Dragons Den and Letting Agents.
Dragons Den .. love it! Great program, great ideas like the Reggae Reggae sauce story, and the success of the pitchers who managed to win the approval and financial backing of the Dragons. But then so had that chap who invented children’s suitcases that children could ride on. The issue was Theo Pap’ managed to completely pull a handle off the Trunki suitcase prototype. Everyone was out …. So what has happened since? Since then our chap has sold 1,800,000 Trunkies in the last eight years.
Have you ever noticed on Dragons Den, that some great business ideas don’t get any offers, whilst some get multiple bids? I read somewhere recently that a few of the Dragon’s wouldn’t invest in many businesses if not for the other four greedy dragons bidding on them. Once an entrepreneur gets one dragon to bite, he or she can count on a few more jumping and the ensuing feeding frenzy gets them the money they came in for. I even read the feeding frenzy continues when the episode airs, with viewers at home ordering merchandise online in minutes off the website’s of the entrepreneurs that are pitching!
So why do four or five Dragon jump when the week before, probably none of them would not have given the very same entrepreneur a second glance? Why did Trunki the idea not get the bids either?
Everyone wants what everyone else wants….. and no one wants what no one else wants.
This is the truism played out every week on Dragons Den, to the both the viewers’ and the entrepreneurs’ delight. .. but also plays out in life. .. it’s all about scarcity.
It is a basic human weakness .. all of us want to be the ones to own the rare items such as those people queuing for the next iPhone or those parent desperate to grab the latest ‘it’ toy for their kids at Christmas.
Whenever choice is restricted or endangered, the human need to maintain a share of this limited thing makes us desire it even more. Scarcity increases the value of any service or product, making us act quickly for fear of missing out on an opportunity. It causes anxiety and turmoil. Also, think about it, this scarcity thing doesn’t just relate to things you can buy, but also to information, price time and knowledge.
As humans we are hardwired to react to scarcity as it creates a fear of not having something that we may need in the future. Letting agents should be using the scarcity principle to their advantage. What can you learn fellow letting and estate agents is this ..if you don’t have enough demand for your agency, you should dream up a way to create the illusion that there is. .. and not leaving properties with ‘let agreed’ or fake “to let boards” doesn’t count and landlords can see straight through that.
If you want to know what you really should be doing, then I have just eleven places on my next monthly LIVE webinar on Tuesday, 10th February 2015 from 4.15pm to just befre 5pm. I don’t record them for later viewing …. I shoot from the hip and show you what you need to do to get landlords. First come first served .. no cost, just email me on christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk if you want to join in.
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