Why Discounting Without Benefits Doesn't Work

My good friend emailed me yesterday and asked me why he was giving away all his massages at a discounted price and still not getting the influx of clients he'd hoped for.

My friends, please don't discount your massage. Why? It's simple. Because discounts, without benefits, don't work. Sure, they may attract a very, very small amount of clients to you sometimes, but discounting your services is an ineffective way to generate new clients. You see, people want a benefit. And the only way that this does work is if people already know the benefit first.

Instead of pushing the discount, push the benefit; that is, to make sure they get the best massage possible. Discount isn't very powerful. Benefit is.

When you advertise, always advertise what your treatment does, how it helps, what problems you can help with, and what benefits you can introduce. Educate through benefit. Forget discount as a "hook"-- it never works. People come to you in the first place because of the benefit massage it gives them. Not because you discount the price. They want to know how your massage is going to make a positive difference in their lives. They don't care about 10 percent off if they have no idea if it's going to help them or not.

They want to know that the shoulder that's been killing them for five years will regain pain-free movement again after your treatment. The woman across the street doesn't care about 10 percent off; she wants to know if massage is going to help her lower back pain during pregnancy. The old man in the house next door doesn't care about 10 percent off his massage; he cares about regaining mobility in his arthritic hands so he can write to his granddaughter because he doesn't have email.

Consider yourself. If you got a flyer in the mail about 10 percent off a massage, would you care? Really? No. Why? Because you are not interested in discounts, you want to know that paying good money for something, regardless of discount is going to benefit your life. If I see a flyer about massage I look to see if the therapist knows how to get rid of my shoulder pain, back ache, headaches, or whatever my problem is. If that person can give me a pain-free existence, a 10 percent discount is irrelevant to me. I would be happy to pay a 30 percent increase if I really want my pain to go away.

Our clients are not price orientated.

When you're in pain, as most of our clients are, they want to know that you are the person who can help them. So please, for your own sake, never use discounts as a "hook" to get new clients. You'll be sadly disappointed, and I don't want you to feel like I did in the beginning.

Think of it this way. You know how good you are, but they don't. So tell them. Tell them what you can do for them, how you do it and how they will feel afterwards. I never used discounts to get clients, and my practice was busting at the seams.

I want to see you have a successful practice. Don't discount your services even if you are desperate for clients, because it just becomes a bad habit.

Amy Roberts
www.massagetherapysuccess.com

Published: July 14, 2005