False Scarcity Demonstrates Lack of Integrity
Someone recently sent me a link to an information product suggesting I look at their sales letter.
It was a typical “make money online” pitch with a well-dressed guy sharing his story of how he went from zero to hero using strategies and methods that he would share with us at the designated price. There was the big house, the pretty girlfriend and the sports car.
Ooh. I’m impressed. (Note the touch of sarcasm, please.)
Among the bombastic over-the-top headline, the photos of him living his “dream” and the BUY NOW call to action, something else caught my eye.
I noticed that he was using a scarcity tactic, declaring that there were only fourteen (14) units available at the existing price.
As I stayed on the page, the fourteen changed to a thirteen. Oh no! He was selling out right before my very eyes!
I hung around a couple more minutes and the number changed to a twelve. Then an eleven.
If I didn’t take action soon, I was going to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime.
Just for the fun of it, I cleared my browser cookies and reloaded the same page. What do you suppose I found?
That’s right. There were only FOURTEEN units left at the stated price.
If I was on a schoolyard playground, I’d probably chant “Liar, Liar, pants on fire!”
But since I am more mature than that, I’ll just call shenanigans. BIG TIME shenanigans.
Look, there is nothing wrong with using scarcity as a sales method, as long as that scarcity is REAL.
When we sold our Instant AdSense Templates product several years ago, we shut down the sale when we hit our quota. They weren’t available any longer.
And when I offered the Link Sizzler software to my customers, stating that the price would increase based on a predetermined number of units sold, we raised the price when we hit each milestone.
Scarcity is a very effective motivator when used ethically and with integrity.
But this particular marketer had neither ethics nor integrity. The countdown clock was a manipulative tool that had no bearing on the actual sale of the product.
It’s not difficult to find people using this tactic. It is done all over the web for hundreds of products.
Why do people do it? Because it works. Many potential customers believe that they are going to miss out on the product if they don’t hurry up and buy it. It causes them to feel pressured to buy on emotion without thinking about what they are doing.
If you are selling product online, please adhere to the highest standards of integrity. Not only will you be doing your customers a service, but you will build a stellar reputation for yourself.
Now hurry up and comment because their are only 14 comment slots left!
Not.
But comment anyway, please. 🙂
Thank you Joel for clearing this up! It seems we have turned IM into a high pressured sales medium of false hopes for big incomes just because someone says so! These ‘offer’ are often referred to as “shiny pennies” and easily distract us from our true purpose to be truly successful on our chosen journey. It’s about time someone spoke out with real candor about what we are being bombarded with daily. What can we use as the litmus test to the potential value of any of these offerings? Would you do a segment on the ‘boring Sales Letter’?
Bonnie
It is a pity many are abusing the sales tactics taught by men of old. Great article. Please IMers use the sales tactics with integrity and moderation.
Integrity in Marketing is a SCARCE commodity…
I wonder if we can find 14 ethical internet marketers
I don’t respect the scarcity tactic used in ANY way to “Scare” or pressure someone into buying the widget NOW. When I sell something there is NO scare tactic used and when I consider buying something if I see them play that game in any way I automatically just shut it down and move on to a similar product that does not apply the pressure trick to get me to buy the thing–And, I recommend that everyone else do the same thing. There will always be another similar and better product a week or so later anyway.
I’m glad you brought this up. I would never buy any of this stuff. The same goes for pages that proclaim that they’re only going to sell “240 each” of their product. What’s going to pay for the house and cars?
As of late, I’ve also been aware of a rash of “foreign” pitch guys. British, South African, Australian, all selling 240 each of traffic getting stuff for $37, with a $10 off if you try to leave the page. Are you kidding me?
Do the math, that’s only $8,880. That’s not going to buy a house!
I find the scarcity BS very distasteful!
I’ve been ripped off by some internet guru’s online and I hate them for it but they keep changing names and sending me more that’s why I don’t beleive them.
