Scarcity Selling Works

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The best way to to sell is to create demand. Creating scarcity helps your business to create just such a demand. What we are talking about is creating a demand for a product or service, with familiar examples such as a sales promotion that says “sorry, no rain checks”. If the offer is big enough you can also generate some buzz and good public relations exposure. Which will lead to even more word of mouth marketing.

Typical Examples:

Direct  TV:	Free shipping for the first 50 callers
Discount:	First 100 sold will be given away free
Limited Quantity	In Stock Quantity: Special buy, limited quantities. When we sell out that is it.
Invitation only:	Google is infamous for only allowing a certain number of beta users to sign up when they launch a new service.

Why does this technique Work?

By creating a short or limited supply you are forcing consumers to make a decision. If they wait they will lose out it is as simple as that.
Think about this for a moment, what would you do? If you received a flyer in the mail about an invitation only event, or an offer that was only available to the first 30 shoppers. Would you be the first person in line to take advantage of that offer?

Recent Example

Probably the most recognizable example is the Apple iPhone. There was a huge demand for people wanting to buy them, but until a year after it’s launch the iPhone was not available in countries outside of the United States. Further you had to sign a contract with AT&T to activate one because of an exclusive contract. Then when the next generation was released only certain quantities were sent out to specific Apple stores. Again because of limited quantities they sold out in the first few hours of availability. And of course there were lines of people waiting to be first to buy them.

Share your Stories

What has worked in your business? Please leave a comment sharing your story.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Missing Guarantees that could hurt Sales Conversions
• How to get your Coupons to spread
• Using Customer Testimonials to Add Credibility to your Business
• Should a New Business start Marketing?
• How to Create an Ad your Customers will actually Notice

Tags: scarcity marketing, selling scarcity

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 4:17 pm and is filed under sales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.