Latest / Closing the Deal with Fexingo: Sales, Negotiation, and Revenue Conversations for Operators / The Bracket Strategy for Closing Multi-Stakeholder Deals
Transcript
- Lucas: You're negotiating a deal. The buyer says they have four hundred thousand dollars budgeted. You know your product is worth more — but you also know that if you quote six hundred, they'll walk. Luna: Classic anchoring problem. You don't want to lowball yourself, but you also don't want to scare them off. Lucas: Exactly. So what do you do? You use what I call the Bracket Strategy. You present three options that bracket their number — one slightly below, one moderately above, and one significantly above. Luna: Like a value ladder, but specifically designed around the buyer's stated budget. Lucas: Right. Let me give you a real case. A friend of mine — let's call him Dan — was selling a sales intelligence platform to a mid-market company. The buyer said they had four hundred thousand dollars allocated. Dan's target price was four twenty-five. But if he led with four twenty-five, the buyer would have said 'that's above my budget.' So instead, Dan put together three packages. Luna: What did they look like? Lucas: Package one: three hundred fifty thousand. Limited seats, no API access, quarterly business reviews. Package two: four hundred twenty-five thousand. Full seats, API access, monthly QBRs. Package three: five hundred fifty thousand. All of that plus dedicated support and a custom integration. Luna: So the middle option was exactly what he wanted to sell. Lucas: Exactly. And the buyer chose package two. Here's why it works: by bracketing the budget, you make the middle option feel like a compromise. The buyer thinks 'I get more than the cheap option for just a little more, and the expensive option is overkill.' It's the decoy effect in action. Luna: There's a famous study — Dan Ariely's Economist subscription experiment. Three tiers: web-only for $59, print-only for $125, print plus web for $125. The print-only was a decoy to make the combo look like a steal. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the psychology behind the bracket strategy. But the key is that the bracket has to be credible. If your low option is obviously stripped down, and your high option is obviously overbuilt, the middle one wins. But if all three look similar, the buyer just picks the cheapest. Luna: So the differentiation has to be real. Not just fluff. Lucas: Right. And you have to be willing to sell any of the three. If you're clearly steering them to the middle, they'll sense it. But if you genuinely believe each package serves a different need, you can present them neutrally. Luna: What about the risk that the buyer just picks the low option? Lucas: That's a real risk. But in Dan's case, the low option was deliberately limited. The buyer's team needed API access — that was a deal-breaker. So the low option wasn't viable for them. Dan knew that from discovery. He designed the bracket around what he learned. Luna: So the bracket only works if you've done your homework on their needs. Lucas: Absolutely. If you don't know their must-haves, you can't design a credible low option. The low option has to be missing something they need, but not so stripped that it insults them. Luna: What about the high option? Five fifty thousand is a big jump from four hundred. Doesn't that risk anchoring them to the low end? Lucas: It can, if you present it wrong. The trick is to frame the high option as a premium path for a specific use case. Dan said something like 'If you're planning to roll this out to your entire sales team and integrate with your CRM, the premium package will save you implementation time.' That made it aspirational, not absurd. Luna: So the high option becomes a vision-stretcher. Lucas: Exactly. It shows what's possible if they invest more. And sometimes buyers do stretch. Dan had a deal where the buyer went from a four hundred budget to the five fifty package because they wanted the custom integration. That's a win-win. Luna: But what if the buyer just says 'I only have four hundred, can you do the middle option at four hundred?' Lucas: Then you have a conversation. Dan would say 'I can't change the pricing, but I can adjust the scope. Maybe we drop the API access and do quarterly QBRs — that brings it to three eighty.' Or he'd offer a longer-term commitment to justify the discount. The bracket gives you room to negotiate without discounting your core package. Luna: So it's a negotiation framework, not a rigid price list. Lucas: Right. And it works outside of SaaS, too. I've used it in consulting proposals. Client says their budget is fifty thousand. I offer a thirty-five thousand option — just the audit, no implementation. A fifty-five thousand option — audit plus implementation. And a seventy-five thousand option — full transformation. The middle one almost always wins. Luna: I've seen it in salary negotiations too. Candidate says they want one hundred twenty thousand. You offer one hundred ten with fewer responsibilities, one twenty-five with a clear promotion path, and one forty with a leadership role. The middle one feels like a win. Lucas: Exactly. Now, there's a subtlety: the number of options. Three is optimal. Two forces a binary choice — yes or no. Four or more creates analysis paralysis. Three gives the buyer a sense of control without overwhelming them. Luna: There's behavioral research on that. Sheena Iyengar's jam study — when shoppers saw 24 jams, only 3% bought. When they saw 6, 30% bought. Fewer options drove action. Lucas: And in sales, you want action. So three is the sweet spot. But you have to sequence them carefully. I recommend presenting the middle option first, then the low, then the high. That way, the middle becomes the anchor, not the low. Luna: Interesting. So you deliberately anchor them on your target. Lucas: Yeah. Because if you lead with the low option, that becomes their reference point. Then the middle feels expensive. But if you lead with the middle, the low option feels like a bargain, and the high option feels like a luxury. The middle stays the reference. Luna: Does this work in competitive situations where the buyer is comparing you to other vendors? Lucas: It can. If a competitor comes in at three eighty, your low option at three fifty still looks competitive. But your middle option at four twenty-five has more value. You can say 'For forty-five thousand more, you get API access and monthly QBRs — our competitor doesn't offer that.' The bracket helps you justify the premium. Luna: One risk I've seen: some sales