doesn’t seem too steep since, as the salesman emphasizes, the cost is
equal to competitors’ and “This is the car you chose, right?” Another,
even more insidious form of lowballing occurs when the salesman
makes an inflated trade-in offer on the prospect’s old car as part of the
buy/trade package. The customer recognizes the offer as overly gener-
ous and jumps at the deal. Later, before the contract is signed, the used-
car manager says that the salesman’s estimate was four hundred dollars
too high and reduces the trade-in allowance to its actual, blue-book
level. The customer, realizing that the reduced offer is the fair one, ac-
cepts it as appropriate and sometimes feels guilty about trying to take
advantage of the salesman’s high estimate. I once witnessed a woman
provide an embarrassed apology to a salesman who had used the last
version of lowballing on her—this while she was signing a new-car
contract giving him a huge commission. He looked hurt but managed
a forgiving smile.
No matter which variety of lowballing is used, the sequence is the
same: An advantage is offered that induces a favorable purchase de-
cision; then, sometime after the decision has been made but before the
bargain is sealed, the original purchase advantage is deftly removed.
It seems almost incredible that a customer would buy a car under these
circumstances. Yet it works—not on everybody, of course, but it is ef-
fective enough to be a staple compliance procedure in many, many car
showrooms. Automobile dealers have come to understand the ability
of a personal commitment to build its own support system, a support
system of new justifications for the commitment. Often these justifica-
tions provide so many strong legs for the decision to stand on that when
the dealer pulls away only one leg, the original one, there is no collapse.
The loss can be shrugged off by the customer who is consoled, even
made happy, by the array of other good reasons favoring the choice. It
never occurs to the buyer that those additional reasons might never
have existed had the choice not been made in the first place.^18
The impressive thing about the lowball tactic is its ability to make a
person feel pleased with a poor choice. Those who have only poor
choices to offer us, then, are especially fond of the technique. We can
find them throwing lowballs in business, social, and personal situations.
For instance, there’s my neighbor Tim, a true lowball aficionado. Recall
that he’s the one who, by promising to change his ways, got his girl-
friend, Sara, to cancel her impending marriage to another and to take
him back. Since her decision for Tim, Sara has become more devoted
to him than ever, even though he has not fulfilled his promises. She
explains this by saying that she has allowed herself to see all sorts of
positive qualities in Tim she had never recognized before.
76 / Influence