Offering discounts is a great way to encourage your customers to make a buying decision. Using discounts can help you differentiate your business from your competitors. If you carefully plan your costs, sale price and profit, you can improve your overall results using discounts. Use these tips to use discounts effectively.

1. Attract Customers with One Product Discount

Discounting a product can be a great way to start a relationship with a new customer. Eventually, you may be able to sell that same client a more profitable product down the road.

Say, for example, that you sell hiking gear and outdoor travel packages. You attract a new client with a discounted price for hiking boots. The same customer buys a hiking trip package from you a month later. The second purchase is more profitable for your business.

2. Offer a Discount for Longer-Term Relationships

You can also offer a discount in exchange for a long-term commitment. If you sell magazines, for example, you can discount your subscription price. The price per magazine may be cheaper for a 2-year subscription, rather than a 1-year commitment.

3. Offer Additional Services for Free

Businesses can also discount by offering an additional service for free. A software company may sell and install software while offering software training for free.

If you face heavy competition, you may want to offer discounts to compete for business. It’s important, however, to know your break-even level. Don’t offer a discount that is less than break-even. This strategy allows you to discount and still earn a profit on each sale.

4. Bundle Products Together

Bundling your products allows you to heavily discount one product and still make a reasonable profit on the entire bundle. A bundling strategy can work because the products you put together can be enticing for your customers.

A grocery store may display charcoal, hot dog buns and other grilling items during the summer. The store may heavily discount the charcoal, but make their normal level of profit on the bundle of products.

5. Heavily Discount One In-Demand Product

To draw customers to your business, you may heavily discount a single product that is in demand. This loss leader strategy may increase the number of clients the come into your business. Those clients end up buying other products that have can generate a higher profit for you.

Discounting can be an effective strategy to increase your total sales. Make sure, however, that you’ll clear about the profit you will generate on each product you sell. By using several different strategies, you can increase your sales and profit.

Sound advice from 4 CRM vendors on how to select a CRM for your business

Watch this valuable panel discussion with CRM vendors as they give advice on how to select a CRM for your business, an informal buyers guide to CRM technology. A must watch for businesses in the market for a new or replacement CRM. Learn some of the fundamental questions you should be asking when talking about your needs with a CRM vendor. Small business often get lost in asking the wrong questions and don’t engage in an adequate discovery process to make the right decision. Long-term contracts and implementation costs can make this an expensive mistake for company.

CRM means many things to different companies. Some are robust some are small and simple. Before you shop for a CRM, determine what your needs are to better narrow your search. Shop multiple vendors, but don’t just look at the product, be sure to evaluate your experience and relationship with the CRM Vendor throughout the evaluation process and include that in your decision on how to select a CRM for your business.

Listen to Mothernode Co-Founder, Ken Pearson and other CRM vendors provide consumers with some helpful advice about how to select a CRM for their business. Here are some key highlights discussed by the panelists in this video.

1. Before looking at any CRM, determine what your business needs are. What’s important in you current workflow and what else are you looking to do.
2. Adopting any new technology requires buy-in from everyone who will use it, so include them in the discovery process.
3. Ultimate needs and systems requirements are a decision that must be made by the leadership team responsible for the overall growth and direction of the company
4. For best results prepare an RFP for CRM vendors to respond to. Submit it to at least a dozen vendors and use the responses *and response times from your RFP to qualify a shortlist to pursue
5. Ask questions about their support process. What happens after the sale? What kind of experience you can expect.
6. Be concise in your explanation of requirements. Anything you leave out in your requirements could cost you more in scope creep.
7. Be sure to evaluate the product in a demonstration, but be sure to tell your vendor what is most important to you, prior to the demo, so your specific needs are addressed.
8. After a demo, start your own trial evaluation. Include other future users in your company during the process and notate your questions.
9. Separate your Needs and Wants.
10. Determine your short-term needs and long term-requirements
11. Be prepared to go through a significant change in your company once you adopt. Expect disruption. If you’ve selected the best one for your business you will prevail.
12. Take advantage of long-term contract discounts.
13. Ask your CRM vendor for recommendations on how their software can accommodate  your business in other ways.
14. Determine how much of a consultant your vendor could be to your business processes.

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