Sunday, May 25, 2008

WOW! IT'S A BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL!!!

Please tell us you are old enough to remember the famous K-Mart “blue light specials”! You know the deal, the P.A. system announces… “Attention K-Mart shoppers, in just 30 seconds and for the next 5 minutes, there will be a blue light special featuring our special house dresses in aisle 3…” Suddenly, there is a stampede of women all running over one another with their shopping carts in an effort to get to the cart featuring those lovely flowered garments.
OK, where are we going with this…today's topic, to discount or not to discount…that is the question.

TSF recently received an email from a consultant in a party plan business (to remain nameless), offering 25% off her products. We receive one of these emails from this same consultant about every other week…always offering some kind of discount on her products.
Now, while we are all independent consultants and therefore running our own businesses; for the most part it is our decision whether or not to discount (although some party plan companies strictly forbid this practice). If you are considering discounting your products, you may want to consider the following:

1) Discounting regularly “cheapens” your product.

2) Discounting regularly makes it sound like you believe your products are too expensive.

3) Discounting regularly makes your customers believe your products are too expensive.

4) Discounting regularly makes your customers NEVER want to purchase at full price.

5) Discounting and emailing your customers too frequently can make you a pest vs. a service.

The key phrase here is “discounting regularly”. While we believe an occasional sale for preferred customers/hostesses is a wonderful “thank you”; we think the above thoughts are worth taking into account as well…would you agree?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Yes I agree with your points; and yes I am afraid to admit I am old enough to remember the blue light specials.