Impulse Buys Kill Momentum

I'm Alex Charfen, and this is the Momentum podcast, made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers, and creators of all kinds, those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny. We define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop, and we don't know how.

While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few, who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future and instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world, because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent positive human evolution and we always will be.

Impulse buys kill momentum. This is about a very special type of purchase that sometimes as entrepreneurs we make, and I want to go in with you and tell you that I've absolutely done this. But I want to explain to you why it is so damaging for us to make impulse purchases. Here's what I mean by an impulse purchase. This is one of those purchases where you weren't planning on buying something, you weren't planning on actually spending money, but you're in an event room watching a really good speaker at an event or you just happened upon a webinar and started watching the webinar or you're online and you come across a random sales page or you're sitting in your office or driving down the road and you get a sales call. Suddenly, you're put into a situation where you are being convinced to make an impulse purchase, to make an impulse buy, to buy something that, up until that moment where the person is trying to convince you that it is exactly what you need at that time, you weren't considering buying.

I have an opinion on these purchases. Impulse buys are simply one of the most distracting things you can do in business and in your life because what you're doing is counting on the fact that you got lucky in the moment and you're seeing the right event room or the right presentation or the right webinar or the right sales page or the right sales call at any given moment and you whip out your money and you pay. You're counting on luck that whatever that product is, whatever impulse purchase you are making, is going to solve the challenges that you have right now.

Here's the biggest challenge with impulse purchases. So many of us as entrepreneurs, me included, have been at an event, have made an impulse purchase, and it actually worked out. So we start convincing ourselves that if we just go through life making impulse purchases, it'll eventually work out. In fact, you hear people say things at events like, "Well, I'm just going to go ahead and do this. Every time my life's moved forward, I spend a lot of money first."

Well, here's the challenge. Just like fail forward fail fast is a good way to get started but it is absolutely not a business growth strategy, making impulse buys might be a way that you got started early on. It might be a way when you didn't really have a lot of knowledge or information, you moved forward. Heck, you might've gotten lucky even though you had knowledge and information and you've made an impulse buy and it worked.

But here's the challenge. Just because it worked one time, you can't continue to count on it working every time you make a purchase that your impulse buy will actually work out. Because here's what happens when we commit to purchasing something. I want you to understand this at a very real, very fundamental level of the exchange that you're making. It doesn't matter what you're buying, but you are making an exchange. When you say yes to one thing, you are saying no to a whole bunch of other things.

See, when you make an impulse purchase at an event, in a seminar, on a webinar, on a sales page, something you weren't thinking about buying, something that just catches your eye, something that jumps up and gets your attention right then, here's what happens. You are committing all five of your currencies to that thing in the moment, making it the most important thing in your world.

Anyone who wants to can argue the contrary with me, but when you allow an impulse purchase opportunity to become an actual purchase, you have to admit to yourself that you're making that the most important thing in your world at that point in time. So yeah, the random event speaker, or the webinar you just happened upon online, or the random sales page, or the guy who's calling you to sell something, all trying to convince you to make a purchase on the spot, what you're doing when you make that purchase is that you are now admitting and declaring that that is the most important thing in your life at that time and you're going to commit all five of your currencies.

You're going to commit your time to buying the product, to actually getting it, to looking at the emails, to reading what it is, to bringing it home, to taking it out of the box. You're going to commit your cash, you're going to spend money on the spot. You're going to commit your effort to actually making the purchase, to try and figuring out how to use it to trying to implement it. You're going to commit your energy in buying, in implementing, in reading, and maybe one of the biggest ones, your focus. Because just by going through the process of the impulse buy, you are making it more important than anything else in your life.

When my clients go to seminars where I know there's going to be a bunch of people pitching product, I get scared. I really do. I get nervous. I get uncomfortable. My stomach hurts. I don't go to pitch fests. You can listen to my podcast Rise of the Secret Fest to understand why not only will I not go, but I won't speak at pitch fests. I don't like those types of seminars. I think that they're degrading to the audience, I think they degrade the speakers, and I think that having a bunch of people show up in a room, not knowing what they're going to be presented, and then suddenly presenting them with multi-thousand dollar purchase offers just doesn't make sense.

Because what I'm doing in the front of the room is I'm declaring that everyone in the room should buy my product because I'm there. It's now the most important thing for everyone in that room to purchase, and if I don't know who's in the room, if I don't know that they're qualified to buy my product, I don't even want to be there. Impulse buys hurt me if I make them, but if I convince somebody else to make an impulse buy it hurts them too.

See, here's a better way to do it. First, you should determine where you are on the billionaire code. Go back to the billionaire code episodes of this podcast. I think they start right at around 180 with a podcast called Seeker. Go and listen to the billionaire code. Figure out where you are in that nine-step framework and then understand exactly what you need.

