It happened again today. A marketer had a product I was interested in, but when I arrived at the sales page it was “closed” for business.
This is the principle of scarcity – and it gets people to buy more. Why? Because they are afraid of losing out. They may not need the item being sold, but because it is disappearing at a particular time, they go ahead and buy it anyway – just in case.
That’s how your hard drive quickly becomes full of items you don’t use. It’s how you end up spending a lot more money than you need to – because you are buying “in case” and not because you need it now.
I’ve begun to notice scarcity more lately because I’ve been busy on the weekends. It seems there are a lot of marketers who think I’m sitting at home, waiting for their offer. So they decide to expire the offer late on Sunday night or early Monday morning. Sorry, I’m doing other things at those times.
Naturally I recognize there are times when scarcity makes sense –
- when you have a limited number of copies of a physical product
- when you know you can only respond to a certain number of coaching clients at a time
- when you have paid for only a limited number of seats on your webinar service
What I’m talking about are digital products – those that can be duplicated millions of times with no additional work! There is NO reason to decide that a digital product is scarce – other than to force people into buying something they might not otherwise have bought.
I can’t change what other people do, but I can control my behavior. Yes, I may offer some limited time pricing now and then, and I certainly limit the number of coaching clients I take, but I want my products to be available for you to buy, when YOU need them.
So if you’re looking for a product to achieve a particular task, please check my Books, Courses, and Other Products links here on my website at http://JeanetteCates.com We’re open for business around the clock – for YOUR convenience!
Jeanette–I totally agree with you, and I have succumbed more than I care to admit to those tactics. It’s a very effective psychological tool they use!
The ones who use it often come back in a day or two and “apologize” for the “server glitch” that occurred during the final hours, so the product is back up and available again for just a short time.
Or, they’ll email non-buyers to tell them there were some folks who returned the product or got refunds, or whose credit cards didn’t go through, so there are a limited number of products still available.
It’s no wonder Internet Marketers have seem collectively untrustworthy.
Those tactics are actually taught in a well-known course – server crash, a few refunds, etc. I find it irritating and disingenuous.
I prefer to treat my clients like adults and let them decide when is the best time for them to invest in a product. Of course, I know it costs in sales – but it gains in trust and long-term relationships. Well worth it!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this Jeanette. I’ve been caught in that trap more times than I care to admit. One time an internet marketer advise in his course the same thing you said. If you don’t need it now, don’t buy it. That one piece of advice has saved me a lot of money.
I appreciate your straight forward analysis of this and it reinforces me in the ongoing temptation to resist! 🙂
I do appreciate your products and appreciate that you do not use scarcity except when it’s legitimate. Thanks for being a good example. I’ve always loved your teaching style any time I’ve bought a product from you. You have a way of making things simple, understandable and clear.
Keep up the good work!