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Why is the concept of scarcity so effective for increasing your conversions when it comes to making a sale?
And why do so many people make this one fatal mistake, which makes it utterly ineffective?
Both are great questions, and in order to understand the answers that will follow, let me tell you a fun way I choose to learn about marketing psychology.
The tribal brain.
10,000 years...100,000 years ago when we were animals living in the wild.
This is where all of our deeply rooted behaviors still originate from, despite being logical creatures.
Today, after a small blip on the infinite cosmic radar, we are now animals living in houses.
Our behaviors are still the same.
When we were animals living in the wild, food was scarce. Our brain is programmed to keep us alive and we turn into wild, dangerous animals, fighting for those scarce resources.
When a person sees something they want, and the resources for it are scarce, a switch flips in their brain, turning them into that dangerous animal, who will KILL to get that last piece of food.
Yes, black friday is our tribal brain in action, fighting for that last piece of food to keep us alive.
Our tribal brain sees that Television Set to be the same thing as the last piece of food before the winter comes.
This is why scarcity works....
Now let me talk about where most people fail in using it...but before I do that, let me show you the right way.
1) The customer already has to accept the product as something they want to have.
I was at a Honda dealership in Mesa, Arizona (or was it Apache Junction...probably the latter) looking to buy a new car back in 2013.
I wanted a 2 door Honda Civic at the time, but the only model left was a 4 door (something I realized I didn't want after the short test drive).
I had the stereotypical pushy car salesman.
"This is the last one on our lot, and I have a few other people who made appointments to look at it tonight." He said.
"Yeah, no thanks... I'm not that interested", I replied.
"Ok, just to make sure you understand....THIS CAR WILL PROBABLY BE GONE TOMORROW." He said back, not reading my body language, or my direct words that told him I was not interested.
He continued to push the scarcity on something I didn't want.
The lesson learned from this experience - if it's not something your customer REALLY REALLY wants, it's too soon to pull out the scarcity card.
When I first learned this consumer psychology principle, I tried to sell people on the scarcity before they even realized they wanted the product! It didn't work!
Make sure to only use scarcity on something people actually want.
2) Scarcity works when the customer wants the product.
In 2008, when I was looking at apartments for my senior year of college, I found the perfect apartment in downtown Port Jefferson, NY.
It was a short drive to the college, walking distance to all the popular bars, the waterfront port, all the shops, and it was right next to the volunteer fire department I was a member of at the time. Which means when a call came out on the radio, I was sure to be the first on the truck and get in on the action!!
A perfect fit.
"I'll get back to you later this week", I said..procrastinating at the time.
"We have two couples looking at the apartment tomorrow", the landlord said.
My roommate said she learned about this "sales trick" in her consumer psychology class last semester, and that the landlord was probably lying in order to push the sale.
"I don't care...I want it.... we have to act now.", I said.
My roommate agreed. We made sure the money was in the checking accounts that night, we wrote the checks, and called the landlord 5 times that night to make sure we get the deposit to her before we miss out on the deal.
When your customer wants your product, and there is scarcity....it will cause them to go in a panic and act right away, just like I frantically drove to the bank ASAP to deposit any money I could to make rent.
3) REAL scarcity is effective scarcity.
Take the title of this thread for example:
This Important Message Will Be Taken Down Today | Click Here Now>>
The first day, it will most likely get a lot of clicks "Oooo, an important message!? I must read it before it's gone."
Not only will it lead to unhappy customers: It will lead to potential refunds, negative reviews, ripoff report dot com, you name it. Those reviews don't go away.
So in summary, when a customer sees something they already really want, and they see that the resource is scarce, they will go into tribal animal mode to make that resource theirs, just like it's the last piece of food before winter.
But if they see that one last scrap of food, and then a pile of apples hiding behind the tree...that instinct wont kick in..and it won't work.
Be real, be authentic, and deliver something that the customer knows they want.
When you use it the right way, get ready for this...just like MJs Fastlane Summit tickets sold out within an hour.
