The Law of Abundance Versus Scarcity

I have been in sales since I was a little kid, from the times when my mother and father would have me involved in school and Boy Scout fundraising drives to sell things to raise money for one cause or another.  I sold everything from chocolate bars, to breakfast tickets and flowers.  They did this with all the kids in my family, so it no wonder that at least one of us got involved in some sort of a sales profession.

There is a particular law of life that I have learned through hard won experience over the many years of being involved in sales. This is the law of abundance versus scarcity.  Whenever there is an abundance of something, one can feel free to consume as much as one wants without a concern when one wastes one or two.  When there is a scarcity, the thought of wasting one or two is frightening.

Let's take an example of food.  Whenever there is an abundance of food around, one can feel free to eat as much or as little as they want, and throw away unused food, even though it might only be slightly damaged, simply because there is abundance and having more food for tomorrow is not a concern. 

When food is scarce, and everyone probably has had an experience somewhere in their life when it was, one tends to save food, and if it is slightly bad, just cut out the bad parts and use the remainder. 

Also one cuts back on food consumption, and tries to make every crumb stretch, because food is scarce, and there is a panic or desperation that accompanies this scarcity. 

I will give you an example.  One time as a young man I was on a back packing trip that took us into the wilderness that was ten or fifteen miles from nowhere.  On the first night I was there, squirrels or some other animals got into my pack over night and ate about half of the food I brought. 

The next day it rained, and even more of my food and clothes got soaked. Suddenly my planned food for the trip had gotten very scarce.  I had two more days ahead of me before I could come home, and so a panic set in and I had to eat some food that I would not have ordinarily eaten, because I was desperate.

This same type event happens often in sales.  Whenever you have an abundance of customers, it is easy to get comfortable and even waste a few bad apples.  Whenever you have a scarcity of customers, one tends to work with people that you really should not, but you are only doing so because you are desperate. 

So the key for anyone involved in sales is to apply the law of abundance.  Always promote, and market yourself even when times are abundant, and you will always be free to choose from your lot the best customers and discard the difficult or problematic ones. 

If you get lax on your promotion when times are good, a period of scarcity will eventually follow, and you may soon find yourself working with customers that are living nightmares for you, and you will beat yourself up trying to survive with a horrible deal because you are desperate.

So whenever I find myself feeling like things are scarce, I promote like crazy.  Whenever I find things are in abundance, I still promote like a steady conductor at an orchestra.  The key is to always promote.  This gives me an abundance, and freedom to waste a few bad apples now and then.

The same law effects buyers of real estate as well.  When there are fewer homes in their price range, a panic can set in and they jump on a house that they would not have ordinarily taken on out of desperation driven by scarcity.  So it is a good to be aware that this exists.  As a Realtor, I often point this out to my clients when I feel they are getting desperate, and in turn try to find them an abundance in anyway I can.