Seth Godin is a Liar?

Seth Godin, marketing mastermind, respected entrepreneur and author of “Tribes” and “Purple Cow” makes $50,000 in one day – By lying or by selling or both?

Get Seth Godin's boxed set

So, like Seth did when he was naming his book, “All Marketers are Liars”, I was lying when I named this blog post. Seth isn’t a liar; he’s just a great story teller. We are the liars. We lie to ourselves every day about what we wear, where we live, and where we work. And now 800 of us can lie to ourselves about the souvenir (wooden box of books) coming our way.

Today, in approximately 4 hours, Seth made over $50,000 in book sales with his unique souvenir idea. I admit to being one of the Godin junkies who purchased the book at 10:53 this morning – only 14 minutes after his email (from his blog) hit my inbox informing me of the boxed set and the website to purchase it from.

Webpage to purchase the Box Set

At that time, I was amazed to see the 800 in inventory was already showing as only 435 items remaining. A little scarcity in action + time sensitive + emotional hook = Sold without thinking twice. Now that’s great marketing (selling).

If you’ve read any of his books, you see that he is doing exactly what he preaches. Seth has created a reputation as a leader (tribes) and knows how to do big things by thinking small (small is the new big) and already has our permission to sell to us (permission marketing) and we are happy to be sold because we are a part of his community (triiibes.com) and he is offering us something valuable at a discount along with a story and something free (purple cow / free prize inside).

Having said that, I’m surprised he only did 800 because we all know it could have been more. Additionally, I’m surprised he sold the box set at a discount (about 25% off compared to buying the titles one-by-one) instead of selling them at a premium. But I’m not too surprised because he knows by giving what he can at a rate he can afford, he will get more back in other areas (speaking engagements, next books sales, bloggers buzzing, google juice juicing etc). Again, more of Seth doing what he tells all of us to do.

Now then, I noticed some odd stuff with the purchase site for the book. I sat on it throughout the day and made notes – I was enamored by the whole thing. So, for those of you who didn’t see the blog post soon enough, here is sort of a play-by-play. At least, what I saw.

10:39 AM – Seth’s email about the box set hits my inbox
10:49 AM – 435 boxed sets remain. I purchase mine
10:53 AM – 339 left
11:02 AM – 64 left
11:05 AM – 17 left. Amazed, I start to do screen captures
11:06 AM – Site shows negative quantities (see animation)
1:00 PM – Site shows 131 boxed sets left
1:14 PM – Site shows 90 boxed sets left
1:42 PM – Site shows 48 left
1:58 PM – Sold Out!

What was up with the weird glitches? I’m thinking it was tracking all clicks to the paypal account then checking to see which of those referring visitors completed the check out process. Once that happened, the site was updated releasing the inventory. If this is the case, this shows that nearly 400 people (maybe more) clicked with intent to buy and then bailed out. That tells you a lot about buyers intent and the biggest challenge with online sales – the abandoned shopping cart.

Alas, glitches or not, I got one for myself. How about you?