What is advertising? part 11

Use Takeaway Selling to Increase the Urgency
When you limit the supply of a product or service in some way (i.e.
takeaway selling), basic economics dictates that the demand will rise.
In other words, people will generally respond better to an offer if
they believe the offer is about to become unavailable or restricted in
some way.
And of course, the opposite is also true. If a prospect knows your
product will be around whenever he needs it, there’s no need for him
to act now. And when your ad is put aside by the prospect, the
chance of closing the sale diminishes greatly.
It’s your job, therefore, to get your prospect to buy, and buy now.
Using scarcity to sell is a great way to accomplish that.
There are basically three types of takeaways:
1) Limiting the quantity
2) Limiting the time
3) Limiting the offer

In the first method, limiting the quantity, you are presenting a fixed
number of widgets available for sale. After they’re gone, that’s it.
Some good ways to limit the quantity include:
• only so many units made or obtained
• selling off old stock to make room for new
• limited number of cosmetically-defected items, or a fire sale
• only a limited number being sold so as not to saturate the
market
• etc.
In the second method, limiting the time, a deadline is added to the
offer. It should be a realistic deadline, not one that changes all the
time (especially on a website, where the deadline date always seems
to be that very day at midnight…when you return the next day, the
deadline date has mysteriously changed again to the new day).
Deadlines that change decrease your credibility.
This approach works well when the offer or the price will change, or
the product/service will become unavailable, after the deadline.
The third method, limiting the offer, is accomplished by limiting other
parts of the offer, such as the guarantee, bonuses or premiums, the
price, and so on.
When using takeaway selling, you must be sure to follow-through
with your restrictions. If you say you only have 500 widgets to sell,
then don’t sell 501. If you say your offer will expire at the end of the
month, make sure it does. Otherwise your credibility will take a hit.
Prospects will remember the next time another offer from you makes
its way into their hands.
Another important thing you should do is explain the reason why the
offer is being restricted. Don’t just say the price will be going up in
three weeks, but decline to tell them why.

Here are some examples of good takeaway selling:
“Unfortunately, I can only handle so many clients. Once my plate is
full, I will be unable to accept any new business. So if you’re serious
about strengthening your investment strategies and creating more
wealth than ever before, you should contact me ASAP.”
“Remember…you must act by [date] at midnight in order to get my 2
bonuses. These bonuses have been provided by [third-party
company], and we have no control over their availability after that
time.”
“We’ve obtained only 750 of these premiums from our vendor. Once
they are gone, we won’t be able to get any more until next year. And
even then we can’t guarantee the price will remain the same. In fact,
because of the increasing demand, it’s very likely the price could
double or triple by then!”
Remember when I said earlier that people buy based on emotions,
then back up their decision to buy with logic? Well, by using
takeaway selling, that restriction becomes part of that logic to buy
and buy now.