"And That's How I Made $1 Million in 1 Day".

#8 OF 10 -- HIGHLIGHT SCARCITY

We all want what we can't have.?When an item is hard to get and dwindling in supply, we want it even more. So we're willing to pay more for it. Highlighting scarcity improves the perceived value of your product, which motivates the uncertain buyer into taking action.

“Everyone wants what everyone wants. But no one wants what no one wants.”

That's Barbara Corcoran, real estate mogul and Shark Tank’er putting it best. She made $1 million in 24 hours by creating a buying frenzy for vacant apartments. Watch her explain it on TikTok. Follow her or even call her. Link in comments.

Consider Crumbs Bakery, which sold cupcakes for $250 when they usually sold them for $3.95. Why? Because Crumbs had just announced it was shutting its doors forever, and this was your last chance to get one of their cupcakes.

Then there's Hermes, which limits the number of $14,000 Birkin bags it makes per year. There is no intrinsic value to that bag. However, its closely guarded secret supply limit has been largely responsible for the consistent 14% average annual price increase since the Birkin bag was launched.?

Luxury goods thrive on scarcity. But so does toilet paper. Remember the pandemic?

Watch her explain it on TikTok. Follow her or even call her. Link in comments.

What’s Even More Valuable? Exclusive Information.

According to Dr. Robert Cialdini, when the information about your limited supply or “limited edition” is considered “exclusive information.” A PhD student of Dr. Cialdini’s working for the Australian Beef market conducted this research. He divided customers into 3 groups, each receiving a different condition. Note the impact of each.

1. Standard sales pitch -- control
2. Standard pitch + highlights a future shortage in beef -- 2X more sales
3. Standard pitch + highlights a future shortage in beef + information is exclusive. -- 6X more sales

But Scarcity is a Double-Edged Sword

Consider the streetwear brand Supreme. It’s owner James Jebbia, pioneered the use of “drops”, limited-edition items, available for a limited time in a ritual that created long lines and hype for its offering. Read about it here.?When Supreme “dropped” items on Thursdays at 11am ET, sales on Thursday increased 1700%. That was then. Now that streetwear is more commonplace and Supreme has opened more stores, it's less scarce, and sales have fallen.?

Are You Tricking the Customer with Scarcity?

Not when you’re highlighting legitimate scarcity. And chances are, there is some aspect of your offering that is scarce that customers might want to know about.?

Imagine you were considering buying a new EV or even a new jacket. You’d want a salesperson to tell you it was the last one left, and you’d be mad if you weren’t told, and you came back later to find it was gone. Yet salespeople rarely tell you!

What Can YOU Do?

1.Identify a Unique Factor.

Most products or services have some unique quality that make them scarce – limited quantity, limited time, or limited season. Its exclusive at some point in time to some group of people. According to Dr. Robert Cialdini, limited supply is more effective in motivating customers to act than limited time.

Nancy Harhut, a long time DTC copywriter and Applied Behavioral Scientist, has some great examples in her fun, fascinating book, Using Behavioral Science in Marketing.

2.Identify the Competition For It

Highlight the competition for your product. When Booking.com added alerts such as “2 rooms left, 3 others are looking,” sales spiked so high that their Customer Service team called IT, thinking there was a systems error. No error—just the power of competition.

3. Highlight Potential Loss

Emphasize what will be lost by not acting. We are far more motivated by what we stand to lose than what we stand to gain. The late Nobel Prize winning Economist, Daniel Kahneman, called this loss aversion.

Are you leaving money on the table by NOT highlighting what's scarce or limited about offering?

• HT to Dr. Robert Cialdini. Buy his excellent book, Influence, here. I've trained with Dr. Cialdini, and he's the real deal. Warren Buffet called Influence, "One of the best business books of all time."
• HT to Nancy Harhut. Buy her fascinating, award-winning book, Using Behavioral Science in Marketing.

LinkedIn ironically does not like links. So one link with all the research, links to buy, and videos will be in the comments section.