How To Increase Conversions Using Smart & Ethical Scarcity

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Hi, my name is Igor Kheifets and this is the List Building Lifestyle, the only podcast
which delivers cutting edge conversion strategies from the online trenches straight to
your earbuds. Download the transcript of today’s episode and all future episodes at
listbuilidnglifestylesshow.com. I also invite you to grab a free copy of “The Wealthy
List Builder’s Survival Guide” at listbuildinglifestyleshow.com/survival and now
once again it’s time to claim your List Building Lifestyle.

Jonathan: You are listening to the List Building Lifestyle. Here is your host, a
guy with a natural voice for radio, Mr. Igor Kheifets.

Igor: What is up, Jonathan? How do you like my voice today?

Jonathan: Oh my goodness. Look at this guy.

Igor: Are you excited? Because I am. [laughter]

Jonathan: [laughter] Nice.

Igor: All jokes aside, seriously all jokes aside, and we spoke about this before
getting on today and I just want everybody to know who is listening, I was told by
a voice expert. There is actually a person now out there who I consulted about
that I’ve got the perfect voice for radio and since podcasting, correct me if I’m
wrong, Jonathan, is sort of like the internet radio version then I concluded that
I was born for podcasting. The reason you and I are recording this right now, it’s
not accident. It was meant to be.

Jonathan: Yeah, it’s serendipitous that we are here today. I just want to make
sure; did you pay that guy before or after he told you that?

Igor: I paid him before so he knows exactly what he needs to say so there is no
confusion.

Jonathan: That’s right he was working for you, he had to make sure he made you
feel good. So seriously, I think you are meant for this and I’ll tell you why. It
has nothing to do with your voice, although it’s nice, I like your voice very
pleasant. Actually I like your accent even more than your voice to completely
transparent with because it’s what makes you unique and stand out. But the thing
that I like most is your ability to show up every week and deliver. So what are
you delivering today?

Igor: Well, today I want to chat about scarcity and we have done scarcity episodes
before but you see for the last couple of weeks I’ve been writing this guide about
Solo Ads. It’s the ultimate guide to Solo Ads and it’s going to be released in
about a month from now and I had to write a whole portion of it about scarcity
because I believe ñ I mean my experience has taught me that scarcity is just an
incredibly valuable element to any successful offer. In fact I don’t recall any
offer that converts really well that I ever ran that did not have a scarcity
element to it. So what I needed to do when I set out to write this guide was to
kind of do some more research on the topic of scarcity because I always knew it
works but I never really gone ahead and collected information and did some
thorough research about why it works and so I found this incredible study which is
really simple yet it really tells you and really shows you that scarcity is
invaluable and so it goes something like this. A couple of scientists decided to
test this scarcity theory by taking a group of participants and asking them to
rate two cookie jars which one is more desirable. So the first cookie jar, they
put in a bunch of cookies like a lot, 10 or more and the second one they
deliberately place less than 10 usually around 2 and placed them kind of side by
side. So now people had to rate which cookie they wanted more like from which jar
they would prefer to eat. The participants voted jar number two, the one with
fewer cookies, to be more desirable than the one with the abundant amount of
cookies. Now again it’s really, really simple yet it tells you what we are dealing
with here when it comes to the human brain, the List Builders brain, we are always
going for what is scarce. Now they decided to test a different angle to this
theory by doing the same thing only this time they allowed people to see how the
second jar was replenished with cookies then cookies were taken out of it. So they
would literally allow them to watch as it would be filled up with more cookies and
the other people would come in and take cookies from that jar again leaving the
jar with a scarce amount of cookies. Once again jar number two was always more
desirable. So what this tells us is that creating an offer of any kind even if
you’re not creating the damn offer, even if you’re just selling it, doing it
without genuine scarcity, you’re leaving a ton of money on the table.

Jonathan: I’m just thinking about them cookies. They sound delicious. [laughter]
The empty jar is what attracted people even when they saw which is kind of
interesting, saw them taking that out of there. So what is it about when there’s
less of something. Why does that make people want to take more action?

