How to Use Discounts: 4 Things (One-Call Close Home Improvement Sales)
Prefer To Watch: Here’s The Video
Summary
Learn why excessive discounting hurts credibility, reduces commissions, and makes customers more likely to negotiate.
Discover how to present discounts in stages to increase their impact, build urgency naturally, and reduce customer resistance.
Understand how to add perceived value to discounts so smaller savings feel more meaningful and compelling to buyers.
Find out why discounts should create urgency—not compensate for weak value-building—and how a stronger sales presentation leads to more closed deals.
If you are selling home improvements on a one call close I know you are using some type of sale or discount to sell in the close. After being in this business for more than 35 years and personally being in over 16,000 homes I am going to tell you things I wished I knew starting out when discounting that will help you keep more commission and make the customer happier because they feel that they got a good deal. The perfect sale!
Why Sales Closing Training Should Teach Proper Discounting Techniques
Using multiple discounts in the close can hurt you more than you know. If you work for a company you may be restricted in what you can offer or some companies let you discount at will. The second way is usually the worst because unless you are structured and disciplined in how you do it you will seem like the stereotyped used car salesman. “How about it I knock another $1000 off?” Either way I think that you really don’t need to have more than two discounts at the most along with a today discount and you should be fine if you do it right. You don’t need a bunch of discounts or to drop the price repeatedly you need to make better use of the few ones you do use.
The worst discounts you give are when you just start to negotiate. Don’t ever try to just negotiate. If you just discount at will or don’t explain and have a credible reason for the sale or discount they will sense it’s negotiable. Once they sense it is negotiable you are on the loosing end of the battle. Do people look at a price tag and try to negotiate a lower price in a retail store? They would if you said make an offer under the price. That’s what you are doing when signify you can negotiate. Your goal is to make the pricing seem like retail pricing. It’s real and a sale is really a sale. The other obstacle if they sense the price is negotiable is now the typical customer also needs to know they are at the bottom. That’s why they ask if this is your best price before they buy. Negotiate is just a fancy word for give up commission. Don’t forget that every time you drop the price or give them a discount that you are peeling $100 bills out of your wallet and giving it to them. We go through enough let alone start tipping the customer for our work 😊
Most discounts are explained as a sale price. So discounts are valuable because everyone buys things on sale. Think about when you buy clothes in a store unless you really want something don’t you normally buy stuff that says sale? So it is necessary to have some type of sale or discount and here are 4 things to keep in mind when using them. Don’t miss the biggest mistake when using a discount at the end. You might miss the one you personally needed to hear. Quick note—if you want my full in-home system, I’ve got it laid out step-by-step in The Art of Selling Home Improvements. Links in the description. Plus if my videos are helping you please subscribe to help me . Now—here are the 4 things…”
Sales Closing Training Courses Tip #1: Make Your Discounts Credible
The first thing for asales/discount to work is they have to be credible. That means the first price you give them they think is the regular price and the discount is really them getting a deal. People buy when they think they are getting a deal. If they think you just double the price to give them 50% off it’s not a deal. When you start to discount too much your prices start to become not credible. You want them to think the starting price is like the price on an item in a grocery store. Not the price they see on a new car sticker. One is what it is the other is what they would never pay.
So don’t every describe any of your prices as the retail price. Nobody pays retail and when you say that you are signifying that the price isn’t real and that there will be more discounts. Or you say here is the price before discounts. The idea is to make the first price credible. The more credible it is the more impact the discounts will have.. If you think something really is $10,000 normally than a $500.00 discount will seem more of a deal or bargain The more you can make them believe the normal price is $10,000 then $500 off seems like a good deal.
Sales Closing Training Courses Tip #2: Deliver Discounts in Stages
The second thing and it will help build credibility in your discounts is not to give the discounts all at once but in stages. We talked earlier about the fact that the first price has to be credible. Giving time between discounts helps this. You need them to think your first price is real or the discount won’t have impact. Time between discounts is essential. Time between discounts is what gives the discount power. If tried to sell you a car today and said it’s $20,000 but it’s on sale for $18,000 you would think okay the cars $18,000. But if I tried to sell you a car and told you it was 20k and then let you leave. Then I called you the next day and said “remember the car you look at yesterday for 20k? Well it just went on sale today for 18k. The discount would have a lot more impact because of the time between discounts.
