.

The move away from hyper-consumerism will also tie up with the move away from interruption marketing.