Discounts Are Easy, Value Is Work

As long as there have been retailers, there have been discounters. There is always someone willing to drop the price and erode their value in the short term. These businesses do not take into account the long-term damage they may do to their brand and their business. Dry Cleaners and Pizza shops made a name for themselves doing just that. Setting the customer up to only look at these types of business for discounts rather than looking at the utility or the value of the service. There are others that have fallen victim to this trap. Think about Bed Bath & Beyond.

For years, they were a staple in American retail. Giant stores stuffed with everything you did not know you needed. New apartment? Go there. Wedding registry? Go there. Dorm room? Go there. They had it all. And they sold it all using one tool over and over again. They used the discount coupon. Everyone remembers it. The giant blue postcard. Twenty percent off anything. One day only. Then next week, another one came. And the next. And the next. The world learned to wait for the discount. Bed Bath & Beyond trained an entire generation to never pay full price. They did it to goose sales quickly. It was an effort to make the numbers look good.

It worked at first. But it killed them slowly. Because it eroded the one thing that keeps a brand alive which is trust in its value. Why pay full price when another coupon is always coming? Why feel loyal when you know you can shop the coupon to death? Bed Bath & Beyond discounted itself right into bankruptcy. They did not lose because they lacked shelves or products. They lost because they taught buyers to see them as cheap. No one saves a discount store when the money runs out. They walk away to go and find the next great deal.

What does this teach you as a seller? It should scare you straight. Discounts are easy. True value is hard. Discounts are lazy. Value takes work. Discounts trick buyers for a moment. Value builds buyers for life. Many sellers today do not want to hear this. We want the quick fix. We want to throw a deal on the table because it feels like the fastest way to yes. And sometimes it works. But like sugar, it rots you from the inside. The buyer sees the discount and thinks, “If they can drop the price that fast, were they ever worth the full price at all?” You train them to haggle. You teach them to stall. You condition them to say, “Send me your best deal and I will think about it.” That is not selling. That is surrender.

Bed Bath & Beyond did not discount occasionally. They discounted every day. It became their only trick. Sellers who live by the discount die by the discount. You do not want to be that seller. The job is not to drop your price. The job is to raise your value until the price makes sense. It is harder. It takes skill. It takes discipline. But it lasts longer and it is sustainable.

How do you avoid the Bed Bath & Beyond trap? Start by building real value before you talk about cost. Make the buyer see, feel, and believe that your plan solves a costly problem, not a mild headache. A real pain that drains their profit or reputation if they do nothing. A pain big enough that your solution feels cheap by comparison. Bed Bath & Beyond sold pillows and pans. These are replaceable items, even forgettable items. You sell growth. You sell more calls, more foot traffic, and more jobs. More proof that tomorrow will be better than today if they trust you. If you cannot draw a clear line from your plan to that result, then you do not have value yet. You have inventory. And nobody pays a premium for inventory.

Next, watch your language. Weak sellers invite discounting with weak words. We say things like, “Maybe I can get you a deal.” “Let me see what I can do.” “Is this too expensive?” All these lines broadcast insecurity. We say, “Please negotiate with me.” “Please wait for a better price.” Strong sellers do the opposite. We say, “Here is what this plan does for you.” “Here is how fast you get to break even.” “Here is the payoff, if you act now.” We speak like we believe every word. We do not flinch when price comes up because we know the plan is solid. Confidence sells at full price. Hesitation only sells at a discount.

Study how Bed Bath & Beyond destroyed its confidence. Endless coupons screamed, “We don’t believe in our sticker price. You shouldn’t either.” Sellers do this daily when we say, “Our rate is twelve thousand but for you I can do ten.” The buyer learns never to take the first number seriously. It becomes a game. And it is the wrong game. Because now your value is up for debate every time you open your mouth. Your word means nothing. You are begging for a haircut on every call.

Stop begging. Start proving value. Buyers pay full price for what they trust will work. Give them proof. And make sure it is real proof. Not slides full of charts nobody reads. Proof from another client who faced the same problem and won big with you. Use their words. Use real numbers. This removes fear. Fear is what makes people haggle. Kill fear and you kill the need for a discount.

Another skill you can master is to build urgency that makes price a side note. Bed Bath & Beyond taught buyers to wait. You must teach buyers to act. How? By showing the opportunity cost of waiting is bigger than the money they save by haggling. Paint the picture. Say, “Every week you wait is xxx amount of lost revenue. Your competitor is advertising. They continue to take your customers. How much longer are you okay with that?” Now they are thinking about lost opportunity, not your rate card. Urgency is not pressure. It is truth. It reframes the conversation around timing, not cost. People hate to lose more than they love to save. Use that. Protect that trust. Be the advisor who helps them see the hidden losses that are wrapped up in doing nothing.

Suppose a buyer says, “This sounds good, but it is expensive.” The weak seller says, “I can take ten percent off if that helps.” The strong seller says, “I hear you. I thought it would be a whole lot more. But let’s look at this in your business terms. If you gain just five new customers from this, the plan pays for itself. Everything after that is profit. Do you think five new customers is realistic?” Now you are anchoring the discussion on value. You are framing cost as investment. You are not cutting your price. You are sharpening their belief.

