Freelance Copywriter Secrets: Don't Discount, Add Value

By: Charles Brown
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:43:04
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As a freelance copywriter, one bit of advice I find myself giving out quite frequently is, if you are considering discounting your product or service in order to generate more sales, be very careful.

The cost of discounting goes far beyond the actual price difference of the discount. You also run the risk of making your real price too soft in the minds of your customers. When this happens, people will never buy at your established price, but will instead wait for a sale or attempt to negotiate every transaction.

Take a look at the American auto industry as an extreme cautionary example of discounting gone terribly wrong. No one in their right mind in America would walk into a car dealership and pay full sticker price for a high production vehicle. Instead, car buyers wait for the next sale (which conveniently come along every week or so) or they come in armed with the best price they could obtain online and expect the dealer to beat it.

And often when the buyer has worn the dealer down to its lowest final offer, she will take that offer to the competition across town to see if an even better price can be had.

Discounting also kills long-term customer loyalty.

Again using car dealerships as an example, how many people keep buying their cars from the same store? Oh we might shop at that store, but we will also shop its competition and finally buy only when we feel we have gotten the very best price that can be had.

But adding value is an entirely different game. Adding value allows you to hold firm to your established price, and in some instances, raise it. I just heard on the radio last week about a car dealership (I really am stuck on the auto industry today aren’t I?) that includes a years worth of gasoline with every purchase. Another dealership is including its own free maintenance agreement, over and above the factory warranty, with every purchase.

Guess what? Even in the car business, these two dealerships have found a way to add more to each sale without slashing their prices. Now when a price shopper comes along, she has another factor to consider besides just the price. These value added extras make it possible to compete even when the price is lower somewhere else.

And it should go without saying that these extras are things people actually want, unlike spraying the undercoating with some goo that does something or other.

The best part of adding value is that the extra typically costs the seller much less than the value to the buyer. The maintenance contract mentioned above might have a value of several thousand dollars to the customer, but to the dealer, who buys parts at wholesale prices and pays its mechanics by the hour, it might only cost in the hundreds.

Not only does adding value allow you to charge higher prices, it also makes it impossible for people to shop around comparing your price to others. Quite simply, when what you offer is unique and valuable, your competition can only scratch their heads and cut their prices again.

freelance copywriter, freelance commercial writer
COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

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