Most marketers are afraid of this

I had a funny exchange with a client of mine that I just recently finished a portfolio page for.

A while back he sold his 7-figure business and decided to start consulting.

He’s pretty good at what he does & delivers projects that net his clients $500k / year in extra revenue.

So when he said that he wants to have a “I’m available so get-in-touch” button on his portfolio page I immediately pushed back.

You can’t make $500k / year for clients, but then be constantly available for work.

It just doesn’t make sense.

If you deliver results like that then you’re constantly in demand.

So I suggested a soft middle ground – a “Book a call (average wait time 29 days)” button, but he was extremely skeptical.

He said: “but, I want good clients to contact me and not make it a huge hassle for them.”

Heh – I really, really understand where he’s coming from.

We all want to find a way to get good clients while turning away bad clients.

And there is a way to do it… But you need to first figure out one thing:

Are they excited to buy from / hire you?

If the answer is no … then they’re not highest-priority prospects.

But how can we judge ‘excitement’ as marketers?

Well, one way is to make prospects jump through hoops to get to you.

Like not including a contact on your portfolio page if you’re a highly sought-after professional.

If they’re willing to search / ask around to find a way to work with you – that’s a very good sign.

It’s not that useful when you’re running a store though … so the other way to do it is to try and make them commit instantly to whatever offer you’re making.

“Take it or leave it,” kind of thing, and see if they bite.

But you need to be careful when you’re doing that.

You can’t just start with that in the beginning of your copy… (except in offer type leads).

You need to massage people into it, which is the job of the Lead and the Body.

And only after readers already believe that they want what you have do you start the Close.

That’s when you start introducing scarcity & urgency to see if they bite.

There are two ways to do both:

Natural & manufactured.

Natural scarcity is when you’ve got six Aston Martin DBR1 cars and you absolutely can’t get ahold of more of them because they’re one of the rarest cars on the planet.

Manufactured is when you’re running a sale and the coupon is valid for 100 purchases in total even though you could make it valid for more.

Natural scarcity is ALWAYS better than manufactured scarcity.

But manufactured scarcity is ALWAYS better than nothing.

The same thing goes for urgency.

So how do you do it?

How do you add some scarcity and urgency into your copy?

Here’s one way:

First you acknowledge their wants:

I’d love for you to get the product…

Then mention scarcity:

But that’s probably not going to be possible…

Explain why:

Tons of people have been ordering in bulk and it’s caused havoc in our supply …

Then explain what this means for them:

So you likely see a “SOLD OUT” sign on the site, but if it’s not there then you’re extremely lucky to be able to purchase right NOW.

Stomp on their greed glands:

If you don’t see a “SOLD OUT” sign then don’t wait because restocking usually takes weeks.

Remind them that other people are willing to suck it up:

It’s crazy how people are willing to put up with our production problems, just goes to show how happy they are with the product.

Stomp on their greed glands some more:

Honestly, I think the limited supply is just creating even more demand, because it keeps going out of stock faster and faster.

And so on.

Scarcity and urgency are all about power plays.

Some people are desperate to get clients and are willing to accept anybody.

Others have too much demand and get to pick and choose who gets what.

Doesn’t matter which group you belong to, it’s always better to pretend you’re in the latter.

Would you rather eat at an empty restaurant in the middle of a busy street, or a jam-packed restaurant at the edge of town? 😉

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