Oversubscribed E-Book

Daniel Priestley

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 344

Beschreibung

Learn how to get your business Oversubscribed in a crowded marketplace to make your business stand out and get people lining up to do business with you Are you constantly chasing customers? Why does it seem like some businesses have their customers begging to purchase their goods or services? Think about it for a moment. When a new iPhone is released, why do customers camp overnight to be the first through the door? In cities with thousands of great restaurants, why do some restaurants require reservations months in advance? Why is it that some consultants, accountants, lawyers and healthcare professionals can charge exponentially more than others? In the modern marketplace, consumer options are virtually endless, intense competition is rife and so much is given away for free online. Often businesses are left scrambling to attract enough customers to make a small profit. Yet the opposite is true for a small number of businesses that do things differently--customers chase them. They have buyers who gladly queue up, pay more, and eagerly wait for the chance to hand over their money for the next thing. How do these businesses do it? More importantly, how can you become one of them? Oversubscribed is the guide to transforming your business into one which customers fight over! Author Daniel Priestley, a successful entrepreneur who has built and sold businesses around the world, shares proven, real-world methods that will not only grab customers' attention, but will also have them lining up to buy from you. This invaluable guide will teach you how to drive demand for your products or services far beyond supply and will dramatically increase the success of your business. Now in its second edition, this updated version offers new insights and motivating examples that are right for the 2020s. This book will show you: * The principles and philosophies Oversubscribed businesses live by that are often the opposite of what most businesses do * Specific steps for getting into the mind of your customer so they only want to buy from your business * How to structure campaigns and product launches that systematically get your business Oversubscribed * How to implement a process of signalling to market, and collect signals back from market to build up desire and demand for your products and services The new edition of Oversubscribed: How to get people lining up to do business with you is a must-read for entrepreneurs, marketers, business leaders and owners, team managers, and business students.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

COVER

INTRODUCTION

PART I: PRINCIPLES FOR BECOMING OVERSUBSCRIBED

PRINCIPLE 1: ONLY OVERSUBSCRIBED BUSINESSES MAKE A PROFIT

YOU ONLY NEED TWO BIDDERSG

SOME PEOPLE MISS OUT

PROFITS, LOSSES OR WAGES?

