Today’s blog post is from: Yes!  50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
By Goldstein, Martin, and Cialdini

 Small little changes to your message can have drastic improvements in results.
Persuasion is science, not art.  And Cialdini is the master of studying and teaching that. 

Williams Sonoma added an upgraded version of a really popular bread maker.  But, it actually lead to an increase in sales from the cheaper one – about 50%.  Researchers speculated that when consumers consider a particular set of choices for a product they can tend to rest on what they would call “compromise choices.”  Choices that fall between what they need, at a minimum, and what they could spend at a maximum.  When people have 2 choices of options that they could spend on, they will often choose the cheaper.  But, if a 3rd is offered.  Then compromised choice is the moderate one.  So, in WS, the cheap one (which wasn’t actually “cheap”) seemed more reasonable.

Or the example is the wine list:  Generally, most places will list the highest end wines at the bottom of the list.  However, if they listed the expensive at the top – then the next cheaper will seem like a compromise choice.  But, that 2nd alternative is still pricier than going cheapest first.

Offer the expensive one first, so that the mid-range seems more reasonable.  Also, just because the expensive is not selling – doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place in your offering.

Try adding a luxury, upgraded version of your product to create a relational value proposition.   How can you build another version that is higher price – but includes enough extra service, options, or product that it still kind of makes sense.    You might not sell many of them.  However, it can make the normal, 70% as expensive product that has 80% of the features seem like an even better deal.