Many of you have heard my mantra that you can’t discount your way to success. Of course, I’ve had salespeople try to argue with me that a “sale at a discount is better than no sale at all.” Is it really?
Things that look great on the surface often have shaky foundations.
A recent article about the phenomenon known as GroupOn caught my attention with regard to this whole idea that discounting is a great thing.
As many of you know, GroupOn is a method whereby companies try to boost their customer base by offering a one-time smoking deal to try to allure as many people as possible.
Read the article and you will see it confirms what I have maintained all along — that discounting is not quite the golden ticket that we all would hope it to be.
If you want to be a high-profit salesperson (which you do, right?), then you have to believe in your full price 100%. You will never be able to make up any profit you lose when you discount a price. Never.
And the fall-out goes beyond profit — it starts to show up in customer’s perceptions and even in your own perceptions. The discounted price becomes the “norm.” It becomes the expected rule, rather than the exception, in the customer’s mind (and, unfortunately, in the salesperson’s mind as well).
Take stock of your pricing practices and steer clear of discounting as a business growth strategy.
For more on pricing, check out our article section dedicated to pricing and selling a price increase.
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