PRINCIPLE 2: THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT MATTER ARE

YOUR

PEOPLE

CREATE YOUR OWN MARKET

YOU DON'T NEED EVERYONE

FAMOUS FOR A FEW

PRINCIPLE 3: FIRST MAKE YOUR MARKET THEN MAKE YOUR SALES

DON'T RUSH PEOPLE

DRIVER NUMBER ONE – INNOVATION

DRIVER NUMBER TWO – RELATIONSHIP

DRIVER NUMBER THREE – CONVENIENCE

DRIVER NUMBER FOUR – PRICE

PRINCIPLE 4: PEOPLE BUY WHEN THE CONDITIONS ARE RIGHT

YOU CREATE THE CONDITIONS

PEOPLE DON'T BUY WHAT OTHERS WANT TO SELL, THEY BUY WHAT OTHERS WANT TO BUY

PEOPLE OFTEN JUDGE THE PRODUCT BY THE PEOPLE BUYING IT

PEOPLE DON'T BUY WHAT THEY NEED, THEY BUY WHAT THEY WANT

PRINCIPLE 5: BE DIFFERENT AND SET YOUR OWN RULES

THE POWER OF PHILOSOPHY

IT'S OK TO FAIL

IT'S OK TO SAY NO

IT'S OK TO MAKE PEOPLE WAIT

IT'S OK TO BE CONTRARIAN

PRINCIPLE 6: VALUE IS CREATED IN THE ECOSYSTEM

NOTHING WORKS ON ITS OWN

GIVE AWAY IDEAS, CHARGE FOR IMPLEMENTATION

IT'S EASIER TO CLIMB SMALL STAIRS THAN TO JUMP BIG WALLS

INNOVATE THE ECOSYSTEM, NOT THE WINNING FORMULA

PRINCIPLE 7: MEET PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE, SPEAK TO THEM IN THEIR LANGUAGE

MORE DATA, MORE SALES

HYPER‐TARGETING IS YOUR MARKETING GOAL

DATA IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF MARKETING

DATA CREATES LOVE

PEOPLE DON'T SPEND BIG MONEY TO SOLVE SMALL PROBLEMS

ALL PEOPLE HAVE THEIR OWN SET OF VALUES

PRINCIPLE 8: NOTHING BEATS BEING POSITIVELY REMARKABLE

REPLACE YOUR MARKETING BUDGET WITH A REMARKABLE BUDGET

THE KEY TO MAKING MONEY MIGHT BE NOT MAKING MONEY

BUILD A REMARKABLY TRUSTED PERSONAL BRAND

YOU ARE WHO GOOGLE SAYS YOU ARE

PART II: THE CAMPAIGN‐DRIVEN ENTERPRISE METHOD: TURNING PRINCIPLES INTO STRATEGY

THINKING LIKE A CAMPAIGN‐DRIVEN ENTERPRISE

THE CAMPAIGN‐DRIVEN ENTERPRISE METHOD

SIX STEPS TO CREATING OVERSUBSCRIBED CAMPAIGNS

PHASE 1: CAMPAIGN PLANNING: KNOW YOUR CAPACITY, WHO IT'S FOR AND WHEN YOU CAN DELIVER IT

IT BEGINS WITH A HAPPY CUSTOMER

WHO'S YOUR MARKET?

CLIENTS VERSUS CUSTOMERS

GETTING A GRIP ON REALITY

THE REAL NUMBER

YOUR SCHEDULE FOR BECOMING OVERSUBSCRIBED

CREATE A CAMPAIGN THEME

CREATE A CAMPAIGN TIME LINE

PHASE 2: BUILD‐UP: WARMING UP THE MARKET WHILE SENDING AND COLLECTING SIGNALS

THE POWER OF SIGNALLING

DON'T ASK FOR THE SALE – ASK FOR THE SIGNAL

THE BIG FIVE FOR LEAD GENERATION

THINK MOBILE AND MEDIA ASSETS FIRST

EDUCATE AND ENTERTAIN

“7‐11‐4”ING BUILDS DESIRE

BRAINS DON'T KNOW IT'S DIGITAL

MARKET PRODUCTS‐FOR‐PROSPECTS

NAMING YOUR TERMS

DON'T TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THE ACCELERATOR

PHASE 3: OVERSUBSCRIBED RELEASE: COMMUNICATING DEMAND AND SUPPLY TENSION BEFORE ALLOWING PEOPLE TO BUY

MEASURING INTEREST

SUFFICIENTLY OVERSUBSCRIBE YOUR CAPACITY

TRANSPARENCY

THERE'S ONE OF ME AND LOTS OF YOU

THE CLIENT SELECTION PROCESS

MANAGING ENERGY

PHASE 4: SALES FOLLOW‐THROUGH: PROACTIVELY FOLLOW UP WITH PROSPECTS TO MAXIMISE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR CAMPAIGN

SALES CONVERSATIONS VERSUS CHIT‐CHATS

THERE'S A RHYTHM TO SUCCESSFUL SALES

THERE'S A STRUCTURE TO SUCCESSFUL SALES CONVERSATIONS

SALES IS A PROFESSION

AVOID ABS BRAKING

WITH‐OR‐WITHOUT YOU ENERGY

POSITIVELY REMARKABLE DELIVERY

THE REMARKABLE AUDIT

ENERGY UP, DOWN OR SIDEWAYS

SET YOUR TARGETS AND STAY FIRM

YOU'RE ALSO AN IT BUSINESS

YOU'RE ALSO A MEDIA BUSINESS

EXPERIENCE IS RELATIVE TO PRICE

PHASE 5: CELEBRATE AND INNOVATE

TELL YOUR STORIES

SO MANY GREAT HIDDEN STORIES

THE TRUTH IS IN THE RESULTS

THE DEBRIEF

TIME TO PARTY AND REST

GET READY FOR THE NEXT CAMPAIGN

PART III: YOU, YOUR TEAM AND THE TIMES WE LIVE IN

GET READY TO SURF THE WAVES

STRUGGLE, LIFESTYLE OR PERFORMANCE?

