I’ve sold a lot of different products and services on the web. And without fail, I’ve received requests from various folks asking for discounts on each of these products.
- Some of them ask for a free or discounted copy of the product so that they can review it.
- Others send in their sob story of how they are down on their luck and can’t afford the full price.
- Yet others send in a note saying that the exchange rate in their country is not favorable and could the prices be reduced for them.
If you sell any product or service online, you’ll receive such requests too. So should you honour these requests? And give out discounts?
I’ll let J.Paul Getty answer the question…
“I have 14 other grandchildren. And if I pay one penny now, then I’ll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.” - J. Paul Getty, explaining his refusal to pay a ransom.
Discounting your products never leads to any good.
If your buyers who’ve paid full price hear that you’ve discounted the product for someone else, they feel let down.
If your prospects hear that you do bargain and give discounts, a lot of them will hound you for a discount too – before buying from you. Which means support nightmare. Discounting is unscalable. And hence, you can’t grow your venture if you discount your products for a few people.
So Should You Ever Discount Your Products?
Sure.
- You should discount it during the pre-selling period. Reward people to buy your product before it is released.
- You should discount it if the product is seasonal and you have to get rid of the inventory so that you can make space for new products. (Example: discounting a Christmas special product on January 5th…)
But other than that, discounting rarely makes sense.
A lot of folks discount products to boost sales during slow months. But thats a bad idea because it makes the old buyers realize that they received a sour deal. A better idea to boost sales during slow times is to give away special valuable bonuses. (These bonuses can be sent to the old buyers to – as a “gift.”)
Action Summary:
- When folks ask for a discount, tell them a flat No – no matter what their reason.
Tags: pricing, product development
Fatal error: Call to undefined function related_entries() in /var/www/html/live/trunk/html/wp-content/themes/infimum/single.php on line 22