You know the patient who won’t pay for the dental treatment you recommend, but has plenty of money to go on holiday. Or the principal who is reluctant to pay for better equipment. How can you encourage them to trade up from the cheapest option?
Monetary Relativity
Retailers already do this by adding premium products to their ranges, not so much to sell the premium products themselves as much as to change our perceptions of the other products on the shelf next to it.
We don’t judge prices in absolute terms, we judge them in relation to other similar things and we tend to favour compromise choices, preferring neither the most expensive, nor the cheapest. When there are only two options, people tend to go for the cheaper one. So if a supermarket sells two kinds of wine at £4 and £6, most people choose the cheaper one. If, however, the shop adds a £10 bottle is added, more people trade up to the £6 wine because it now seems more reasonable compared to the new ‘top end’.
Some people may buy the more expensive wine. But even if it sits unsold, that doesn’t matter. By providing a higher comparison top price, it has shifted consumers’ perceptions about how much wine should cost.
So if you don’t have any top-of-the-range treatment options or products available, try adding them. You might find people choose them. Even if they don’t, your mid-range options now appear more affordable by comparison. And if you want to ask the principal for new equipment or money to do some training, make sure to present an option that is more expensive than the one you would like.