THE CAMPAIGN‐DRIVEN ENTERPRISE TEAM

WHEN TO RECRUIT YOUR TEAM

THE CORE ROLES OF YOUR CAMPAIGN DRIVEN ENTERPRISE TEAM

CREATING CULTURE FROM THE BEGINNING

YOU'RE READY; LET'S GO!

CAMPAIGNING FOR CHANGE

ONE LAST THING: THE CHAPTER I WRESTLED WITH

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INDEX

END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

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“For the last 30 years I've worked on some of the world's largest events, from mass participation running and cycling events to the Olympics. It's always a challenge to get a big event to engage with a large audience – this is one of the few books I've ever seen that distills powerful ideas and strategies that I know have an impact.”

Chris Robb, CEO and founder of Spectrum

Worldwide and CycleAsia

“This book contains powerful ingredients and delicious recipes for succeeding in your business. Savour it!”

Pete Evans, chef, health coach, entrepreneur

“After building an international retail business in three countries with over 1,000 locations I understand the pressure businesses are under to grow and scale. This book is perfect for an entrepreneur, leader or marketing manager to perform at their best.”

Julia Langkraehr, founder of Retail Profile Europe Ltd,

Bold Clarity Ltd and international speaker

“I've launched and sold over $5 billion worth of products and I know that successful product sales requires a unique approach. This book shares ideas that will increase your sales and scale your business.”

Kevin Harrington, celebrity entrepreneur

(Original shark on Shark Tank)

“I read Oversubscribed and found myself nodding and reflecting upon success stories that I know or have been a part of. Principles that would take a decade to learn through trial and error are spelled out clearly in this book. Daniel Priestley continues to cement his position as one of the most perceptive, influential, and also, entrepreneurial commentators on the planet.”

Andrew Griffiths, Australia's number one business author, Inc.com featured columnist, CBS entrepreneurial advisor

OVERSUBSCRIBED

HOW TO GET PEOPLE LINING UP TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU

SECOND EDITION

DANIEL PRIESTLEY

This second edition first published 2020© 2020 Daniel Priestley.

Edition HistoryJohn Wiley & Sons Ltd (1e, 2015)

Registered officeJohn Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Priestley, Daniel, author.

Title: Oversubscribed : how to get people lining up to do business with you / Daniel Priestley.

Description: Second edition. | Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom : Wiley‐Capstone, 2020. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019057709 (print) | LCCN 2019057710 (ebook) | ISBN 9780857088253 (paperback) | ISBN 9780857088277 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9780857088260 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Marketing. | Customer relations. | Small business—Growth.

Classification: LCC HF5415 .P65927 2020 (print) | LCC HF5415 (ebook) | DDC 658.8—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019057709

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019057710

Cover Design: WileyCover Image: © Photobank gallery/Shutterstock

For my wonderful and supportive wife, Aléna. And for our delightful children, Alexander, Ethan and Isla.

INTRODUCTION

There are restaurants that people line up for. There are products that you must preorder months in advance. There are tickets that sell out on the day they are released. There are stocks that go roaring up in value right after they float. There are cars that were bought before they were built and properties that sell off the plan when they are nothing more than a set of drawings. There are consultants who are booked six months in advance and hair stylists who charge ten times more than others. There's furniture you can't buy, only preorder, and bottles of wine that are purchased while their grapes are still hanging on the vine.

There are people who don't chase clients. Clients chase them.

