October 5, 2019
Perception is everything
Sent by Jonathan Stark on October 6th, 2019
Twitter user @SteveStuWill shared a fascinating thread of perceptual illusions.
It struck me as I was browsing through how many would make really good visual metaphors for the effect of context on the perception of value.
Humans are bad at absolute but great a relative.
For example...
If you ask someone what the wingspan of a 747 is, they’ll probably reply:
“I have no idea!”
But if you ask the same person if a 747 is bigger or smaller than the moon, they’ll say:
“Smaller, obviously!”
(So.. turns out the DID have an idea after all, right?)
Here’s the thing...
It’s the same with pricing.
People are terrible at answering a question like:
“How much is a new website worth to you?”
...but have an easy time answering a question like:
“Is a new website worth $10,000 to you?”
They’ll almost always say one of three things:
- Take my money!
- Are you crazy?!
- That seems about right
When trying to help your clients uncover what your intervention is worth to them, give them something to compare it to.
Yours,
—J