{"id":78877,"date":"2022-06-21T15:24:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T19:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diymarketers.com\/?p=78877"},"modified":"2022-06-21T15:24:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T19:24:08","slug":"customers-ask-for-a-discount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diymarketers.com\/customers-ask-for-a-discount\/","title":{"rendered":"Do these 10 Easy Things When Customers Ask For a Discount"},"content":{"rendered":"

Customers ask for a discount. It’s a thing.<\/p>\n

And, if you’ve been in business long enough, you’re going to get customers or prospects asking you for a discount<\/u><\/a>. In this article, I’m going to break things down, so when customers ask for a discount, you’ll know exactly what to say.<\/p>\n

Why Customers Ask for a Discount<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"customers<\/p>\n

It’s easy to get emotional and take the request for a discount as a personal assault. It’s not. The sales process is a dance between you and the customer. Each of you has a role in the dance and when you understand the steps of the dance, both you and the customer will have a great experience.<\/p>\n

Let’s break it down.<\/p>\n

Because they have to: discount requests are required<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There’s an old saying, if you don’t A-S-K, you don’t G-E-T. In other words, customers have to make discount requests because they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter whether you offer discounts or not, expect your customer to make a discount request because they want to take every opportunity to NOT pay full price.<\/p>\n

They don’t have the money<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"no<\/p>\n

Another reason customers ask for a discount is because they just don’t have the money.<\/p>\n

It’s possible that they simply don’t have the money. And that’s ok. Do NOT offer your product at a discount, but you can have a conversation what might work for them such as a payment plan (where they pay 20% more on a monthly basis).<\/p>\n

Another fun exercise is to make a list of 50 ways they can find the money. This exercise will make you a partner with them and position you as an ally \u2014 without dropping your price.<\/p>\n

They aren’t the right customer<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Finally, there’s a good chance that they simply aren’t the right customer for you. Your job is to make sure that you understand what it is about this particular customer that disqualifies them as a customer and make sure that you aren’t marketing to this group.<\/p>\n

How to Eliminate the Discount Conversation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"woman<\/p>\n

The secret to eliminating the discount conversation is having a deep understanding of your costs; both physical costs, like the cost of materials\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0soft costs such as your experience and expertise and your customers opportunity costs.<\/p>\n

If you don’t understand your costs, and customers ask for a discount, you stand the chance of losing money.<\/p>\n

Most small business owners skip this part of the sales and\u00a0marketing process<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and the result is devastating.<\/p>\n

Your brain is smart, and if you haven’t worked out all of these costs for yourself, how can you expect to present your offer with confidence? You can’t.<\/p>\n

Here are the best tips to start with your next sales cycle<\/p>\n

Price to allow for a reasonable discount<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"money,<\/p>\n

Pricing is your friend. Not only that, but creating powerful offers that lean into a customer’s desired outcome can eliminate discount requests.<\/p>\n

Many business owners set their prices at their absolute lowest level — this leaves you zero room to make customers feel good about getting a discount.<\/p>\n

Instead, create a high list price — that’s the highest it will ever be. Then you can create a package deal, or give your sales team the opportunity to offer discounts at a customer’s request without costing you money.<\/p>\n

Embrace your expertise<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"book,<\/p>\n

Your customers and clients are looking for the best deal they can get. And your expertise is critical to this conversation.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. An expert gets things done faster<\/li>\n
  2. Working with an expert eliminates risk of failure<\/li>\n
  3. An expert has history, data, and experience to help you avoid the constant trial and error that comes with learning things on your own — and failing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Your role is to be the expert on the topic of what you’re selling. You are in control.<\/p>\n

    When you think about it this way, ask you customer or client how familiar they are with the work that you do, and how long it might take them to achieve the results you’re getting right now?<\/p>\n

    You aren’t confident about the value that you are providing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    \"make<\/p>\n

    This is a difficult one to face, but\u00a0your<\/em>\u00a0attitude and how you present your offer has everything to do with how much value your clients perceive.<\/p>\n

    If\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0are clear about the value you provide and the transformation and opportunity your offer provides, your customer will see it too.<\/p>\n

    They don’t know WHY they should choose you<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    \"man,<\/p>\n

    If your customers ask for a discount, they simply don’t know why they should choose you. The benefits you’ve laid out don’t match the benefits they are looking for.<\/p>\n

    In this case, you may not have asked the right questions to uncover what transformation they want and how your product or service will deliver this transformation.<\/p>\n

    This is a huge opportunity to understand your customer. End the \u201csales\u201d conversation, take the offer completely off the table and say something like \u201cIt looks like this isn’t a good fit for you. That’s completely fine. Let me ask you this. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being this isn’t the right fit for me and 10 being I want this right now, where are you?\u201d Assuming they say something less than 9, simply ask then \u201cOther than price, what’s missing here that would get you to a 10?\u201d then just listen.<\/p>\n

    How to Come Up Pricing Models That Allow for Discounts<\/h2>\n

    \"in<\/p>\n

    Here’s the process to understanding all of these costs and come up with your “full price” from which you can meet any discount request .<\/p>\n

    Outline the tasks<\/h3>\n

    Create a list of all the tasks and elements that are associated with your offer. This can include your qualifications, meetings, visits, support, onboarding \u2014 every little thing.<\/p>\n

    Quantify your costs<\/h3>\n

    Calculate your cost per hour. This is not your hourly rate. This is number is all of your monthly costs divided by your hours you work.<\/p>\n

    Research the cost of alternatives<\/h3>\n

    Research how much it would cost for you to OUTSOURCE these tasks. This is critical! Even if you are the only person doing the work, you won’t be able to scale if you don’t get help. Make sure you understand how much you would cost to hire this out and still make money.<\/p>\n

    Other options<\/h3>\n

    Research other ways to achieve the result. What alternatives does the customer have: do it themselves (and fail) or have it take longer), hire a competitor, what competitor might they choose, what does the competition offer and how is it the same or different.<\/p>\n

    Create a list of \u201cpriceless\u201d values for each segment of your customer base<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u201cThere are some things money can’t buy\u2026for everything else, there’s Mastercard.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    Mastercard’s \u201cpriceless\u201d commercials are the best representation of this step. If you haven’t seen them or remember them, Mastercard focused on a variety of customer experience and the \u201ccosts\u201d involved, but were actually \u201cpriceless\u201d:<\/p>\n

    Now it’s your turn to list all of those \u201cpriceless\u201d elements that you deliver with your offer.<\/p>\n