Igor: Well, I’ve actually dove deep into this matter and discovered that since we
started as a species, we’re always stuck in an environment of scarcity. In other
words, like think of the time when there were dinosaurs and saber-tooth tigers,
there was enough food to go around for everybody, we had to work with the limited
amount we had. So our brain the way that it developed, there are three different
layers. The first layer is the lizard brain. The second layer is the mammal brain
that’s responsible for social and like family interaction. The last one, the third
layer is the racial brain. It’s the one that we use for some big picture thinking
and math quizzes and stuff like that. So the lizard brain is the first one in the
sequence of brains that kind of forces us to make decisions which is why we are
emotional beings. In fact the decision to not be emotional is actually an
emotional decision. So the lizard brain views everything as scarce and that is why
even today where nothing is scarce let’s be honest, I mean in today’s world the
food is not scarce, the housing is not scarce, the sex is not scarce like the
water is not scarce, everything is available to us in large quantities yet if we
go on a diet and we say no more chocolate cake, no more cookies, no more anything
that makes us fat and we come across an environment full of chocolate cookies and
cakes and stuff, we can’t resist because our lizard brain is still wired to that
scarcity element where it needs to grab as much of the desirable thing which for
the lizard brain it’s food, sex, shelter and that sort of stuff. It needs it as
much as it can because it lives in a constant state of scarcity that is why the
offers that you produce, the offer that you put out that will work really well are
going to be the ones that have genuine scarcity not bullshit scarcity but genuine
scarcity attached.

Jonathan: What’s the difference? Because that’s exactly my next question, I was
going to ask you ñ I’ve only got 10 of these digital course that kind of stuff
that we run into all of the time so what’s the difference between that and genuine
scarcity?

Igor: Well so obviously, you know, when someone learns about scarcity for the
first time, they start playing with this concept and just like you said, they sell
a digital product and they say, “Well I only have 20 of these.” Because they are
trying to knock off someone else’s sales page from the old direct response copy
where they only had 20 physical copies of the product but you see in genuine
scarcity aka bullshit scarcity, it just doesn’t work. People can see right through
it. So you have to limit your product in a different way. So rather than saying
you have a limited amount of digital copies of your product which of course is
nonsense. Instead try to limit different things for example, what about your
price? Maybe you’re just releasing a product and you’re offering the product at an
introductory low price that is going to be 50% of what the usual price is supposed
to be. That is genuine scarcity. Maybe you have a timer set up and as long as the
person acts within the first 48 hours of seeing the offer, you’re going to reward
them with either a lower price or an exclusive bonus and if they fail to act those
privileges are taken away. What if you’re a coach or a consultant and you’re
working with people one on one and you can honestly justify this and say that you
can only handle four clients per day five days a week. Right now 90% of your
schedule is taken by other clients which means that only leaves you with whatever,
4, 5, 7 spots in your schedule that month so for 7 new clients and that’s genuine
scarcity again as long you’re truthful about how much time it takes you per
client. So the difference between genuine scarcity and bullshit scarcity is that
it could be justified using a logical argument to the prospect and it’s not just
something you say to try to scare people into buying because they can see right
through it.

Jonathan: So you said you did some deep research on this and you’re talking about
the lizard brain and the mammal brain and the rational brain. I’m just curious for
my own benefit what was the research? What were you reading? Where did you go,
what was the rabbit trail that you took to get into this stuff?

Igor: Well, a lot of the research that I’ve done, I’ve done it unconsciously over
the years and I had to go back to the books I’ve read on the topic in order to
kind of collect bits and pieces of information. But by far the person or the
author that put it in the best way and the easiest to understand way possible
spoke about lizard brain and the other types of brains was actually not a
scientist, his name is Chris Voss. I hosted him on the show. He’s the author of
“Never Split the Difference”. It’s a book about negotiations. In the first chapter
Chris talks about the lizard brain because it is the primary decision driver in
negotiation and it’s critical for us to understand that everything that we ever
want or feel that we need and every decision that we make is always driven by the
lizard brain because the way it happens is the lizard brain is sort of like the
stream that goes into the river. It feeds the river. The river is the logical
brain. So whatever decision lizard brain makes, he then sends the signal to the
logical or the rational brain to figure out how to present it to other people and
to ourselves because I mean how many times did we try to justify the decision to
ourselves first and convince ourselves that we’re making the right decision. I do
it all the time, in fact I have ñ like I journal so I have pages and pages and
pages of brainstorming with myself why I should or should not do something. But
I’m confusing myself because the decision has already been made by the lizard
brain. This is just a game I’m playing with my own brain. It’s really hard to
remember that because we get so caught up in the lizard brain. So again, my point
is this; don’t try and fix the lizard brain. Instead as a marketer, it holds value
to you because now you understand that all you have to do is influence the lizard
brain using the scarcity to dramatically see results. I’m really talking about
doubling or even tripling the response of your offer sometimes. It could be that
significant.

