Three tiers on a pricing page: cheap, middle, expensive. The expensive one is not there to be chosen. It is there to make the middle one look like the sensible option.
Adept
The hidden part#0352
Value is judged by comparison, not absolutely. The tier nobody buys is the one that decides what everyone else buys.
A deadline feels like a fact about the calendar, but it is usually a fact about who wants the deal closed faster and is willing to manufacture urgency to get there.
Adept
The hidden part#0327
Time pressure is asymmetric by design. The deadline harms whoever did not set it and benefits whoever did, regardless of whether the constraint is real.
Folk wisdom says never go first. Research says the first number anchors the entire negotiation, and whoever sets the anchor often sets the outcome.
Novice
The hidden part#0326
Anchoring can outweigh information loss. The person who sets the first number often sets the final one, because every adjustment thereafter begins from their starting point.
The click that starts a subscription is bright, central and immediate. The click that ends it is buried, grey and surrounded by questions you did not expect.
Adept
The hidden part#0227
Effort is allocated against the exit. The path in is short because the company wants you there; the path out is long because it wants you to stay.
An argument that raises the objection against itself usually persuades better than one that waits to be attacked, especially before a sceptical audience.
Novice
The hidden part#0576
Naming the objection first converts it from a discovery into a detail.