This is A Limited Time Offer

By Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor for Southern Writers Magazine

How many times have you heard, “This is a limited time offer so get yours today”! Marketing experts know the odds of you making a purchase are greater if they can get you to act immediately. Any delay increases the odds of a missed sale on their part. So they press the urgency of the decision by limiting the offer with time. I believe that statement is not only true about a commercial offering but about everything in life. Why do I say that?

Most of us can look back and see a missed opportunity. If we are truthful with ourselves we can also see the reason for the missed opportunity the majority of the time is procrastination. I can remember some years back seeing an author on TV and thinking I need to contact him for an interview and article in Southern Writers Magazine. Instead of doing it right away I delayed, I considered myself busy and eventually the urgency of the opportunity left me entirely. I hadn’t realized it had indeed been a limited time offer. I had failed to follow up on my gut instinct to make the contact. I seldom do that but in this case I was guilty. So what happens to those limited time offers?

In this case there is a good ending. I walked into our Writers Group one day and there sat this author. He was a new member and was introduced by one of our contributors to Southern Writers Magazine because she was writing an article about him and his books he had written. I was thrilled then I was stricken with this hard lesson. This offer like some many others is indeed a limited time offer but it is a limited time offer only to the one being presented to it at the time. I honestly believe if you refuse or ignore the offer, the opportunity as it is meant to be, will be offered elsewhere.

We never know how great the opportunity may be unless we follow it through. I have a friend that was studying under a college professor and had earned her certification as a Certified Professional Organizer. The professor’s work had drawn a lot of national attention and a documentary was done involving the professor and his assistants work. My friend was included and was so excited to be a part of the opportunity. Once the documentary hit the airwaves it was very successful and a series was offered. My friend wasn’t sure about being a part of it so she passed. Another assistant took her spot. This missed opportunity became the TV hit series Hoarders. She and her professor were apparently on the cutting edge of the study of this terrible disease. The opportunity would indeed have been lucrative but also it would have been a chance to help many people and their families.  

So what should we do? I like to follow these three simple steps:

·         Be aware and open to any and all opportunities presented. You never know where they could lead.

·         Expect good things to come from these opportunities. Should they take a turn for the worse you can retreat gracefully.

·         Remember this opportunity could and very well will lead to the next great opportunity. Be open and aware of that as well.

·         No regrets! Don’t dwell on lost opportunities. We all have had them. Be on the watch for the next one and it will come.

·         And remember…. “This is a limited time offer so get yours today”!