The other night we went to the local mall on our annual trek to see Santa. While we were there something interesting happened, we passed by this inconspicuous mall kiosk, where an attractive woman with a distinct Russian accent beckoned us over to her stand to show us the most innovative hair straightening device in the world.
She invites my 9 year old daughter with long brown hair to sit down and shows her how with a single pass she can curl her hair, and leave it silky smooth without over-drying it. The delight on my daughter’s face was immediate. This was a wonder to behold, and available in so many colors and patterns as well. Next was my girlfriend, sat down and a minute later, a portion of her hair was smooth, moist and tangle free. This was surely a wonder of modern engineering, a marvel of technology with it’s ceramic floating plates that allow it to straighten the hair without damaging it.
The saleswoman complimented my daughters on their manners, and mentioned how handsome their father was, and told my girlfriend she had a beautiful family. She really seemed to genuinely like us, and was glad we could stop by her little corner of the local mall.
Of course now that we had all seen the wonder of the magic hair straightening device, discussed the point of pain that my girlfriend and daughters had faced with their existing low tech grooming products, it was time to try to close us.
Because it was late in the day, and business was slow, and of course because we are the best customers, she decided to do us a favor by giving us two straighteners for $199. Each of these retails for over $300 each, so this was a very good value she said. Of course, the deal got even sweeter!
Not only would we get our choice of two, but we would get a lifetime warranty valued at $99 each, as well as a holder that stays on the mirror to keep your counters from getting burned. And of course everyone will need a special straitening comb valued at $25 each. All told this is an $850 value for only $199! My daughter’s jaw dropped, the look of astonishment was palpable. How was this possible? My girlfriend said she had seen similar devices on TV for hundreds of dollars, so this definitely seemed like a good deal. And to top it off, this was a limited time offer because the price is going back to retail before Christmas. We may never see this kind of price again!
As carefully as I could, I managed to break the family away for a thinking session at the local Lego store to get some distance between our wallets and the hard close.
At the Lego store, I convinced three very upset women, that we should skip the magic hair straightener just for today.
Ever the researcher, when we got home, I looked up the hair straightener and found that it was in fact a legitimate piece of equipment, it was rated 4.5 Stars on Amazon, and seems to be loved by all who own one. Of course, I also found that the exact same model sells for $59 on Amazon, Ebay, and several other outlets. Of course the retail price on the manufacturer’s website was pinned at the $300 we were told at the mall.
My 9 year old was astonished again! “She lied to us? That lady was so nice, why would she lie to us? And why aren’t you mad daddy?” she asked. I replied that I was not upset because the lady was doing her job, and doing an excellent job at that! And what she did was a standard negotiation tool called “Anchoring”.
Anchoring, I explained to my 9 and 7 year olds is when you mention a number that is way higher than what you actually expect to settle for in order to “Anchor” the expectation of value in the customer’s mind. Our saleswoman, had done an excellent job in almost every step of the sales process. She had prospected (cold approached us as we walked by), found the point of pain (frustration with their existing straightener), demonstrated the product on all 3 girl’s hair, built value through mentioning the novel features and their benefits to the ladies, quickly got on all of our good sides through seemingly genuine compliments, anchored the value at $850 before building a sense of immediacy by hitting us with the one time special offer of $199. It was a masterful performance that most salespeople never achieve. Unfortunately for her, in my role as a sales trainer these are the exact skills I teach my students, so instead of being transfixed, I was admiring the skills and performance.
Back to anchoring, I explained exactly how it worked to them before bedtime.”Lets say, you really want a candy cane off the tree. You know if you just ask for a candy cane I’ll probably say no, so instead you ask me for a pony, and of course, I say no to the pony. Then you ask me if you can stay up till midnight on a school night… another obvious no. Then you ask if you can have some cake and ice cream, another no. Then finally you askme if you can just have a single candy cane since you’ve been good, and it’s a lot less sugar and less expensive than cake or a pony…..”
As they finished their candy canes that they had procured in exactly the same way, they understood a fundamental lesson in sales and negotiation that we all knew as children. Anchoring works.
