While shopping for my first stereo, I spent an hour debating between a $1,000 Pioneer and a $700 Sony. Perhaps fearing that my indecision would cost him a sale, the salesman intervened with the comment “Well, think of it this way—would you rather have the Pioneer, or the Sony and $300 worth of CDs?”
A version of this article appeared in the January–February 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.
