When you discount your price as a way to attract new business, the only thing you’re going to do is make yourself and your company work harder.
Using a low price to attract new business is a great technique to attract customers who will never pay full price.
This is true in both B2B and B2C. The fall of Groupon, Living Social and other coupon sites is living proof. What companies found out when they use ½ price coupons to get new business is you may create trial business, but the trial will rarely if ever turn into repeat business.
Don’t cut your price to create new customers.
Think of what this is telling all of your existing customers? Nothing like making your good long-standing customers feel like fools for paying too much. Is that the way to create loyalty? By stabbing them in the back?!
Business is built around being able to satisfy the needs of the customer, and the last thing we want to do is to have one of the customer’s needs be a cheap price. Our focus needs to be on the outcome and how they will benefit. If the benefit the customer is looking for is a discounted price, then let them go someplace else.
There is a reason why Apple doesn’t discount their price. They know what their customers are looking for.
When a salesperson believes the only way they are going to be able to close a sale is by discounting the price, then I’ll argue they have not taken the time to determine the customer’s real needs.
Quit working to get customers who, in the end, won’t see value in what you’re selling.
Rather, focus on those who will appreciate what you have — that is unless you really want high-maintenance customers who you will never make any money from.
Copyright 2013, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
