Online deals and the color red versus the color blue.

July 23, 2012

This post from today’s Daily Stat (Harvard Business Review) should give all online retailers something to think about:

When people were shown online details about a vacation package against a blue background, their average “best offer” was $712, but it was $684 when the information was presented against a red background, say Rajesh Bagchi of Virginia Tech and Amar Cheema of the University of Virginia. The research participants were implicitly competing against the seller to get the best deal, and exposure to red induces greater aggression. Red has the opposite effect in auctions, where greater aggression makes people willing to pay more in order to best other bidders, the researchers say.

Source: The Effect of Red Background Color on Willingness-to-Pay: The Moderating Role of Selling Mechanism

Where Sales Reps Go Wrong

Today’s Daily Stat from the Harvard Business Review.

JUNE 21, 2010

Where Sales Reps Go Wrong

The “most destructive” failures of business-to-business sales reps are too much contact with customers (35%) and inadequate product knowledge (20%), a McKinsey survey of sales targets indicates. Customers want to be contacted, not bombarded. The upside of getting things right is significant: A primary supplier perceived as having a high-performing sales force can boost its share of a customer’s business by eight to 15 percentage points.