If you're just starting out at seeker, you need self clarity to understand who you serve. If you're in starter, then you need to understand how to start selling and monetizing value. If you're in promoter, you need to start leverage lead generation. If you're in builder, you need more sales. If you look at the billionaire code, it is the true Rosetta Stone for entrepreneurs. It will tell you exactly what you need right now. So first, determine where you are in the billionaire code.

Second, it will tell you exactly what you need in your business right now, what your biggest need is at the stage of growth that you're in. One of the biggest wastes of entrepreneurial effort and energy and focus and time and cash and currencies in general is when we focus on something in the present that is not what we need right now. Because it doesn't matter how good the content or the product or the effort or the project or the process you are working on right now is, if it's not what your business needs, then unfortunately, it probably doesn't matter.

But when you get clear on what your business needs, when you determine where you are in the billionaire code, and then you answer the question, "What will help you get ahold the fastest?" then, instead of making an impulse purchase where you're hoping the best person happens to be in front of you or an impulse purchase where the first webinar you come along happens to say the right things and you just buy it, stop leading yourself around by impulse.

Once you've figured out where you are in the billionaire code, what you need next, go and analyze the market and understand who's out there, who's the best solution for you. If you're trying to build a team in your business, don't impulse buy my product. Compare me to all the other people in the market who talked about building teams. Understand what your options are, what programs are out there. Figure out what other people offer, then come and ask us what we offer, analyze all of the offers, and then pick the best one for you where you are right now. That is a strategic purchase, not an impulse buy.

When you make strategic purchases, here's what happens. Because you've analyzed what your business needs and you've determined exactly what will move you forward and you're buying exactly that outcome, when you make a strategic purchase you create momentum, you don't kill momentum. You actually increase the level of momentum you and your team feels every time you make a strategic purchase of exactly what you need because it answers the question your business has right now.

When you make an impulse buy, you answer a question you may or may not have as a business right now. You might answer a question from the past or a question that you're going to have in the future, but it might not be what you need right now. Because the bottom line is, unless you're focused on exactly what your business needs right now to create the greatest momentum, you are giving up forward progress. You are giving up the contribution you could be making. You are giving up the success you could be experiencing right now.

I'm convinced, especially in today's market, with the rise of the expert coach and consultant, which it pains me to say this because I'm one of those ... I mean, I fit all three of those descriptions. But there now are so many expert coaches and consultants in the market that it's near impossible to understand who's who unless you do a thorough analysis. It's hard to understand what deliverables people have unless you actually go out and look and research and talk to people and understand what people are doing.

One of the worst ways today to make a purchase of any kind, especially for your business, is on an impulse buy. Because the fact is that today, and I would say at more than any other time in business history in the world, there are far more people who are much better at marketing their services than actually delivering them. I don't mean to to be insulting or mean, but unfortunately, there are a massive number of marketing experts, and especially online marketing experts in the world today, but there is a very small number of delivery experts. There's a very small number of people who have become expert in getting a customer effect. There's a very small number in people who have focused on customer adoption and customer success and customer outcomes, and instead they focus on how to sell. That's where you will get caught up in an impulse purchase.

Here's why I'm so passionate about this, and here's why I defend against this, and here's why I want to protect you from impulse purchases. Because when you finally make the decision to get help, when you finally make the decision to spend your money and ask for help, when you finally admit that you need help, I know just how absolutely difficult that is for an entrepreneur. I know that's not a normal feeling for us. I know it's hard for us to ask for help. I know it's hard for us to even get onto a sales page, buy a product, knowing that what we're really doing is trying to get help of any kind.

Because entrepreneurs, people like you and I, we need more help than most to reach our full potential. It's what it is because we want to do more, we want to be more. But the challenge is that any request for help makes us feel vulnerable and exposed. Here's what happens to so many entrepreneurs. We make that impulse purchase, which makes us feel vulnerable and exposed. You know what happens to you, just like it happens to me. When I spend money, I'm like, "Man, is this going to work?"

Then, because that impulse purchase may or may not be exactly what we need at the time, and let's be honest, most likely it's not, it's not going to give us the momentum we wanted, it's not going to give us the outcomes we heard on the webinar or in the speech or during the sales pitch, it's not going to really feel like it moved us forward. You know what's going to happen 9 times out of 10? The person who's going to get blamed is you blaming yourself and feeling like you missed and you did something wrong and you failed and you didn't apply it right. There was something that you didn't do that everybody else who bought the product did and that's why you're not successful and they are.

Well, I have news for you. When you make an impulse purchase, the chances of it being the right thing for you at the time, the right provider at the time, and the solution that you need are slim to none. When you go out and do the research, determine exactly what you need, evaluate your options, and then put money in a strategic purchase, your chances of being successful are exponentially greater than when you buy on impulse. Impulse buys kill momentum.

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