In a world of endless choices, why does this happen? Why do people line up, pay more and book so far in advance when other options are easily available? Why are these people and products in such high demand?

This book explains why. It's caused by a phenomenon known as being “oversubscribed”.

A product or brand reaches a level of being oversubscribed when there are far more buyers than sellers. It's when demand massively outstrips supply. It's when many more people want something than capacity allows for. This book is designed to give you a recipe for becoming oversubscribed and introduce the underlying ideas that drive this phenomenon.

But before we delve into these concepts and suggestions, it would probably be a good idea to give some background on why you should listen to me. Let me start by telling you a story.

My company runs large business and leadership events around the world. We don't use typical conference rooms in typical hotels; we host our events in theatres and auditoriums that are usually used for popular musicals and shows. What's more, our events are premium priced and oversubscribed – despite the fact that most companies struggle to get 50–100 people to turn up to a free business event.

For example, when we launched a new office in Sydney Australia, I was forced to issue an email to clients that said: “We have sold too many tickets to the event that you've booked in for. The venue holds 700 people and we've now sold more than that and have a waiting list forming. If you'd like to sell your ticket back to us – or for any reason you can no longer attend the event – please email us, and we will buy back your ticket today for DOUBLE what you paid.”

As I mentioned, most business events in Sydney are free, don't get more than 100 attendees and are run by people who live in Sydney and have access to local contacts and networks. Our event was brand‐new, priced at the top end – and we didn't have a single staff member on the ground in Sydney at that time.

The email wasn't a joke, a gimmick or a ploy. It was genuine. We had sold too many tickets to our event. We had a similar problem in Melbourne two weeks later, then in London, then in Florida.

This wasn't happening by accident. It was orchestrated to be like this. And this book will show you how it's done.

My business often books clients three months in advance. We don't do it to be difficult; it's just the amount of time people need if they want to work with us. If someone says they aren't sure about working with us, we don't argue or try too hard to sell them. We smile politely and say that it's OK not to. We don't need to convince people – there are others lined up, waiting.

I launched my first company in 2002 at age 21 with a $7,000 credit card. It was a boutique marketing company specializing in event promotions in the financial services industry. Within 12 months I'd made over $1 million in revenue and had more than $300,000 cash in the bank. By age 25, I'd used the same insights to make over $10 million in sales and had made myself an enviable amount of money for a young man. Along the way, I discovered some very valuable ideas on how to make a product or service oversubscribed.

At age 25, I moved to London with my best friends and business partners. We launched a new business with a small amount of start‐up capital and once again made millions in sales within 12 months. At age 29 I wrote my first book and used the ideas set out in this book to send it to the number one spot for business books on Amazon. I've raised millions of investment capital for my businesses and helped charities to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in a short space of time by using the ideas that I will share with you in the pages to come.

As you'll discover as you continue to read through this book, there's no scarcity in the world for people who share abundantly. One of the ways I keep myself oversubscribed today is by the very process of sharing big ideas. I've come to discover that the more I share, the more people demand.

I also believe that the principles in this book lead to better businesses for everyone involved – for the customers who get a higher level of service, for the business owners who stop chasing and for the employees who enjoy working for a company that's in demand.

My vision and hope is for millions of entrepreneurs and leaders to become more empowered to tackle bigger problems. This book is part of that vision. The ideas in this book are designed for quality businesses that care about what they do and want to be able to take their products to market more effectively. They are not for people who want to run a gimmick, make a fast sale or pull a swift win over their unsuspecting buyers.

Before you even begin, you must feel confident that your offering is something that genuinely serves people. You must be passionate about it and the value it presents to the world. You must love what you do, care about your customers and want to be in your business for the long haul. For the rest of this book, I will assume that's a given.

Being oversubscribed is the way for you to do your best work and spend more time with your current clients rather than chasing new ones. It gives you more down time to innovate your products rather than running around selling them – and it enables you to build your brand rather than blend in with the crowd.

I've also written this book because I understand the struggle most entrepreneurs and leaders undergo.

