Why Scarcity Is the Most Powerful Sales Trigger
In October 2011, fifteen minutes before walking on stage in Orlando, Dave Wood decided to run an experiment: sell the room without ever mentioning what he was selling. What happened next taught him more about the psychology of buying than any pitch ever could, and it comes down to one word. This episode breaks down where that reflex actually comes from, why it beats logic every time, and where people get it wrong when they try to fake it. Here’s the episode.
It’s mid-October 2011, and I’m in Orlando, Florida, fifteen minutes before walking onto the stage. A challenge popped into my mind a few minutes before: to see if it was possible to sell nothing at all. I don’t mean that I was selling nothing. I mean I was wondering if I could give a speech to that room and never mention what they were buying, specifically, and still get them to buy it. So what do you think happened?
Scarcity is one of the most powerful human influencers there is. The idea that we can’t have something, or that there isn’t enough available for everyone, makes us want to take action immediately to secure our copy. In the presence of every other stimulus, we take action in bigger numbers out of fear of loss than we ever will out of desire for gain. In 2007, I was at a conference where a thirty million dollar a year earner named Randy Schrader put it like this: always remember that people will act way more out of fear of loss than they will out of desire for gain. I’ve found that to be true.
When every other element of an effective presentation is in place, what is it that provides the magical key that gets a prospect to act, almost lifting their credit card out of their pocket and entering the numbers on the purchase page unconsciously and automatically? The answer is scarcity. I was reading a book called Influence, by Robert Cialdini, and he closes it with a psychological breakdown of the automatic responses that get triggered by the fear of losing out on something in short supply.
Where Your Buying Reflex Actually Comes From
Where does that automatic buying response originate? Probably evolution. Our species, and our ancestors, have been competing for limited resources for millions, maybe billions, of years. When there’s only enough food for ten people and there are fifty people in a place, what happens? If the shortage continues, ten survive and forty don’t. Because of that deep, unconscious need for survival, we’ve evolved an automatic response to insufficient supply whenever we’re in the presence of scarce resources. The response is automatic. It’s unconscious. It’s like a buying switch flipped without you ever deciding to flip it.
Real Scarcity vs. Fake Scarcity
How can you use the principle of scarcity to get your prospects to pull out their credit card and buy on the spot? The concept is simple, and it takes conscious thought to implement properly when you’re new. Limit your customer base to a number of people you can actually serve well, because you don’t have unlimited time. Limit the number of people who can buy from you in a given period, so you can actually deliver on the promises you make to the people who hand you their money because they want to. Time and resource limitation creates automatic, real scarcity.
I also want to warn you against creating false scarcity. If you pretend there are limited copies when it’s actually unlimited, it will work for a while, but it stops working the moment people discover you were only running a psychological trick on them. They might even get angry. Build limitations based on your actual resources and your actual ability to deliver. If you want to recruit in your business, tell people the truth: you only have the capacity to work closely with a few people at a time, and that’s honest. Set the number you’ll accept slightly higher than your previous best month, and it will amaze you how the number of people who join actually rises to meet that limit, more than it ever did when you were offering unlimited access to everyone. Work with the people you take on, get them real results, and the rest will keep wanting to buy from you. They just have to get on a waiting list.
What a Buying Stampede Actually Looks Like
So what actually happened at my event in 2011? A buying rush. It was like watching a starving herd of cattle stampede toward a limited food supply, running over each other, except it wasn’t cattle, it was a swarm of hungry buyers swiping their credit cards and throwing cash at me. Literally throwing cash, desperate to get their copy while they still could claim it. Two thirds of the room bought that day.
Full episode transcript
Lightly edited from the original recording — fillers removed, nothing added. Income disclaimer.
Hello and welcome. I'm Dave Wood, and I'm the creator of The Daily Shortcut, and I'm glad that you're here. As you pay close attention to this episode, you're going to learn a powerful strategy that you can immediately apply in your business with little or no effort. Are you ready? So it's mid-October 2011, and I'm in Orlando, Florida, 15 minutes before walking onto the stage.
I had a hilarious idea a few minutes before pop into my mind. A challenge. To see if it was possible to sell nothing at all. I don't mean to say that I'm selling nothing. I meant I was wondering if I could give a speech in front of this particular room and never mention what they were buying specifically, and see if I could get them to buy it.
So what do you think happened? Well, scarcity is one of the most powerful human influencers. The idea that we can't have something, or that there's not enough available for us, for everyone, makes us want to take action immediately to make sure that we can secure our copy. In the presence of all other stimulus, we will take immediate action in larger numbers out of fear of loss than we will if we want something instead. In 2007, I was in a conference and a $30 million a year earner named Randy Schrader, he said it like this, always remember that people will act way more out of fear of loss than they will out of desire for gain.
I found that to be true. When all other elements are in place for an effective presentation that compels your prospects to take action, what is it that provides the magical key to making them act in a click-wur purchasing response, almost lifting their credit card out of their pocket and entering the numbers on the purchase page unconsciously and automatically? The answer to that question is scarcity. So. Today.
