How to use sales urgency to increase profits without looking spammy

TommyCarey Level X³

July 24, 2018, 11:41 am

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A lot of people understand that using sales urgency as a marketing tactic to increase sales works very well, but not many people do it right, and that's what this discussion is all about! If you're using urgency to boost sales, you're likely seeing a boost in immediate sales, but you might not be doing it right and that means you could be hurting your website's image.

Your urgency sales system could be working, but if you're just coming off as a spammy company, you're actually losing a lot more sales than you could be making. A good urgency sales system will increase your profits by 20%, but a great one can boost sales up by 50% and it's surprising there aren't many people doing it right beside the massive companies that aren't too worried about making every sale possible.

If you're using an urgency tactic to boost sales or want to use it, then please keep reading this discussion and I'll let you know what you should be doing.

Show some scarcity
A good urgency setup will always have some sort of scarcity, which means you only have XX amount of products or services for sale, and this will increase the likelihood of people purchasing because they don't want to lose out. People are afraid of losing something, so if you're showing that you have 4 of an item or service left, it will push them to purchase.

Now, if you're doing it the right way, you'll show a countdown timer along with a number that drops with every single purchase. So not only do people see they're going to miss out on the sale after 24 hours, but they see that there are only a few items or services left, and that will push them, even more, to purchase because they don't want to miss it.

Know what your customer actually needs
If you don't know what your customers really need from you, you're likely going to offer the wrong service or products for a limited time, and that means you won't profit as much as possible.

The easiest way to know what people really want from your website is to simply ask them! Just put up a form that says "What would you like to see on sale?" and list 4 or 5 items or services and see which gets the most votes. The item with the most votes will be the one getting purchased the most when it comes down to crunch time How to use sales urgency to increase profits without looking spammy

How to use sales urgency to increase profits without looking spammy

Show visitors some consequences
One of the biggest selling tricks is to tell or show someone what will happen without your product or service, and it's always a bad thing, which will entice those people to purchase from you. Showing them negative outcomes from people who haven't purchased from you will only make them want to purchase because they don't want the same outcome.

If you can do this right, you can sell anything to anyone, and they will be grateful they have your product or service because they dodged a bullet How to use sales urgency to increase profits without looking spammy

In conclusion
Creating urgency through scarcity and a countdown timer that shows when someone will lose the sale will almost always increase your profits if you do it right. If you can follow the 3 points I talked about above here, you will be able to create the perfect urgency in order to see those 50% increase in sales, and you will be able to push that back into your company and make even more money How to use sales urgency to increase profits without looking spammy

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Thanks!

Tommy Carey

Comments

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DenisP

You know, I’ll never not be impressed with the amount of tactics that go into selling products and services. I mean, given just your posts which I’ve read on here, you could pretty much compile everything and get the sales version of Sun Tzu’s “Art of War.” Call it Tommy Carey’s “Art of Sale,” haha.

Anyway, I definitely can say that I’ve fallen victim to sites using urgency tactics. The problem is that some of them messed up their image with me by blatantly lying. For example, recently I bought pants from a site that had a countdown timer for a sale. Well, shortly after the counter ended, it was reset. This happened time and time again on the same set of pants, and they lost my trust as a result.

8 years ago

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TommyCarey

hahahaha that's hilarious How to use sales urgency to increase profits without looking spammy

Tommy Careys "Art of Sale" lmao How to use sales urgency to increase profits without looking spammy

Maybe I should compile all my methods, techniques, tips and tricks into an ebook and give it away to see what I can do in terms of lead generation haha How to use sales urgency to increase profits without looking spammy

Yeah, the urgency thing can be hit or miss. The first time a person lands on your website they will likely think "I can get this product or service even after the timer hits 0 because there isn't a limited quantity, they just want me to buy now!" but when they actually see you're not offering it anymore they will trust your countdown timers and they will not miss a second product with a timer on it How to use sales urgency to increase profits without looking spammy

