Anchor on the cost of doing nothing

What the anchor is

Anchor is the second move in The Salecopy Method. Its one line is: set the first number, and make it the cost of doing nothing.

Every price is judged against something. If the only number in the conversation is yours, the buyer compares it with a competitor's price, with last year's budget, or with zero. None of those comparisons help you, and none of them help the buyer make a good decision either.

The cost of doing nothing is a different comparison. It is what the problem costs the buyer each month it continues, in their own figures. When that number is agreed first, your price has something real to stand next to.

Build the number with the buyer

The word that matters is "with". A number you worked out alone and presented on a slide is your opinion. A number the buyer helped build is theirs. Do it live, on a call or a shared screen, and say each input out loud as you go.

• Name the problem in one sentence the buyer agrees with.
• Ask where it shows up: hours spent, deals lost, errors fixed, fees paid, customers who leave.
• For each one, ask for their figure. How many people, how many hours, how often, what each is worth to them.
• Multiply out loud, one line at a time, so they can stop you.
• When they are unsure, take the lower figure.
• State the result per month, so every month of delay has a price.

A worked example

This is an invented example to show the arithmetic. The figures are not from a real company.

Say the buyer has 12 sales reps. Their sales manager tells you each rep spends about 5 hours a week retyping orders from email into another system. That is 12 x 5 = 60 hours a week. To stay on the low side, count 4 weeks in a month: 60 x 4 = 240 hours a month. Their operations lead puts the cost of a rep's hour at $40. So 240 x $40 = $9,600 a month.

The sales manager also says slow quotes lose them about 2 deals a month, and their average deal is worth $6,000. That would be 2 x $6,000 = $12,000 a month. You ask whether both are really lost to slow quotes. The manager says probably one of them. So you use 1 x $6,000 = $6,000.

Add the two lines: $9,600 + $6,000 = $15,600 a month. That is the anchor. It is smaller than the $21,600 you would get with the first figure, and it is better, because the buyer believes it.

Now say your price works out to $3,000 a month. The conversation is no longer about whether $3,000 is a lot. It is about $3,000 a month against $15,600 a month, and about what a three-month delay costs at that rate: 3 x $15,600 = $46,800.

Get the buyer to confirm it

The number is not an anchor until the buyer has said it is about right. Ask directly: "Using your numbers, this costs you about this much a month. Is that roughly right, or am I missing something?"

Then do three things. Send it in writing the same day, with every input listed, so it can be forwarded. Ask who else would need to agree with the figure, which is often someone in finance. And record whose numbers they are, by name.

If the buyer corrects you, that is a good result. A corrected number is one they have now worked on. If they will not engage with the number at all, treat that as information about the deal. The problem may not cost enough to act on, or you may be talking to someone who does not feel the cost. Finding that person is the job of the List move, which comes next in the method.

Where AI helps

An AI assistant is useful for the arithmetic and the layout. Give it the inputs the buyer stated and it builds the calculation and shows every input, so the rep can check it before it is said out loud.

It should not supply the inputs. If a figure is missing, the right output is "missing", not an estimate or an industry average. The rep checks the math, decides whether to use it, and is the one who says it to the buyer.

If you want a starting structure for the calculation, there are some on the calculators page. Replace every default with the buyer's own figure before you use one in a conversation.

Mistakes to avoid

Most problems with this move come from rushing it or from making the number bigger than the buyer believes.

• Quoting your price before the buyer has agreed what the problem costs. This is the main one.
• Using your figures or general averages in place of theirs. The buyer can dismiss a number that is not theirs.
• Inflating it. One input the buyer does not believe makes them doubt the rest.
• Giving only a yearly total. A monthly figure makes the cost of each month of delay plain.
• Getting one person to confirm it and never showing it to the person who holds the budget.
• Never updating it. If the buyer hires, loses a customer or changes a process, the number changes too.

How it is used later in the deal

The anchor comes back at the pricing stage. When a buyer asks for a discount, you can put the request next to the monthly cost they confirmed and ask which matters more: a lower price, or starting sooner. It also sits beside your walk-away when you prepare, which is covered in write your walk-away before the pricing call.

Keep it on the deal record in your CRM (customer relationship management system, where your deals are kept), not in a spreadsheet on one person's laptop. A manager reviewing the deal should be able to see the number, the inputs and who confirmed it.

What to add to your CRM

A prompt to try

You are helping me work out what a problem costs a buyer each month, using only figures the buyer has given me. Stay in this role for the whole conversation.

The problem, in one sentence: [the problem]
What the buyer told me, with who said it:
[paste the figures: number of people, hours, how often, what each is worth, and the name or role of the person who gave each one]

Do the following:
1. Build the monthly cost one line at a time. Show every input and every multiplication.
2. Next to each input, write who it came from. If I did not say, write SOURCE MISSING.
3. If an input needed for the calculation is not in what I pasted, write INPUT MISSING and tell me the question to ask the buyer. Do not estimate it and do not use industry averages.
4. Where the buyer gave a range, use the lower figure and say so.
5. Give the total per month, and what a delay of one, two and three months costs at that rate.

Do not write a message to the buyer and do not contact anyone. I will check the arithmetic and decide whether to use it.