We live in remarkable, changing times. Many ideas that worked five years ago aren't working anymore. Everyone is under pressure to innovate and put results on the board. The decade ahead is going to be both challenging and inspiring. The pace of change is speeding up and the way the world of business and society works won't look the same in ten years from now.

Many people will see this as a great wave of change that sweeps them out to sea, and others view it as one they can surf and enjoy. If you're like me, you'll be paddling hard.

By the end of this book, you'll have a method for becoming oversubscribed. I'm going to unpack a process for getting yourself in the enviable position of being in demand. Of course, it will be up to you to apply the process to your business – and it'll take trial and error before you get it right. Ideas are easy; it's the implementation that's hard. Stick with it though, because the payoff is extraordinary. Once you are oversubscribed you'll earn more money, have more fun and attract more opportunities.

You won't have to chase opportunities; you'll curate those that show up. Your inbox will become a garden of prospects rather than an endless stream of tasks to follow up on.

This book isn't just about marketing principles and business methods. I will begin by addressing some problems that most businesses suffer from and sharing some of the stories and principles that drive the deeper philosophy behind the book. My goal is for you to understand these concepts on a deep enough level that you'll make better decisions intuitively and you'll be approaching your business with a different outlook.

You might need to read this book several times and let the ideas sink in for that to happen. Some of the ideas are subtly woven into the stories. There's a rich tapestry out there and you're part of it. But as with any tapestry, you can't see it if you don't have the right perspective. When you take a few steps back you can see the bigger picture.

I'm hoping this book gives you a look at the bigger picture for you and your business. Let's begin a journey together that starts where you are right now and leads you to where you want to be.

PART IPRINCIPLES FOR BECOMING OVERSUBSCRIBED

PRINCIPLE 1ONLY OVERSUBSCRIBED BUSINESSES MAKE A PROFIT

You likely learned long ago that the market forces of demand and supply determine the price and the profit you'll make. But what you didn't learn is that you can make your own market forces.

It's vital that you take control of this sacred balance because unless your business becomes oversubscribed, you're unlikely to realise your full value.

YOU ONLY NEED TWO BIDDERSG

I was in a room with 400 people who had come to see renowned entrepreneur and author Gary Vaynerchuk share his ideas on social media marketing. He announced at the end of his presentation that he'd be auctioning off a one‐hour, one‐on‐one business consultation with him, and the proceeds would go to charity.

He explained that the last time he did a consultation like this he had made several introductions to his network and the person had made an additional $50,000 in less than 30 days. “It's not just a consultation,” he explained. “It's potentially access to my network – and I know some of the world's most powerful people.”

This had put the audience into a frenzy. I opened the auction with a bid of £500 and immediately another person took it to £600. Within a flash the price hit £1,000 and the hands kept popping up.

Bids were coming in thick and fast. £2,000, £2,200, £2,400, £2,600, £2,800.

As the bidding passed the £3,000 mark, it came down to two men who clearly both wanted this prize. Everyone else was out of the race, but these two guys kept matching each other and taking the price up another £100 each time.

They were the only two people still bidding in a room with 400 individuals. The rest were sitting patiently or enjoying the spectacle.

The price got up to £3,900 with no signs of slowing down. Gary could tell the audience members were getting restless – so he asked the two bidders, “Will you both pay £4,000 each and I will provide a consultation for both of you?”

They agreed, and the hammer went down. Gary had raised £8,000 by auctioning off two hours of his time.

I'm not sure how high it would have gone but I do know that it only takes two people to push up the price at an auction. Most of the people in the room didn't bid at all and very few people bid beyond £1,500. But that doesn't matter. When the supply is “one” and there are “two” who want it, then that price keeps going up. Two people who desire something is enough to oversubscribe the one person who has it. The price keeps going up until one entity gives in.

