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3 Powerful Ways to Create Urgency In Your Offer

How do you move someone from being “interested” in buying to actually making a purchase? I share three ways to create a sense of urgency in this episode.

Big Ideas

What Can You Do To Drive People To Buy? [0:15]

I love looking at marketing and advertising, and one of my practices is to scroll through old Instagram feeds, and save ads of products or something that’s being advertised. Inevitably, I now have hundreds of different products that I have saved at some point – clothing, tech gadgets, events, planners, clothing. And of all these hundreds and hundreds of ads, I’ve only ever bought one. Why? Because of urgency. There has only ever been one product that created a sense of urgency for me to buy.

As business owners, we have to present our offer and convert people into becoming a buying customer. But there are a lot of people that are interested but don’t actually buy. They want what you have,  but for whatever reason they haven’t pulled the trigger. The worst thing that can ever happen is somebody raising their hand and saying, “Yes, I would love to buy what you have, but I’ll save that for later.” Because guess what happens? Later never comes around. So it’s really important to learn how to create a sense of urgency to move people from thinking about buying to actually pulling out their credit card and paying. So, how do we do that?

Limit The Availability [2:48]

Number one, availability. When you limit the availability of what it is that you are selling, it naturally creates a sense of urgency, whereby people want to buy it when it’s available. Here’s a very simple example from nature. Every year, our family loves pomegranates, but pomegranates are only available during a certain time of year. So, when they’re available, we buy them because we know that window is a short window throughout the year when we can get our pomegranates.

But it’s so much more than that, right? If you think about it, when we launch our TRIBE Experience, we only deliver the TRIBE Experience one time a year. And so, people know, if you don’t get in when it’s open, you don’t get in for at least another year. There’s a natural sense of urgency that people know.

So, availability, meaning, is it only available a certain time of year? Is there a limited time discount when people can get that? Retail stores do this all the time. Back in the day, I used to work in a sports store, and it didn’t matter when you walked into that retail store, there would always be some kind of a promotion, where something in the store was being discounted or only available for a certain period of time.

Limit The Quantity [4:50]

Number two is quantity, meaning you limit the number that is available. You may be available all the time, but only with 100 items. When my wife and I were in Hawaii with our family, we went into an art gallery with gorgeous paintings. The person showing us the different paintings was talking to us about the artist, but then the other very interesting part of this whole experience was him talking about the limited quantity that was available. And when they’re gone, they’re gone. That’s when the price of that art starts to go up, because of the limited availability and quantity of that. So when there is more available, there’s less urgency, but as the number starts to decrease, you’ll start to see the sense of urgency increase. A perfect example of this is when there are tickets made available. When there are lots of tickets available, everyone’s thinking they can get them later. But then as the number of tickets starts to decrease, the sense of urgency increases for people to buy now.

Limited Access [6:36]

Number three is access, meaning people get access to something extra if they buy before a certain time. It could be exclusive access to you or somebody on your team, something that isn’t normally available. We do this during our TRIBE Experience with an opening day bonus. For anybody who purchases within the first 24 hours, there is a little something extra. And why do we do that? Because we love rewarding people who are taking action and committing themselves to the TRIBE Experience and the process of up-leveling their business by adding recurring revenue. We found that the people who make that decision earlier tend to have more success because they’re more committed.

Always Have A Deadline [8:22]

With all three of those examples, there’s one ingredient that is super important, regardless of what you are offering – a deadline. You must have a deadline, because the deadline gives people a reason to act today. And if you don’t have a deadline, people are going to save this for later. The reason I purchased from just one of those ads from the hundreds that I’ve saved was because it had a deadline. And it wasn’t an impulsive offer, or a low dollar item. It was an electric bike, and I didn’t just buy one of them, I bought two of them, one for me and one for my wife. It was a several-thousand-dollar purchase, but had they not had a deadline, I probably would have just saved it for later.

Memorable Quote

Oh, my goodness, those words are like the kiss of death, “Save that for later,” because guess what happens? Later never comes around.” – Stu McLaren

There’s one ingredient that is super important, regardless of what you are offering. It’s a deadline.” – Stu McLaren

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