I'm just reading the book called Influence by Robert Chaldean and he finished the book with a psychological breakdown of the automatic responses that are created when there's the fear of losing out because of lack of sufficient supply. Where does our automatic buying response generate from that's originated with scarcity? Probably evolution, right? We live in a world where our species and our ancestors have been competing for limited resources for millions of years. We live in a world where our species and our ancestors have been competing for limited resources for millions, maybe even billions of years.
When there's only enough food for 10 people and there are 50 people in a specific place, what happens? If the limitation on food continues, 10 will survive and 40 won't. Because of the deep unconscious need that human beings have for survival, we have evolved an automatic response to insufficient supply when we are in the presence of scarce resources. And the response is automatic. And it's unconscious.
Like a buying switch that's flipped unconsciously into mind. How can you utilize the principle of scarcity to get your prospects to pull out their credit card and buy from you on the spot? Well, the concept is simple and takes conscious thinking in order to implement properly when you're new. But over a period of time, scarcity will become a natural byproduct of the power and the success that you'll gain when you continue watching e-money. And that's what we're going to talk about today.
I'm Robert Chaldean and I'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. your customer base to a number of people that you can actually successfully serve because you have no time. Number two, you'll have to limit the amount of people who can buy from you in a given period of time to make sure that you can deliver on your promises to the people who actually give you their money because they want to.
See time and resource limitation creates automatic and real scarcity when you continue applying these principles that you're going to learn by paying attention to each new episode of The Daily Shortcut. Before you're wildly successful and fantastically rich and also sexy, you can still take this principle and apply it to make more money right now in your business. Well, how can you do that? You can create limitations on the number of people that you'll recruit and you'll work with in your own business, limitations on your client base. Creating these limitations.
These limitations will actually increase the number of people who will want to buy from you and also how immediately they'll be willing to pull out their credit card. When they fear that they won't be able to get it, that's when they'll want it. I also want to warn you against creating false scarcity. If you pretend that there are limited copies, but in reality it's unlimited, it's still going to work temporarily, but it'll stop working when people discover that you're only using a psychological trick to get them to buy. They might even get mad.
Create limitations based on actual resources and ability to deliver that are real. For example, if you want to recruit in your business, simply tell people the truth. You only have the ability to work with a few people at a time, and that's honest. If you limit the number of people you'll allow to join to slightly higher than your previous best month, it will amaze you how the number of people who will join you will actually increase to meet that limitation from when what you were offering was, I'm going to help everyone in an unlimited supply, because the fact is, you actually can't. If you work with them and then you help them get results, then what will happen is people will continue to want to buy from you and they'll pull out their credit card, but they'll have to get on a waiting list, programming your prospects to take action immediately whenever you offer something that's new.
If you follow these principles you learn in each new episode, you're going to be creating commission results that startle you after a while. You're going to be creating commission results that startle you after a while. You're going to be creating commission results that startle you after a while. You just need to make sure to go through each bonus and apply each day's concepts in your business one day at a time. So my event in 2011, what actually happened?
I mentioned this in a previous episode, a buying rush. It was like watching a starving herd of cattle run wildly, stampeding towards a limited food supply, running over each other, only they weren't cattle, it was a swarm of hungry buyers swiping their credit cards. And throwing cash at me, literally throwing cash, wanting desperately to get their copy while they still could claim it. Two thirds of the room bought that day and what did they buy? Pay attention to this special message that's going to start in just a moment because I want to help you win faster and create the authority that you need to build and achieve your goals.
So I've prepared three powerful bonus shortcuts to help you do exactly that while giving more value to the marketplace at the same time in your first daily shortcut. You're going to get a free PDF workbook you can print that will help you think through the planning and the tracking processes in your own business and improve them dramatically. You're also going to get a transcription of today's episode so you can read it and also internalize these ideas. In your second daily shortcut, you're going to get a free audio download and you can listen to it again and again to absorb these ideas into your unconscious mind. You'll become more powerful and also more sexy.
Because you're learning powerful principles that create trust by being worthy of trust in the marketplace. In your third and most powerful daily shortcut, I'm going to give you my entire business system and you can even promote this episode with the email or the Facebook message that you got today automatically. That's called the Total Shortcut System which is the exact system that two thirds of the room will buy who are watching right now. The exact system that's generated over $195 million in sales and planning. I'm going to give you my entire business system and you can even promote this episode with the email or the Facebook message that you got today automatically.
I'm going to give you my entire business system and you can even promote this episode with the email or the Facebook message that you got today automatically. That's called the Total Shortcut System which is the exact system that two thirds of the room will buy who are watching right now. I'm going to give you my entire business system and you can even promote this episode with the email or the Facebook message that you got today automatically. That's called the Total Shortcut System which is the exact system that two thirds of the room will buy who are watching right now. I'm going to give you my entire business system and you can even promote this episode with the email or the Facebook message that you got today automatically.
That's called the Total Shortcut System which is the exact system that two thirds of the room will buy who are watching right now. as well i'll see you in the next episode of the daily shortcut and remember you're awesome
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