The low-ball is a persuasion and selling technique

Selling technique

Selling technique is the body of methods used in the profession of sales, also often called personal selling.Techniques in use in selling interviews vary from the highly customer centric consultative selling to the heavily pressured "hard close"....

 in which an item or service is offered at a lower price than is actually intended to be charged, after which the price is raised to increase profits.

An explanation for the effect is provided by cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying,...

 theory. If a person is already enjoying the prospect of an excellent deal and the future benefits of the item or idea then backing out would create cognitive dissonance, which is prevented by playing down the negative effect of the "extra" costs.

Low-ball technique

A successful low-ball relies on the balance of making the initial request attractive enough to gain agreement, whilst not making the second request so outrageous that the customer refuses.

• First propose an attractive price on an idea/item which you are confident that the other person/buyer will accept.
• Maximize their buy-in, in particular by getting both verbal and public commitment to this, e.g., a down payment or a handshake.
• Make it clear that the decision to purchase is of their own free will.
• Change the agreement to what you really want. The person/buyer may complain, but they should agree to the change if the low-ball is managed correctly.

Classic low-ball experiment

Cialdini, Cacioppo, Bassett, and Miller (1978) asked students to participate in an experiment. 56% agreed, before being told that the experiment started at 7:00 AM. They then told the volunteers that the study was scheduled at 7:00 AM, and the volunteers could withdraw if they wished. None did so, and 95% turned up at the scheduled time (the Low-Ball group). When a control group was asked to participate and were told the unsocial timing of the experiment up front, only 24% agreed to participate.

See also

• Bait-and-switch
• Compliance (Psychology)
  Compliance (psychology)
  Compliance refers to a response — specifically, a submission — made in reaction to a request. The request may be explicit or implicit . The target may or may not recognize that he or she is being urged to act in a particular way.Social psychology is centered on the idea of social influence...
  
  
• Door-in-the-face technique
  Door-in-the-face technique
  The door-in-the-face technique is a persuasion method. The persuader attempts to convince someone to comply with a request by first making an extremely large request that the respondent will obviously turn down, with a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader's face...
  
  
• Foot-in-the-door technique
  Foot-in-the-door technique
  Foot-in-the-door technique is a compliance tactic that involves getting a person to agree to a large request by first setting them up by having that person agree to a modest request. The foot-in-the-door technique succeeds due to a basic human reality that social scientists call “successive...
  
  
• Selling technique
  Selling technique
  Selling technique is the body of methods used in the profession of sales, also often called personal selling.Techniques in use in selling interviews vary from the highly customer centric consultative selling to the heavily pressured "hard close"....