Too many business owners focus on the entire marketplace. They are deeply concerned by what the majority will pay rather than finding the small group of people who really value what they offer. But if you focus on the wider market price, you'll always be average. In today's competitive marketplace being average means you're unlikely to be profitable.

If Gary Vaynerchuk wanted to try and sell everyone in the audience an hour of his time, he would have probably needed to lower his prices to £250 per hour. And after delivering months of back‐to‐back consultations he would have zero energy to write more books or give more talks.

As it turns out, Gary knew that his real value wasn't even the consultation time. It was his ability to make a high‐level introduction that would be taken seriously because it came from him.

Your value is much higher than you think to a small number of people. You probably have specialty skills, networks, resources and insights that certain people are eager to access. You don't need everyone on the planet to see you as highly valuable; you only need enough people who can drive your price up. Separating from the economy and from your industry requires that you turn your attention to those people who find you highly valuable – and then serve them better than anyone else can.

If two people want your time and only one can get it, your price rises until one of them gives in. Your job isn't to please everyone. Your job is to find those people who can't live without you. So … who are those people? What is it they want? And where do you find them? These questions matter more than the questions that relate to the overall market.

Your price isn't fixed or set by the overall market. It's a result of being oversubscribed or not.

Let's begin with some basics that I was taught by one of the world's top market traders.

SOME PEOPLE MISS OUT

“Why do markets go up?”

I was sitting in the home office of one of Australia's most successful stock market traders – a man who had traded billions of dollars and who'd been consistently trading markets for 20+ years. He was a man for whom people travelled internationally to hear him speak about markets for an hour or two. He was sharing with me core ideas that formed the basis of his trading strategy.

I was 22 years old at the time, and I answered his question with my best guess: “Positive news, a good economy, monetary policy, a good CEO; probably they all have an impact, I think.”

“Nice try – but no,” he said with a smile, “Markets go up because there are more buyers than sellers – and that's it!”

I had forgotten the fundamental truth of economics: the basics of “demand and supply” that you learn on day one of any economics class. A strong market, a good business plan or a compelling story all help, but ultimately your price is set by the balance of supply and demand.

Businesses like Uber can float on the stock market for over $80 billion in valuation despite having never made a profit, receiving ample negative press and having had all sorts of issues with the executive team. Despite everything that might happen, when there are more buyers than sellers the stock price goes up and it falls down when there are more sellers than buyers. After Uber floated, the price dropped by more than 10% in the following few days, not because anything had fundamentally changed about the company; it was simply that there were more sellers than buyers.

It was also Uber that discovered that the same rules can apply to the cost of a taxi fare. Rather than offering fixed fares based on the time of the day, like most cab companies do, Uber was first to “float” the price based on demand and supply. When hundreds of people want a ride and only a few drivers are in the area the algorithms trigger surge pricing and start charging people higher prices. Ordering an Uber home after a concert can cost you 300% more than what it cost you to get an Uber to the venue.

At a basic level, the same principles translate down to how much profit a business makes. The market abhors a profit; a profit is only tolerated if demand is higher than supply. A coffee shop with a line out the door can charge a price that covers all costs as well as a profit margin. An empty coffee shop will start discounting to customers in an effort to minimise the losses it's taking on rent, staff and utilities.

No one wants your business to be highly profitable other than its stakeholders. If you tell consumers they can have a cheaper price but the company will lose money and might go out of business, they probably won't even think twice about buying at the lower price. They aren't worried about your profit margins; they are concerned about their own budgets.

Uber is also a great example of how these principles affect profit; despite billions of revenue it is yet to make a profit because it muscled its way into a highly saturated and mature market offering cheaper prices. Their system allows for more and more people to become drivers so any time the prices rise more drivers take to the streets. By creating such a pure market, there's little chance of making profit.

Contrast this to the previous taxi cab system that limited supply through licensing and qualifications. Prior to Uber, most cab drivers made a respectable living from the profession and felt safe in the knowledge that demand would always slightly outpace supply by design.

