Wrong Number!

It’s very possible that I might have already told you about the time I met Robert Smith, lead singer from The Cure. I tell everyone sooner or later. 

It was in the Bognor Regis branch of Tesco in 1992 when The Cure were at their absolute peak and and bona fide global superstars. Chatting with Robert, getting his autograph and checking out the contents of his trolley, is up there with my Wedding Day, the birth of my kids and 26th May 1999.

A Strange Day

Happily (or unhappily, depending on which tracks they’re playing) The Cure are still going strong and these days are a mighty fine live act. I’ve got tickets to see them this December and I’m very very much looking forward to it. 

Having seen them numerous times over the years I reckon they’re now the best live version they’ve ever been. Playing for three hours plus they rattle through an enormous number of songs from their vast back catalogue.

They charge through a slew of knee wobbling epics like A Forest, A Hundred Years and Disintegration. Dotted throughout is the downright weird stuff like Shake Dog Shake but then there are loads of chart friendly hits too. More than you’d expect from a group whose limited dress colour code ranges from Dark Charcoal all the to Chinese Black. 

Everybody knows Lovecats, Just Like Heaven and Friday I’m In Love right? But they rarely play Wrong Number, an overlooked and uncelebrated single from 1997. This is a shame because it has an amazing solo and one of my favourite rhyming couplets ever.

“I had the best laid plans this side of America

Started out in church and finished with Angelica” 

Don’t know what it means but it just sounds great. And they probably won’t play it in December. 

Nevertheless, it’s a wrong number I want to talk about today. 

How seamless was that transition? I doubt you will ever read a finer not-shoehorned-at-all segue than that.

That's Accuracy

An organisation I’ve delivered training to on many occasions over the years got in touch recently and asked me to do a half day on Presentation Skills. I pencilled the date into my diary and shot off an email in reply.

Which leads us immediately to this week’s Top Tip. When you send an email always check to make sure you’ve written down the correct details. 

Yes, it’s that basic this week. Double check stuff before you press send. How many times, in one form or another, have I shared this as advice already?

But you can guess why this is on my mind right? Yep, that’s it, I replied with the wrong details. And specifically it’s because I gave them a wrong number.

As I say I’ve worked for this organisation before and am aware that they have a specific fee ceiling for this type of event. Yet old margarine fingers here had quoted a different fee. 

It was only one digit wrong but it increased the fee by about 30%. And so they couldn’t sanction it.

Typing the wrong number was a mistake but the real mistake is not double checking what I’d written. Schoolboy error.

We had a short email exchange where they were polite and I was embarrassed and we got it all sorted and the event is back on. Hurrah! 

So everything ended well but it got me thinking about a few different but thematically similar points about pricing and how we decide on a fee or value of a service or product. I thought I’d mention them here. 

Hopefully they’re useful points to consider whether you’re buying or selling - and we’re all doing at least one of these.

Never Enough

Supplementary Top Tip #1: Try Increasing Your Prices. I sent the wrong fee detail by accident but imagine if they had emailed saying ‘Yep, that’s fine.’ Then I’d have accidentally found a new benchmark fee structure and increased my profits. Testing the price ceiling is a commonly used strategy, it’s just not flagged up much, for obvious reasons.

Things are only worth what you feel they are worth. So with that in mind you can ask for anything as long as you’re willing to hear the word no. And if you’re buying the service you can ask for a different price too. Don’t be frightened of asking for discounts. 

I’m well out of practice these days but I spent a year in Tanzania and shortly after another year in Turkey. In both places bartering is often the norm and I got pretty good at driving the price down. The traders always started at a massively inflated price, anchoring high.

Like Ice Into My Heart

It’s more of a delicate balance in the UK but inflating prices is a strategy that is in play in lots of places that we’re not always aware of. Obviously rising energy prices is a hot topic but on a cooler theme I bought an ice cream maker this month. 

It was one of those fancy kitchen top machines that churns and freezes immediately and they're not cheap, so I shopped around for the best price. But just after my purchase I realised I’d paid more than top dollar for it. 

A web browser extension that I didn’t even know I had installed informed me that the price I paid was £50 more just a week earlier. It tracks the price history. (In fact I’m even more annoyed right now because checking today I can see it has dropped back down again! That’s across the board, on both Amazon and on John Lewis, where I bought the thing. Coincidence?! Never knowingly undersold? Hmmmm.)

So clearly be careful with this strategy as you could end up annoying people and they might get buyer’s remorse.

I Can Never Say No To Anyone But You

Supplementary Top Tip #2: Saying No. Quoting a larger fee actually can be a way of saying no, without using that word. If for example I was asked to deliver training and it involved too much travel then I could just say no. But there might be reasons, politically or personally, why that wouldn’t be the right thing to do. 

Instead I could quote a fee that would be higher than usual. High enough to either put them off or high enough to feel it was worth the extra hassle if they agreed to it. If they decide not to buy then that’s fine. But if they go ahead then you may have learned that they value your services more highly than you thought. Again, be careful.

So I Trick Myself

Supplementary Top Tip #3: Anchoring. If you mention a high number to start with then automatically any number below it will seem cheaper and feel like better value. This is called anchoring because your mind becomes anchored to the first price you hear. 

That’s how many shops make us feel we’re getting a bargain. They artificially inflate the price and then any reduction appears to be great value.

I’m fascinated by anchoring because even though you know about the concept and recognise that the initial crazy high price mentioned isn’t valid, the process still works. The lower price still looks like a bargain in comparison. I always fall for it. Knowingly!

It works both ways too. My mother in law used anchoring against me last year in the summer. I like to think she did it accidentally. 

I bought a jacket from the sale rack in Debenhams and it was a ridiculous bargain. Normally £90 I paid much much less. A few family members guessed at what I’d paid.

“£50?” said my daughter.

“£40?” guessed my niece.

“£7?” offered my mother in law.

Everyone laughed. Seven pounds was clearly a ridiculous guess. Far too low. Obviously.

“Come on then, how much was it?”

“Well, it was £7 actually,” I said quietly, having had my bargain-tastic thunder stolen.

I looked over at my mother in law nodding wisely. “Yes, I thought about that much” she said.

Brilliant!

No It Doesn't Come For Free

Guessing at such a low number means that whatever my actual number ended up being, it was never going to sound like such a great bargain. 

If I’d said it cost twenty pounds then that’s still a massive reduction from the £90 starting point. But because of the £7 guess it would no longer sound like a deal.

You can use anchoring when you’re negotiating to get a lower price. Generally, the rule is that whoever first names a price in a bartering situation is the person who ‘loses’ but aggressive anchoring can help.

If you find that you are the person who has to name the first price make sure you go in with a really low offer. Don’t be embarrassed, just say it.

The other party may appear offended but if they want to make a sale they’ll counter with an offer. And now it can’t be as high as the first one they were thinking of. Not if they are serious. Your low anchor number has put paid to that.

Definitely make sure you don’t start off with too high a number. You can’t go back down and they can only drive you up. Starting off too high would be the, ahem, wrong number. 

My word, I’ve done it again - seamless!

Enjoy recognising these different ploys in play.