Selling to Stingy People

Basically I'm doing some IP camera sales and I have a problem with at least 25% of enquiries. Problem with doing business in my country is that many people like to ask for rediculous discounts, discount request to the point where I cannot make anything if I proceed with sale. Many of them ask for 30% discount and still ask for free delivery. The moment I add abit of cost, SILENCE. It's easy to the buyer to ask, but sometimes sellers can agree although it causes a lot of frustration.

So how do you deal with this kind of cheap people?

 

You just ignore them.

 

Be patient and respectful, respect goes a long way in dealing with potential clientele. Explain to them what is involved work and time wise. Demonstrate to them by offering a small example of your work. With some nothing may work, with others they may come around and be willing to compensate you with more.

Part of what you do is to be a competent sales person, work on this aspect of your business. You will not be truly successful until you become good at it.

 

Respect goes both ways. You're just wasting your time dealing with lowballers like this.

 

When people offer you lemons, make lemonade. We can lead by example.

 

It has nothing to do with "cheap people". You chose to build a web site to sell electronics knowing damn well that Amazon, Walmart, Target, and 10 other massive billion dollar retailers CAN buy in massive bulk and sell at a great discount. Therefor, the ONLY people who will be interested in buying from YOU will be those who are 1. looking for a bigger discount or 2. not smart enough to realize Amazon already has it for less direct or from 3rd party. It's your business model. If you are offering the same product then the only thing that sets you different from the rest is price. If you can't drop your price then there's no reason to buy from you.

Perhaps you should change your business model. Maybe offer some sort of service or app with these cameras to justify the higher price. Otherwise scratch your idea because it's a saturated market and you will get stomped on.

 

I used to run a fashion business in Asia where every customer would come into my store asking for a discount. I dealt with this in two ways. Firstly I used the local term "Fixed Price" and put it up in signs around the shop, the term meant everyone pays the tag price no discounts. Anytime someone tried it on we just pointed to the sign and said "Fixed Price" over time everyone got to know there was no negotiation to be had.

Occasionally you'd get someone very persistent at which point I'd use it to my benefit and tell them I'd give them a discount if they bought 5-10 products.

Additionally I would regularly run promotions so 10% off today only. Not sure how it works in your country but here the big stores all put there prices up 10-20% before Christmas then give discounts of 10-25% after Christmas. Consumers run into stores buying products they think they are getting 25% off when in reality they might be getting 5% off or even nothing off. They also discount heavily old stock that isn't selling and keep the good stock at full price or very small discounts. Often customers will come into the store seeing a Sale on then end up buying non-Sale stock.

Finally my original prices were so good that I didn't need to give discounts and I would tell my customers that they won't find it cheaper anywhere in the local area. Often customers would walk around the local area which was full of shops only to realise what I was saying was true and to come back to my store. It was cheaper in my store because I chose to locate myself on a side street rather than the main road and hence my rent was half that of my competition.

So there's a few aspects here, be better than your competition, have a clear and fair pricing structure with a good enough profit margin for some flexibility when needed, be consistent with pricing policy, run promotions and make people feel like they are getting a deal.

Good luck.

 

There you have it, our caveman ancestors knew this when they were trying to trade their mammoth skins. Nothing has changed since then.

 

In the traditional selling model, the way to combat requests for discounts is to sell value of your product/service over the lower cost offerings. Of course, this is made more difficult if you and the less costly vendor are selling the exact same electronic product with identical spec's and you are both readily found online. Your "value-add" as a higher cost supplier then would have to be based on shipping times/costs, service and support, returns policy, warranty, and perhaps loyalty points (a loyal buyer program that encourages repeat business can be a nice marketing tool, too.)

@Fugitive99 mentioned another option: offering volume discounts that go below what the other vendors are selling a single item for. If the other vendor is not responsive or willing to offer volume discounts, it might be a nice differentiator for you. And, by the way, differentiation is what you are trying to achieve by selling value or innovative economic incentives (i.e., loyalty or volume discounting) that others do not offer. If you are simply a higher cost, "me-too" vendor you are going to have a lot of problems selling online because there are so many easy ways for buyers to review vendors and pricing with a few keystrokes.

 

We always be nice and professional and say we don't offer any discounts. I mention that we offer 100% Money Back Guarantee within 30 days and explain why our products are so worth it. You just have to learn to say no.

 

Raise your prices so that you can accommodate the discount requests and still make a profit.

 

i also agree that you should always be nice no matter what.

 

I usually emphasize quality, quality, quality. With quality comes some cost. It helps not to sound overly desperate during the sales process. I think when you get "pushy" or sound like you really need the sale, clients smell a chance for a discount.

For discounts, consumers seem to understand a policy of "one discount per item" once you state that it is a policy. It may help you to put a coupons section on your website. Clients can then choose "30percentOff" or "FreeDelivery". With only one coupon slot on the order form, clients may get the hint that they'll need to pick one or the other.

 

Mrs Oleson comes to mind: Raise the prices by 50% and sell everything at 25% discount.