You'll only make a profit if you are oversubscribed on your capacity to deliver; demand for your stuff must always be greater than your ability to supply it. It's the tension of high demand and limited supply that creates the opportunity for profit.

Consider the dynamics of a salesperson speaking on the phone to a prospect for the first time. It's a one‐to‐one interaction – one seller talking to one buyer. By design this method of generating business creates no imbalance or tension and will only ever generate wages.

Alternatively, imagine a speaker on a stage pitching an opportunity to an audience of thousands. There's one of her, surrounded by more than a thousand prospects. There's tension in the air because of the potential imbalance that has been created. If there's a legitimate limitation to supply, the price will stay firmly high, there will be an avalanche of interest upon her all at once and profit will be tolerated.

People forget the basics. They get caught up in tactics for marketing and lead generation, and they fuss over management styles and team‐building techniques, forgetting that all of these activities don't mean much if the business isn't oversubscribed.

Being oversubscribed requires nothing more than a situation whereby some people who really want something have to miss out on having it. Of course, it's a difficult situation because you and your company don't want people to miss out. Naturally, you want to sell to everyone who's willing to buy, yet that very mindset prevents you from becoming oversubscribed.

Lots of people who want a Ferrari can't get one – but the people at Ferrari aren't losing sleep over it. They know that the fact that some people have to miss out is what makes their automobile so coveted. Every product that is oversubscribed has people who didn't get it, even though they were willing to buy.

In 2014, Facebook purchased mobile messaging app WhatsApp for $19.3 billion; the figure seemed ridiculously high to almost everyone on Earth at the time – except one other bidder. Google was the other company who wanted to buy WhatsApp and the two rival companies bid the price of the relatively small startup into the stratosphere. At the time, WhatsApp was just five years old, had a team of less than 100 people and had recently raised funding at a valuation of $1.5 billion. Fortunately for the founders of WhatsApp it only takes two tenacious bidders for an astronomical valuation to materialise.

If you can get the balance right and keep yourself oversubscribed – disappointing those people who missed out without them losing interest in you entirely, while still delivering remarkable value to those who got through – you'll have no problem being profitable. If supply is too great and everyone who wants what you have can get what you have, the prices will fall and so will the margins. Eventually your business will make losses.

The principles for becoming oversubscribed can be useful across many aspects of your business. For example, if you want to hire top talent, you need to be oversubscribed for top talent. That means that some talented people who would love the job will miss out. If you want impactful publicity, you need to be oversubscribed for people who want the story you have to share, so some news outlets won't get the story. If you want investors, you need to be oversubscribed for funding – more people are ready to put in the money than you require and some of them ultimately miss out.

If you want to be oversubscribed, you'll need to get comfortable with some people missing out on what you have to offer. That's how markets work – and that's how the market determines your rewards.

PROFITS, LOSSES OR WAGES?

When it comes to the rewards you and your stakeholders will make from business, there are three ways the demand and supply relationship can be set up:

Oversubscribed

– Demand outstrips supply, resulting in profit being tolerated on top of normal wages.

Balanced

– Demand and supply are relatively even resulting in normal wages being tolerated but not profit.

Undersubscribed

– Excess supply is available above demand, resulting in losses.

It doesn't matter what the product is, where the business is based or how dedicated the team members are. The only thing that matters is the relationship between demand and supply. Even when the product stays the same, if that relationship changes, the profitability changes.

In California in the 1980s, millions of people decided that they wanted plastic surgery. The surgeons who could deliver this service were in short supply and they made vast sums of money providing breast enhancements, nose jobs and Botox. Anyone who could perform these operations ended up with a mansion, a yacht, supercars and lucrative investments. They were making millions because the market had vastly more buyers than sellers when it came to plastic surgeons. The cosmetic surgery market at that time tolerated wages and profits.

