Oversubscribed: How to Get People Lining Up to Do Business with You

by Daniel Priestley

There are restaurants that people line up for. There are products that you must preorder months in advance. There are tickets that sell out on the day they are released. There are stocks that go roaring up in value right after they float. There are cars that were bought before they were built and properties that sell off the plan when they are nothing more than a set of drawings. There are consultants who are booked six months in advance and hair stylists who charge ten times more than others. There's furniture you can't buy, only preorder, and bottles of wine that are purchased while their grapes are still hanging on the vine. There are people who don't chase clients. Clients chase them.

My company runs large business and leadership events around the world. We don't use typical conference rooms in typical hotels; we host our events in theatres and auditoriums that are usually used for popular musicals and shows. What's more, our events are premium priced and oversubscribed – despite the fact that most companies struggle to get 50–100 people to turn up to a free business event.

Being oversubscribed is the way for you to do your best work and spend more time with your current clients rather than chasing new ones.

It gives you more down time to innovate your products rather than running around selling them – and it enables you to build your brand rather than blend in with the crowd.

PRINCIPLE 1 ONLY OVERSUBSCRIBED BUSINESSES MAKE A PROFIT

I'm not sure how high it would have gone but I do know that it only takes two people to push up the price at an auction. Most of the people in the room didn't bid at all and very few people bid beyond £1,500. But that doesn't matter.

If two people want your time and only one can get it, your price rises until one of them gives in. Your job isn't to please everyone. Your job is to find those people who can't live without you. So … who are those people? What is it they want? And where do you find them? These questions matter more than the questions that relate to the overall market.

Your price isn't fixed or set by the overall market. It's a result of being oversubscribed or not.

“Why do markets go up?”

“Markets go up because there are more buyers than sellers – and that's it!”

A coffee shop with a line out the door can charge a price that covers all costs as well as a profit margin. An empty coffee shop will start discounting to customers in an effort to minimise the losses it's taking on rent, staff and utilities.

You'll only make a profit if you are oversubscribed on your capacity to deliver; demand for your stuff must always be greater than your ability to supply it. It's the tension of high demand and limited supply that creates the opportunity for profit.

People forget the basics. They get caught up in tactics for marketing and lead generation, and they fuss over management styles and team‐building techniques, forgetting that all of these activities don't mean much if the business isn't oversubscribed.

Being oversubscribed requires nothing more than a situation whereby some people who really want something have to miss out on having it. Of course, it's a difficult situation because you and your company don't want people to miss out. Naturally, you want to sell to everyone who's willing to buy, yet that very mindset prevents you from becoming oversubscribed.

If supply is too great and everyone who wants what you have can get what you have, the prices will fall and so will the margins. Eventually your business will make losses.

The principles for becoming oversubscribed can be useful across many aspects of your business. For example, if you want to hire top talent, you need to be oversubscribed for top talent. That means that some talented people who would love the job will miss out. If you want impactful publicity, you need to be oversubscribed for people who want the story you have to share, so some news outlets won't get the story. If you want investors, you need to be oversubscribed for funding – more people are ready to put in the money than you require and some of them ultimately miss out.

If you want to be oversubscribed, you'll need to get comfortable with some people missing out on what you have to offer. That's how markets work – and tha...

You must start to build your own group of loyal fans. Cultivate a tribe of people who are loyal to your business, your products, your personality and your philosophy. Rally your own troops. Break those people away from the industry, separate them one by one from the market and make them part of something special.

You'll also discover that you don't need to create a massive market for yourself in order to be oversubscribed. Being smaller can be an advantage when it comes to getting yourself oversubscribed. As I illustrated in Chapter 1, two bidders who really want something can be enough to make the price rise. A lucrative lifestyle business may need only a few thousand loyal customers – a relatively small, dedicated fan base of people who really love what you do. A $100 million enterprise might need to appeal to just 25,000 customers who passionately engage with a product that speaks directly to them.

The good news is that's all it takes these days. You don't need to be on the big screen, talked about on gossip blogs or forever on the front page of the paper in order to have a fantastic business or life. You just need to be famous for a few thousand people. Being famous simply means that people you've never met, in places you've never been, have an emotional connection to what you do.

The brain forms connections based on three key ingredients: Time – If you spend a lot of time with people, they start to bond with you. In particular, research into bonding behaviour suggests that spending more than seven hours with someone moves you beyond the “acquaintance” category and towards being a “friend.” Interactions – Having frequent exchanges of communication builds connection. Anyone who had an international pen pal will tell you that you can build a bond based on nothing other than writing letters to one another. In a research paper called “Zero Moments of Truth,” a Google thought leader discovered that when people had about 11 interactions with a brand, they were considerably more likely to buy from that brand. Locations – Seeing people in different places is another way stronger bonds are built. People who see each other only at work are not as bonded as people who also see each other in social settings or at sporting events. The magic number is four locations according to research into trust building.

Therefore the key to carving out your own market is in the formula of 7‐11‐4. The more people you can clock up time, interactions and locations with, the more people will see you as different, unique and part of their tribe. Through this lens, a famous person is merely someone who has used media and technology to 7‐11‐4 people.

People who are star‐struck by Oprah have probably watched more than seven hours of her shows, interacted with her more than 11 times and seen her in four separate locations (e.g. TV, magazines, social media and newspapers). Looking at a mainstream celebrity it's easy to miss the fundamental 7‐11‐4 principle that works universally. There are YouTube stars who have millions of subscribers watching them week in, week out. If one of their subscribers who has been sufficiently 7‐11‐4–ed saw them at a restaurant, they might fall off their chair in awe of being in the same room. Anyone else who's never heard of this person would find it bizarre because they have not had sufficient exposure this person.

