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

by Daniel Priestley

Staged release – Releasing capacity in smaller chunks to the perfect people Special/limited editions – Breaking capacity into variations for subgroups Price rises and time limits – Creating a changing pricing structure based on times and dates By breaking your capacity into stages or limited sections it's easier to get those smaller chunks oversubscribed. By imposing time limits or price rises there's a sense of urgency and tension for taking action to buy. All of these techniques are designed to maintain demand‐and‐supply tension.

Let's look at these tools in more detail. STAGED RELEASE In November 2013, the original cast of British comedy group Monty Python announced they would be rejoining for one night only to do a stage production at the O2 Arena in London. It was the first time in decades that they had performed together and the media buzzed with enthusiasm. “For one night only,” the newscasters chorused, “these comedic geniuses will entertain just a few thousand lucky fans!” This was big news for anyone who loves Monty Python and many people set an alarm to try and buy a ticket on the day of the release. Sadly, however, unless you bought in the first 40 seconds of tickets going on sale, you missed the boat. That night on the evening BBC news, sad fans were interviewed and shared how disappointed they were to miss out. “It's just not fair on us real fans who've waited so long for this,” one man said sadly to camera. “I wouldn't sell my ticket for £1,000,” said a lovely lady who was fortunate enough to have got through in time and snap up a ticket for £39. Many people felt cheated that they wanted something that they simply couldn't buy.

Funny Story 🌟🌟

Or so they thought. The next day, original Python John Cleese proudly announced that the performers and promoters had agreed to do another nine dates, making another 135,000 tickets available for all those unlucky people who missed out. Once again, the evening news carried the story. “Due to outstanding demand from dedicated Monty Python fans, the cast and crew have agreed to ten shows in total but be warned, tickets previously sold out in under 45 seconds flat. If you want a ticket, you better get in early when tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m.” Sure enough, the following morning my fiancé and I sat with our fingers hovering over the refresh button to get ourselves a ticket to the show. Up popped two tickets for £149 each that we gladly snapped up.

Even when I know what they are doing i...

In reality it's highly unlikely the promoters and performers of the show could easily book nine more consecutive days at the O2 Arena at short notice. It's actually much more likely that they used a technique called a sta...

A staged release is when you release quantities of your capacity only over several stages. You market the first batch or a small “early‐bird” quantity of your product and then follow up at a later date with additional availability. You'll often see Apple do this by announcing through the press that they have an “initial shipmen...

SPECIAL/LIMITED EDITIONS

Each special edition contains many of the same songs every fan knows. Many editions are marketed as a “limited run,” which could be hundreds of thousands, or for a “limited time,” which could be years. By creating slightly different special editions, they can run campaigns and promotions constantly and maintain demand‐and‐supply tension for each release.

Consider creating a special version of what you do that is only for a specific demographic. Maybe you do a version only for under‐30s, maybe a version that's only for high‐net‐worth individuals or one for people who work in the medical industry. Get creative and think through all the ways you could turn what you do into a “special edition.”

How could your business create special editions of what you do too? What kind of offering could include special features, only be for a special grou...

PRICE RISES AND TIME LIMITS

People love a genuine bargain. Conversely, I've seen the demise of most daily deal sites because many of the deals aren't genuine. For starters the discount isn't always a real discount. Many say that the product is “usually $39”; however, a quick Google search reveals that it's usually $19 on a dozen different sites. Second, the deal isn't for one day. You can go onto the site and see dozens of deals from previous months and buy the deal for the same price. Consumers aren't dumb; they figure out pretty fast that it's not a “deal” and it's not “daily.”

Activity What level of signalled interest do you need in order to be sufficiently oversubscribed? How can you ethically and warmly signal to your potential buyers that you are oversubscribed, creating demand and supply tension? Can you utilise tactics to break up the supply you have into smaller chunks that are more easily oversubscribed? Now that you have created transparent demand‐and‐supply tension and demonstrated that you are oversubscribed, you can be assured that many people will buy your offer.

Even though you have created this tension, you'll discover that a lot of people still need to have a conversation before they feel comfortable taking action. Sales follow‐up will ultimately generate the majority of your campaign results.

PHASE 4 SALES FOLLOW‐THROUGH: PROACTIVELY FOLLOW UP WITH PROSPECTS TO MAXIMISE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR CAMPAIGN Campaigns create opportunities to engage with people, and most of the financial benefits you'll see from a campaign will be secured through your careful sales follow‐through. Despite all the urgency and desire your marketing campaign creates, more than half the people who will buy from you want to talk to someone first to check their decision is the right one.

SALES CONVERSATIONS VERSUS CHIT‐CHATS You've done the work to build up a lot of energy behind your campaign, and the people you're meeting are already pre‐sold. Many have clocked up seven hours online, bought a product‐for‐prospects, Googled you and read up on your background. That doesn't mean every one of them is ready to buy; it means they are pre‐sold, and pre‐sold people still require a sales conversation in most cases. They might need to talk to someone, get some questions answered, explore some options or simply be reassured. What they don't need is chit‐chat. They aren't interested in talking about the weather or sports for long periods of time; your content and your products have already built enough trust and rapport for the discussion to focus on what you're offering.

A sales conversation is scripted and accompanied by materials like brochures or case studies. A sales conversation follows a predictable pattern – one for which you and your salespeople have rehearsed. This means that when the time comes to ask for the business, a sales conversation enables it to happen naturally. A sales conversation gets the deal done.

Sales conversations are unavoidable. Even when you are oversubscribed with people who know you, like you and trust you, you still need to maximize your results by having sales conversations.

You will get a lot of people buying from you during a successful campaign. This is an indicator that there are a lot more people who are on the fence and just need that quick conversation to assure them. Following up with sales conversations can quadruple the results you get from your campaigns.

