Anchors Away! 5 Ways to Use Anchoring in Market Research and Consumer Insights

If you have ever found that adding a number into your communication (like, “Limit 12” on a promotion) has increased sales, you’ve enjoyed the benefit of anchoring. In behavioral science, anchoring (a form of priming) is most often showcased with a number being presented that impacts the decision someone makes. And, while this has considerable tests and impact in sales, you don’t have to limit your use of anchoring to products on a shelf.

The most important thing to remember when it comes to anchoring comes from the name itself. Whatever comes first will set an anchor – something that will stick in the person’s mind – and then they move up or down from there. Often, the brain’s natural tendency is to think that you should start small and work your way up. Unfortunately, this sets a low anchor that often doesn’t work in your favor. A simple reframe is to look for and start with a high anchor in your communication. Start higher than whatever you want them to buy (or idea you want someone to buy-in on) so it feels like a naturally better choice.

Here are five ways to incorporate high anchors into your work:

Budget Request

Let’s say that your last project had a budget for three focus groups and this time you believe that you need six to do the job right. Don’t start by saying, “I know last time we only had three focus groups, and I totally understand why, I know budgets are tight, but is there any way…” That low anchor and lack of confidence aren’t going to work in your favor. Instead, consider what true high anchors exist that can help justify the increased number of groups (and budget request). 

For example, what is the value that will be returned from the investment? A request of, “If we get this right, we could increase revenue by $10 million this year. The best way to ensure that is by getting enough insight from the focus groups and to do that, we should run six groups because…” Anchoring on the value can help make the increased expense an easy yes.

Pricing a Project

Too often I see clients create their pitches and project proposals with the “best offer” (the thing you want them to pick) as the most expensive choice. This is a bad strategy. You should always take it one step further to create what I call a “wingman” for your best offer. This is a product or service whose only job is to make the best offer look good.

Sure, someone could buy it and you would be delighted if they did, but that isn’t its purpose. In the case of pitching a project to a client, what would the most extreme version of your ideal offer look like? Perhaps they would have a person from your team working in their office for six months to ensure everything goes smoothly. Most people won’t need that, and it would be very expensive. If you offer it first as an option, your “best offer” now feels like a great value because of that high anchor.

Caution! Be sure your wingman is something you really want to offer and that would be a great value for your business as well. You would be amazed how many times the customer has selected the “outlandish” idea that my clients didn’t realize their market was yearning for. Get creative when creating your wingman, it’s an opportunity to test out new offerings, play around with bundles, and so much more.

Pitching

We don’t need to say too much more here, just remember to lead with the high anchor in your pitch. Whether it is verbally, in slides, on your website, in an email, or anything else, you want to be sure that the high anchor comes before the best offer to increase the likelihood of success for your pitch.

Timelines

Has this ever happened to you? 

Your boss/client: “When can you have that to me?”

You (think it will take five weeks but under stress blurt out): “I bet we could have that in…three weeks? Is that too long?”

Them: “Wow! I was sure this would take at least six weeks, but now we can make the budget meeting – I’ll let Bob know…” [starts IM’ing Bob]

You: [facepalm]

When someone asks when they can expect delivery on a project, fight the urge to throw out a number that you think they want to hear. As in the scenario above, you can’t unring the bell of that low anchor you set. When you get a question like, “When can you have that to me?” I encourage my clients to respond with something like, “What feels like an ideal timeline to you?”

The beauty of this is, as with the scenario above, the person asking (boss, client) almost always has a number in mind that is more than you think they are going to say. Just think of how differently that scenario above would have played out if you had responded with this. The boss/client would have said, “Oh, I don’t know…is six weeks too quick?” You were thinking five weeks, so you now have a little buffer – win! Everyone is happy.

And, if you are meeting with the type of person who says, “Ideally I’d have it yesterday!” you can laugh it off, forget that low anchor, and respond with the realistic, “I hear ya! Thankfully, it won’t be 90 days or anything like that, I bet we could get this delivered in just five weeks. How does that sound?” (Notice the new high anchor you set of 90 days to offset their “yesterday” before getting to “just” five weeks.)

Meetings

No one loves when meetings go long. On the flip side, most everyone appreciates when a meeting ends early. So, why do we feel compelled to try and squeeze everything into a shorter meeting request? Be smart with your agenda planning, and ensure there is enough time to do it justice. If you know you have more stuff than can be covered in an hour, edit down the agenda or extend the time. Planning for 90 minutes and ending 15 minutes early will always feel better than asking for 60 minutes and holding people hostage for 75.

And there you have it! Five ways to use high anchors in your work to increase success on budget requests, pricing and pitches, timelines and meetings. What anchors will you test first? Can you remember a time where you used the wrong anchor? What happened and what will you do differently in the future? I can’t wait to hear about it!