Joel,
You have really hit a nerve with this one. I can speak from experience having fallen for this several times. I find it interesting that someone says they only have 240 copies and this is such a hot selling item. Then I click back to the sales page a couple days later and they still have 240 offered. That either says the products really crummy or somebody’s not being truthful.
This also does not speak well of any affiliates who are trying to sell the product. It makes them look like liars as well. For those who are really involved in affiliate marketing it would do well to closely look at the sales methods of the person offering the product. I now make it a practice to unsubscribe from any affiliate offering products like this.
Another pet peeve: once you submit your credit card information and hit the “buy” button, you then get hit with about five upsells. If it’s such a great product it should work without all the upsells.
I have struggled in Internet marketing for quite a few years now. I’m just about ready to hang out because it is getting very hard to find honest people. It’s also hard as an affiliate because I don’t want to be associated with hype. Which is another reason why I’m about ready to call it quits.
There are laws against false advertising. I just can’t figure out why they aren’t being applied to Internet marketing!?!?
Also, I’m very much in agreement with the pet peeves already mentioned in these comments, but want to add another one concerning ClickBank. Based on some of the products I’ve purchased through them lately that were far below SUB-standard, I don’t think they screen the products sold through them anymore. This makes it seem as though they condone shady sales practices, and I find it hard to trust them now. I guess we’re back to “Let the buyer beware.”
Thanks Joel, for a great tip on how to tell you are dealing with one of these fraudsters. I agree with Melanie that people are getting savvier and these tactics are getting less and less effective. Hopefully those of use that are doing ethical internet marketing will win out in the end.
Integrity is the operative word in business, isn’t it. When it’s out of line, even in the slightest, I’m instinctively on guard, as I am sure most others are. We just know it in our gut.
With the increase of poor ethics in this industry, there’s a huge opportunity being created for those who choose to operate from the highest of integrity.
There’s a new space being created as more and more recognize they’re being lied to. They’re moving away from manipulators. Nobody wants to discover they’ve been scammed so they seek harder to find ethical business people.
It’s a chance for honest marketers people to step up their marketing a notch or two and step forward to fill that space with real, honest business. How great is that!!
Only 1 time have I seen this tactic actually end up true. The product was a membership website that this company supplied you with a monthly product and then in turn sold it to whoever you could. It was like 500 dollars and I wasn’t going to buy it and it only had so many copies available. Few weeks later I was reconsidering and went to look for it and sure enough all I found was a single page that said, it was sold out!
Hey Joel,
This is a topic that’s close to my own heart. I believe that in the long run this kind of advertising is headed for obsolescence. People are tired of being manipulated and lied to, and eventually they will just stop buying from those who try to do it.
I think a shift has already started in fact. In recent months I’ve seen more and more marketers changing in terms of their sales techniques, and a lot of them are showing real integrity. They’ve begun providing value and content, and clearly have an interest in actually helping their potential customers. Most also seem to be working toward developing long term relationships, which is actually a reverting back to the way things were done in the old school when mom and pop shops were on every corner. People, and relationships mattered then, and they need to again.
Ultimately in my estimation if online marketers don’t change they’ll be left behind. The day will come when folks who engage in these kinds of manipulative sales techniques will wake up and realize they’re broke and nobody wants anything to do with them.. and they will either be out of the game or they will change because they have no choice.
Cheers
Dr. John Michael Christian
I know person who use Scarcity strategy and it is the same as your story…he is liar and i am one of his customers who is buy because his LIAR…i send him an email and ask him why he is liar but he never answer my email.
Brilliant comment – too funny.
So are you saying that artificial scarcity is ok as long as it’s “real”?
Think about it a second. There is a thin line between the marketer who says there are 14 left and then stops selling after 14, and the marketer who says there are 14 left and then sells 100 more.
In both cases, the scarcity was manufactured as a technique to stimulate demand and motivate rapid action. It’s a manipulative tactic in either case. The guys that keep selling are just trying to have their cake and eat it too.
