Ah Andrew,

The boat metaphor was a great one.

Thanks for clearing up "lowest form of marketing".

I thought you were saying that anyone discounting was the lowest
form of marketer, or basically scum (which I'm okay with being
scum), but I agree discounting is a very lower form on the marketing
totem pole.

And for the record, I only use these ridiculous exit pops on a
product that I really have no interest in, and use an alias for.

I wouldn't use the same strategy in my own personal business
with this much recklessness. But that niche bores the heck out
of me, and I really don't care much.

However, the product is stellar and gives great value to the
customer so I don't mind marketing it in a aggressive and
sloppy manner considering the buyers are happy.

does it matter that you discount the price slightly to make money?

would you rather have 100% of nothing

or 90% of something?

Maybe price isn't the reason, but the numbers don't lie and many
people do take 'downsells' using an exit strategy.

I always thought the point of your business is to get customers.

Here's an interesting article on the whole exit "discount" strategy...

MarketingSherpa: Automated Chat Saves Abandoned Shopping Carts: 5 Simple Steps to Get 10% Lift

My contention is not discounting per se, it's discounting without a reason why, or without some form of trade-off, so that the discount doesn't appear "out of the blue" or just because the visitor is leaving.

I believe it's better to offer a downsell, a last-minute bonus/incentive, or at the very least give a good reason why you are offering a discount -- either make it a sale, or tie it with a promotion, or tie it with something other than the simple fact they're leaving.

The problem is not so much the lost of a sale (discounts DO increase sales), but you're:

1) Educating people not to buy at regular prices;
2) Sell on price alone, without knowing that price was the procrastinating point in the first place;
3) Create distrust and resentment, albeit indirectly and unconsciously, since you offer it only because they were leaving;
4) Poorly qualify customers because you generate customers who only buy because of thee discount;
4) And negate the lifetime customer value because you create customers who, since they only buy because of a mere discount, would be less inclined to buy backend (and higher priced) sales. (Either that or you now have to work twice as hard to establish value, trust, and a relationship with the customer.)

Again, I'm not saying discounting is bad. It's tremendously powerful. Money is a common currency, like the weather. When a product is priced at, say, $97, it's $97 for everyone. But the objection, the value behind the price, and the quality of the prospect are all subjective.

(Just like 97 degrees F -- or 30 degrees C -- is the same for everyone. But "hot" and "cold" is subjective and relative, just like the value behind the price -- as well as the objection behind not buying a product or behind abandoning a shopping cart).

Price is the lowest common denominator. So if you compete on price alone, naturally the lowest price wins. However, you run the risk of the points mentioned earlier.

(The biggest one, to me, is that if you offer backend sales, your customer who bought on price alone will tend to leave you at the drop of a hat if what you sell if offered elsewhere at a lower price.)

But if you compete on the offer -- the benefits/value behind the price, the value-adds, the extra incentives, the bonuses, the downsell/alternatives, the payment plans, the options, etc -- and focus on the relationship with your customer, the quality of your customer (and his/her lifetime value) will increase substantially.

(Or at the very least, the less amount of work you will have to put into in the future to keep your customer, or to get your customer to buy more from you.)

My 3 cents.

"why discounting is the lowest form of marketing"

I think it's more like competing on price alone, is the lowest form of marketing.

Ssssshhhhh...

Don't tell Wal-Mart!

you're comparing wall mart to info marketing?

apples to oranges again people.

you can get clothes ANYWHERE. There's millions of places.

Where else are you going to get [insert gurus name] secret system?

ONLY from them.

So the examples, are totally offbase guys.

Who said anything about info-products or [guru's] secret system? That's small-fry stuff in the overall scheme of things. Just because that's what you sell doesn't mean everyone else in the world has to also.

I was only saying that competing on price has its place. I don't choose to go that route, as many of us here don't. But no one can deny Wal-Mart and stores like them make billions using that business model.

John

hey john....

it wasn't directed at you

competing on price alone implies others are selling a similar product.

For many of us here, we don't sell something that someone else does similarly.

So that implication isn't relevant in this case.

Sure it might be when you're selling a mass product or something with competing brands.... IF your brand is based around low price.

Personally I can lower my price on an exit strategy and still make a lot of money, loosing a small % is nothing when you take into account the # of new customers you get from doing it.

90% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

hmmmm....I wonder whoever you might be talking about ??

Last year I wrote a sales page for a client who was selling a product via the $7 script strategy (though not w/the 7DS -- for some reason, BFM was being used). It was interesting to see the upsell conversions based upon JV partner. In general, we had a very healthy 25% upsell conversion on a $97 upsell (!). But one JV partner specialized in sending out $7 offers to their list because their list liked promoting them because of the instant cash.

Nearly none of the people that JV partner sent bought the upsell.

Live JoyFully!

Judy Kettenhofen, Profit Strategist/Copywriter
NextDay Copy