Fake scarcity and FOMO

Back in the day, I showed a bit of interest in working with a fairly well-known name in the space.

Nothing serious. I was just having a look.

But they got my number. And for weeks after that, my phone didn't stop.

Call after call, all high-pressure, and each one came with some kind of fake scarcity.

... "Well, if you buy now I can lock you in before the price increases by another $4k."
... "We're running a special right now where if you buy, you get added to a special call with the founder."
... "We've only got 1 space left right now and I'd love for you to get it, but you'll have to sign up now."

I never bought. It was pretty obvious the person on the other end was a closer on commission, trying to force me into a sale.

I reckon you've probably been on the receiving end of this stuff as well.

Since then, I've worked with people who've run that exact model themselves. The funnel is crazy simple.

Ads to a simple promo video and a calendar booking form, which locks you in with their closer.

It can work, but it's becoming less and less effective for a few reasons.

The costs of ads just keep creeping up.

I was speaking to someone running this model recently and he's seen the cost per booked call increase 10X.

And that's not a jump from, say, $30 to $300 to close a deal.

These are cold leads.

What usually happens is 50% will no show, and you'll only be able to close a small % of the remaining 50%.

And because a lot of these guys use real high-pressure sales approaches, the buyer regret is huge and you get refund requests and chargebacks cause someone went and spent $10k+ without consulting their partner.

It turns into a hamster wheel where profit is hard to come by.

The chap I spoke to is right to worry about the increasing costs of book-a-call funnels. When the call's doing all the convincing, people turn up not really knowing anything, and that means the close is way harder.

There's nothing wrong with a call. When someone turns up already knowing the outcome, how it works, and what it costs, it's just the last step. It goes wrong when you're using it to convince someone who saw your ad yesterday.

The model I use to do that convincing before the call is all in this video. It's about 35 minutes.

​If you're paying for calls that don't close, it's worth a watch.​

​→ Watch it here ​

Speak soon,

Pete "stop calling me" Boyle