Jennifer Sharpe knows how to sell Girl Scout cookies. In fact, she managed to sell 17.323 boxes for $3.50 each! (see full story)
As she said: “I know how to get people to buy more,” said Jennifer, a sophomore at Edsel Ford High School . “If they buy two boxes and they hand me a 10, I’d be like, ‘For 50 cents more, you can get three”
Why is this trick likely to work (it reminds me a bit of the movie paper moon)? Why is it likely to work better than simply offering people to buy 3 packages for $10.50
First, it is possible that making an initial offer below $10 (compared to one above $10) causes more people to be willing to buy — so it increases the market size.
Second, it is possible that once people had out their $10 they don’t think about the change they are about to get and as a consequence Jennifer’s offer of “just another 50 cents” does not register as another $3.50 for another box!
In any case, I suspect that Jennifer’s trip to Europe (which is what she collected the money for) will give her new ideas about new approaches to framing.
7 Comments
Mark
How aware was Jennifer that she may have been framing? I suspect that she just fell for the same fallacy that the buyer succumbs to. I suspect many times the sellers do it without realizing exactly what they have done. And possibly she viewed it not as $10.50 collected but rather as 3 vs 2 boxes sold. Kudos to her though anyway. Great accomplishment.
21 May 2008, 9:13 am
Dave Lakhani
This is also a continuance of the downsell strategy. When offered a higher priced product which is rejected, and then offering a smaller item for much less they buyer is much more likely to say yes. In the example, had she asked for a $40 dollar donation for the GSA they would likely have said no, but if she said “well how about a box of cookies for $3.50,” they would be much more inclined to say yes. In this case by getting them to commit and then offering them another box for a great value (they process $.50 cents when the rest cost $3.50), it seems like a three for two deal and it is tough to pass up. This is subliminal persuasion in action and I also believe it is a perfect example of being predictably irrational. Beautiful example Dr. Ariely.
21 May 2008, 7:03 pm
Jon
Read Influence by Robert Cialdini. It has a whole chapter on this I think and some other things that might shed light on irrationality…..
22 May 2008, 6:08 am
rightsaidfred
I’m wondering what other factors made her a superior salesperson. I imagine she has a personality that puts people at ease. I’d guess she is exceptional at noticing good places to “set up shop”, and exceptional at networking.
Someone once commented about a successful businessman, “he sees things other people don’t.”
23 May 2008, 9:16 am
Will
Commenter “heckler” is Deborah Frisch, PhD.
Click on my name to see who she really is.
24 May 2008, 4:28 pm
Will
Dan, I’m sorry to have to sully your great post with my warning about Deb Frisch. I just think your readers ought to that she is no “ordinary” commenter.
She’s Predictably (and reliably) Irrational. And kinda mean, too.
24 May 2008, 5:05 pm
Jay
This reminds me of some game shows (such as Millionaire) in which the contestant is asked whether s/he would like to continue answering one more question for double the prize (e.g. a million dollars) or s/he would like to take the 500,000 dollars home now. Which would you choose?
26 May 2008, 8:37 pm
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