The market consists of people who might buy your product. Your market are people who have been sufficiently 7‐11‐4–ed by you or your business brand. A business that is ready to scale is one that has enough digital assets freely available online that anyone who wants to go on a content binge can easily do so.

PRINCIPLE 3 FIRST MAKE YOUR MARKET THEN MAKE YOUR SALES

Rather than rushing your market, slow down and signal what you intend to do. Let them softly signal back their response. Dance with your market, send them a “flirtatious” email that hints about your intentions and let them return a “flutter of the eyes” that lets you know they are not unwilling to entertain what you have in mind.

In the first example, a binary option was promoted with no warming up, no signalling and no indication of capacity. Tickets are on sale – take it or leave it. The second approach offered value at every step, warmed people up to the speaker and the topics covered and asked for small signals of interest along the way. This put the organiser in a position to communicate the capacity of the event was oversubscribed and genuine reasons to buy a ticket upon release. It also allowed the organiser to follow up with people who had signalled interest but didn't buy. In all other ways, this conference could be the same but the number of attendees would be vastly different. Signal to the market what you're doing slowly and elegantly, adding value and intrigue as you do. Let them signal back to you their interest, concerns or input. Although it seems more time‐consuming to engage in this drawn‐out courtship dance with your potential clients, it's a surefire way of actually achieving the desired results.

DRIVER NUMBER ONE – INNOVATION The first way to create more buyers than sellers is to create something new that the market hasn't seen before and they now want.

There are three main types of innovation: Product innovation – You invest in a new product that people haven't seen before or modify an existing product in a new way. For example, George Lucas invented a galaxy of characters and products when he unleashed Star Wars on the world. Systems innovation – You deliver an existing product in a new way that makes things faster or more reliable. For example, Facebook is an innovative system for people to keep track of all their friends and it's a great system for advertisers too.

Brand innovation – You make something boring a lot more desirable with a new way of packaging it for the market. For example, Ralph Lauren popularised the standard polo shirt through high fashion branding.

If you haven't actively considered these questions before – and most people haven't – it is because your accountant owns the relationship with you and you have stopped shopping around for alternatives. If accountants can build up more and more clients like you over time, they will earn a very good income from their oversubscribed practice.

Your goal is to place a high value on what you do, work with people who recognise value and exceed their expectations. Set your boundaries, have your terms, protect your space so you can deliver something special.

The skill comes in making something available without forcing it on people – generating output without destroying the demand‐and‐supply tension. People want social proof; they want to see that others buy from you, others value you and others recommend you. The most powerful way to make something available is in a way that reaffirms the value not the availability of the product.

PEOPLE OFTEN JUDGE THE PRODUCT BY THE PEOPLE BUYING IT

When people feel good about buying from you, they will tell people that they bought from you. When they tell people they bought from you, other people like them will want to buy from you too. When people want to buy from you, you're on your way to being oversubscribed.

People don't buy what they need or what they should buy; they buy what they want.

Singaporeans who have made a lot of money want a Ferrari – and that's all that matters. It doesn't matter how poorly suited this car is, how expensive it is, or how much more comfortable they would be in a sedan. What they need doesn't matter; what they want reigns supreme.

You can go broke trying to tell people what they need. However, you will do very well if you figure out what people want and figure out how to get it for them. Need is logical and want is emotional. Emotions wi...

Whether you're focussed on running a business or creating a social movement, the key to your success is tapping into people's wants rather than their needs. Ask people what they want, then build it for them the way they want it. Explain it to them in the context of what they want. Then package up what they need along with it.

PRINCIPLE 5 BE DIFFERENT AND SET YOUR OWN RULES

Businesses who become oversubscribed know what they want and have no problem saying no to the rest. They know who their best customers are, who their most loyal and productive staff are, the suppliers they want to use and the investors who will work. They say no to anyone and anything that isn't right.

No requires you to develop high standards and stick to them.

It's OK to play a different game to everyone else. It's OK to tell the truth when everyone else is exaggerating. It's OK to be old‐fashioned when everyone else is trying to be modern; it's OK to be expensive when everyone else is trying to be cheap; it's OK to be flamboyant when everyone else is trying to fit in.

What are the expected norms in your industry? What's everyone else doing? What would the opposite be and how would you do that really well?

Contrarian ideas are powerful, challenging the status quo is powerful. If everyone in your industry charges by the hour, create a fixed price. If everyone in your industry sells components, be the company that sells only bundles. If everyone is showing off about their heritage, be the company that is a new and disruptive thought leader. If the industry norm is to sign clients on to12‐month contracts, be the first to offer month‐by‐month billing with no break clause. Charge based on results, give more away for free that everyone else is charging for, charge for something that others do for free but do it powerfully and exclusively. It's your business and your integrity so you get to make the rules.

PRINCIPLE 6 VALUE IS CREATED IN THE ECOSYSTEM

The people who get paid well today are the people who build a sophisticated product and services ecosystem.

Contact Daniel

Making people jump over the wall freezes people into inaction. People hate making big commitments or taking any action that's hard to back out from. Giving people a low‐risk first step is a powerful way to move people in the right direction.

Not so long ago, a consultant approached my business with a remarkable plan. She had 20+ years of experience developing systems and rolling out operations with a global business that I admired. She knew answers to all sorts of questions that I had; she was smart, experienced and I was thrilled by the idea of working with her after the first meeting. A week later, upon my request, she sent a plan to work together with a six‐figure estimate. I agreed with the value she offered and that she was the person best suited to help us – but I was reluctant to commit to such a sum of money as a first deal. To this day, we've not moved forward because the decision felt too big for my team to proceed with. Had she created a low‐risk first step for us to climb we would have spent a fortune by now. Giving us a wall to climb killed the sale.