Understand Your Buyer > How to connect with your buyer > Ascending Number List

What is it?

An ascending number list can be used to convey the size or scope of your offer as it gets “bigger” and focusses on the largest numbers possible.

Why does it work?

It works because when you list out all of the deliverables for an offering, or the scope of an offering in an ascending manner, it feels like the numbers are getting bigger and the list is getting longer makes it easier for buyers to justify the price in their mind as there’s just so much “stuff” being provided.

How can you use it?

To make this work you can talk about 3 things:

1 – The scope of your offering.

2 – The deliverables.

3 – Your activity numbers.

Then you need to find the biggest numbers – for example in my sales role I sold 2,000 units a year, but that was worth circa £60M a year. £60M is a bigger number than 2,000 so that’s the figure I will use.

With all of the numbers gathered, simply order them from smallest to biggest.

To make this as effective as possible I would suggest you keep the number of items to 3/4/5. If you have a 17 line list it will lose impact.

Hypothetical Example:

A digital marketing agency wants to highlight the value of its social media management package. Instead of listing deliverables randomly, they use an ascending number list:

“With our monthly plan, you get:

3 social media platforms fully managed.
30 posts written and scheduled.
50,000 impressions guaranteed.
£100,000 in ad spend optimized for maximum ROI.”

The list feels increasingly impressive as the numbers grow, helping buyers justify the cost because the scope of work seems larger and more substantial.

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