The vendor who walks in with three service tiers has already decided which one you’re buying.
The entry tier is priced to feel inadequate. The premium tier is priced to feel excessive. The middle tier is priced to feel inevitable — the obvious choice between two options that bracket it from both sides. The proposal was engineered before the meeting started. The three tiers are not three genuine options. They are one recommendation and two anchors.
The operator who recognizes this is not being cynical. They are recognizing that [Decoy Effect] is immutable — it runs in every vendor proposal, every consultant engagement, every financing option, every lease negotiation where someone presents a range of possibilities. The person who constructed the range had a preferred outcome. The range was built around it.
The Profit discipline is simple: before evaluating any option set presented by someone with a financial interest in the outcome, remove the option that exists to make another look better. Then evaluate what remains.
The middle tier without the premium anchor may still be the right choice. But it should be the right choice because it meets the operation’s actual needs — not because it felt moderate next to something excessive. The operator who strips the decoy before deciding is making a Profit decision. The operator who accepts the option set as presented is accepting someone else’s Profit decision on their behalf.
