I’m supposed to be on a plane right now over the Pacific Ocean, but I’m not.
Why? What other reason is there? I was late to the airport! I’m “used” to arriving at an airport for a domestic flight two hours early — 90 minutes if there’s traffic. Never had a problem before.
But this time… I didn’t realize that I had to arrive three hours early for international flights (this is only my third time leaving the country). The airport is a two hour drive away. I planned on leaving the house four hours before my flight. I was a little late getting going… a train crossed the tracks adding a delay, there was construction and traffic all up the freeway to the airport. I didn’t factor the 15 minute shuttle ride from parking to the terminal since this isn’t the airport I usually fly out of.
I was at that ticket counter 90 minutes before the flight. I was the last passenger to check in. By the time the ticket agent created a visa for me to travel, looked up my information, tried to figure out the computer to add me to the flight, I had an hour till takeoff. Too late.
No available flights to Australia tomorrow. I’d have to wait two days. That means my trip had been cut from four days in Australia into two days. I’m going to spend the same amount of time on the plane and at the airport, as I will be on the ground in Australia!
No way to cancel the flight and rebook with a different airline, no easy way to extend my trip either, especially since I have lots of things scheduled for when I get back.
I’m sure you’ve been in a similar situation at one point, so what can we learn from this?
Habit #1: “Paranoid” Scheduling
First of all, you better believe that I’m showing up at the airport very very early from now on. As in, even earlier than 2 hours for a domestic flight, even earlier than 3 hours for international.
Think about it… how many times have you stressed out about being late, how many times have you showed up somewhere 5 minutes late and felt bad… how many times have you missed out on something special just because you missed a different deadline?
Imagine how different your life would be if you rolled out of bed one hour earlier and jogged on the treadmill at the gym, or took a walk around your neighborhood, took a drive around town or went for a swim just to wake yourself up.
How different would things be if you had everything ready to go for your next product launch long before you needed it, before you even announced it, in fact?
Habit #2: Launch Scarcity
Speaking of product launches, Lance and I recently relaunched “Membership Cube 2.0.” Here’s what we did:
- We presented a “VIP webinar” to students who had completed the 1.0 course (some of them several years ago), already owned the membership license, and probably had a membership site, and sold many many people $197 for this updated training, until 11:59pm Eastern time that night
- For the next 24 hours, the price to upgrade for alumni students only was $297
- Then $397 for the next 24 hours
- Then $497 for the next 24 hours
- The following week, we opened up the brand new course to the public to join at $697, once again, only until 11:59pm Eastern time
- The next day, the price was $997 to join
- The day after that, we offered a 5-payment plan so people could choose to join either by paying the $997 in full, or subscribing to 5 payments of $225 (one every 30 days for 5 total payments)
- The day after that, we offered a choice between paying $997 upfront or choosing a 3-payment option (3 payments of $375)
- On the final day the price was simply $997, and can I tell you a secret?
We sold seats into Membership Cube 2.0 every single day of that launch, at every single price point above. What’s also interesting is that the majority of our sales occurred within 1 hour of every deadline. In other words, if we announced the price was increasing from $697 to $997 at 11:59pm Eastern that night, a bulk of our sales came in between 11:00pm and 11:59pm Eastern.
But it makes sense, after all… how many times did you wait until the very very last minute in high school and college? When you had a boss? In your business now?
It’s just human nature to wait until the pain is so great (I’m about to miss my flight or the product is about to become more expensive) to actually take some kind of action (something you take for granted like being able to travel to the opposite end of the world in a day or creating a website that takes payments).
Habit #3: Training Your List
I’m not saying that having scarcity will make or break your product launch, but if you have something good to sell, it’s an easy tool to pull out of your arsenal to give you a nice little boost in your sales.
We used to cap the number of seats in a class. Only 30 available! What’s the problem there? If we say 30 are available, 25 are remaining, it looks like no one wants the product. No social proof. If we sell all 30 seats in a day, we think… maybe we should have opened 50 or 60 slots?
The price increase strategy works great because the potential income is unlimited but it really pays off when we TRAIN OUR LIST.
Here’s what I mean. Many, many people contacted us — sometimes an hour after the price increased — saying that the price was $997 but can I join at $497 or even $197?
Our response was “no” and the reason was usually because someone had already bought at $697 or $997 at that point. Why should we let someone else pay full price when you contacted us and asked for a favor?
I’m sorry if that sounds harsh. But in the same way I’ll be sure not to miss another flight, I don’t want you to miss another launch or a price increase!
At the end of the day, there’s no point in getting angry or upset about paying more today simply because you don’t have to buy. You missed a sale, and that’s it.
Normally (what you see in the retail world) is something like this: this computer normally costs $1000, today only it’s $500. If someone bought that computer for $1000 yesterday, they’re screwed. If you miss today’s sale at $500, you have to pay $1000 tomorrow.
It might feel weird for you to turn away customers, or be strict about your deadlines, but the way I see it, you have two choices:
Either train your list that your sales, deadlines, and scarcity means nothing, and that anyone can get around it with a quick email…
Or that you’re serious about your business and your customers should be too. 11:59pm means 11:59pm and $997 means $997.
You can train your subscribers to have a sense of entitlement (they should get everything under the sun for 10 bucks) or that buying is a choice and that the price they pay is STILL much lower than the value they get.
And, whether you’re a buyer or a seller, or both, the best thing to do is to make the best out of any situation.
- I missed my flight, is there anything I can do to change that? No, it’s done.
- Did this event possibly prevent me from being late or making other mistakes in the future? Probably!
- Am I going to be a victim, feel sorry for myself, and mope around until my flight in two days? I think you know the answer to that question… time to get some coding done and get to the airport early tomorrow so I’m not in a rush
That’s how you can profit from my mistake: change your habits to that you’re early to everything. Product launches. Webinars. Meetings. Personal life events. Freelance jobs. Underpromise and overdeliver.
The next time you’re launching a product or getting paid to provide a done-for-you service, think about what kind of scarcity you can add in to improve an already great offer and make that event “special.”
And finally, keep in mind that you’re always training your list. You’re training your list to get used to how often you send emails, what price you charge (they get accustomed to high or low for sure), what kind of offers, whether you send out videos or perform live webinars… so what kind of subscribers do you want? It’s up to you.
Go ahead in the comment box below and tell me what you think.