And why not? Why bother manipulating people to buy your product and then not be able to reap the rewards?
If it’s a digital product, the only legitimate reason for scarcity (from a buyer’s point of view) is getting something exclusive with limited market penetration, where that makes a difference. If that’s the reason for scarcity (as in Joel’s IAT product) then yes, it matters whether the limits are kept. But otherwise, it’s a marketing tactic, and it really doesn’t matter whether the limits are kept or not.
I absolutely agree with you, Jordy. I hate it when a company gives a “free” CD where you pay shipping just so they can force you into a continuity program without telling you. Telman Kanudeson did that to me and I have nothing but disdain for him. In fact, I was so angry that he didn’t tell me I was going to be billed $30 per month for something I didn’t even know he had and the fact that he has a no refund policy on top of that, that I filed a chrageback with my credit card company saying I never authorized the $30 charge, which I didn’t. And as a result, I’m never doing business with that imbecile again.
joel, you cheater… you deleted cookies and then you call that guy unethical!
shame on you!
by the way, just for the laugh… why not share that page (we promise we won’t buy from him!) 🙂
Great post Joel so true too much shenanigans going on in internet marketing these days, Oh but Wait! lam out of comment time! have to wait to next time! until then do awesome stuff Joel 🙂
So good to see someone else actually STATING this. I started a blog earlier this year with the aim of reviewing new internet marketing products I became aware of during the year (but in the end there were far too many to review or comment on).
Anyway, for one particular product I commented on this apparent ‘shenanigans’ for that marketer who claims he only ever releases 500 copies of this product, AND they always sell out in a short period of time. Really???? I used to believe him until he released another of his little ‘gold mines’ making that very claim, yet going back to his ninth version, the sales page STILL states that there are 212 available for sale, and this is six months later on.
So, thank you Joel, for voicing this issue in a public forum. I must admit I have become jaded this year about all the claims that internet marketers have made about how great this and that is – and especially those OTHER internet marketers who say how great so-and-so’s latest product is. I used to trust the opinion of some of these people, but not any more.
However, I will continue to read your blog, Joel, because you at least seem to be honest and, dare I say it of an internet marketer, ethical!
Keep up the good work.
Yea well I L- (character limit reached. Unable to process..)
Too true Joel.
Lots of people know how to embed a piece of javascript into their web page with a countdown timer telling you you’ve only got so many left.
Whilst I’m sure there is short term cash to be made from this, it is at the expense of their integrity and any marketer who uses these tactics won’t be able to generate a long term business.
In real selling/marketing its:
tell them what you are going to sell them.
sell them with actual features and benfits,
then close them.
Nobody tells you anything, its all hype about tons of money, heres the proof, your life is gona change I guarentee it, limited time, blah blah blah.
Buy substance. What is the product, what is it going to do, who is selling it, and what their rep. If someone is selling a (pipe) dream move on. If someone is selling a social posting software, that will save 3 hours a day by automating the service, they have a good rep on warrior forum (or elsewhere), beta tested the software for three months and all the bugs have been worked out then tell me that, not “but wait theres more if you act now…
There’s been a bunch of variations on the scarcity theme, some better implemented than others.
Isn’t pretty much all scarcity when it comes to information products generated though? It’s not like the downloads run out or there aren’t any more copies.
I could understand if it came with mentoring/ coaching and those spots were limited.
Remember also that we are coming up to the scarcity model at it’s best. Each christmas there are the “must have” gifts that will be hard to find, then remarkably just after christmas when the prices start bouncing back there will be floods of product. Hmmmmm what a thought.
Cheers,
Shane
IMHO, the highest standard of integrity would be to not sell anything to anyone–that includes any products, any services, and any theories/stories to explain why those products or services are needed.
(Note: I of course realize that this could be interpreted as advocating the death of all businesses…more on this later)
I believe the highest standard of integrity is to assist others in realizing that what they want–which I concluded to be basically INNER FREEDOM from experiencing any bad feelings such as frustration, anxiety, depression, etc.–can be created by themselves, WITHOUT them having to change anything in their life (without having to buy any products, or do anything).
