Despite the fact that it’s far too hot, I love this time of year.

Because it’s gooseberry season.

Gooseberries are one of the last truly seasonal foods. They’re only available for a few weeks every year, so I’m forced to stockpile.

Forced to, y’hear?

Generally I try to eat a pretty balanced diet. It’s part of my endless desire to optimise everything. But for these few weeks, 95% of what I eat will be gooseberries.

Because they’re amazing. The idea that not far away there are gooseberries I could be buying when instead I’m writing about them is actually painful.

Thing is, I’ve read Cialdini. There’s every chance I like gooseberries so much precisely because they’re not around for very long.

Even in these weeks only some grocers stock them. Soon, they’ll be out of season again and finding a gooseberry will be as rare as finding a cuckoo’s nest.

And maybe… just maybe… that’s the real reason I stockpile.

Two things here help you sell.

  • Scarcity: if something’s not widely available, the desire to take it is far stronger.
  • Urgency: if something’s only available for a limited time, people are far more likely to grab it quick. Limit your sales to 200 units, and you’ll sell more copies quicker than you would with no cap.

Both of them are reasons to act NOW. Ways of telling your prospect that if they wait, they’re going to miss out.

No-one likes missing out. Particularly on gooseberries.