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The 20 business development pricing tools, truths and techniques 47
18. Consider special deals, promotions, sales
and discounts
Read any daily newspaper any day and you will nd it littered with huge
numbers of advertisements based almost entirely around special deals, dis-
counts and percentage savings. The same can be said if you walk down any
high street, through any shopping centre or supermarket.
Why is this? Are we a nation of bargain hunters always looking for a good
deal? The simple answer is ‘yes’, everyone likes to get a good price and
always remember that nobody is above the attraction of a ‘special offer’. I
have met, mixed with and worked with some very wealthy business people
and leading entrepreneurs and without question they know how to watch
what they buy and to negotiate hard. They might buy at the top of the
range but they will still want to know and feel they have got a great deal.
With this in mind, whatever business sector you are in, whether you are
selling goods or services, don’t ignore the importance and possibility of
using ‘special deals’ as a way of attracting new business.
This is a huge topic, way too big for detailed attention in this book, but to
stimulate your thinking and prompt some internal discussion, here are a
few ways you can offer, package and pitch your ‘price’-related offers. Which
of these you use, if any, will depend on your type of business, your sector,
seasonal issues and current market and economic trends.
While many of the following will be very familiar to you, in many cases
they will be associated with particular market sectors. Be creative and look
at each of them to explore how they can be adapted, if at all, in concept
to your business:
Focus on percentage discounts: for example, ‘Up to 50 per cent off
marked prices.’
Focus on savings: for example, ‘Save £200 per couple on next year’s
holiday.’ Instead of talking about a vague percentage reduction, you
actually quantify precisely ‘how much’ your customers or clients will
save on a particular purchase.
More product or service for the price. This is the famous BOGOF – ‘buy
one, get one free’ – concept or the notion of offering customers or
clients extra in some way. How effective are these? Well, research
indicates they can be very successful, particularly as a technique for
getting consumers of commodity items to try different brands. I have
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