In this Q&A video, sales coach Ryan Dohrn answers a listener’s question about the origin and effectiveness of his three‑pricing‑options approach. He explains that psychological research shows a single option yields a 50/50 choice, two options create confusion and lower conversion, while three options trigger the “Goldilocks principle,” steering prospects toward the middle choice. Drawing on 30 years of experience and a study of 100 proposals (50 won, 50 lost), he reports that more than 65% of proposals that included three pricing options closed, whereas losing proposals were longer, text‑heavy, and lacked clear options. He illustrates the three‑option framework with labels commonly used in media sales—Presence, Competitive, and Dominant—and notes he also applies the rule of three to subject lines, email sentences, and proposal length (three pages or fewer). The video ends with a call‑to‑action for listeners to submit more questions.
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Hey friends, Ryan Dohrn, your sales coach here answering listener questions. Keep them coming in, ryan@ryandohrn.com. All right, here's a question from Dallas who lives in Dallas, Texas. So Dallas from Dallas, it's pretty cool. All right, Dallas asks, Ryan, you talk about 3 pricing options a lot. Where does this pricing philosophy come from? Dallas, great question. So I've done a lot of research online about the science behind how people behave And what drives them to make the decisions that they ultimately make. Typically, when you give somebody one option, you've got about a 50/50 chance that they're going to choose one or the other. When you add just 2 options to the occasion, actually, it, it shifts dramatically. What happens is now that they've got 2 options to choose from, you know, it kind of shifts to more of a 60% chance that you're not going to get the business Because now you've just confused the circumstance. Now, what I've really found though, in 30 years of sales and marketing, is the 3-option formula works. Everything that I've seen online, every piece of research indicates that 3 options focuses people on that middle option. It's sort of, I like to call it the Goldilocks principle. My porridge is too hot, my porridge is too cold, my porridge is just right. It's been well documented over the course of history, time, et cetera. That everything happens, it happens in 3s, is very powerful. So I try to use 3 words in my subject lines, 3 sentences in my emails. I try to make sure that my proposals are 3 pages or less. And then really focus in on 3 pricing options because everything leads me to the understanding that middle option always, almost always resonates with somebody. But here's the other thing you might've heard on my podcast that I did not that long ago. Dallas, that I focused in on 100 proposals— 50 that lost business, 50 that won business. And what we found is greater than 65% of those proposals that had 3 pricing options closed business. The majority of the losing proposals that didn't earn business were greater than 9 pages, didn't have pricing options, and had way too much text. So that's why I believe in those 3 pricing options. If you happen to be in the media business, I like to say there's a presence option, a competitive option, and a dominant option. But I really believe in those 3 pricing options. And Dallas from Dallas, I hope you will believe in them too. So there's the philosophy. All right, friends, thanks for all your questions. Keep them coming in to me, ryan@ryandohrn.com. Visit my website, ryandohrn.com. Find out how I can help you and I can help your team. All right, friends, we'll see you next time.