You must mop up after your campaigns. All that buzz you created will go to waste if you're not following up with warm leads, booking face‐to‐face appointments, hitting...

If the biggest brands in the world have trained salespeople delivering scripted sales conversations, your business is going to need you and your team to be trained up in sales too. Being oversubscribed and running powerful campaigns doesn't remove the need to sell. It gives you more opportunities to sell and better qualified people to sell to.

THERE'S A RHYTHM TO SUCCESSFUL SALES

A huge part of successful selling is getting into a rhythm.

In my businesses we measure the rhythm using a dashboard called LAPS – leads, appointments, presentations and sales. Leads come in from people who have expressed interest in talking to us, appointments are when a dedicated time to talk has been set in the sales diary. Presentations are recorded when we successfully deliver our scripted sales script (sometimes people reschedule, don't show up or sales conversations go off‐script), and sales are made when we take payment, sign terms and conditions and begin the on‐boarding process. Different businesses have a different LAPS rhythm. Some businesses make one sale for every ten leads they generate. Some businesses need to generate 100 leads to make one sale.

Our LAPS scores over the last two years follow a predictable rhythm: 50 leads 10 appointments 8 presentations 2 sales

Knowing our LAPS rhythm lets us know whether we are on track or off track, where to improve and how to speed up. We know if we increase marketing spend and generate an extra 200 leads a week, it should result in eight additional sales. If it doesn't, we can go looking through the chain to find the weak link.

We do weekly LAPS in each of our offices around the world. Each week, each sales team has to stay above its target LAPS score as a team in order to unlock the team bonus. This weekly rhythm enables the team to find its sales flow and stay in it. Sitting on top of the weekly L...

For example, our sales team in an office will have a target of 100 leads, 20 appointments, 16 presentations and 4 sales for the week, whereas our quarterly campaign will have a goal to get 600 leads, 120 appointments, 100 presentations and 25 sales. If you annualise these targets you'll get a total of 200 sal...

THERE'S A STRUCTURE TO SUCCESSFUL SALES CONVERSATIONS When you are presenting a sales meeting, it should follow a predicable structure that you've planned and rehearsed; otherwise, you risk drifting into chit‐chat.

There are some key phases of every sales meeting that are common to most businesses: Rapport – Discover some common ground and an openness to engage in conversation. Discovery – Find out what this person is trying to achieve, what frustrations he/she'd like to solve, preferences and desires along with what about his/her current situation made that person go looking at relevant options. Confirming – Ensure that you have all the relevant information correct, you understand the prospect's situation clearly and you're in a good position to make a recommendation. Advising – Share insights, methods and solutions for addressing the needs of the prospect. Put forward the key features, advantages and benefits that meet the customer's desires. Discussing – Find whether the proposed solution meets the prospect's needs and wants, tailoring the solution or negotiating on any flexible aspects of the sale. Completing – Confirm the sale and do the administrational activity required or update the CRM system with next steps and relevant information. Plan out how you want your sales meetings to run and rehearse the script. Identify the part of your sales meeting structure that's weakest and try to find ways to deliver it more powerfully. Don't fool yourself into thinking an unstructured chat will perform anywhere near as well as a planned presentation – you'll waste hundreds of hours of your life and the time of your prospects engaging in these interactions that mostly go nowhere.

A big part of success in sales is role‐play. Salespeople (or entrepreneurs who are selling) need a lot of rehearsal time to practice their presentation and their responses to key questions or objections.

In order to do the work you love, you have to win the work – you have to make the sale. The secret behind every successful campaign is that a significant number of sales are the direct result of follow‐up sales conversations.

I'm not talking about cold calling or selling to people one at a time. I'm talking about following up after a campaign, when the prospect has signalled interest and knows plenty of others are also interested. That's the time you must have a structured sales conversation that ends with you asking them directly if they want to buy too.

WITH‐OR‐WITHOUT YOU ENERGY There's a big difference between being a salesperson in an oversubscribed business compared to a business that is struggling to meet its targets. The difference is what I call “with‐or‐without‐you energy.” This is a mystical sense of confidence someone has about them when they know they will meet their targets regardless of what any one individual decides

they seem to exude a sense that they will be fine with or without you.

This energy is attractive. Humans are drawn towards people who aren't needy. They open up, they ba...

Conversely, when someone is insecure and seems desperate to make a sale, it has the effect of making a prospect close down ...

Humans are remarkable at spotting nonverbal communication, and even when the words are on script, a desperate person makes others unnerved with the dozens of small inflections in their voice and mannerisms. Rather than trying to fake with‐or‐without‐you energy it's better to actually be oversubscribed and genuinely be spoilt for choice when it comes to sales opportunities. It can take time but all salespeople should be diligent in keeping accurate records about prospects, setting reminders to call people when they agreed to and working with the marketing team to improve the quantity and quality of the leads.

All of these small things add up and result in salespeople having plenty of warm opportunities in their pipeline. With a surplus of opportunity, with‐or‐without‐you energy comes naturally.

Activity Are you keeping a dashboard of sales activity? Are you in a rhythm of regular sales conversations? Does your company have scripted sales conversations? Do you role‐play sales scripts? If not, when will you make time for it? How could you treat sales more professionally in your business? Are you and your team guilty of ABS braking? What stops you from following up with people who have signalled interest? How many warm leads would you need to have in your sales pipeline to experience a sense of with‐our‐without‐you energy? After making your sales, the most important step comes when it's time to deliver what you said you would. Nothing beats being positively remarkable in what you do.

POSITIVELY REMARKABLE DELIVERY This is the most important step in the process by far. The old adage of “Sell the sizzle not the steak” is over. We live in a world in which, if the “steak” is no good the business is over.