How to create irresistible special offers – Part 3
Over the last two weeks we looked at some of the BIGGEST MISTAKES Salon Owners make when they create special offers in their ads, brochures and even on their websites. I gave you real life examples of bad advertising and I even explained why these ads didn’t work. If you missed these two posts click here for part 1 and here for part 2. Make sure you don’t make the same mistakes because it will cost you money!
As Salon Owners you have to understand that most consumers don’t really shop on price, but on the value and service that we give them when they walk into our business. Your customers do not lie in bed at night thinking to themselves, “I can’t wait until my Beauty Therapist sends me a discount.” Consumers have always wanted more than they say they want. They want value, they want extras, they want what Seth Godin calls the free prize inside. In this post I am going to show you how to give your customers added value.
Sure, some people do shop on price alone but you don’t want customers like that. If you own your own business, you are in control of your marketing message and you can even decide what kind of customer you want to attract. Most Spa and Salon Owners don’t understand this and that’s why we see so many Salons discounting. Discounting keeps your customer focused on price alone and if you keep your customers focused on price then they are going to shop on price. That is one of the reasons why we teach you to never discount down, rather bonus up and add value. Let me explain how you do this…
Never discount down – always bonus up
In this example let’s say that your Salon sells a Facial for R400. Your competitor down the road sells a similar Facial at a similar price, except this week, to try and attract customers they’ve discounted it down to R320. This means that their discounting actually cost them R80 in lost revenue. (Remember that a 20% discount does not equal a 20% increase in volume!)
Instead of matching your competitor’s discount, you choose instead to bonus up and add value. To do this you add services that;
1. Do not take very long to deliver
2. Do not cost the salon very much but have high perceived value from the customer’s point of view.
Take a look at the table below for an example.
These ‘value adds’ are things that you do in your Salon anyway. You usually do them for free or for very little cost, but now you are going to attach a value to them. For the sake of the exercise, these extras actually cost you R35 but have a ‘perceived value’ of R245. Here’s the good news, with all your ‘perceived extra value’ you can recoup your loss of R35 by selling your value added offer for R435. However your competitor looses a very real R80 for every treatment sold. But, you have also introduced your customer to additional services, differentiated yourself from the competition and you have attracted a customer who buys on value not on price.
Lastly, which of these two offers, an R80 discount versus an ‘added perceived value’ of R210 worth of bonuses, would be more attractive and compelling to a prospective customer? The answer is obvious. However, if your client wants the R80 discount then you need to ask yourself the question, “is this the type of customer I want anyway?” The answer is NO!!
