Overwhelmed by jam

Why three is the magic number

I strongly recommend you offer your clients a choice of three services when talking about how they can work together.

But why three? Why not two, or four? Or seven, eleven or twenty-four? What makes me so confident that my number is right?

My answer is simple: it’s been proven. Scientists have sat down, designed experiments to test this kind of question, and then published the results. And it’s this proof that allows us to make informed decisions on the best ways to price and package our services, rather than just making hopeful guesses.

So how do scientists test this kind of thing?

In order to find the right number of options to offer customers, one experiment involved setting up a market stall selling jam. Every day the scientists varied the number of types of jam on offer, and measured the results.

The most jams offered was 24, and this generated a lot of interest… but very little sales. The scientists concluded that too much choice overwhelms customers to the point that they don’t buy anything.

The experimenters found that the optimal number for generating sales was three, which is why I confidently recommend that you should be offering your clients a choice of three services.

(In case you’re worried that my knowledge is all based on condiment sales, there have been plenty more experiments since then to prove that three is the magic number across all sorts of products and businesses.)

But my confidence in finding you the right pricing strategy doesn’t come from just knowing the right number of services to offer. The wonderful thing about pricing is that it has attracted attention from scientists - and interested business people - across a whole spectrum of decisions.

So when I sit down with a recruitment leader to talk about the right approach for their business, I’m basing my advice on scientifically proven answers. Which gives us the confidence to make big, strategic changes.

If you’re looking for proven advice on how to price your services, simply reply to this email and I’ll explain our next steps.

Jon

P.S. Some of the more interesting experiments on pricing have been written up in entertaining books by the likes of Rory Sutherland and Dan Ariely. If you’re interested in learning more about this kind of thing, I’d highly recommend them for an introduction to pricing psychology.

And if you’re looking for proven advice on how apply these ideas to your recruitment business, simply reply to this email and I’ll explain our next steps.