Ah yes…the limited buyer…such an elusive bird…
The limited buyer comes in many different physical shapes, sizes, and colors. The one consistent factor is his 2-3 dance per girl limit. Sometimes he is easy to spot. He is a regular strip club patron and has honed his craft, and more often than not he has more experience in the sales game than most of the fresh faced 20 year olds who approach him with “wanna dance?” He brags about how his last girlfriend was a dancer, so that we consider him to be “one of us” not an outsider. Truth of the matter is that anyone who has dated a dancer understands the business, and tends to not be a target client. Other times the limited buyer is a bit more elusive and will attempt to manipulate you to spend much of your time trying to close a VIP sale by dangling false signals.
Last Friday night as I was walking past a table at Delilah’s, I noticed a handsome, late twentish guy eyeball me up and down. We made eye contact, and I walked over and introduced myself. Biff had just gotten there, sat down, and took the first sip of his beer. Biff couldn’t see it, but seated behind him was a bachelor party waving me over. So I told him to get comfortable and I would be back.
About an hour and a half later, I was in the middle of my 4 song rotation on the runway stage when Biff got out of his chair and walked over to the stage to tip me a few dollars. This is just yet another sign that he is interested in buying dances. Not to mention that 90 minutes had passed and he should be ready by now. When my stage set ended, Biff’s buddy Buff flagged me over and said, “I was told to hold onto you before you disappeared again.”
So I chatted with Buff for half a song. By this time, Delilah’s was PACKED! There were bachelor parties everywhere, and many of them were buying bottles for the skyboxes just so they had a table and a place to sit. In other words, the demand for dancers was greater than the supply of dancers. The Limited Buyer doesn’t thrive in this environment. Many of his strategies are just completely useless because there are better prospects in the room.
Biff returned and I hopped onto his lap, “I’ve been waiting for you to come back.” he said. He and Buff were visting from Florida on business.
“Just put it on the Black Card and go to VIP for the rest of the night.” Buff said punching Biff on the arm. That was my first false signal that tipped me that Biff was a limited buyer of the most annoying variety. The second false signal was when he immediately launched into a story about the last time they were at a strip club in Florida, they ran up a huge tab on the Black Card at Mons Venus..blah blah blah… True VIPs don’t brag about how much money they spend at strip clubs, or talk about their Black Cards. I redirected the conversation back to lapdances and set up for my close. “Gosh, if you’ve really been waiting for me all this time, you’re ready to go now, aren’t you?” (I knew what was coming next.)
“Oh, you have to sell me better than that.” Biff said “Are you any good?”
“Well, I’m soooo good that I’ve been too busy to come back. Not to mention that you’ve been here for almost 2 hours you have seen the rest of the rotation and you want me,” I said with a smile and a wink.
“I’m in sales, honey, you have to convince me that you’re the best.”
As if on cue, the floorman walked over and tapped me on the shoulder, “Avalon I have a table in the skybox requesting you.” I couldn’t have planned that any better!
“Well Biff: supply and demand. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.” I stood up and was escorted to the skybox while Biff’s mouth dropped open in disbelief.
I saw him later in the regular lapdance room. He bought one dance, then left. A few minutes later I was on song 4 or 5 and he came back in with a different girl…and bought one dance from the next girl.
Persuasive Communication Tip: use Targeted Statements to call limited buyers to action!
Poor Biff. You can’t play games at Delilah’s. Dances are a commodity there. It’s like trying to haggle at Walmart…isn’t going to happen.
You also can’t try that crap on a SuperStripper. She is a pro who will make her goal. No one dude is going to stand in the way of that.
Biff’s mistake was not knowing or reading his environment and his choices. If he is serious, he’ll get better.
As I commented on Facebook, I don’t have a problem with limited buyers. I think they are fun, and I respect that they choose to stay on the floor and spread the wealth around.
And yes…the point is don’t waste my time when I can be making money elsewhere playing your silly game. If it was slow, I would have played it and not really minded. In fact if it was slow it would have been a fun challenge for me
yea, so much of a Florida guy, we have lots of that kind of hustlers in the strip clubs, Miami. “you have to sell me better than that” became a famous phrase..