2 builders who never spoke to each other

Cap the seats and count them down in public

A published remaining count turns fence sitters against each other, and selling out becomes a second marketing asset you get to announce. The cap has to be real: limit the things that consume your own time, such as a workshop, a cohort or personalised advice, and leave the infinitely copyable tier uncapped, because an invented limit on copies of a file is transparent and costs you trust.

The method

1. 01

   Cap the launch-day discount at a fixed number of buyers rather than offering it to everyone for a set period.

2. 02

   Capping a class at a number small enough to be useful gives you a second marketing asset: you get to announce that it sold out

3. 03

   Only cap availability when a real constraint exists: a hard limit on copies of a PDF is transparently invented and costs you trust

4. 04

   Cap the number of seats and then publicly count them down, which turns fence-sitters against each other.

5. 05

   Only cap quantity where the scarcity is real, anything that consumes your own time, and leave the infinitely copyable tier uncapped.

What it returned

• 20

  The Refactoring Growth launch announcement gave the earliest twenty purchasers 20 percent off through a dedicated link.

• 25

  A London workshop with Brennan Dunn capped at 25 tickets; announcing 7 remaining, then 5, made the rest sell faster

• $1,500

  Cap the $1,500 package that includes personalised advice from you, not the $500 course-only package

• Contrasted with paid beta rounds of ten testers at a time, or a class small enough that every question gets answered, where the limit has a reason

Sources

• 2020 Year In Review | Corey HainesCorey Haines · corey.co · What went well this year? · 2021-01-01
• $39k in eBook Sales Part 2: Design, Testimonials, and TrafficNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Should you limit the number of copies sold? · 2012-10-08
• A first look at AuthorityNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · The Resources · 2013-05-20
• Using urgency to increase salesNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Limit sales · 2014-03-13