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

by Daniel Priestley

I've tested this many times and the results always excite me – even when I know what to expect. When you ask people to buy straight away they only have two choices: they buy or they don't. It's a binary decision. But people aren't binary. What if someone is 90% ready to buy? They are interested in what you have to offer and would probably purchase if they could just sort out one or two things. If you give them a decision to buy or not to buy, the binary choice forces them to not buy. This means hundreds of people might see your offer, be very interested but not 100% ready to buy and you simply don't know that they are interested. You'll get a better picture if you ask people to signal their interest. People who are only 10% interested in what you have might still signal their interest to you. Once they've done so, you can make sure they have all the information they need. Or perhaps signalling their interest might prompt them to get the answers they need in order to be 100% interested. Their volume of signalled interest could also build excitement and momentum for your product even if the sale doesn't go ahead.