Every word matters here. When you say cost, they feel expense. When you say investment, they feel return. When you say discount, they feel doubt. When you say profit, they feel reward. Subtle shifts change the air in the room. Look at Bed Bath & Beyond again. They sold a sea of random stuff. No focus. No single standout product people would buy without a coupon. They competed on volume and price cuts. They trained shoppers to care less about what they bought and more about what deal they got. When money got tight, loyalty vanished. Amazon showed up with more convenience and better pricing. That was game over for Bed, Bath & Beyond. Now the brand name is owned by Overstock.com.

You do not have to be Amazon. You do not have to be the cheapest. You must be the most trusted. You must speak with clarity. You need to be the seller who frames the value so tightly that price feels secondary. Discounts are a shortcut to closing a weak plan. They hide your lack of skill. They hide your lack of proof. They hide your fear of losing the deal. Sharpen your plan instead. Prove it works. Make the value so plain the customer will feel silly saying ‘no.’

How? Ask sharper questions before you craft your presentation. Otherwise, it is a sales pitch. Do not assume you know their pain. Confirm it. Probe it. Put numbers on it. What is their slowest day? How much does an empty table cost them per hour? How many new calls do they want a week? Now, tie every dollar they spend with you to dollars they get back. When that math makes sense, the buyer stops chasing discounts and starts chasing results. The ROI conversation is a sign they are dealing with a serious person who should be taken seriously.

The other thing you will want to do is be consistent. Bed Bath & Beyond trained people to expect a deal every week. Never train your buyer to expect you will fold every time they push back. Hold your line. Do it calmly. Do it with facts. If you do not respect your price, why should they? I had a television competitor who for years would not hold the line on value. They would sell football at the real rate on Monday, but by Thursday the rate would be cut in half. Market buyers knew to wait until Friday afternoon to pay pennies on the dollar. And if they didn’t know, we would tell them.

There is a phrase for this. “People do not value what comes cheap.” Cheap promises are cheap to break. Premium value gets treated with care. Look at Starbucks. Five bucks for a cup of coffee. No coupon. Why? Because they sell an experience people crave. Bed Bath & Beyond sold stuff people can find anywhere. Starbucks sells a moment people want every day. You want to be Starbucks in this scenario, not part of the discount coupon parade.

Remember this when the buyer pokes at your price. Hold your ground with warmth, not arrogance. Show them what they get. Remind them what it costs them to stay where they are. Or worse, show them the high cost and slow burn of inaction. Use real examples. Tell them about another client who tried the cheap plan first and ended up back with you paying full price because the cheap plan failed. Stories beat discounts every time. Stories stick while discounts fade. Except when it comes to re-signing the client. Then, they never forget the discount and expect it again.

One more thought on this. Scarcity is your friend. Bed Bath & Beyond killed scarcity. Everyone knew the same stuff would be there tomorrow, on sale. You must teach buyers that your best ideas do not sit on shelves forever. Your calendar fills. Good inventory sells out. Time matters. Good plans have a window. Do not bluff. Be truthful. A serious buyer respects your time more when you respect your own. People chase what they might lose. They shrug at what they know will always wait.

So here is your mission. Check your selling habits. How many deals did you discount in the last sixty days? Be honest. How many buyers haggled you down because you flinched first? How many proposals had vague promises instead of clear proof? How many times did you drop your price to close because you were too scared to hold the line? If that answer is even one, it is too many. Change that habit. Resist the urge. Reframe your offers to lead with value. Collect proof. Use client stories. Have a bank of testimonials on your phone. Break down the math. Tie every dollar to a real-world result they can picture. Replace apologies with certainty. Replace discounts with urgency. Replace the word cost with investment. Then stick to it. No more panic price cuts because you need to make your goal. That is how you become the next Bed Bath & Beyond. You will live in a world of big sales, tiny profits, and no respect.

Warren Buffett said, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” Buyers pay the price once. They feel value forever. If they feel real value, they pay your price and come back for more. If they only see price, they wait for the next coupon. You want repeat buyers who brag about you. One’s who will tell their friends. One’s who see you as the expert. The one who never caves on value because you do not have to. Be that seller.

Never trade trust for the quick close. Never undercut your worth. Never condition smart buyers to wait for you to blink. Your pipeline is not a bargain bin. It is your brand. Protect it. Close this page. Pick one deal you discounted last month. Reach out to that buyer. Show them fresh proof that paying full price next time gets them more. Build that value until they stop asking for a break. Then do it again for every buyer on your list. No more discounts. No more quick fixes. Do the hard work. Sell the real value. This is how strong brands live. This is how smart sellers avoid going out of business, like Bed, Bath & Beyond.

My new book, Double Your Revenue, is now available on Amazon. If you like what you have read, please consider ordering a copy or two. You can always send one to a friend. Order a copy here: https://bit.ly/doubleyourrevenuebyCEFleming