Scarcity works the same way, people will think you have a lot of the products or services and you're just trying to boost your sales, but they will quickly notice you're the real deal when you don't offer it anymore when your numbers hit 0. They will start to trust you when you're not selling those products or services again because most companies just reset their timers and keep going, but you're legitimate with your scarcity How to use sales urgency to increase profits without looking spammy

8 years ago

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Corzhens

I wonder if that online store will still have customers. For sure you will not go back there anymore because of the deception that it employed which fooled you into buying at once. Right now we are evaluating a digital camera because our camera has a problem in the operation that maybe we need a new one. There is an ongoing promo until the end of November but the marketing guy in the offline store admitted that the discounted price may persist until end of December.

8 years ago

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jpyy

A good urgency setup will always have some sort of scarcity, which means you only have XX amount of products or services for sale, and this will increase the likelihood of people purchasing because they don't want to lose out. People are afraid of losing something, so if you're showing that you have 4 of an item or service left, it will push them to purchase.

Oddly enough, the sales I see often seem to be failing in this regard. I mean, If I miss their deal, I don't think I'm losing out cause they will simply put up what seems to be the same or similar sale. Has anyone else seen this phenomenon?

If you don't know what your customers really need from you, you're likely going to offer the wrong service or products for a limited time, and that means you won't profit as much as possible.

The easiest way to know what people really want from your website is to simply ask them! Just put up a form that says "What would you like to see on sale?" and list 4 or 5 items or services and see which gets the most votes. The item with the most votes will be the one getting purchased the most when it comes down to crunch time

Yeah, you certainly need to show scarcity of something they might actually want! However, though, if your some guy selling the same hosting plan a hundred other guys are, then what's so special?

8 years ago

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TommyCarey

Yeah, you certainly need to show scarcity of something they might actually want! However, though, if your some guy selling the same hosting plan a hundred other guys are, then what's so special?

If you're doing something like hosting, do a flash sale that only has 10 spots for a big server at half the price, and you will sell out quickly. Like I mentioned above, some people might not jump on board the first time they see the sale, because they'll assume you're just getting massive amounts of people to sign up, but they'll begin to trust you more when you don't offer it after those 10 spots are gone.

You'll have to tweak your approach based on what you sell or offer.

8 years ago

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DenisP

“If I miss their deal, I don't think I'm losing out cause they will simply put up what seems to be the same or similar sale. Has anyone else seen this phenomenon?”

Yup, I’ve actually addressed this in one of my comments above. There is a clothing site I purchase from occasionally, and they often have these over-the-top advertisements for sales. They put up this big countdown timer with a huge discount sign next to it in order to give you a sense of urgency.

Well it worked several times on me, but then I began to notice that once the timers were up, they’d reset them. I suppose it could just be their way of trying to move their inventory faster, but it’s still a bit of a shady tactic that makes me question the site’s integrity.

For what it’s worth, I still buy from the site so I guess it didn’t effect my opinion that much.

8 years ago

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Martinsx1

In any form of business dealing whether online or offline, if you fail to find out exactly what your customers are looking for, it's the doom of your business. Every business thrives to satisfy customers wants and when you don't know your customers wants or need, you have already failed.

8 years ago

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amelia88

I like what you said about urgency through scarcity. Often I feel that when I deal with companies myself, I feel like if there’s a chance I could miss out on something then I want to swoop in and purchase it!

8 years ago

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Martinsx1

Employing the use of creating artificial scarcity is a market strategy that has been in use for ages and it's still been used today because it is still very effective in pushing up demand for products and services at a particular point in time, even with increased prices, customers wouldn't mind.

8 years ago

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amelia88

Yup - I think it’s definitely a psychological trick that seems to encourage so many of us to go ahead and buy! I’m not surprised it’s been around for a while since it absolutely seems to be effective.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

There's a lot of selling tactics that can be used in selling your products and services and showing scarcity of a product due to dwindling supply is always a good tactic to sell more.

