🖐 Happy Srijeda!

Issue #69 is a 3.0-minute read.

🐄 Make them Wait and Milk the Cash Cow

“Hey, we were here first, pal!”

Craggy red-beard guy is giving it to the millennial dude in the white Gucci parka.

“Move to the left on the sidewalk,” yells the 20-something employee walking down the line like a shepherd with her flock.

At 5:38 the line is around the gallery, past Eddie’s Pub and down Plum Street.

“How much longer?” asks the girl in the moose antler hat and Chuck Taylor high-tops. “We’ve been here 20 minutes.”

“6 pm is the next opening,” yells the shepherd. “We appreciate you waiting.”

Even at 19 degrees, tempers are hot.

I had walked out of the bakery, stuffing a 6th cookie into my face (don’t judge), and saw the line across the street.

Of the 62 village stores, all of them cool, there’s only one with a long ass line.

(As a consultant, my curiosity makes me do dumb-smart things, like stand in line for some store I don’t know.)

“I’m freezing. I want cocoa,” says the fifty-something woman in front of me, slapping her mittens together, hopping up and down.

I tap her shoulder.

“What’s this store?” I ask.

“You don’t know?” she says in a snooty voice, like I’m the last one on earth to learn about gravity. 

“Surprise me,” I answered.

“This is the coolest, craziest antique collectibles store in the state,” she says. “People fly in from California and Mexico to buy stuff. It’s insane!”

“Gracias,” I answer.

I’m wondering if I’ve got the energy to wait 20 minutes on a 19-degree sidewalk for movie posters, old maps, and vintage New England nightstands.

I’m so glad I waited!

The antique store gave an MBA class in “How to Build Anticipation.”

🧠 Pure genius.

• Every 4 minutes the store lets in 2 new people when 2 others leave
  
  

• The windows are fogged, and you can’t see inside from the street
  
  

• Big, bright lights shine on the giant white awning above the entrance that shows the store’s name, stenciled in black; you can see it from 3 blocks away
  
  

• The shepherd keeps the line in order and gives out just enough info to the masses who wait….and wait…and wait
  
  

• Collectors and crazy fans (like mitten lady) brag to anyone listening how well they know the store and what’s inside

🔑 Your takeaway:

When you launch your new, premier service or special product, you have to:

• Speak the right words to your crazy, adoring fans
  
  

• Give deadlines (a countdown clock in your emails and on your site)
  
  

• Keep the wait in order—give updates on when your service starts and what customers can expect
  
  

• Make it 4th-grade easy for folks to find your new offer, click it, or see it from the street (for you brick-and-mortar folks)
  

The anqtique store knew exactly how to build a buzz, reward loyal patrons, and get curious ones to stop by….and wait.

😵 Coffee pushes my bladder.

Fingers numb, nose running, and iPhone full of notes I leave the line and go back to the bakery.

What a contrast!!

The bakery’s giving a masterclass on ‘how to kill the buzz and piss off buyers.’

The bakery doesn’t have a line. 

It has 3!

None of them have a purpose other than, well, to stand in line.

There’s no shepherd anywhere controlling the crowds or giving updates.

Inside, the staff’s running everywhere at 83 m.p.h., like ants on an orange.

I watch this nightmare for three minutes.

I count 14 hungry, cold tourists walk by, take a look, and keep walking.

“It’s nuts in there,” says a father to his kids. “Let’s drive home. I’ll take you to McDonald’s.”

👎 The brutal math for the bakery:

• 14 tourists walk by
  

• $6 per order per tourist
  

• $84 dollars of LOST sales in 180 seconds

Multiply that by an hour, and the lost revenue number gets BIG.

And that’s just it!

If you want to kill the buzz, vaporize your positive customer vibe and lose a s$%t ton of money… do what the bakery did.

☹️ No, don’t do that!

Stick with the antique store’s model.

Make them wait. In a good way.

I appreciate your sharing this newsletter with your friends and contacts.

Stay curious in your business and keep opening doors.

-Erik

P.S. If you dream of getting to $150K of sales, let’s do it!

When you’re set, here’s your custom, 1-on-1 discovery call calendar link to see if we’re a good fit to get you there. Faster.