Typically, one of the customers asks if there is any chance that an unsold
model still exists in the store’s back room, warehouse, or other location.
“Well,” the salesperson allows, “that is possible, and I’d be willing to
check. But do I understand that this is the model you want and if I can
get it for you at this price, you’ll take it?” Therein lies the beauty of the
technique. In accord with the scarcity principle, the customers are asked
to commit to buying the appliance when it looks least available—and
therefore most desirable. Many customers do agree to a purchase at
this singularly vulnerable time. Thus, when the salesperson (invariably)
returns with the news that an additional supply of the appliance has
been found, it is also with a pen and sales contract in hand. The inform-
ation that the desired model is in good supply may actually make some
customers find it less attractive again.^2 But by then, the business trans-
action has progressed too far for most people to renege. The purchase
decision made and committed to publicly at an earlier, crucial point
still holds. They buy.
Related to the limited-number technique is the “deadline” tactic, in
which some official time limit is placed on the customer’s opportunity
to get what the compliance professional is offering. Much like my ex-
perience with the Mormon temple’s inner sanctum, people frequently
find themselves doing what they wouldn’t particularly care to do simply
because the time to do so is shrinking. The adept merchandiser makes
this tendency pay off by arranging and publicizing customer dead-
lines—witness the collage of such newspaper ads in Figure 7–3—that
generate interest where none may have existed before. Concentrated
instances of this approach often occur in movie advertising. In fact, I
recently noticed that one theater owner, with remarkable singleness of
purpose, had managed to invoke the scarcity principle three separate
times in just five words that read, “Exclusive, limited engagement ends
soon!”
Swindled
By Peter Kerr
New York Times
NEW YORK—Daniel Gulban doesn’t remember how his life savings disap-
peared.
He remembers the smooth voice of a salesman on the telephone. He remembers
dreaming of a fortune in oil and silver futures. But to this day, the 81-year-old retired
utility worker does not understand how swindlers convinced him to part with
$18,000.
“I just wanted to better my life in my waning days,” said Gulban, a resident of
Robert B. Cialdini Ph.D / 181