And why do so many people make this one fatal mistake, which makes it utterly ineffective?
Both are great questions, and in order to understand the answers that will follow, let me tell you a fun way I choose to learn about marketing psychology.
The tribal brain.
10,000 years...100,000 years ago when we were animals living in the wild.
This is where all of our deeply rooted behaviors still originate from, despite being logical creatures.
Today, after a small blip on the infinite cosmic radar, we are now animals living in houses.
Our behaviors are still the same.
When we were animals living in the wild, food was scarce. Our brain is programmed to keep us alive and we turn into wild, dangerous animals, fighting for those scarce resources.
When a person sees something they want, and the resources for it are scarce, a switch flips in their brain, turning them into that dangerous animal, who will KILL to get that last piece of food.
Yes, black friday is our tribal brain in action, fighting for that last piece of food to keep us alive.
Our tribal brain sees that Television Set to be the same thing as the last piece of food before the winter comes.
This is why scarcity works....
Now let me talk about where most people fail in using it...but before I do that, let me show you the right way.
1) The customer already has to accept the product as something they want to have.
I was at a Honda dealership in Mesa, Arizona (or was it Apache Junction...probably the latter) looking to buy a new car back in 2013.
I wanted a 2 door Honda Civic at the time, but the only model left was a 4 door (something I realized I didn't want after the short test drive).
I had the stereotypical pushy car salesman.
"This is the last one on our lot, and I have a few other people who made appointments to look at it tonight." He said.
"Yeah, no thanks... I'm not that interested", I replied.
"Ok, just to make sure you understand....THIS CAR WILL PROBABLY BE GONE TOMORROW." He said back, not reading my body language, or my direct words that told him I was not interested.
He continued to push the scarcity on something I didn't want.
The lesson learned from this experience - if it's not something your customer REALLY REALLY wants, it's too soon to pull out the scarcity card.
When I first learned this consumer psychology principle, I tried to sell people on the scarcity before they even realized they wanted the product! It didn't work!
Make sure to only use scarcity on something people actually want.
2) Scarcity works when the customer wants the product.
In 2008, when I was looking at apartments for my senior year of college, I found the perfect apartment in downtown Port Jefferson, NY.
It was a short drive to the college, walking distance to all the popular bars, the waterfront port, all the shops, and it was right next to the volunteer fire department I was a member of at the time. Which means when a call came out on the radio, I was sure to be the first on the truck and get in on the action!!
A perfect fit.
"I'll get back to you later this week", I said..procrastinating at the time.
"We have two couples looking at the apartment tomorrow", the landlord said.
My roommate said she learned about this "sales trick" in her consumer psychology class last semester, and that the landlord was probably lying in order to push the sale.
"I don't care...I want it.... we have to act now.", I said.
My roommate agreed. We made sure the money was in the checking accounts that night, we wrote the checks, and called the landlord 5 times that night to make sure we get the deposit to her before we miss out on the deal.
When your customer wants your product, and there is scarcity....it will cause them to go in a panic and act right away, just like I frantically drove to the bank ASAP to deposit any money I could to make rent.
3) REAL scarcity is effective scarcity.
Take the title of this thread for example:
This Important Message Will Be Taken Down Today | Click Here Now>>
The first day, it will most likely get a lot of clicks "Oooo, an important message!? I must read it before it's gone."
- But then what happens when you see it still up tomorrow?
- And the next day?
- And three weeks later?
Not only will it lead to unhappy customers: It will lead to potential refunds, negative reviews, ripoff report dot com, you name it. Those reviews don't go away.
So in summary, when a customer sees something they already really want, and they see that the resource is scarce, they will go into tribal animal mode to make that resource theirs, just like it's the last piece of food before winter.
But if they see that one last scrap of food, and then a pile of apples hiding behind the tree...that instinct wont kick in..and it won't work.
Be real, be authentic, and deliver something that the customer knows they want.
When you use it the right way, get ready for this...just like MJs Fastlane Summit tickets sold out within an hour.
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