42. How do you use the choice set up?
Nearly everyone in sales knows how to use the choice close; what day would you like delivery, Tuesday or Wednesday? What pack size would be best for you, 12 or 24? You ask the customer to choose between something you want and something else you want and them make the choice - you win both ways.
Now let's take it to a higher level by including the element of contrast. Give them a choice between something they don't want and something they didn't know they wanted until you presented the choice.
Let's say you are going to sell a house to a prospective buyer. The price you want is $100,000. You first take them to a $125,000 house that is overpriced by $25,000. Next you take them to a $75,000 house in need of $50,000 worth of repairs located in a poor area. NOW you take them to your perfectly priced house - $100,000. The choice for the buyer is clear.
How about the used car sales person? They first show you an old clunker that is overpriced and barely runs. Next they show you the care they really want to sell you. In your mind you are comparing the differences and thinking about what a great bargain!
You are talking to a computer sales person about purchasing a new system for your office. You tell the sales person all your requirements who is adding everything up on your list. The sales person now hits you with a whopping $10,000. As soon as you are over your shock you are presented with another choice - a package deal for only $3,000. What a deal! What an easy choice to make. Of course, that is what they wanted to sell you in the first place.
I am at the airport and the flight I am waiting to board is oversold. The attendant jokingly offers to pay $5,000 to anyone who is willing to give up their seat. He immediately admits that he was kidding and says he will pay $200 if anyone would be willing to give up their seat and take a later flight. No takers! Why? He misused the choice close set up. If he would have jokingly offered $25 and then raised it to $200 it would have seemed like a real deal.
Let's say you are going on a job interview and you are going to use the choice close set up. Arrange for two interviews, one immediately following the other. Have a friend go on the first appointment and have them intentionally screw up the interview. Then you go in, well prepared, on the second appointment for your interview and the choice becomes obvious.
If you think this sounds a little shady, consider this choice close set up used by undertakers. The undertaker will first show you a low budget, low price casket that is carefully positioned in a dark corner of the showroom. Then they show you the higher priced casket and point out all the benefits. Compared to the low end casket it is an easy choice to make. The closing statement is usually the one about the how the lower priced casket leaks and the higher priced doesn't! Works for me.
What does this have to do with you? The next time you present a product to a customer take two products instead of one. Take in an expensive, high end product along with the one you want to sell. Show them the over-priced high-end product first. After they get over their shock, bring out the one you wanted to sell in the first place and it will seem like and easy choice.
When I present my sales training program I always make the following comparison:
The American Management Association currently has a program available called Negotiating to Win. It is offered at 13 locations throughout the US at various times during the year. The cost; $1,675 per person with approximately 30% of the information covered being relevant to your business. If you had 25 sales people it would cost you $41,875 plus the individual travel expenses for each sales person.
Makes my fee seem low, which it really is!
Comments:
Clear and Easy! Give them two choices, one you know is over priced and they would not consider and the one you need them to buy into to. This is a win-win situation for both.
As much as I hate to admit….this is so easy, my own teenagers know this strategy. “Mom here are the new Nike’s for $165.00 that I just love, but if we cant get those, these that are ONLY $125.00 and I would wear also.” HOOK, LINE, SINKER!!!!!
Leslie Childers
This section puts a lot in perspective from the “customers” view of your product. I think the choice set up is a great idea. I have never thought to use it on a customer, although I can clearly see how it is used all the time with things we purchase on a day-to-day basis. I believe giving people choices makes them feel powerful and that they are in control. First giving them the extreme option, followed by the option you really intend to sell makes a lot of sense. It seems to lure the customer in even more by showing them options that make the cost of what you are really trying to sell seem like a no brainer!!
Brooke Knight
This technique is used on everyone just about everyday. Especially at car dealerships. I remember it being used on me and I left with a car that I would have never purchased. The salesman first showed me an older Honda Accord that needed some work and told me that with my credit that is all I could afford, then all of a sudden the sales manager decides I can purchase the newer model Ford Mustang and bam it was done. Later I realized I hate Mustangs and had been taken for a ride.
Kimberly Burgess
I recently had a sampling with a customer at our location that prepares fresh cut steaks. I knew in advance that the customer was using a lower grade product. I sampled three steaks one Certified Angus, Choice and his current product. These selections were cuts with a much higher grade than what he was using. We prepared the product right in front of him to sample. He was surprised to find out the difference in taste and texture of the better product. We told him he could improve his menu item for just pennies more to the middle selection. He agreed.
Roland DeGregorio
"The next time you present a product to a customer take two products instead of one. Take in an overpriced high end product along with the one you want to sell. Show them the over priced, high end product first. After they get over their shock, bring out the one you wanted to sell in the first place and it will seem like an easy choice."