Black Friday started with Gray Thursday this year…even leaped into action on Wednesday.
Cyber Monday started on Thursday.
Honda holds a Cyber Monday sale that lasts two full weeks!
And not to be outdone, American Express hands us Small Business Saturday (note that “Saturday” is singular. Wow, one whole day for us small business owners!) a day for small businesses everywhere to drop their prices, have a sale and bring in new customers.
Then we have Balance Your Checkbook Sunday — I kid you not — a day to calculate the damage, so far.
Then on we press to December 7th, Green Monday, similar to Cyber Monday but deeper into the craziness. It’s historically the busiest shopping day in December. Consider yourself warned.
While I hope your businesses benefited from this outpouring of cash and credit cards, there’s some hidden danger in this overanxious frenzy.
Merchants are training us—training us—to wait for the sales.
Are you training your customers to wait for your sales?
While sales bring customers in, they don’t do much for margins and profits.
And here’s the real killer…once customers have been trained to wait for the sales, they…wait for the sales.
Sales all too often create just that; a sale, a deal, a transaction, a momentary exchange.
Your sales may accidentally be training your customers to wait for sales…and if you don’t offer any, customers will often leave for those allegedly cheaper pastures.
Instead, cultivate relationships.
Long-term customer relationships mean you’ve cultivated customers who buy from you again and again, who turn to you first to solve a problem, who recommend you to their friends and colleagues.
There’s a whole lot more in it for them than simply a price tag.
Let me give you a personal example. Last year I was working with a prospect to do some positioning work for their start-up business. The CEO said “yes, let’s do this” at least four times.
However, a credit card or check never followed the “yes.”
Something else was going on. He started to do all those things prospects do when they really want something else. First, he asked for references. Check. Done. But I could tell that wasn’t what he really wanted.
Then he asked for an example of the work. Check. Done. Not the issue either.
Finally, we got around to why his “yes” hadn’t turned into money. He wanted a reduced price for the service.
Yet, knowing he was concerned about money in this start-up, I had already rounded every corner and taken out anything that wasn’t necessary. I told him the price was the price because if I stripped out anything else, the project wouldn’t produce what he wanted…and what I would be proud to deliver.
The price was the price because a deep discount was not how we wanted to start our relationship. The price was the price because we wanted to do the next piece of work with him and not have the heart of the relationship be the price. The price had to be equitable for both of us. Discounting would “train” him to always expect one, and frankly, we wouldn’t want the business for even $1 less than our proposal.
Be confident in your prices when they are built on sound reasoning. Resist the request to discount that equitable price.
Don’t accidentally train your customers to wait for the discount.
Go forth and do great things,
Martha and Chris
P.S. Got to Get A Goat—this holiday season Wide Awake Business is sending you a gift EVERY WEEK…though the gift will never physically land on your door step or email box.
Each week we are buying a gift in the names of our customers (you) that will help a struggling family somewhere around the globe. This week we buy goats…from Heifer International. A good dairy goat can provide milk each and every day to a careworn family.
Would you like to join us in goat giving? Simply head over to www.Heifer.org and send a gift of nutrition to someone in need.
What will the gift to you be next week??