This is no longer the case nowadays. LA is filled with plastic surgeons. Attracted by the vast available wealth, a whole lot of medical students switched their major in the late 1980s and headed for Beverly Hills to make big money. But they discovered upon arriving that they weren't the only ones who had taken this path. By the end of the 1990s the demand and supply relationship returned to a balance, and today most plastic surgeons in LA make a normal surgeon's wage.

The 1980s plastic surgeons made more money than surgeons today because of a trend that happened for a niche within the medical industry. It wasn't the nature of what they were offering that made it profitable; it was the demand‐and‐supply tension that set the price.

There are cycles in whole industries whereby demand for anyone in a chosen field will be highly in demand. This is known as an industry boom, for example, the dot‐com boom in the late 1990s, whereby almost any Silicon Valley company could raise millions for little more than an idea.

There are cycles in the economy whereby demand from consumers as a whole outstrips supply from industry as a whole. In these times, everyone seems to be doing well and there's an economic boom for almost everyone, such as what happened in the era known as the Roaring Twenties.

You do not want to be at the whims of the economy or your industry trends. Your ability to earn and profit is far too important to leave to chance, and as you'll see from the principles and strategies we explore in this book, it's possible to be completely independent of your industry or the economy and build a market of your own.

It's possible to play an advanced game in which you are completely in control of the forces of demand and supply that impact on your business. This is when you can become oversubscribed on your own terms, regardless of what's happening for everyone else.

Even in saturated markets, even when competition is fierce or you are up against companies with vast resources, it is still within your power to become oversubscribed and enjoy profits on top of the normal wages of your industry by creating a market of your own.

The forces of demand and supply work the same when customers perceive you as separate from your industry. Even better, you don't need very many people in order to create your own market, become oversubscribed and to maintain a profitable price if you can get a few key things right and create your own fiercely loyal market.

PRINCIPLE 2THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT MATTER ARE YOUR PEOPLE

Being part of an open market is a problem; you'll forever be battling the forces of demand and supply outside of your control. Having a market of your own is the key to becoming oversubscribed.

CREATE YOUR OWN MARKET

Let's take a look at actors in the US as an example of an industry in oversupply. There are more than 160,000 people who have a Screen Actors Guild (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) membership and there are barely 3,000 actors who make better than minimum wage from their acting income. About 99% of actors can't afford to live on the money they earn from acting. Fewer than 1,000 actors in the US make over $150,000 a year.

From an economic standpoint there is a massive oversupply of screen actors. So, there's absolutely no reason why a producer would pay a large sum for an actor. Yet, as we know, they do it all the time. For some actors, a fee of millions per film isn't only a possibility; people line up to pay it. These actors are separate from the market. They have made their own market.

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Lawrence and Julia Roberts have millions of people who will go and see a film if they are in it. They have created their own market and they are oversubscribed. Their income isn't linked to the market; it's linked to their market.

No doubt these top earners are gifted, but their income has very little to do with the craft of acting. It has everything to do with their ability to get people to pay to see the film. These people have the power to get onto talk shows and into the media to promote a film. If their names are attached to a film, the funding and the talented crew come to the table. Producers are actually paying for the ability to successfully mobilise talent, publicity and funding for a project; the acting skill is a bonus.

Creating your own market is about solving bigger problems for people than others do. Being unique is not about performing a task at a high standard; it's about having a unique ability to get things done.

When your business is seen to be unique in the market, you'll make money regardless of what everyone else in your industry is doing. Even if there's thousands of other people who can technically do what you do, it won't impact on the price you can charge. Your price will be determined by your own market.

In 2019, Kylie Jenner was declared the youngest billionaire by Forbes Magazine. Management consultants would never have chosen makeup as the hot product to make a fortune in; the cosmetics industry has long been saturated with big established brands. For the 21‐year‐old entrepreneur, it didn't matter because she had amassed more than 120 million followers on Instagram who would eagerly buy whatever she featured on her profile. With a small team, basic shopping‐cart software and an absence of retail representation or glossy magazine ads, Jenner has shipped enough makeup to make her a seriously valuable brand.