Salespeople know very well that a good trick to improve sales of any product is to warn the customer that a shortage is coming. And I am not referring here to salespeople working in shops and retail outlets, but to salespeople representing factories and companies, who regularly visit their customers in their own establishments to take orders.

Communicating to the client that this or that product will be missing as of next week, either because the factory is closed for holidays, because it ran out of raw materials for its production, or for whatever reason, is a way of encouraging him to ask for a larger quantity than usual so that he feels safe and with his immediate needs covered. This is the principle of scarcity.

Scarcity principle, useful to sell anything

Research also says that the order for the item in question may be double or triple when the shortage predicted by the seller is of a “rumor” or “exclusive information” nature. The strategy translates into something more or less like this:

“Keep it between us, but it looks like the premium champagne is going to be missing for Christmas. The factory is having a union problem and the workers are planning a strike for that time. I was told by Carlitos, the factory worker, who is a friend of the plant delegate. The owners of the company still don’t know anything. Maybe you should reinforce the order with a few more boxes, but this can’t be known by anyone. I’m telling you this because of the trust we have in each other after so many years.

But the struggle for the scarce good can take other forms . Let’s see what they are.

Competing for the same thing

In addition to “exclusivity”, there is another variant with which maximum benefit can be obtained when using this psychological trick: “competition” for the scarce resource or . To exemplify, I quote the real estate bench, which is likely to end up winning me the furious hatred of the whole sector.

Let’s take an example. A couple who are planning their wedding and then move in together combine an appointment with a real estate agent to visit a flat for rent. The property is what the couple needs: it has three rooms, it is bright, it has low expenses. According to the technical information, the place is perfect. Now all that remains is to see what state it is in.

But the clever real estate agent (who has been dealing with queries about the property for some time) quotes several interested people for the same day, with a difference of 10 or 15 minutes, so inevitably the following will happen: after the couple of unsuspecting lovebirds tour the flat guided by the seller, and while they deliberate among themselves about the advantages and disadvantages of renting it, a second couple arrives with the same intentions… What happens next is the key to the trick.

The real estate agent approaches the first couple and tells them in confidence, almost in a whisper, to excuse him for a moment while he shows the property to other people, but not to worry, that they have the priority, in case they want to leave a sign that day.

On the other hand, under similar conditions, newcomers are told that there is a couple that arrived earlier and wants to keep the property. However, anyway, since they have gone there, he will show them the excellent place, and they will be able to keep it if the other interested parties change their mind.

The trap is armed. Both the people who arrived before and those who arrived after , feel that the original interest they had in that apartment is growing exponentially . Suddenly, it is a scarce good, and for which they must also compete.

Competition in restaurants

When a product has a high social demand, or at least we think so, thanks to vile psychological tricks, our interest in owning it automatically increases. This is the idea behind a homemade, but effective, marketing strategy implemented by many restaurants .

Even if there is enough physical space within the facility, the room teacher or administrator makes sure that arriving guests have to wait outside on the sidewalk. Thus, long lines are often formed at the door of the place, suggesting to anyone who passes by that if there are so many people waiting patiently for dinner, it must surely be because the food is excellent. After all, who would willingly submit to such torture if the end result was not widely worthwhile?

Simulating the demand

The same applies to public performances . Guided by the notion of social demand, we come to think, mistakenly, that if a film that is currently being shown has a large audience, either because we have read about it in the newspaper or because we have seen with our own eyes the long lines that form at the entrance to the cinema, it has to be, necessarily, because the film is a true marvel of the seventh art.

Even more so. There are doctors, psychotherapists, and even fortune tellers, tarottists and swindlers of the most varied kinds who expose their agendas publicly so that we know the large number of people who come to them . The delay to obtain an appointment can be, in some cases, several months. The objective is always the same: to increase the degree of difficulty in accessing the service so that it also increases, in positive correlation, the degree of perceived desirability and professionalism.

Rationalization

There are times when people go wild and compete for a scarce commodity just as a bank of hundreds and thousands of piranhas does over a small fish.

“If something is scarce, it’s because everyone wants it. And if everyone wants it, it’s because it has to be good.”

This seems to be the logic of thought (or rather “illogical” thought) that underlies this particular psychological phenomenon. All the positive attributes that we attribute to the product or service for which we suddenly find ourselves engaged in a struggle with other people are, most of the time, composed of mere rationalizations to justify and reassure us about our unconscionable actions.

“Well, I had to wait for an hour and a half to get into the restaurant, but it’s always worth it, they make the best rabas in the country there.”

Comments like this are typical when we tell a friend about our experience. Now, do they really make the best shits there? It is very doubtful that it really does, but we need to believe it to leave our conscience clear and our self-esteem unscathed.

This is an argument that we actually use to convince ourselves that we have done the right thing , when we are in doubt about the decision to wait so long outdoors to eat a simple plate of radishes.

Competition in personnel selection

Many consulting firms resort to the same dynamic when they are asked to search and select personnel. Nowadays, it is very common to bring together all the candidates who aspire to a given position in what is called an “assessment”. Basically, it is a group interview in which the different applicants must interact with each other and participate in a series of activities in which they have to solve problems related to their work area.

Although in principle the idea of assessment is to gain time and evaluate the social skills of people and their competencies when working in a team, the process is still, despite the psychologists who are dedicated to this, a fight of gladiators who fight to obtain a single and precious job, in a kind of coliseum model 21st century.

With some exaggerated overtones, Marcelo Piñeyro’s film “The Method” shows in a forceful way how hostile and ruthless an assessment can become when several candidates for a managerial position in a multinational company are pushed by circumstances to confront each other to win the coveted trophy, While outside the building in which the process takes place, the spectator can appreciate a world in complete crisis, immersed in hunger, social discontent and protests, which generates a strong counterpoint to what is happening inside.

Competing in personal relationships

This singular psychological phenomenon can be observed even on a more intimate and personal level , in social relationships.

A couple decides to end their relationship after a few years of dating. Both are convinced that the love has run out and it is better for each one to continue on his own. They manage quite well on their own, for a few months, until he starts dating a new girl and the information reaches the ears of his ex-wife.At this point, she begins to feel jealous. Not before, now.

Suddenly, she feels an intense and inexplicable interest in the boy . And even though they had not been together for a long time, she cannot help but experience feelings of regret and desires to take back what no longer belongs to her. Of course, now it “belongs to someone else. And the certainty of unavailability, added to the appearance of a competitor, reactivates the lost interest and triggers the instinct of possession.

Does the reader friend think that the case I am making is fanciful and exaggerated? Not at all! It is something that happens with unusual frequency, I have observed it permanently throughout my professional career. That’s how changeable and contradictory we can be.