For example If I say I have your estimate ready and here it is: we have a roof that’s $20,000 and we have a spring sale that takes off $1000 also you have a $750 off coupon and if you buy today we can take another 10% so your total price is only $16425. They aren’t thinking of the roof being $20,000. They are thinking the roof is $16425 plus you are trying to close them instantly. That’s what explaining a today discount now does and you are giving it without solving any problems of affordability, they think the price should be half, they might claim to want to get estimates etc. You are shooting every bullet you have and putting pressure on them immediately. That’s the worst way to do it.
Even if the time between discounts is seconds it still has more impact then delivering it all at once. So that same example would sound like “Okay I’ve got your estimate ready. It includes everything and also don’t forget we have a sale going on now. The normal total price of your roof is $20,000 do you have any questions on that? No ron … now don’t forget we have a spring sale that I mentioned earlier and that would save you another $1000 so now your roof would only be $19000.” If you do it like this a lot of times the customer will say “oh so that original price didn’t’ include the sale? No it’s the normal selling price as I mentioned’ Oh well that’s better.
When they say that do you see how it has more impact because they thought the roof really was 20k and now at 19k it seems like they are getting a deal. Now I say “and also don’t forget you had the coupon for $750 off” oh you didn’t include that? No… so if I take that off now your total price is only $18250. Remember the coupon expires in 30 days. If it’s affordable do you think you can make up your mind one way or another within 30 days? I generally hold off on the today discount until I have solved all the problems and the only thing missing is the urgency.
Discounts give a time frame to the buying decision. So by doing the discount in stages I create the urgency in stages.
Just like the previous example you noticed I explain the sale discount and when I say the sale is good for the month the only commitment I get is “if it’s affordable to you do you think you could make up your mind within a month?” They virtually always say yes to that. It’s non threatening, lowers the feeling of pressure the customer feels in the close and now you have gotten them from who knows when they will buy it or make a decision to now they will be able to decide within a month. Now that the pressure is off it’s easy to solve the problem, make it affordable to them, handle any objections they may have and hopefully solve all their problems but urgency. Now if you have a today discount it’s the best time to introduce it and its’s a softer leap to go from making a decision within a month to doing it today. It’s more gentle than just going immediately to today pressure as soon as you give them the price.
Sales Closing Training Courses Tip #3: Build Value Into Every Discount
The third thing to know about sale/discounts is to learn to build the value in your discounts. We give so many discount everyday that we loose the value. Everyday you say it’s 1000 or 2000 off like it’s nothing. If you say it’s like nothing it becomes nothing. It’s like being in a casino where they trick you to lose more money because it’s just orange chips now they are black chips.
How powerful would your $500 off discount be if you laid 5 $100 bills on the table and said we’ll give you this with every purchase. You need to learn how to say the discount in a way that makes them feel it like that. We have the biggest sale of the year and if you do it by then you can save another $750 off. Or learn to build value by equating the discount to something . For example… we have a $750 off sale right now so if you get that it’s like getting the new Tv for free that you guys were telling me you wanted to get. Give the discount value and impact.
If you do it right people will buy on a today discount of $1000 just as well as $3000. If they are going to do it $1000 is a lot of money. If you make it sound like it.
Sales Closing Training Courses Tip #4: Use Discounts to Create Urgency, Not Value
The fourth thing about discounts is when it’s used the wrong way. Discounts are used to create urgency not value. The wrong use of a sale or discount is to discount the price to match the value of what you are selling. If you have to do that you should be working on your price conditioning and building value. Remember ultimately people buy when they feel the value of what they are getting exceeds what they are paying. You’ve got to make them think that it’s worth the first price you give then the discounts will just sweeten the pot.
Keep in mind that nothing we just went over means anything if they don’t want the product. The most important part of your selling is done in the sales presentation . Not in the close. The close should just be a way of helping them get what they want. If you want to close more you need to work on your sales presentation more and be able to make them want what you have, not want to look around and be able to build the value enough that they think the first price you give them is a deal. The discounts then make it an offer they can’t refuse.
If you like this article see the Features and Benefits article next, because that’s where you make them want it before price ever comes up.
Now—if you want the full step-by-step process I use in the home—from the presentation to price conditioning to closing—check out The Art of Selling Home Improvements. The link’s in the description below or above in the corner.
Happy Selling!
