KEY POINTS:
There's a game all of us have played. It's called musical chairs.
So you have four chairs and five people. And the music begins, and everyone goes around the chairs. Then the music stops and there's a mad scramble for the chairs.
But only four people get to sit down. One person is eliminated.
But what if that one person weren't eliminated? What if that one person went on a waiting list?
So how do you create a waiting list?
Let's take the almost-accidental situation that Debbie and Andy find themselves in. Debbie and Andy are the owners of Pazon.com (where they make ignition systems for classic bikes).
At one point, the two of them decided they wanted to migrate from Kent, in Britain, to Tauranga in New Zealand.
Shortly before they were due to leave, they announced their moving plans to their list. And from nowhere, the orders started pouring in.
The distributors wanted more ignitions. So did the individual customers. And the website was swamped with orders.
So much so, that they had to redirect all orders through their distribution system, instead of the website sales pages.
Now this scenario was accidental ... and unplanned. And therefore it's unlikely that Pazon.com would have a waiting list. But what better moment to create a waiting list than when customers are pounding on your door?
We're talking scarcity, right?
But before we go into scarcity, let's make one thing clear. Scarcity is not urgency. So when you have a petrol company that announces a 12-hour drop in fuel prices, you get pandemonium, but nope, you don't get a waiting list.
A list is a list. It ain't urgency. Thought I'd point that out, right at the start. For a list, you have to register.
So though we can indeed create urgency, that doesn't in any way mean we have a list. What we have is a stampede for 12 hours. But what you want is a stampede for the rest of your life.
What you want is eternal scarcity.
So how do you make yourself scarce? Suppose you went away on vacation - would you be scarce? Suppose you were booked up all year; would you be scarce? And what if you were not booked up all year? Could you create scarcity out of nothing at all?
Could you create scarcity? Yes you could. Could you only accept a very limited number of speaking engagements a year?
Could you have limited stock of a specific product? Could you offer your services in a limited supply?
Because when you do, you're creating scarcity. And in most cases, scarcity doesn't create itself. You literally have to create the darned thing.
But once you have "fewer chairs" and "more people" then you've set up the core of scarcity. Of course, once you create a list it becomes self-perpetuating. The ones who are at the top get first preference. The ones who come next get preference in the order they've signed up. And so the demand almost never dies.
So how do you create waiting lists?
* Go niche: If you're a generalist, you get little notice. But niche skills and information get an audience that doesn't want to miss out at any cost. This means that if you talk about "dogs", then your audience is kinda interested. If you talk on the topic of "how to teach a dog to sing in key", you have a topic that's scarce - and very desirable.
Why? Because if you look up the topic on Google, you won't find too many instances of that specific topic (if you find any instance at all). The broader the topic, the less the chances of creating scarcity.
* Do a drip feed: When you announce an event, you get sudden impact. But waiting lists are created by drip-feeding. If you keep feeding your audience with information about an upcoming event, then as the event approaches, it creates a desire to be part of that event.
Most people simply announce an ebook, a product or an event at one go, instead of drip feeding. That's a dumb way to go about things. Always create a drip feed, and get people on the list well in advance.
* Great testimonials create waiting lists. Raving testimonials may be hard to get the first time around, but you can get testimonials from "samplers". Reviewers of movies are samplers. If they critique the movie and give a very high rating, then it creates a demand at the cinemas - thus creating a waiting list when you buy tickets in advance.
The longer and harder it takes for a customer to get into that waiting list, the more they desire to be part of the situation.
In your business, you can get samplers to test out products/services/events in advance. Once an event is already rolled out, you can get testimonials from live participants/readers/users.
Creating waiting lists isn't as hard as you think.
The steps are simple. Get four chairs. And five people. And let the waiting list begin.
* Sean D'Souza is chief executive of Psychotactics and is an international author and trainer
