A good idea on how to sell more is to offer the highest priced item first.
And if you think about it, this is common practice in many different industries.
Here. Buy our car for $70,000. A warranty is $2,000 extra. Special tires are $1,000 more. And all-weather floor mats are $200.
A new phone is $800. Wireless earphones are $150. And a phone case is $75.
And here’s an idea, kids!
Use this principle when asking for cash from your parents. Say you want $20. First, you need $20 to look like a small amount. So start by talking about something expensive. Anything. A million dollar house, an expensive watch, the cost of a private jet.
Now ask.
Or, ask for $200 to hang out with friends for the weekend. Know you will get turned down. Concede that $200 is a lot of money. Ask for $20 instead.
You might still get turned down, but your chances are much higher than a cold request.
It’s all about the contrast, if you want to know the truth.
This post is essentially part two of the post: How To Sell Suits.
As sales motivation analysts Whitney, Hubin, and Murphy state, “The interesting thing is that even when a man enters a clothing store with the express purpose of purchasing a suit, he will almost always pay more for whatever accessories he buys if he buys them after the suit purchase than before.” It is much more profitable for salespeople to present the expensive item first, not only because to fail to do so will lose the influence of the contrast principle; to fail to do so will also cause the principle to work actively against them. Presenting an inexpensive product first and following it with an expensive one will cause the expensive item to seem even more costly as a result—hardly a desirable consequence for most sales organizations.
-Robert Cialdini, Influence
