Use Urgency to Close More Deals

Think back to a time when you urgently needed something. Maybe you were really hungry and needed to eat something for lunch. Maybe a pipe burst and your bathroom was flooding. Maybe your fridge stopped working. Whatever the situation, think about what you did. Did you decide that you’ll wait to buy something to fix the problem (lunch, a pipe, or a new fridge)? Or did you act right away? There’s a good chance you acted right away. 

The situation was urgent, so you made a decision and purchased a solution quickly. 

This same idea works with any other type of sales. A critical sales technique is to make a person believe they need to buy right away. Without a reason to make a decision now, your product or service becomes a “nice to have.” This means the customer will take more time to think about the purchase and they may decide against it. They might even forget about the entire situation, which isn’t what you want.

Creating a sense of urgency will encourage a potential customer to buy right away. This is one of the most powerful ways to turn potential buyers into paying customers. 

Obviously you can’t go to their home and break their fridge, so how do you create a sense of urgency? There are several ways and we’ll explain them in this blog.

What is a Sense of Urgency in Sales?

Sales urgency is making your customers feel like they need to buy from you right now. Why is this important? It’s important because buyers are much more likely to spend if they think the situation is urgent. 

When you can’t actually make the situation urgent, you can make it feel as though it is urgent. This is called creating a sense of urgency and it’s an important sales tactic

Why is it Important to Create a Sense of Urgency Without Coming Across as Pushy?

No one wants to be told to do something. If you make a potential customer feel pressured or uncomfortable, your sales efforts could have the opposite effect and you’ll turn them off of your company. 

Think about the last time you dealt with a pushy salesperson. Unless you were already certain that you were going to make a purchase, you likely felt uncomfortable and overwhelmed by their aggressive tactics. This isn’t how you want someone to feel. The goal is to make them feel at ease, supported, and cared for. People buy things because they want to solve a problem, make something easier, or enjoy themselves more. The end goal is to feel better, not worse. 

When you’re selling, you want the prospect to feel as though you are helping them and giving them what they’re looking for. If you’re too pushy, they’ll feel like you’re trying to convince them to spend money on something they don’t need. 

5 Ways How to Create a Sense of Urgency and Boost Your Sales

You want customers to feel like they need to make a purchase right now, but you want to do it without making them feel pressured or uncomfortable. So, how do you do it? Here are some tactics that have been proven to work. 

Creating Urgency with Cost of Inaction

There’s a saying that people will move two times faster away from pain than they will towards gain. The idea is that avoiding pain is more powerful than seeking something good. 

Following this idea, you can encourage buyers to purchase if you show them that not acting will cause them pain. In effect, you’re helping them avoid pain by selling them your product or service.

You can do this by explaining how your product or service prevents pain and that the longer they go without your offer, the more they will suffer. For instance, if you sell laundry detergent, you can tell your audience that not only does it clean their clothes more efficiently, but that every day they go without your product, they’ll have to spend more time doing laundry, and their clothes will look worse. If you’re selling a tool that helps businesses automate certain processes, you can highlight the cost of inaction by showing them how much time they’ll continue to waste every day that they aren’t using your software.

Position Your Offer as Exclusive

Something exclusive seems more valuable and unique. People won’t want to miss out on an exclusive offer, so they’ll act now while they still can. You can accomplish this goal by personalizing your offer. For instance, if you’re selling a service following a conference, mention that those who attend the conference can receive an exclusive discount for a limited time. This will cause more people to act because they’ll be worried about missing out on a special deal.

You can also promote the unique features of your product or service. This will make it seem more exclusive and that will boost sales. People won’t want to miss out on something that provides them with special features or bonuses. 

Understand your Customers’ Pain Moments

One of the best ways to create a sense of urgency is to understand your customers’ pain points and then show how your product or service resolves them. If you recognize the unmet needs of your customers and show them how you can meet those needs, your offer goes from “nice to have” to “must have” and that’s how you make a sale. 

For instance, if you’re selling project management software, the pain you are alleviating is missed deadlines, upset customers, and angry clients. Pitching your software as the way to solve these problems will explain to businesses why they should purchase now. If you’re selling an appliance that lets people cook healthy meals faster, you’re helping people who are short on time eat healthy food when they’re busy. This solves their problem. 

Think about what your product or service offers, then position it in a way that resolves your target market’s pain.

Provide Limited Availability

People are much more likely to act if they feel like they have a limited time to buy something. This is a big reason why seasonal products are so common. If your drink is only available during the holiday season or your product can only be purchased in the summer, people are more likely to buy it without thinking, because they don’t want to miss out. 

Create Invite-only Sales & Services

You can make customers feel valued and encourage them to act by providing them with exclusive access that’s only available through an invitation. This makes your product or service seem more important. It also makes the customer feel valued and believe that they’re getting something special that others don’t have access to. 

For instance, having a special “members only” event for those who have purchased before can spur repeat purchases. People won’t want to hesitate because you’re telling them that they can only buy at a certain time and that they’re getting a unique opportunity. 

Remember: The Most Common Deal-Breaker is the Lack of Scarcity.

Customers will take their time and put off buying something if they feel like they’ll always have the opportunity to do it later. You can probably easily recall situations where you’ve put something off for a long time because you have no incentive to do it right away.

The same is true with sales. If you don’t create a sense of urgency, your buyers will take more time to think about the purchase. They might decide to wait for another day when they’re feeling better or the weather is nice or they have more time or the budget is more favourable or hundreds of other excuses. 

Giving them reasons to purchase now, without sounding like you’re pushing them into something, will encourage them to act. This will considerably increase the value of your sales offer. 

Understanding customers and how to get them to act is a critical aspect of digital marketing and design. At Eggs Media, we know what it takes to encourage people to take action without sounding pushy or overwhelming. Contact us today to learn how we can create a website, digital strategy, or content marketing plan that will get results for your business.