It’s tempting to offer hefty discounts to clients. Whether your choice to markdown your fee is to seduce clients into an initial purchase or acquiring more of your services, price discounting dramatically slows your business revenue.
This scenario played out recently during a strategic business coaching call with a small business owner launching their business. While reviewing the business owner’s pricing strategy, I noticed that a hefty discount provided for frequent users of my client’s service.
When asked the rationale used to craft the pricing strategy, specifically the discount policy, my client made several assumptions about the impact of discounting such as:
- Discounts keep clients coming back
- Discounts demonstrate appreciation for frequent-users of their service
Discounts snag clients up front and secure more clients by doing so
Sound familiar? Most small business owners have discounted their pricing at one point for all of the reasons listed above only to discover that clients are fickle. They stay — or go — for a myriad of reasons.
Time is money when you’re in the service industry. Furthermore, you bring knowledge and expertise to the relationship with your client. Your time — and expertise — isn’t worth less because someone uses your services more often. In fact, one could argue that frequency of use is more valuable to the client. You know their history and are intimately familiar with their needs and values. Essentially, you save them time and money as they do not have to ramp up a new service-provider.
A more effective pricing strategy is to delight your clients through superior service that solves their problems and produces the results they want….and results they didn’t know they wanted!
If you’re drawn to do something special for your clients, consider providing a special surprise at the conclusion of your engagement. List your fee for your services minus a modest “client appreciation” fee that says, “We appreciate your business.” You’ll delight your clients while maintaining the financial integrity of your business.
What ways have others delighted you? What do you do to delight others? We would love to hear your thoughts.