I call this Unconditional Freedom from unwanted conditions in life. All it takes is realizing that all stories/theories presented or told by anyone anywhere (be it in books, sales letters, TV shows, etc) are basically lies. All theories are cause-effect theories and when you really and honestly examine any cause-effect relationship you have ever believed in, you will find out that it is not absolutely true (which means that you can stop feeling bad right now, forever, WITHOUT having to change anything else in your life circumstances.
Mission Accomplished. Now you no longer need to do anything, you no longer need to be afraid of anything, and you can simply choose to do whatever you want, freely and without attachment. This means that you might choose to buy the product advertised on someone’s website just for the heck of it (not because it will help you feel less frustrated or stressed or whatever other negative emotion). This also means businesses won’t just die when people no longer need products or services.
Joel, you too huh?
I’ve only re-entered the IM industry recently after a 10 year hiatus, and have undertaken an extensive market research program where I have reviewed a large number of online marketing packages. I’ve read a lot but hadn’t purchased until just recently.
I learned that if I close a window I’ll get a cheaper offer, and if I close again I’ll usually get a subscription request. I learned too that “Only 7 left” doesn’t necessarily mean there were only 7 left. I learned very quickly the difference between the fraudsters and the genuine industry leaders.
Having established and successfully run several offline businesses I knew that establishing a business required:
1. an idea, developed into
2. a plan, followed by the
3. execution of that plan, and a stack of
4. time and effort, followed by
5. more time and effort.
It is my experience that there are no get rich quick plans that will provide ongoing and consistent benefits. The rewards of business are directly proportional to the time and effort (and sometimes $$) invested.
Consequently, I invested around $2000 into each of two programs being taught by established, reputable online marketers, and industry leaders in their own right. I consider this $4000 a small price compared with the $1M+ I have previously invested back into my offline businesses.
My expectation is that I will learn what these guys have to teach, then go and apply what I have learned. It will take time and effort, but in the end if the plan is a good it will generate the returns I am looking for.
Joel, I am pleased to learn of a fellow business person who practices what he preaches, and does it with integrity and finesse. I’ve been reading your posts for a while and because of the integrity you have demonstrated I have purchased one of your products, and will seriously consider any offer you send to me in the future. As for the other backyarders and snake oil salesmen … my junkmail folder is becoming a very crowded place.
James Stott
BetterLife Magazine
http://betterlifemagazine.net
(watch this space)
Wow Joel, my first time and your neck of the woods and I loved this article, as wells the community you’ve established here on your blog. Very impressive.
Yeah, the copy and techniques you mentioned in this article really make me want to gag. The sad thing is there are many, many new internet shoppers that get very much fooled every day with such junk..Alas…
Keep up the great work.
I’ve been around watching these scare tactics for quite a few years now, but recently, despite all my gut feelings to the contrary, ended up being sucked in & made a purchase.
My observation is that the products sold by such tacky tactics, are pretty tacky themselves. I know this one was – now for the hassle of trying to get a refund!!
~Bruce
Thanks for the great post Joel. Years ago before this tacky tactic became popular, I was sucked into buying ‘one of only 15 spots left’ for a seminar. Two days later I received the exact same email (sent to another email address) saying there were only 15 spots left! Sure enough, when I went back to their website, there were still 15 left, even though I’d bought one the previous day! I was so discussed by their underhand tactics that I immediately wrote and asked for a refund and said if I didn’t receive it within 24 hours I would report them for false advertising. They refunded my money the same day and I’ve stayed clear of them since. The seminar may have contained some valuable information but their marketing strategy left such a sour taste in my mouth that I wanted nothing to do with them. It’s sad just how many companies treat the public like total idiots just because they don’t know much about internet marketing.
Well, as female customer, i think the scarcity works perfect with me every time, but before I’ve read this post, I could never check is that a real scarcity or false one, lesson learned today.