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Brick No53: It must be good, there's a 30-month waiting list
By Matt Weston, Friday 26 March 2004 The golf club near where I used to live had a 15-month waiting list for membership. And you could only join the list once you'd been proposed by an existing member, and then seconded by at least 4 others. Despite this - in fact BECAUSE of this - every year, more and more people added themselves to the waiting list. The last I heard, it was at 30 months. As super-salesman Harvey Mackay says in 'Swim with the sharks': "If it's in demand, then everyone wants it." Demand breeds demand. Last year, we holidayed in Sicily (along the coast in Cefalu and Taormina). As you'd expect, Sicily is flush with restaurants. We were spoilt for choice - even taking into account Jo's fussy eating habits (think Meg Ryan in 'When Harry Met Sally' . . . not that bit). On holiday, the only way you can make an informed decision about where to eat is by watching where the locals go. We picked the busy restaurants, and ate well all fortnight. There's safety in numbers. If a place is quiet, it's a bad sign. And so the busy places get busier, whilst the quiet places get quieter. The snag is, for a start-up business or a new product or service you usually start with zero-demand. Somehow - any way you can - you need to set the ball rolling. If you can't get momentum your business will never get off the ground. How to create demand for your new product or business I once knew a friend-of-a-friend who set-up a sandwich-shop. Many small businesses like his have a tipping-point - a threshold at which the business or product 'tips' or takes-off. Get a queue of say 5 customers and people walking down the street will think: QUEUE -> BUSY -> IT MUST BE GOOD. His problem was that he never propelled his business to that tipping-point. People never queued outside his shop, and the business folded after 6 months of poor sales. In stark contrast let's go back to Harvey Mackay - " Some friends in New York told me that [with their restaurant chain] when they open a new restaurant, for the first two months they tell about half the people who phone in for reservations that the place is full for whatever night they request and to please phone back. " To get the restaurant rolling, Mackay's friends created an illusion of demand. They did everything they could to appear in demand. Many businesses and new product fail because they don't get off the ground. They don't reach their tipping- point. You have to do everything you can to make sure you reach yours. Yesterday, Apple postponed by three months the launch of its iPod mini, the eagerly awaited baby-brother to the phenomenally successful iPod. Already the spin has started. Apparently it's sold-out in the States already, and some buyers have bought Minis in each of the five available colours. I'd bet my grandmother that the iPod Mini hasn't 'sold out' because Apple underestimated demand. I might be a cynic, but I'd guess it's 'sold out' because Apple wants to ramp-up demand. I'm happy to be proved wrong. I think Apple just knows exactly how to create a buzz, just like the restaurant and the golf club above. It's a simple message from me today. If your business is in demand, everyone wants it. People won't buy from a sandwich shop just because it's opened. They'll only buy from it when they see people queuing down onto the street. Your job - as your own boss - is to do everything in your power to give the impression that there is already demand for your services. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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