One of the top mistakes I see salespeople and business owners make is steeply discounting their prices. A discount is a devaluation. When you discount your products, you discount the value of your products. When something is 90 percent off regular price, the public can’t help but wonder what’s wrong with it.
If the discount seems too good to be true, very few people will buy the product. I’ve seen companies start with a 35 percent discount, then reduce the price more and more until they have no margin and no clients. Cheaper never insinuates a better quality product. The cheaper something is, the less quality the marketplace expects.
As salespeople, we get anxious and fearful. It’s natural for these feelings to come up, when we are in a turn. We get anxious to close and fearful that we won’t close. As many turns as we take, we still get these two feelings. Most salespeople think the price is the real objection. Price is rarely a real objection. People don’t want lower prices, they want better products.
Ever seen a sale rack in the Louis Vuitton store? No. They don’t have one. They have dedicated their business to making the highest quality purses on the planet. They never have a sale or discount. They don’t have to. When you’re the best, you don’t charge like the rest. Plus, discounts only attract cheap people.
Let’s be real. No one wants a lower interest rate, cheaper vehicle or any of that. What they want is an assurance the product will solve their problems and assurance they are not getting ripped off. That’s basically what it boils down to. If you have a F-150 for sale for $40K, the prospect will think it’s a deal at $35K, but worry (what’s wrong with the engine?) at $20K. Discounts rarely increase sales. All discounts cause are decreases in margins.
In this video, I’ll elaborate about the discount myth and share with you what I do to overcome discounts and hold premium pricing. I’ll also show you how discounts piss off the base. You can’t make your existing customers mad, by giving new customers a better deal. That’s how you get run out of town. Enjoy the video and be sure to share this on social media.