8 years ago

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treecko142

Definitely, I myself am a sucker when I see products online with a sort of discount and then marked as only a few items left. You have to do it as a business owner on your most popular product (even when you have more than a few in stock) so that people will choose to spend now rather than later when they can find another similar product.

8 years ago

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TommyCarey

The downside of having 1,000 items and saying you only have 15 is that people will start to not trust your sales tactics. If you want to build a consistent income from recurring buyers you'll need to get them to trust you, and by getting them to jump on a sale by telling lies is how you get them to leave your website for a competitor who is actually doing scarcity and urgency the right way.

Yes, you can boost your sales by falsifying your scarcity, but you won't be building trust among your customers because they'll just see the timers reset or the inventory number go back up to 100 and they will never come back. They will feel like you were taking advantage of them, and no one wants to feel like that, so try to run everything legitimately and people will come back time and time again to purchase from you.

8 years ago

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Martinsx1

This is very correct, it's not good building your business relationship with your customers based on lies in order to increase sales. But the sad story is that most businesses men and companies still use this strategy and customers still fall for them because there is no way of verifying if the stock is low.

8 years ago

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DenisP

“...I myself am a sucker when I see products online with a sort of discount and then marked as only a few items left.”

I can relate. There are two particular tactics which have worked on me. One is putting up countdown timers for sales, and the other is pointing out that there are only several items left in stock.

When I really think about it now, there were several occasions where I purchased something simply because it said there was only one left in stock. That idea that I might not have the opportunity to second guess my purchase was enough to make me say “Screw it, I’m buying it.” It could be true that there was only one left in stock, and it doesn’t have to be true, but it works either way.

8 years ago

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treecko142

Yeah, the countdown timers for sales and putting up the number of items remaining really affect the way consumers think. I'm usually a frugal person and I only really spend when I really need the item or I'm already planning to buy one in the near future anyway, but sometimes I settle on the items I see on sale rather than looking for a possibly better alternative. How much more for other people who don't have much self-control in spending for shopping.

8 years ago

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DenisP

“How much more for other people who don't have much self-control in spending for shopping.”

Absolutely. This is why companies use these shady tactics to begin with. Not only do they have the potential of swaying frugal spenders, but you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a buy out of impulse spenders and shopaholics. It’s pretty much a form of psychological manipulation, but I could probably say the same for just about the entire marketing industry.

I myself am a frugal spender as well, but I have to admit that even I sometimes buy things I might not even necessarily need simply because the price seems too good to pass up—in that moment at least.

8 years ago

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Barida

Understanding the power of scarcity is one of the ways to get things working well when we are running a sale urgency campaign. The reality is that people always want to buy when they discovered that a good amount of the products is what is left and can bought within days. It pushes them to make a move and this is all that the seller always desire from the beginning.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Basically you need to create your pitches in a way that would show and hype up your products reliability and market salability without looking like your desperate in getting a sale. Creating an event to launch a promo sale is a good way of doing this.

8 years ago

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Corzhens

In the current times in our country where rising prices is the main issue almost every day, small businesses are focusing on the necessities of their clients. One store is specializing in rice trading because people eat rice every day and you can always have a sale. Some others are turning to non-perishable goods particularly cheap canned goods and instant noodles that people are now gobbling up in lieu of the fresh food ingredients.

8 years ago

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treecko142

An important part of being in business is to always keep up with current events and focus your efforts toward which item sells the most for your target audience.

8 years ago

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jaymish2

I agree that this is a great tact to attract sales. My question is that is it really still relevant? Do people still fall for urgency to increase profit? I can only talk from a personal point of view where I buy something because I need it not because it is being sold at that price for a limited time only. Most of urgency sales go on forever, and any time you go back to the website they are still on. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has caught on to this fact.

8 years ago

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