Mindset
Break Your Scarcity Mindset
Your scarcity mindset is hurting your sales.
No, not that scarcity mindset. Not the one that I'm sure you've heard lots about and shifted away from years ago.
Not the “there's not enough to go around, I need to hold tight to what's mine” mindset. I'm sure you're more into abundance than that sort of scarcity.
But there's another scarcity mindset many of us have. And it's far more insidious.
It's the mindset you have with potential clients. The one that whenever you meet up with a new one tells you “you don't get many of these – you've gotta turn this one into a client”.
It's the Client Scarcity mindset.
Here's an example of the Client Scarcity mindset in action:
My friend D Bnonn Tennant (yeah, I know, weird name, but smart guy) sent out an email recently talking about how he shows his (expensive) prices for web development on his site whereas most web designers don't.
In his case it means he only really speaks to potential clients who've already decided they can afford those prices and want to work with him.
But most web designers are too frightened to put their prices on their site. They want potential clients to call them so they can persuade them of the value of their services before revealing how much the thing's gonna cost.
It's standard best practice in sales. Don't talk price until you've established value.
But that way of thinking comes from a scarcity mindset.
It comes from a mindset of having a shortage of leads and not wanting to lose a single one. Of maximising your chances of converting every lead because they're in short supply.
And it's very time consuming.
You end up spending time talking (or giving “free initial consultations”) to lots of people who aren't perfect for you because you don't want to miss out on the one who is.
It's a process designed for a world where you have plenty of time but very few leads.
But what if you had more leads than you could handle?
What would you do then?
You'd try to maximise your time rather than trying to convert every lead. You'd try to qualify each lead so you only invested your scarce time in the very best leads. You wouldn't mind missing out on a few leads because you had so many.
So you'd do what Bnonn does and get your high price right out there on the table up front. Along with other conditions for working with you. You'd try to scare off anyone who wasn't perfect for you (and in the process attract people who were perfect).
You wouldn't have to sell. Not in the sense of persuading people you're the right person to work with. You'd mutually decide whether you were a good fit.
You wouldn't need to “establish value”. That would be done long before the person ever spoke to you. They'd establish it for themselves.
And if you lost a few leads along the way that you could have converted with a lot of effort – so what? Plenty more fish in the sea.
Isn't that a much better way of doing business than flogging yourself to death trying to convert every single lead you get?
It is. No question.
But it's critically dependent on generating leads. Lots of qualified leads.
You can only break your scarcity mindset by consistently generating leads.
Make lead generation your priority this year.
Get your website working for you. Or get out on the road and do presentations and seminars to potential clients. Make asking for referrals a habit. And use Linkedin to figure out who knows the clients you'd like to be referred to so you're asking the right people.
Invest a few pennies in something like my Momentum Club to learn the best and most practical ways of generating leads.
Whatever you do – make lead generation your priority. Ditch the client scarcity mindset. Reap the rewards.
Ian Brodie
https://www.ianbrodie.comIan Brodie is the best-selling author of Email Persuasion and the creator of Unsnooze Your Inbox - *the* guide to crafting engaging emails and newsletters that captivate your audience, build authority and generate more sales.