reps use the bracket as a way to hide their real price. They put a low option they know won't work, a high option that's unrealistic, and hope the middle sticks. But buyers see through that. Lucas: Absolutely. If the low option is obviously a throwaway, you lose trust. The bracket has to be genuine. Each option should serve a real segment of your customer base. If you're a software company, the low option might be for startups, the middle for growing companies, the high for enterprises. That's credible. Luna: So the bracket is really a segmentation tool disguised as a pricing page. Lucas: That's a great way to put it. And when you present it in a negotiation, you're essentially letting the buyer self-segment. They choose the tier that fits their needs and budget. You're not imposing a price; you're offering a choice. Luna: And that reduces resistance. People don't like being told what to pay, but they like choosing among options. Lucas: Exactly. And here's the thing — if these conversations have moved your work forward in some small way, there's a simple way to keep the show ad-free and self-sustaining. It's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's it. No tiers, no brackets — just a one-time or monthly cup of coffee for the team that puts this together. No pressure, but if the show's helped you close a deal or think differently about a negotiation, that link is there. Luna: Yeah, and it's a direct way to say 'this is useful' without a middleman. We keep the show independent that way. Lucas: So back to the bracket. Let's talk about how to handle objections once you've presented the three options. The most common objection is 'Can you customize a package between these tiers?' Luna: And what do you say? Lucas: I say 'Absolutely. Let's figure out what you need and I'll price it accordingly.' But then I ask 'What's driving you away from the middle option? Is it the price, or the features?' That usually surfaces the real objection. In Dan's case, one buyer said 'I want the API access but I don't need monthly QBRs.' So Dan created a custom option at four hundred thousand — API access, quarterly QBRs. He still got his target price, just with a different scope. Luna: So the bracket gives you a starting point for customization. Lucas: Exactly. It's a framework, not a cage. And it works best when you've done discovery. If you know their must-haves, you can design the low option to exclude them, the middle to include them, and the high to add nice to haves. That makes the middle the obvious choice. Luna: Let's talk about the high option for a second. Some reps are afraid to present a high option because they think it will scare the buyer. But in my experience, it actually makes the middle look reasonable. Lucas: Yes. The high option serves as a decoy. It's called the 'extremeness aversion' bias — people avoid extremes. So if you give them a low, a middle, and a high, they naturally gravitate to the middle. Without the high, the middle might feel expensive. With the high, it feels safe. Luna: I've also seen the high option work as an upsell path. Some buyers actually choose it because they see the long-term value. Especially in enterprise deals where the decision-maker is thinking about scale. Lucas: Right. And if they choose the high option, you've just increased your deal size by thirty percent or more. That's a win. So don't be shy about including a premium tier. Just make sure it's justified. Luna: What about the low option? Do you ever worry that a buyer will take it and then be unhappy because they're missing features? Lucas: That's a real risk, which is why you have to be clear about what each option includes and excludes. Dan always said 'The low option is great if you have a small team and don't need deep integration. But if you're planning to scale, you'll want at least the middle.' He set expectations upfront. Luna: So you're essentially pre-selling the middle option during the presentation. Lucas: Subtly. You're not saying 'buy the middle,' but you're framing the low option as limited and the high option as overkill. It's like Goldilocks — the middle is just right. Luna: I want to bring up a counterpoint. Some sales methodologies say you should never offer multiple options because it slows down the decision. What do you say to that? Lucas: I'd say that's true if you're selling a simple product at a low price point. If you're selling a five hundred dollar tool, offering three tiers might confuse. But in enterprise B2B, where the deal size is five figures or more, buyers expect options. They want to feel like they're making an informed choice. The bracket actually speeds things up because it structures the decision. Luna: That makes sense. And it gives the buyer something to take back to their committee. They can say 'We have three options at different price points, and here's why I recommend the middle one.' Lucas: Exactly. It equips your champion with a rationale. They can show the committee that they evaluated all options and chose the best value. That's powerful. Luna: So the bracket strategy is as much about internal selling as it is about external negotiation. Lucas: Absolutely. And I think that's the key takeaway. The bracket isn't just a pricing tactic; it's a decision-making tool. It helps the buyer navigate complexity, feel in control, and justify their choice. When you do it right, everyone wins. Luna: One more question: how do you handle a buyer who says 'I want the middle option but at the low option price'? Lucas: That's the classic 'can you do a deal' question. My response is always 'I can't change the price, but I can adjust the scope. Which features are you willing to drop to get to that price?' That puts the ball back in their court. Usually they realize they want the middle features more than the low price. Luna: So you hold the line on value, not on price. Lucas: Right. And if they genuinely can't afford the middle, you have a conversation about a longer-term commitment or a phased rollout. The bracket gives you options. Luna: Alright, I think we've covered the Bracket Strategy pretty thoroughly. One last thought: have you ever seen this backfire? Lucas: Yes. When the low option is too good. If the low option includes almost everything the buyer needs, they'll take it. So you have to be disciplined about what you put in each tier. Don't cannibalize your own deal. Luna: So the bracket is a strategic design exercise, not just a list of prices. Lucas: Exactly. And when you design it well, it's one of the most effective negotiation tools you can use. It's simple, psychological, and it works.