The Hesitation Point

Description

The hesitation point is the price point at which customers stop rejecting a price outright and hesitate for a moment.

When showing goods to a customer, start with a high priced item, which they will probably quickly refuse. Move then to a slightly lower-priced and watch their reaction again. Repeat this until the customer hesitates, not rejecting the item outright, although they may still say no. This is the point at which they may well be persuaded to buy. The final deal may involve a different product or package, but you now know approximately how much they can afford.

This can also be done in a short conversation. Just talk about high end products, then about successively lower priced items, perhaps giving price ranges. Keep watching and listening until their body language or speech gives you a clue. Then start listing the models within the range or otherwise homing in on the sale.

Example

Our QRP range starts at a thousand (sees reaction), which is expensive and I'd not really recommend as you don't get so much more for your money. The QRX range runs from six hundred. Does this make sense? (refusal) No? Ok. We do have a couple of ex-display models at about 500 (person hesitates). Let me show them to you - they're probably the best value you can get now.

Discussion

Although people may say they want a product at a certain price or up to a maximum, they often will go above this if they feel the product is worth it.

Showing them high priced items first creates an anchoring effect, where subsequent products are compared with the expensive one, making them seem good value in comparison.

A hesitation means that the person is not completely and immediately rejecting the items out of hand, which means they could conceivably buy it, even though they may have been thinking of a much lower price.

They may not buy at the hesitation point price, although this is possible if you can convince them of the great value they will get here. Often, you will end up selling for less than this, though if you do it skilfully, it will be well above their initial price target.

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The Hesitation Point

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