The Invisible Game

Chapter 14Who Will You Anchor Today?

A salesperson's most important tool for influencing prices is anchoring, which we introduced at the end of Part I. The power of anchoring is the basis for our recommending ‘Make the first move!’, rather than waiting to see what price the customer uses to establish the reference price or anchor that will guide the rest of the negotiation.

However, you can't simply throw out any high price as an anchor just to make subsequent prices look more appealing. Setting an anchor presents several challenges. What specific customer behaviour do you want your anchor to encourage? Everything else derives from your answer to that question. You need to be clear on how you want the buyer to understand the anchor and how they will incorporate it into their decision making, so that you can avoid misinterpretations. You also need to maintain a consistent credible link between price and value, limit the buyer's ability to directly compare offerings, and avoid letting your anchors become less potent due to familiarity.

These guidelines will enable you to address these challenges and tap into the tremendous power of anchoring effectively and ethically.

• Anchors are not target prices: The anchor price serves as a reference point, not a selling point. Customer familiarity and the nature of the relationship will define the separation between these two price points. The less familiar the buyer is with an offering, the stronger the influence of your reference price ...