Jonathan: Wow. So Igor give me some examples of how you use scarcity in your
business right now, Igor Solo Ads.

Igor: Ah, you’re making me reveal all my secrets.

Jonathan: You don’t have to if you don’t want to. [laughter]

Igor: Well now that you put me on the spot of course I have to. So let me give you
a couple of examples. So one way I use scarcity is with our “done for you” email
service so if you go to bizopemails.com, you’ll see that we are offering to write
your daily emails for you for your business opportunity or internet marketing
program for $297 per month which comes down to just $9.90 an email, not a huge
price to pay if you ask me. Now if you act within the first 7 days of seeing that
offer, you will also get the bonus which is my team installing the emails for you
and hitting the send button for you so we literally automate your entire email
marketing for you. We write the emails and we’ll load them into your autoresponder
account and we even hit the send button. You literally do not have to lift a
finger. But if you fail to act in the first 7 days that bonus is gone and you can
still get the emails for 297 per month but you’ll have to be the one installing
them. You’ll just get a pdf file containing the emails so that’s one example.
Another example is we just launched a brand new offer, if you go to
leads.igor.soloads.com you’re able to purchase leads that we deliver to you using
a brand new API method which basically means that they almost magically appear in
your autoresponder account and so it’s an introductory offer we give you 48 hours
to act and get these leads for a price lower than it would cost you to get clicks
from us. It’s really a no-brainer offer. I mean literally you will get a lead in a
more affordable way, you pay less money for the lead than you paid per click that
is ridiculous, but it’s only available for 48 hours from the moment you land on
the page. If you fail to act, the timer that is on the page will clock down to
zero and then it will redirect you to full price page where it says, “You’re too
late, now you have to pay full price.” By the way, this is another critical
element to creating genuine scarcity. Never say, you only have 48 hours and leave
the page as is, always have some sort of automated software and I use
WebsiteCountdown.com to place a timer that redirects when you hit the deadline.
It’s really important whether it is an evergreen timer for 48 hours, whether it is
a date driven timeline, it doesn’t matter, as soon as that deadline is met, the
timer has to redirect them to a “Sorry you’re too late” kind of page. If you don’t
do it, your customers will never take you seriously.

Jonathan: Ain’t that the truth, man. So yeah, good examples. I know it hurts when
I make you talk about Igor Solo Ads. I’ll try to lay back on that and ask more
about your dad next time. [laughter]

Igor: [laughter]

Jonathan: What do you have ñ anything you want to say in closing or do you want to
tease out what is coming out next time?

Igor: To be honest, I mean how many times do I have to say scarcity works, use
scarcity. It’s pretty much what I wanted to say in this episode so next time,
we’re going to be chatting about squeeze pages. I’m going to be giving you the
recipe for the perfect Solo Ad squeeze page. So make sure that you tune in.

Jonathan: Sounds good. Another List Building Lifestyle Show is in the can. We’ll
be back in your earbuds next time. Thank you List Builders for tuning in.

Thank you for listening to The List Building Lifestyle Show, make sure to
subscribe on iTunes or Google Play to never miss an episode because who knows just
one conversion tactic we share on the show might double your list and double your
business. Download the transcript of today’s episode and all future episodes at
listbuilderslifestyleshow.com and don’t forget to claim your complimentary copy
of “The Wealthy List Builder’s Survival Guide” at listbuildinglifestyleshow.com/survival .
This is Igor Kheifets until next time we talk, have a good one.

This is the ThePodcastFactory.com.